Running a spa or salon is riddled with challenges on its own, and that’s before you consider economic disasters, like COVID, that could close a salon.

We can’t do anything about the economic impacts, but we can better prepare you for common issues you may face when establishing or growing your salon business.

When working on the brand and offerings for your salon, mistakes can be made on two ends of the salon spectrum: the business-facing and the customer-facing sides.

• The Business-Facing Side: includes anything you do to control revenue for your business. Common mistakes include discounting your services and not making a marketing plan.
• The Customer-Facing Side: includes how your brand appears to customers. Common pitfalls include ignoring customer reviews, not leveraging social media, and limited product offerings.

Arming yourself with information is your best bet to avoiding, or learning to fix, common salon branding mistakes, before they affect your bottom line.

 

Salon Customer-Facing Branding Mistakes

Let’s take a look at the customer-facing mistakes made by salons and offer some actionable solutions you can implement today.

Mistake #1: Ignoring Customer Feedback

Customer feedback isn’t just a gauge of your current quality of service, it can also be a valuable marketing tool to attract new customers. Ignoring customer feedback is ignoring a tool that can be leveraged to your benefit.

Think of the steps in the customer journey.  When in the research phase, customers will research local options, and then further narrow down those options by reading customer reviews. We’re not judging whether this is fair or even an accurate depiction of your salon brand, we’re just saying, that’s how it happens.

Now that you know it, how do you avoid “one-offs,” or grumpy one-time situation customers who want to bring your brand down?

 

Solution:

Don’t let yourself be brought down by one, or a few bad reviews. You still have options. Rather than operating from a “revenge” or “tit-for-tat” strategy, that only serves to further complicate matters, try approaching the situation from a “drowning-out” point of view.

First, respond in a positive manner, to show you do care about what customers think. Respond in a way that encourages them to allow you to make it right. You never know if this will lead to a new long-term, loyal customer.

Regardless of the outcome, after answering the negative review, drown-out the bad reviews with good reviews. For every one review that isn’t stellar, work on getting 5 of your good customers to give you a good rating. You can either discuss it in person, or send an e-blast reminder after appointments.

If you keep looking at it from a customer retention and engagement point of you, you will likely improve on your loyal following, while at the same time attract new customers.

 

Mistake #2: Not Leveraging Social Media

If you don’t have an online presence on social media, you are missing a huge opportunity for your business to cater to customers. Any successful brand you look at in the beauty industry, has a social media following. And it’s not surprising why, the fact is, social media is your greatest grass-roots marketing tool. If you ignore social media, you are losing out on a valuable growth tool in you marketing arsenal.

Solution:

Well, that seems a little obvious, but the solution is – get a social media presence. It doesn’t stop there though. You need to make a marketing plan, just for your social media outreach. See, social media provides a good resource to reach local customers, but it’s not about posting your availability every day. It’s about leveraging social media to engage your customers throughout their buying cycle.

If you are a service-based business, try posting short, concise tips and tricks, or white-paper guides offered on a regular basis. This can serve two purposes at once: it will increase your local following and engage your current customers.  Keeping customers and followers engaged will then in-turn improve your brand presence in the local market.

Mistake #3: Limited Offerings

A traditional service-based revenue option for your salon may be ineffective in a volatile market. You will curtail your potential with this model. The more revenue streams you can add to your salon, the better you will weather any conditions that hamper your service revenue. The more varied streams of income, the better you manage risk.

Solution: Consider private-label products as an alternate form of revenue. Private labels are brands that are exclusively owned and marketed by the salon, as sort of a house brand. Like, Kirkland is to Costco, and Great Value is to Walmart, an exclusive brand of beauty products could add significant revenue to your already established salon or spa.

Private label products can help your business remain viable, even when your service-based offerings experience a slow-down. Other notable contributions a private label beauty brand can add include:

• The ability to leverage a growing sector of the beauty market. Consumers are increasingly looking for out-of-the-box options for their personal beauty care. By offering tried and tested solutions, that you haven’t had to produce, your salon or spa can capitalize on this trend.
• You can distinguish yourself from the competition, by offering a salon-sourced beauty line. This heightens the valuation of your salon and improves your brand presence in the beauty industry.
• You can increase your versatility, by including salon-specific beauty products that enhance your current service offerings. This can help increase your revenue per customer numbers, no matter the economic climate.

Salon Business-Facing Branding Mistakes

The other side of your salon is your business-facing side. Let’s look at some common pitfalls in this area.

Pitfall #1: Making Rookie Marketing Moves

it’s easy to get overwhelmed with marketing options to the point that you slip into some rookie marketing tactics that should be avoided. When implementing your salon marketing plan, avoid some of these rookie marketing moves and pay attention to our recommendations as well.

• Mis-matched Media Marketing: Saturating the market with your brand name in a sort of mass-media push is not practical and above all, it’s a rookie move. Advertising in local newspapers is a prime example of mis-matched marketing. Even though it addresses a local market, it is not your most effective tool.
  Solution: Your ROI will be considerably higher if you took that same money and spent it on local social media advertising. Or, if you want to utilize local press, write a press release about a specific offering, or announcing a big event. Make sure it’s news-worthy so it will be picked up as a story by local journalists. This is a low-cost, and overall better way, to leverage press when marketing your salon brand.
• No Marketing Plan: Everything worth doing, needs a plan. No matter your budget, you have to establish which media markets are the best ROI for you.

Solution: Focus your dollars on those that bring in your most valuable customers and you will have an easily implemented and scalable, marketing plan. Having no plan for your marketing efforts is a rookie mistake.

• No Marketing Budget: All too often we see new business owners focus on the look and aesthetic of the salon, without setting aside money earmarked for marketing efforts.  This is a rookie mistake.
  Solution: To run your business, you need a budget, and if it’s not already there, you need to include a line-item for your marketing budget. Even if it is a small amount a month, make your money stretch for you.

When it comes time to work on your overall marketing plan, you need the best marketing mix for your budget. Make sure you’re avoiding common marketing blunders so your plan more effective.

 

Pitfall #2: Discounting Services

We understand the desire to discount services as a tactic to bring in more customers, but you have to consider what that drive does from a business perspective. First of all, discounting your services is de-valuing them – plain and simple. Unless you are offering an incentive designed to bring the customer back in, why wouldn’t they just use the discount once and never return?  You run the risk of booking up appointments that help in the short-term, but do nothing for your long-term business.

 

Solution: Try focusing on word of mouth to attract more customers. Your loyal customers already know your excellent service options, let them serve as your referral force.

 

Key Take-aways

Bottom line, is there are many ways to fall into pitfalls when running or starting a salon or spa. To survive in the long-run, you need

• A good mix of loyal customers and newly-acquired ones – this helps keep your salon busy on a continual basis. A good marketing plan, with the right mix, will help keep your door swinging open and your appointment book filled.
• More than one revenue stream – this helps keep you afloat when the service-side is affected for whatever reason. A reputable private label brand could boost sales without adding undue stress or complication to your business.

 

Here at Eybrowz Wholesale, we believe your business success with our products, is our business success. We’ve helped hundreds of clients grow their retail sales revenue and become more profitable and more diverse as a brand.

 

To find out how we can help your salon remain relevant and viable, book a consultation today. Let’s help get you set up for success.