Freshers week marketing!

Yes you read it right! Freshers week is just around the corner and the cities are going to

be full of new students... And you know what moving to a new city means... they'll need a new salon to go to on a regular which is where you come in!

You might of had the busiest Summer ever with people preparing for their Summer getaways and bank holidays or you may have had a quieter summer due to all these wild heatwaves we've been having. Either way, some new clients are just what you need and here's how you can try your best to get them...

• Remembering students are on a budget.

As you may well know, Students try their best to limit their spending as much as possible, especially on Salon luxuries. To entice them, offer permanent student discount with a competitive deal such as 20% off all treatments. To persuade them at the beginning, why not offer 50% off first treatments and a welcome night with Prosecco -  because we all know students love a free drink!

• If the students are on a budget, you can be too!

Your marketing doesn’t have to break the budget. Students aren't interested in flashy marketing and social media adverts, as after all, most of these students may never have heard of your salon and so won’t be a follower of your social networking platforms just yet. To attract this particular market, a simple, good-sized appealing banner in your salon window, decals up and around the University and even leaflet flyer-ing at Freshers’ fair would be enough to bring them into the Salon.

• Freshers Fayre!

 I think businesses can often underestimate how effective attending the freshers fayre will be for their business. The fayres are full of new and excited students looking for the best offers they can get. If you perhaps had a stand there, displaying your student discount offers and welcome evening, they'd be keen to come check it out. Your stand doesn't need to be expensive either. Simply a foldable table, table cloth and flyers and posters would make the cut but if you wanted to go all out, why not hand out a few freebies? Every student loves a freebie! 

• Loyalty cards

It's all well and good attracting the students to your Salon for the first few weeks, but how about keeping them as a customer? Once your competition get a sniff of the offers you're doing, there's no doubt they'll do the same which will only result in the students going from Salon to Salon trying to find the best offer. If you introduce a loyalty card where for example after 5 stamps they get a treatment free, it will encourage them to come back again and again for the duration they are at university for and it will also get them chatting to their friends about your amazing salon, perfect! 

I hope this has helped you get prepared for Freshers week, if you have any other questions just let us know via our Instagram page 'SalonTrackerSoftware' -  https://www.instagram.com/salontrackersoftware/ and we'll be happy to help out!

Salon Tracker x 

Feature of the Month – User Permissions

This month’s feature of the month is user levels and permissions! This is a feature available with both our professional and enterprise packages.  This helps with salon security and also means you as a salon owner can control what you want your staff to be able to see and also stop them seeing certain things you don’t want them to have access to!

User Accounts

On our professional package and up, you have the option to create all your staff members user accounts. This will help you see who’s logged in at any time and also allow you to view on reports how much each individual staff member is taking and what products they are up selling. You can also assign your staff different user levels, for example managers may have access to more of the Salon Tracker than other staff members.

User Permissions

As well as the staff member group and the manager group, you can also personalise what permissions you would like to give staff members. For example, if you have one set staff member that does the cashing up every night, you are able to make it so only they (as well as yourself) have access to this report. This helps ensure that you have full control over your business and can also keep an eye on what all your staff members

If you’re interested in setting this feature up or if you would like to get any training on how to use this please don’t hesitate to give us a call.

We are exhibiting at Salon International on the 5^th- 7^th of October at Excel London, follow this link to get your tickets now:

https://www2.theticketfactory.com/salon/online/?SessionSecurity::referrer=WWW&SessionSecurity::referrer=WWW

We hope to see you there!

Salon Tracker x

Get your Salon Back-2-School ready!

So, after a record-breaking sizzling Summer, hotter than most Mediterranean holiday destinations! It’s almost September (countdown to Xmas soon to be in full-swing) and so once you have the August Bank Hol out of the way, it means it’s that time again, ‘Back to School’.

How can you utilise this time at the salon to increase footfall for before the kids go back? First off, you need to start your marketing now, as lots of parents like to sort their back-to-school shopping out early on, and so you want to make sure you’re ahead of your competition when reminding your followers to get their child in for a back to school haircut!

So how do you catch the attention of this opportunity market?
You’ve got 2 types of generation within this segment. You have parents of children at say Primary school up to their mid-teens, and then you also have the college & uni students too. You ideally need to attract each group separately, as the message will be slightly different for each of those customer types.

For those parents of younger children, they are looking for a back-to-school deal where they can come and get their kids new dos sorted, and most likely on a bit of a budget if there are new uniforms, school shoes and lunch bags to buy too. But, while price may not be necessarily a big deal for everyone, we can’t deny that most people love a bit of a bargain (we know we’re all guilty of checking the 241 apps and voucher code deals for mid-week teas). But who says the offer needs to be mega cheap? Think of alternative ways that you can come up with an attractive offer that will catch the eye of back-to-school parents.

