Trade Show Survival Kit - Tips and Tricks for attending Trade Shows

Have you ever attended a trade show or some kind of business exhibition, either as a visitor or as exhibitor? If yes, you know how busy these shows get, as everyone tries to talk to you and offer their products and services. Vast amounts of people are on the lookout for the best deals, newest products and their favourite brands. It can be easy to lose all focus and business goals when bombarded with information that does not even seem relevant to you. The trick is, no matter if you are a visitor or an exhibitor to keep a clear head and to know exactly what you are trying to achieve from the show. Our team at Salon Tracker will be exhibiting at Pro Beauty London in less than a week and we know many of our customers, and business partners will be going too. 

Therefore, we have explored the web for some tips and tricks on how to survive a trade show for both visitors as well as exhibitors. Read below our top three tips for visitors, followed by three helpful tips for exhibitors. Maybe you’re even thinking about exhibiting yourself in the future, or just want to explore the options. There is nothing wrong with getting some ideas and getting ahead of your game early. Even if you aren’t quite sure where your business is taking you, trade shows can be beneficial to you in many aspects. 

Tips for Visitors

Plan ahead

Know the purpose of your visit in advance. If you have come and just want to browse to see what is on offer then go ahead. Stroll through the aisles and stop for things that interest you. If you know which businesses you definitely want to see, I recommend checking out where they are located. This way you can head straight to the important bits and enjoy the hustle and bustle after all your business and shopping enquiries are satisfied. As most trade shows are located outside of most city centres makes sure you plan enough time getting there as well. Check out public transport times and nearby stops, as parking is often limited at these events.

Take advantage of any discount and exclusive offers

If you own a business, are about to open one or have a favourite brand that you now will be attending, then why not take advantage of exclusive offers. What a great way to stock up on products for a discounted rate. Especially if you’re on the lookout for new products, equipment or anything else. Now will be the perfect time to get them. Most products and businesses at shows offer VAT free items and services, meaning you already save 20% on items. On top of that are most exhibitors willing to negotiate little extras on top of that. All you have to do is ask. 

Know what you want

Most people come to a trade show roughly knowing what they want. Before signing up to an event, you must have thought about the industry and how it can benefit you. If you own a business, thinking about opening one or are just interested in the field then trade shows are a great place to network, check out competition and get some good deals. 

Take some time aside to thing about your business and if there is anything to improve that, you can potentially get at the trade show. Remember most businesses have special discounts available; therefore, this might be the perfect time to stock up on certain retail products, try out a new brand or finally try out that one product you always wanted to. Exhibitors are experts in their field and it’s a great way to get more into, test products without committing to them straight away.

As visitors, you can easily get overwhelmed with all the stands at the show, so make sure you get out the events brochure for a better overview.

Tips for Exhibitors

Planning and researching your target audience will help you identify your goals and gain customers for the long run. Attending a trade show is never going to be just you. You have to deal with your competitors attending as well. You need to carefully plan and make sure potential customers see what your stand, services are about, and where you are located. 

Plan your business goals

First things first, you need to attract qualified visitors to your stand to promote and sell your products and services. The advantage with trade shows is that most visitors are attending a trade show to buy, so great news. Most established businesses know what they are hoping to achieve throughout the financial year and in what ways. If you are a new business and you’re not quite sure where you want your business to go, then trade shows are a great way of face-to-face marketing to potential clients. As a business, you plan months ahead and spend money to exhibit at shows. You obviously want to make the most of it and generate new leads for your business and overall gain new customers. Do you think about maybe exhibiting in the future, when this still applies to you and might give you a good idea of what to consider.

Use the right tools

Make sure you stand out with your brand so that visitors can see your excellent service and offers you are representing. There is nothing worse than seeing a stand and not knowing what the brand is offering. Make sure you marketing material is clear to visitors, explaining what you do and what features you are offering. 

Investing in some good exhibition display stands, with high quality images and brochures for visitors to take away. The more relevant info you provide, the more chance you have that people remember your brand. The same applies to speaking to any potential clients directly. Try to talk to potential customers without losing focus, adapting to their tone and eliminating those who don’t seem qualified and are basically a waste of time or who just come for the freebies. 

Gather ideas from around you

Have a look around and explore what others you are doing and how they’re doing it. Not only is it fun to see what your competitors are up to, you can also gather some ideas for upcoming shows. Say, you saw a nice quality stand display; it won’t hurt asking them what supplier they have used. After all, getting ideas that improve your business in the end are always helpful.

As I mentioned before, Salon Tracker are exhibiting at Professional Beauty London this weekend. Our helpful team will be available Sunday and Monday, all day for any questions, information and live demonstration of our products and services. Make sure to pop by and say hello. If you haven’t registered to the event yet, make sure to click the link for a FREE ticket: http://bit.ly/2jBRDdb

Not going to Professional Beauty London? No problem, you can still trial our software for 2-weeks free of charge, just call our office and speak to one of our helpful team members on 0113 350 8230 or email info@salontracker.co.uk

Salon Tracker x

Salon Tracker: Feature of the Month

Need to improve security in the salon, perfect your business organisation and also ensure that no one is tanning fraudulently or illegally in your absence?

