Autumn Marketing Tricks by Salon Tracker Software

We’re back in autumn already! We can’t believe it, official 3 month Christmas countdown. In fact, 3 months today we’ll all be well untruly in our element, pressies opened and nicely stuffed from 3 days of festive binge-eating!

So, what can you be doing at the salon this autumn to ensure that your peak-season is a successful one? There are lots of events that you can take advantage of throughout the next couple of months and in the lead up to Christmas, like Halloween, Bonfire night and Black Friday! And also a couple of Charity events, which are great for fund-raising money for a good cause but also, raising brand awareness & great projection for you! For example, you’ve got ThinkPink in October for Breast Cancer awareness & Movember for attentiveness to men’s health!

So we’ve separated out a few little ideas that are relevant throughout this season to help you to kick-start your promotional strategies - just to ensure that you get that nice Christmas ROI for some little well-deserved treats!


Offers & Up-selling

We’ve said time and time again, the discounted sale is not always the winner, or the right way to go for your brand reputation. OK, so we’re not going to lie that it’s great when you see an offer online or on social media showcasing a big % discount, whether this be retail or maybe a restaurant?

However, how many of us are guilty of seeing a shared status about a particular promo code, and thinking ‘great, I’ll head down there if it’s (x) % off!’ But, once the business is back to full price, if you’re not already a regular customer you find yourself never visiting there again unless there’s another offer on. We’re deffo guilty!

What you definitely don’t want to be is ‘the brand that discounts’. As once you get renowned for doing this, it’s sometimes very hard to steer clear of that image and get value from your full price services again in the future.

Instead, we recommend you up-sell! Offer little add-ons to your clients already existing full price purchase. Sometimes, the extra product can actually seem a lot more generous than a discount and in the long run, it generally offers more value to the customer in terms of service. Plus, by offering an extra mini-treatment or product, you may actually be helping to market those to the client for a potential future purchase. A little something to think about.

So, a few potential offers that you could use throughout autumn are:

- Book your Halloween treatment with us and receive a FREE (chosen retail product)

- Sparkle this bonfire night, head down to (salon name) and receive a complimentary (chosen mini gift) with each treatment purchased

- Countdown to Christmas, book your December salon treatments early to receive a complimentary (chosen mini-treatment)
- Rebook today’s treatment to receive (chosen gift/voucher)

Make sure however that whatever it is that you are offering as a freebie here, it is still cost effective to you. The last thing you want is to sell yourself short in terms of profit, just to save face of not discounting. Make sure you plan out the figures beforehand.


Charitable Events & Friend/Family Packages/Event Gifts


October and November are renowned for their Cancer-research & Macmillan events, the most popular being ThinkPink for Breast Cancer and Movember for prostate Cancer & Men’s health. You however also have Children in Need in November too, so plenty of events that you could use to raise money for a good cause and to also hopefully increase your client base in doing so. The beauty here is, charity events can also tie-in with non-charitable events, so for example you could do a ‘bring-a-friend’ to your ThinkPink event? This way, it means that you have fresh-faces arriving at the salon to get some mini treatments, in the hope that they then return in the future. And in the meanwhile, you are raising a ton of money for Cancer research - brilliant! Also, if you associate your business with charities, this makes your brand much more recognisable and appreciated by onlookers who can see that you get involved in fundraising. A few ideas for you to try out are:

- ThinkPink, with a friend! Head down to the salon for mini treatments and (X) % off retail products. £(X) entry and all profits go to Cancer Research UK.

- Calling all guys who want to get involved in some fundraising for a good cause! It’s Movember, donate £(X) on our JustGiving page and send us a selfie or your best Movember-tash be entered in to our prize draw. Winner receives (chosen gift) and all entry donations go to Prostate Cancer UK.

- It’s Children in Need, so we’re running a friends & family week to get involved! Book a family package with us and save (X) % off the usual single-treatment prices, plus free compliments on your arrival! All profits made & donations go to Children in need UK.

For the above ideas, between you and your team, come up with the little mini-treatments and the services that you’d like to use for your family packages and spread the word via social media, email or text! Obviously, these are just little ideas to get you started. We encourage you to introduce your own event ideas too, as then they are even more personable to your salon-brand.


The Salon Atmosphere


Salon Décor is one of the biggest influencers in your client journey, especially around peak season! It’s so true, that atmosphere and ambience help to make a sale. If throughout October and Christmas, you dress the salon in all things pumpkin, tinsel and trees – the likelihood is that you will instantly make your clients feel festive and without realising, this will uplift theirs and your mood. And we all know, Happy Customers = Happy Shopping! A simple and easy way to increase your seasonal sales. Complimentary freebies are also crucial here. (And no we don’t mean give away a load of free treatments) but just a couple of little refreshments will do, for example:

-Tea, coffee, fizz/prosecco? Even theme your coffees, get a little pumpkin spice syrup in-house!

-Halloween themed sweets, cupcakes, biscuits, anything festive-styled!