How about a family treatment deal? So, say for those parents who have multiple children, why not do a family booking for ‘Mums and Minis’ or ‘Dad’s & Daughters’ or ‘Dad’s and their Lads’ (few little silly ideas – but you get the drift). It could be something as simple as;

‘Get £3 each child’s cut and 10% off your next treatment, if you book your Daughter/Son’s back-2-school trim throughout August!’

‘Youngest child goes ½ price if you make a group Back-2-School booking for your kids, plus receive a mini treat for yourself too if you book in for an appointment before 31st August!’

You get the idea, but they are just a couple of things to get you started – where you could publish these ideas either through an SMS marketing campaign, post on your social media pages or even traditionally advertise using decals in your shop window! You could even post flyers through the doors of local estates to get your brand name out there.

Students, they similarly are looking for a discount! However, this time the initial cost of their treatment is going to be much higher due to the age difference. Where a child under 16 isn’t likely going to be having highlights, college and uni students will definitely be on this bandwagon so you can most likely afford to run some student discount events throughout the ‘back-2-college/back-2-uni’ season!

For any teen/young adult that has a valid NUS card, you could offer say 10% off all treatments, or even categorise this to be only off treatments over say £50? Just to make this a more profitable campaign for yourselves. If your salon is within a location where you have a college or Uni close by, then it could even be an idea to keep this campaign running indefinitely, as once you have the attraction of a new student client, hopefully you can retain them by including some form of student/college loyalty incentive. A little something to think about.

Then you have your retail products that you can use to generate ‘Back-2-uni’ pamper nights, to also upsell your salon products during this time (especially if you’re going to be offering a few discounted packages throughout August, this then helps you to still remain profitable). Or with events such as these, you could even tie it in with when student loans come in and do it as a ‘freshers’ night’? As this is when the students will have most disposable income and will be looking for the best freshers-week deals.

For the younger kids, you could perhaps do a family event night, where there’s complimentary refreshments; like cupcakes etc, just to bring an element of fun to the salon and to keep the children entertained while they’re waiting for their trim. Or, if you’re a beauty salon, how about running a ‘pamper party’ for children in their early teens – where you could give mini manicures and facials? Call it ‘Schools-out’ or something like that?! A few mini marketing ideas for you to bear in mind anyway! But have a think what will best suit your salon, dependent on the services you offer and also age-range suitability.

So, hopefully this has given you a little something to think about in Prep for September! Where for anyone who makes an appointment with you throughout August for ‘back-2-uni/back-2 School’, you could then run a mini discount incentive for anyone who then makes a re-booking with you for later in the year. As after all, once Back to School is over, it’s the countdown to Christmas so you want to get as many bookings in as you can early on so people don’t miss out on their Xmas treatments! Hope we’ve helped to set you up for September and remember if you want to trial our software just head to https://www.salontracker.co.uk/FreeTrial.aspx and fill your details out – then a member of our team will get in touch!

Salon Tracker x

Best kept Salon secrets!

So our blog this week is one we know you'll all love... why? Because we've done some extensive research to find out what it really is that makes a salon so successful, from the smallest of tips to the biggest of changes; you're in for a treat!

You're probably wondering what these secrets are... and why you don't know them already. The thing is, although Salons are very similar in what they do, they can be very different in how they do things and what works well for some may not work as well for others etc etc. So we've spoken to a number of Salons and gathered together just what it is that they think keeps their Salon so busy regardless of how small or big a thing it is...

Let's start with the most popular answer:

• Marketing on social media (ALL SOCIAL MEDIA).

The most common answer we received is making use of all social media outlets there are available (Instagram, Facebook + sometimes even Twitter) as in this day and age... without a running, regularly posted on social media account; most people won't even bother thinking twice about your Salon. People rely on reviews, photos of work the Salon has done before and can relate to content on social media making them 10x more likely to book an appointment with you rather than a place that that doesn't have anything accessible apart from a pesky telephone number. Not only that, but Facebook and Instagram have the utility to be able to place a 'book now' button on there where you can allow your clients to book via Salon Tracker's online booking system saving you heaps of time and heaps of messages you don't have to go through in your spare time!

The times are moving fast and with social media gaining 280 million users since January 2018 to February 2019 with a total of 3.484 billion active social media users around the world (https://www.avocadosocial.com/latest-social-media-statistics-and-demographics-for-the-uk-in-2019/) that is too much of a market to miss out on! 

• Treat being a stylist/ therapist/ beautician as your hobby and not your job!