Then read on to see how our Feature of the Month - The Fingerprint Reader can help you to achieve those improvements.

Our salon software has a unique fingerprint recognition built in, which enables a fingerprint login security for all clients, and on top of that, allows staff to clock in and out of their shifts. An essential feature for all salons, and especially those in the tanning industry.

The beauty of fingerprint reading is that no one can replicate another’s fingerprint and sign in as someone else, like what unfortunately may happen with pin logins and barcode readers. This applies to both clients and staff, as before we introduced the fingerprint feature we used to hear stories of clients who would try and tan using a friend’s login, in which if the friend was underage then tanning salons could be allowing people to tan illegally without actually being wise to it.

Not only however does this stop clients tanning fraudulently, is also eliminates the chance of malicious behaviours, for example if staff were using fake client record cards to tan mischievously whilst on a shift in the salon owners absence. We know that this probably isn’t a usual occurrence, but unfortunately we have had feedback of this happening in some salon businesses, and therefore you just want to make sure that your salon is as secure as possible, and you are using your salon software to its full potential.

Further benefits include being able to accurately track your staff rota, in which this is the feature that is really beneficial to salon owners that are away from their salon locations for long periods of time. Our salon system has permissions that force the use of a fingerprint before a staff member can be logged in to a shift, which means lateness can be identified and followed up quickly and eliminates other colleagues from signing in for other staff members at false times.

The fingerprint clock-in and out report is updated continuously and this can be accessed by salon owners when they are away from the salon via Salon Tracker’s site view app, in which ensures that staff are still being punctual in their salon owners absence.

For owners of multi-sites, the fingerprint reader ensures full salon security across multiple locations, as we understand that it is difficult to split time across several sites to maintain salon management to a high expectation. Salon Tracker’s HQ feature allows multi-site business owners to track fingerprint reading reports for all salons from one main headquarters. Saving salon owners stress, time and ensuring that each site is as secure as it can be.

For more information on our Fingerprint Reader head to www.salontracker.co.uk or call our office on 0113 350 8230 and speak to a member of our team who will be happy to run through a software demo with you.

And don’t forget, you can also trial Salon Tracker FREE of charge for 2 weeks, so don’t miss out on improving the efficiency of your salon and let us help you out today!

Salon Tracker x

How we can help businesses of multiple sites

Being a salon owner isn’t an easy task. You have to overlook the business, your staff, finances, stock and many other tasks. Keeping track of every aspect of your salon business can become very time consuming and stressful. Especially if you have more than one site to handle. You can’t be at multiple places at the same time and probably spend a fair amount of time away from the salon or rushing between each site. If you are using salon software to get organised, great, but did you know here at Salon Tracker, we can support all the needs multi-site business owners have?

In general, salon software is a great addition to any hair, beauty or tanning business, whether you have one salons or a whole chain of twenty establishments. It helps you to get rid of all those excess papers and client cards and make more space for other things. All your information will be stored electronically, from info such as client records and stock control, meaning everything can be accessed in just a few clicks. Over the last year, we have made significant advances to our software that especially support multi-site salon owners. Our overall goal was to create features that can maximise business potential to those who have to manage more than one salon. From research, we have found that communications can be one of the biggest hindrances between each salon. As an owner, one of the biggest concerns is to ensure that everything is running smoothly.

But what features can salon owners use to maximise their multi-side potential? Have a look at our three main features:

HQ (Headquarters)

We have designed HQ alongside other features. It is designed for salons with multiple sites. HQ allows salon owners to link all of their sites from one main "headquarters” to oversee all of its activity in one go. This can either be an office within one of the salons, a home office or another location. HQ provides you with a separate version of Salon Tracker on a preferred computer that allows you to switch between all business sites. Meaning, salon owners have full access over booking calendars, staff, stock, marketing, reports and management. Furthermore, HQ allows you to share client data across all sites and customers benefit from stored information, meaning they wouldn’t have to register or go through a patch test again if they visit one of your other sites. Stock can be overseen for all sites and be reordered if levels are running low.

Therefore, this is the perfect solution to overlook all your sites' activity from one head office and make your life easier and stay organised.

Homeview 

Owners get a second version of Salon Tracker on any preferred PC or Laptop to use at home or on the go, meaning they can check salon activity even when they’re not present. This is possible either from home or even on holiday, as long as there is an internet connection. This feature is aimed at salon owners that spend a fair amount of time away from the salon but still want to have full insights of what is happening on a day-to-day basis. Same as with the HQ feature, stock ordering can also be done over the "Homeview" feature and furthermore, sales can be tracked without the salon owner or manager needing to be present. Reports can be exported via email and into different formats, making the administrative side much easier for owners and to stay on top of everything.