- Xmas favourites like Quality sweets, roses, miniature heroes…you get the idea.

So there’s just a few of our little ideas to get you off to an amazing, autumnal start! It’s also great to get involved with charitable and celebratory events at the salon, and this applies all year-round, not just in peak season. Events such as these are extra fun for you & your team, and can really help to boost morale during busy times. Use your autumn marketing to even get your employees together for a little team-building session. Go somewhere nice as a team for some food/an activity and use the night to brainstorm some ideas. A great way to give all of your staff members’ inclusion in some planning, to ensure that their voices are heard and that they feel respected within the company. Another motto that they always say…valued staff members = valuable service for your business, and essentially to the end consumer!


Happy planning!


Salon Tracker x

Why Trade shows are great for every Salon

We have attended Professional Beauty North for quite some years now and it’s always a pleasure to return to Manchester Central to meet new people. As a business, whether you are just there to visit or if you are exhibiting, it is a great place to network and find out about the latest products and treatments. Especially for salon owners, trade shows are great opportunities to purchase new equipment and gather inspiration for the salon. However, if you have ever attended a show you know how busy these can get. Businesses try to talk to you about their products and services and try to offer you the latest deals. It is easy to lose focus on what exactly you need and why you came to the show in the first place.

One of the best pieces of advice we can give you is: come prepared!

Download the event show guide or go on the events website. There you can look at the list of exhibitors and work out which stands you want to visit prior to the event. There is nothing worse than turning up to a busy event hall, with no idea where companies are located within the exhibition and then running around frantically to find them! Many companies also offer appointments you can take advantage of. So if you are interested in a new machine or product try get in contact with the business before the event to schedule a session with them. This will help with the buying decision and gives you an opportunity to ask all your questions.

'Shows are great for discounts and testers. Take advantage of any discount and exclusive offers!'

If you own a business, are about to open one or even if you have a favourite brand to stock up on, then these places are perfect for you. Why? Because often at trade shows you have the advantage to get discounted rates on most items. 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 trade shows offer VAT free items and services, meaning you already save 20% on your overall purchase. On top of that are most exhibitors willing to negotiate little extras on top of that. All you have to do is ask. 

It is therefore important to know what you want.

Most people come to a trade show roughly knowing what they want. Before signing up to an event, it is useful to go through your salon with an action plan in mind. Are there things that need to be replaced? Would you like to learn about a new treatment and sign staff member up for courses? No matter what it is, take some time aside to think about your business and if there is anything to improve that you can potentially get at the trade show. Exhibitors are experts in their field and it’s a great way to get more info, 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. We have said it before that the best thing prior to a trade show is preparation and it’s true, otherwise you might waste your money on products you don’t really need just because the sales person talked you into it. Therefore, collect all relevant information whilst you are there. Take brochures, business cards and goody bags that will help you to gather information. Don’t get pressured to make a decision straight away. To companies you are a potential customer and they will be happy to wait a few days for you to decide if it will guarantee them a sale.

Grow your network!

As much as you visit a trade show to find resources that will be beneficial to your brand, don’t forget that this is a perfect opportunity to target vendors that may be interested in your company too! All people that attend beauty trade shows are interested in the sector and there is no better way than to hand out your own business cards and build a relationship with potential prospects. Trade shows are such sociable events that you should be prepared to do a bit of brand-promoting whilst you’re there.

Overall, trade shows are a great annual event you should visit to invest in your business and to work on your salon goals. It can be easy to lose 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. If you are attending this year, why not pop by and say hello. We are located at stand E84 From Sunday to Monday, 9-5pm. 

If you’re still thinking about it but haven’t signed up, click on the link to register for tickets. https://registration.n200.com/survey/364r05ev8wm44?actioncode=NTWO000123RTD&partner-contact=2qth72wjsj7nu

Salon Tracker x

Feature of the Month - Filtered Marketing

It’s that time again! Our latest feature of the month is filtered marketing, and how you can use it to benefit your salon. Our customers often contact us asking for help sending out their latest campaign, mainly just because they want to make sure they’re doing it right. With the world becoming more and more digital, it’s important that you as salon owners use this to your advantage, and it can be done directly from our Salon Tracker Software.

One of the most obvious advantages to marketing would be that you can target certain customers and audiences. With our built-in sophisticated marketing suite, you can send SMS messages, emails and letters to your clients, however the SMS feature is the most useful to salons with around 98% of SMS messages being opened, making it the perfect way for you to reach out to your clients. Although it may be a thing of the past, you can also send letters and emails to your customers, our marketing suite does all the work for you, all you have to do is send them out.

Salon Tracker comes with 8 pre-filtered campaigns, a custom campaign and 20 marketing filters, however even with the pre-filtered campaigns you can still edit and change them to how you would like. Perhaps you want to try and attract customers who haven’t visited your salon for a while, the system will track customer spend and highlight the customers that haven’t had an appointment for a while. An example of how the pre-filtered campaign would look is:

Hi <<Forename>>

You are missed! All appointments booked before [ENTER DATE] will receive [ENTER DISCOUNT] discount.

