Father's Day Marketing!

Just over a week to go until Father’s Day, how is it that time of year again?! These annual celebrations are always great for salons, as it gives you a chance to put together some promotions and really up your customer count. As with most of our marketing blogs, we’re going to give you some of our top tips on how you can increase your footfall this Father’s Day!

We all know by now that social media has become the most popular method for promoting your salon, and it should be no different for your Father’s Day offers! Facebook and Instagram are the perfect place to get your offers out there, so that both your current customers and potential ones are able to see them. With the ability for people to share your posts, this also gives you a great opportunity to run some sort of competition, in which you ask people to share the post and like your page to be entered. This will massively help to not only share the promotions that you have on for Father’s Day, but it will also help to share your salon and hopefully entice people into booking an appointment. There are plenty of different offers and competitions that you can run, here’s just some examples that we came up with:

• Put together a few different package deals for different price ranges, that way you’re reaching a wider audience.

• Offer a voucher or a % off the next time they come in anytime someone books a Father’s Day treatment, that way you can get the customer to return again after Father’s Day.

• Run a competition for a luxury treatment bundle for a Dad and one of their friends or family members.

• Put together some of your best-selling retail products into a retail hamper pack, offering it as a cheaper price for buying it as a bundle.

Although just solely posting your campaigns on your Facebook page will still get your customers interested, there is also ways of targeting people that haven’t already liked your page. Across both Facebook and Instagram, you can promote your posts, so you can spend £5 and promote it to say 500 people that fit the category of person you’re wanting to buy your services. You can spend as much as you like, the more you spend the more people your post will reach. This is a great cost-effective way of promoting your offers, as you will only need it to get the attention from a few people in order to make your money back. I would recommend starting off with a lower value to make sure that it works for you, and then you can increase your budget gradually.

There might be some people that just want to keep it simple, and get their dad a gift voucher for you salon. So, if gift vouchers aren’t something that you already offer, it’s definitely something you should look at introducing in the near future. Many people will often first visit a place due to having a gift voucher, giving you a great opportunity to work your magic and make sure that they want to return again in the future. If possible you could even get some limited-edition Father’s Day gift vouchers, just to make it a bit more personalised for the occasion, and this will also help to catch the eye of any potential buyers. 

Although your treatments will be aimed towards Dads, you will more than likely be targeting your female customers, as they are the main buyers for Father’s Day gifts. This is where Salon Tracker can help you out! Our marketing section allows you to segment your customers, meaning that you can send an SMS message to only females or only males. This is great as it means that you can write a more female targeted message and then also send a more male targeted message separately. You can even set an age filter, so that you can target it further to young adults who will be buying a gift for their Dad. SMS campaigns are a great way to directly address the customers that you have in your database, and these can be sent our straight from Salon Tracker. We recommend that you only use around 150-160 characters for the SMS, as this means that people are more likely to read it, so make sure that you get straight to the point! Although email is another great way of marketing your deals to your customers, the open rate is much less in comparison to when you send out an SMS texts. Did you know that over 90% of texts are opened/read within the first 3 minutes! So clearly this is a great way to target your customers and make sure that your salon is full this Father’s Day. Understandably for those of you that own barber shops or work in barber shops it will be much harder to target a female audience through the SMS marketing suite, so I would suggest using social media to do your promotions instead.

Hopefully this will help you with promoting your salon this Father’s Day! If you would like to test out our marketing suite, you do receive 50 free SMS credits when you trial our software for 2 weeks, so feel free to contact our sales team today by either emailing info@salontracker.co.uk or calling us on 0113 350 8230 and someone will be happy to help.

Salon Tracker x

Salon Tracker’s Best Festival Picks for 2019!

Festival season 2019 is right around the corner and here at Salon Tracker we’ve been loving all the new looks that we’re sure will be showcased at all the festivals this summer. We have decided to put together a look book with all of our favourite up coming trends to give you a little inspo!