Site-View

This is a great feature for both the owner as well as the salon staff, especially when you don’t have accessed to the salon PC or Laptop. Site-view can be accessed on the go from a tablet or smartphone that has the ability to connect to the internet. You can ensure that your salon is running smoothly even when you are absent. It gives you the ability to oversee your business and monitor activities such as takings, refunds and stock management. You can also access staff performance charts to maintain authority in your absence. Site-View is an essential for those salon owners who hold multiple sites and need to split themselves between sites, especially those business owners that are constantly on the go. It allows you the opportunity to access your current business activity from your smartphone, iPad, tablet or a PC. Furthermore, your staff will get their unique log-ins to view their upcoming appointments for that week.

Overall, our features support salon owners with their time management and organisation. Now, owners don’t have to rush around and try and split their time across different locations. Multi-site features are available on our Enterprise Package for £90 + VAT a month, including other great features such as online booking for your salons and a mobile web app for your customers to book their appointments from.

If that sounds like exactly what you need then why not get in touch today for a FREE consultation & trial http://ow.ly/tWd2302mfic 

We offer a no-obligation 14-day trial period, for you to ensure that the software is right for you before signing up to anything.

We hope to hear from you soon!

Salon Tracker x

This Year's Valentine's Marketing Tips!

Okay, so January always feels like the longest month ever (thank goodness it’s over) and especially after your Christmas buzz! Everyone can’t wait for another reason to generate some marketing, get footfall flowing and boost those sales back up again. So thank goodness for Valentines and that it’s here once more.

It’s a great novelty event to utilise every year, especially with your younger adult market if you make your Valentines offers affordable. You’ll always get your ROI on any Valentine’s promotions, as the beauty is you can appeal to men & women of all ages and even create couples treatments too! So, here are our top-tips on how to capitalise on the romantic period this Feb.

Appeal to the girls post-valentine’s, with ideas along the lines of ‘Pre-pamper before your Valentines Date’

Especially for couples who are due to go on a first date, these are the types of customer that you can really advertise your pamper packages to. Simple little treatments such as Mani’s, Pedi’s, waxing, threading, brows and great lashes, all of these are the types of mini essential treatments that most clients will look to purchase before their Valentines date. To boost those sales a little bit more, offer a couple of little extra’s on the packages like complimentary prosecco or a free sample gift with each purchase. Also, look at re-naming your packages to make them stand out and to also give you something fresh to advertise, our ideas were ‘Prosecco & Pedicure’ or ‘Bubbles & Brows’?

Owner of a male salon? Appeal to guys with grooming packages – a great month to push your deluxe facials and hair-cuts!

As we all know, it’s not just the girls that require pampering. The male beauty market has boomed over the past couple of years, so as much as the girls want to impress their significant others, this is just as true with the men! Same rules apply, your mini treatments like facials, massages, haircuts, these are all Valentines seasonal winners. So flower them up a little bit by either re-naming them something quirky, or even in this instance offer a 10% discount or a discount for re-booking, as the whole ‘bubbles & barbering’ doesn’t have the same ring to it, and probably won’t be as appealing to the male market!

Appeal to the Men with gift ideas

If this is an early relationship, guys might get a little stuck when it comes to what gift to purchase, if they want to something a bit more than the classic gift of ‘flowers & chocolate’. Especially if you are a multi-sex salon, you are going to get lots of male customers through your doors on a daily basis, so a perfect opportunity to promote those pressie ideas to them. Easy options are vouchers or gift cards, which if you offer a rewards scheme then perfect, you could hit your yearly voucher target in one month! However, thinking a little bit further outside the box, why not create little Valentines gift packages? These could consist of a voucher and some sample minis? Or even retail product gift sets, which with a bit of cellophane and some streamer you could create these yourselves in the salon quite quickly. By also creating the gift sets in-house you are then saving the men on their gift-wrapping, which is another massive selling point! Showcase these at your cash desk, or create a little gift-table at the front of the salon and you’re sorted.

Couple’s Services

If you’re a multi-sex salon then this is a definite for you. The best way to entice couples here would be to generate special offer packages on your most popular treatments. A great one if your salon is based in a spa or hotel, as you can also offer voucher for treatments as present ideas if the couple have booked to spend the weekend at that particular hotel. Massages are a great joint treatment package, as you can advertise around the whole idea of ‘relax and enjoy the day together’. If both members of the couple are regulars at your salon, filter out your data to see which treatments they often purchase and personally advertise to that them through SMS or Email marketing. This will make them feel extremely valued and also show the couple that you recognise their custom.

Single Celebrations

For those of your clients that are still in the single market, this time of year can be pretty drab, so why not mix things up a little bit and advertise to the singles as well, that way you’re generating yourselves more sales by altering the stereotypical Valentine’s day promo’s. You could advertise on your social media by first off mentioning your actual Valentines promotions before then saying ‘Single? Then don’t worry we’ve got lots of packages for friends to visit and enjoy the day as well’. A great USP as 9/10 every other salon, restaurant, bar and retailer will be advertising to the couples’ scene, so make your business stand out!

Salon Tracker x