When your job is all about making someone look good and feel good about themselves you begin to reap the rewards and your 'job' actually turns into your hobby and something to look forward too every day rather than a job you can't stand and dread going too. Having that passion for your job will not only make you a better stylist, but it will also show to your clients and make them want to come back sooner!

• Accepting the ups and the down's as a learning curve rather than a set-back

Learning to deal with the downs a salon goes through as a learning curve instead of a set-back will be the best decision you could make for your Salon. For example, if you have an unusually quiet period in Summer... why could that be? Did you do enough marketing? Did you remind clients to re-book after 6 weeks? If not, instead of dwelling on it, why not make use of the quiet time? Send out a marketing campaign from your Salon Tracker marketing suite offering 20% off treatments if they come in this week, or why not focus on your social pages and put some offers on there? Business will soon be booming again all because you'd been proactive rather than just using the quiet time as a set-back. Time is money!

Finally...

• Salon Software i.e Salon Tracker!

If you're still running your Salon out of a messy diary with pages ripped out and words that have been tried to be erased whilst sending your appointment reminders manually from your own phone... then it's time to move on. Our users said that using the software has saved them from working in their personal time and gives them so many more hours in the day where they can use that time to invest in the Salon.

Salon Tracker hosts many different features and is constantly developing the software based on the feedback and requirements from our current users. These features include, SMS appointment reminders, SMS marketing suite, extensive business reports and charts, re-book reminders and many more.

To get your FREE demo and trial go to https://www.salontracker.co.uk/FreeTrial.aspx to have your Salon turned around!

If you think you have any more best kept salon secrets then please get in touch via our Instagram page @Salontrackersoftware  https://www.instagram.com/salontrackersoftware/, we'd love to hear them!

Salon Tracker x

August Bank Holiday SMS Ideas

How are we already coming up to the August Bank Holiday? This year’s flying by. We’ve got just under a month until it’s here, but it’s important that you start planning your offers and campaigns early, to make sure that your customers are aware of them. But don’t worry, we’ve come up with a few different ideas that you can use in order to make sure that you make the most of it.

On Salon Tracker you can create your own custom SMS messages and send them out to all or a specific range of your customers. Or you can use our pre-filtered templates as a guide. The marketing suite is available on our professional package, making it easy to send out messages straight to your customers. For this August Bank holiday weekend, we thought we would help you out, here’s a few different SMS messages that you could send out to entice your customers:

“Hi <Forename>,

Special Bank Holiday Weekend offer on all Tanning Courses. Buy one get an extra 20 mins for free!

<Salon Name>

<Salon Number>”

"Hi <Forename>,

Book an appointment over the August Bank Holiday, and receive 30% off any treatment booked in September! Call now to book in.

<Salon Number>”

 

This is a great one, as it gives people a reason to visit again in the coming months, so we definitely recommend doing an offer along the lines of this.

“Hi <Forename>,

August Bank Holiday sale now on! Up to 30% off on all treatments, please contact us to make a booking.

<Salon Name>

<Salon Number>”

 

“Hi <Forename>,

Treat yourself this Bank Holiday Weekend! Book an appointment now to receive up to 50% off treatments!

<Salon Name>

<Salon Number>”

These are just some examples that we came up with, but you should always make sure that the deals you are offering suit you and your salon. For example, if there’s a service that you know your customers love you could do a deal for that. Or, if there’s a new service that not many customers know about then you could do a deal on that to get people interested in what it is.

If you are interested in taking a look at our marketing suite, you do get 50 free SMS credits to have a go with on your 2-week trial. Feel free to call us on 0113 350 8230 or alternatively email us at info@salontracker.co.uk, and we can get you booked in for your free demo and 2-week trial! We are exhibiting at Salon International this year; you can find us at stand T174 and see the software live in person, as well as meeting the team. Look forward to seeing you there!

Salon Tracker x

Utilising Instagram for your Salon!

When it comes to running a Salon, we know that it can be difficult trying to showcase your work to potential customers and also keep up your social media presence. Here at Salon Tracker we believe that Instagram is a salon owners’ best friend.  This is because you can use it for things such as: showcasing your work and salon, interacting with customers and also bring in new customers.

Showcasing your Work

Instagram is a great way for your salon to display your work. For example, if you have the customers permission, you can post pictures to your Instagram. This will then enable others to see the kind of work you do and will therefore entice them to go and book and appointment with you. Be careful to only post your best work as having a constant flow of posts, multiple a day, could be seen as annoying by some customers which may then deter them from coming in. However, this will rarely be the case and showing off your work on Instagram will help you grow your following as a business.

Some of our fave Instagram feeds from our customers are @glamourforever1 and @fiftyshadestanningsalon

These Salons do great in showcasing some amazing work making all us here at Salon Tracker want to pop in for a treatment!