<<CompanyName>> <<CompanyTel>> T&Cs Apply

A great way to make use our marketing suite would be by planning ahead and using our schedule feature. For example, if you are going on holiday, but you want to send out an SMS marketing campaign, you can plan it before and make sure that it will send even if you are away. Another great way that you can use our marketing feature would be to make sure that you are organised and prepared for any offers or deals that you will be doing. Say you are wanting to send a bank holiday campaign you would use our custom campaign feature; two pre-filtered campaigns can already be found on the software for a Summer sale and a January sale. An example of a campaign SMS message that you might want to send for a bank holiday deal could be:

Hi <<Forename>>

We are offering a free [ENTER VALUE] voucher with every booking made this week, which will be redeemable on bank holiday Monday!

<<CompanyName>> <<CompanyTel>> T&Cs Apply

After sending a marketing campaign you might want to see if and how it has effected your sales, with our reports feature our software will do the math for you. You can use the Sales by Hour report to see which times you might want to use the marketing features to help increase sales, for instance when you’re having a quiet period, and you just want to send out a little incentive to bring in some customers.

If you would like any more information on our filtered marketing or any of our software features, don’t hesitate to head over to www.salontracker.co.uk or call our office on 0113 350 8230 to book your software demo, our support team is available Monday-Friday from 9am – 5pm.

You can also trial salon tracker free of charge for a 2-week period, and we will also give you 50 free texts so you can test the marketing feature for yourself!

Salon Tracker

Tips for Salon Owners when Hiring Staff

‘Without a goal you can’t score’. - Casey Neistat

Finding and hiring the right staff for your salon can be a tiring challenge that sometimes just can’t be avoided. A shortage of skilled candidates in the industry will make it even harder to find the right person and the last thing you want to do is take on someone, you’re not quite sure about just because you need more staff. Nevertheless, we don’t want you to dismiss new possibilities altogether and with the right tips and tricks you can find the right new people for your business. To make things easier we have compiled a few useful tips from beginning to end, concentrating on what to look out for when hiring.


Know what you want

When advertising for a new position, be clear on what the position is about but also what qualifications you are looking for. If you define what sort of person you are looking for early on, it will make it easier later on to spot key indicators for those requirements on the candidates CV. Once sorted, you can write a job description and advertise them through social media, your website and even a local newspaper.

A CV reveals plenty already

Review candidates carefully, before inviting them for an interview. If you have a trusted colleague or manager that can assist with a second opinion then certainly take advantage of this. You want to look out for any red flags that are already noticeable in someones CV.

First, is the CV looking professional and spell checked? A CV full of spelling mistakes looks unprofessional and comes across as lazy. Do you really want to employ someone who couldn’t even make the effort to double check their work and make it look as nice as possible? As a salon owner, your priority is to make clients feel comfortable and cared for. A badly written CV might point towards a lack of motivation and perfection.

Secondly, look out for any job-hopping or gaps within a candidates CV. Without an explanation, this might point towards them having trouble integrating themselves within a salon culture or lack of motivation to work in general.


Warning signs during the interview

Once you’ve picked a few candidates you’re happy with, you want to invite them for an interview. The interviews go well and you hire new staff. However, a few weeks into the job, and you’re already regretting taking them on. Not only are they always late, but also are rude to your clients and can’t seem to get integrated with the team.

We advise you to carry out phone interviews before inviting them for an actual face-to face. This way, you’re not wasting your time on candidates who don’t really want to be there anyway. During a phone call, you can usually find out all the necessary things.


Interview Body language 

Experts say that it takes just 7 seconds to make that first impression. If a candidate sits unmotivated in front of you, can’t make eye contact and seems nervous around people then you might want to worry about it. In the end a salon is a customer facing business that will interact with people. A person who doesn’t seem confident enough around people will find it hard to work with clients on a daily basis. Moreover, clients themselves want to feel confident about choosing you, and it might reflect badly on your business if you have a nervous staff member with no customer service skills.


Late Comers 

Candidates who arrive late, without a call, text or any explanation should raise your suspicion. Interviews are important and it is unprofessional to arrive late for no reason. It might point to poorly time keeping once they’re employed, which will have a bad impact on your clients.

Unmotivated Behaviour

If they’re keen to work for you, they want to impress you. Therefore, a warning signal will be if a candidate seems to portray a lack of motivation towards the job and your salon. Has the candidate read the job description and know exactly what is asked of him/her? Have they looked up your salon on Facebook and on your website and know what services you offer? If they answer is no then I wouldn’t bother with theses types of people. 

Nor do they have any questions about the job itself, such as training and expectations.

These types of candidates are looking for a job but are not too bothered about the kind of job, as long as their monthly pay check is secure. 

As always, if you have any questions or would like to talk to one of our team members about this post then please feel free to get in contact with us, our number is 0113 350-8230.



Salon Tracker x