Communicating with Customers

Instagram is also a great way for you to communicate with your customers on a more personal level.  This could be from you encouraging engagement on your pictures to you replying to their comments.  This will help your customers view your salon as a friendly place and will mean they feel more inclined to keep coming back.  Also, from an outsider’s point of view, if they see a salon page actively talking and communicating with their existing customers, they will be more likely to visit that salon.

Client Sharing

Instagram is also a great platform for your customers to share your work with their friends and followers. By them sharing pictures of treatments they have had in your Salon and you actively encouraging them to mention or tag you in these, this means that more people will be seeing your work and therefore may be encouraged to visit your salon.

Stories

Instagram stories are another great feature that you could utilise for your Salon. This is a feature where you can add pictures and videos to your profile and they will be visible for all your followers to view for 24 hours! This is a great feature for you to do things such as advertise limited offers and also repost all your client’s pictures, they may have shared themselves. When it comes to limited offers, these stories are a great way to advertise them as they automatically disappear after 24 hours. 

We hope these tips and tricks help you with your Salons Instagram account and don’t forget to give us a follow @salontrackersoftware to keep up to date with our latest offers and features!

Salon Tracker x 

Here's what you didn't know about Salon Tracker!

So I bet you're all curious to find out what exactly it is that Salon Tracker has been keeping from you... well, the truth is; it was never really a secret. Salon Tracker is a software of many features which means that some features often get forgotten about when they can actually be really useful and beneficial to your Salon so read on to find out more!

So first things first... Groups.

Groups is the bit in Admin where you can create a 'group' for pretty much anything! Customer discount groups, deposit groups, Happy hour and different pricing structures for different sunbeds / stylists.

Discount groups - Perfect for if you offer student discount, NHS discount, staff discount or any other form of discount you'd like to give! The client just needs to be put into this group on their client card so that every time they make a transaction it will automatically take the discount off. Easy as that!

Different pricing structures - do you have a lay down bed that you charge more for than your stand - up beds? Or a stylist that has more experience and qualifications than some and charges more? Well don't worry about getting mixed up with who charges what anymore and charging the wrong prices. Our groups can be specifically set up so that only the price for that stylist / bed comes up when purchasing something under that Booking item so you can only select the right price.

Deposits - are you sick of people not turning up to appointments, especially expensive and time consuming ones? Good thing we have a deposits group available! This allows you to select the certain treatments (or all) you want to take deposits from at the time of booking. For example, you can charge a percentage of the total treatment or a set amount which will automatically charge the client before
they can book the appointment. 


Happy Hour - if you have a quiet period in the Salon and want to boost your sales maybe implementing a happy hour is for you! Perhaps a happy hour where if a client purchases a 60 minute course they get 15 minutes free would work? Once set up, like on the example on the left, happy hour can occur once a week or once a day at a specific time frame and will automatically grant the offer! A brilliant and no-fuss way to boost your sales in those quiet times.




Secondly, the bit on the marketing suite you didn't know about...

Reviews! As well as being able to send offers out to your clients via text, you can also send a review request text after their appointment. Best of all, you can actually choose which client to send the text too rather than it automatically sending to everyone.

All you need to do is go to your marketing suite, click on the reviews tab and edit your message in the box. Once done, right click on a past appointment and click 'request review' and it will send them a text from your Salon. You can also make it so that it warns you if you are sending another review text within 12 months so you don't annoy your clients... a brilliant way to boost your social media presence without barely realising it!







Sending and accepting stock orders from multiple sites

Do you have multiple sites that you would love to be able to place their own stock orders to the HQ directly from the software? 

Well, using our stock order forms in management, your staff at each site have the ability to place an order that sends directly to the HQ terminal where the HQ can accept it and mark it as shipped, then allowing the site to accept stock and replenish stock levels. The system also has an 'auto fill' button where it automatically puts in every stock item you are running low of at its 'default restock quantity' level making it a quick and easy task for everyone! 


Annual Charts 

So you may know about the 28 plus reports we have in our reports section of the software, but did you know about the annual charts too? We have a selection of charts available which can show you your most successful months and your least successful months. What the charts work really well with is our marketing section. If you have a month you can see you haven't done so well in such as June in this example, you can then use that information to then do a marketing campaign the following June to try and boost your Sales that month.

The waiting list

Do you have a busy tanning Salon with people queuing out the door for a bed without really knowing who's next on the free bed? Salon Tracker has the perfect solution, add each person to the waiting list and when one of their names goes green, that means they are first in line and can be put on a bed.

No more arguments about who goes on the bed next or losing track!


So if you have any questions about the features I have listed above or would like to get booked in for a bit of training on them, please feel free to give us a call on 0113 350 8230 and we'll be happy to help!

Salon Tracker x