Mesh looks are everywhere this summer. We love this pink floral mesh co-ord from Boohoo. We’d pair this with a pink bralette and shorts or even a bikini with some strappy sandals and a pair of sunnies! At only £18 each for the top and skirt we think this is a great festival staple. Shop this look at https://www.boohoo.com/flower-embroidered-mesh-skirt/FZZ93706.html






We’re also loving neon looks this season. We love this neon orange satin bralette paired with these cargo trousers. This outfit will make sure you stand out! We’d pair this with some trainers or boots and maybe a belt to break up the orange. You can shop both parts of this outfit on Pretty Little thing here https://www.prettylittlething.com/neon-orange-satin-bralet.html p.s they often have discounts on so keep a look out for those.






As we all know, here in England the weather can be a little unpredictable. Even in the summer. This is why we think its always a good idea to take a jacket with you, just in case. We love this jacket and trouser co ord set from ASOS. The reflective element makes this perfect for festival season. Paired with a simple bralette and some chunky trainers this is the perfect look for any festival, day or night. Shop the look here https://www.asos.com/daisy-street/daisy-street-reflective-cargo-trousers-co-ord/prd/12287254?CTAref=Recently+Viewed&clr=silver






Accessories are the way forward with any festival look. Even the most boring outfit can be brought up a few notches with the right accessories. From sunglasses, to belts to some glitter, anything goes in festival season. Here are a few of out top accessory picks that you can get from ASOS.









We hope this gives you some inspo and make sure to tag us on insta in all your festival looks @Salontrackersoftware!


We cant wait to see all the different looks!


Salon Tracker x

Utilising Holiday Season and Summer Events to Promote your Salon!

Only 1 month to go till the longest day of the year, and the official start of Summer, this year’s flying by don’t you think! So, as we step in to Summer and everyone starts to plan their vacay’s, we thought we’d offer you our best ideas to put some simple sunny tips to get you in the right direction for a seasonal success!


There are lots of events happening that your salon can capitalise on throughout the coming months. You have the likes of Father’s Day coming up, then there’s School and College Proms, University Graduations and Weddings to cater for, all of which are typically planned for during the Summer. Which, if you’re a regular follower of our blog you’ll notice that we did a little post last week dedicated solely to how you can push your salon through prom & wedding season and how you can put some little pamper packages together. (If you wanna have a little read, link is here >> https://bit.ly/2LMxwek ) Similar however applies to the holiday months, as everyone wants their pre-hol treatments, you are best to start advertising this now.


The great thing about Summer events is, they can be targeted to such a large audience, of all ages both male and female! There’s an event for everyone. However, a big upcoming event for the guys is Father’s Day.


With Father’s Day, this is a good one to not only attract the Dad’s and advertise your salon vouchers or grooming packages, you can also advertise family packages, especially if you’re a spa. However, barbers are going to capitalise on this the most being a solely male industry, however as mentioned, there are ways that multi-sex salons can also get the benefit, see some of our best ideas below:


- Run a Dad-Daughter/Son pampering day, or family spa package. A great time to advertise family package discounts so that people can treat their Dad’s but also make a day out of it themselves too.


- Up-sell your gift vouchers and get some personalised Father’s Day ones made if possible! A good way to make some gift card sales and also secure yourself some future footfall!


- Grooming packs! This is great if you sell a lot of male products at the salon. Make a gift table at the front of the shop or in your salon window to really promote those retail sales.


- Following on from selling product packs, how about offering a gift-wrapping service? This is such a nice little add on service for anyone buying Father’s Day pressies and also saves your clients time having to wrap the gifts themselves. It’s a nice little touch and such a simple, easy way to make a little extra profit!


Now, on to Holiday packages!

We all know that this time of year is one of the busiest for salons aside from Christmas, especially with people wanting their pre-holiday treatments. So, what can you do to ensure that clients choose your salon over competitors?


How about Party Packs? This is a great one to advertise to the younger market who are going on girls and guys trips, as you could advertise this as a friends’ package and maybe add some complimentary drinks or snacks to the treatment. Advertise this through an SMS campaign or even run a little promotion on social media to get some engagement and attract new clients. 

A little example could be:

“Hi <name> going on a girls/guys holiday this year? Fancy a pre-holiday pamper with your friends? We’re offering vacay packs for you and your pals to get summer-ready before you jet off! Simply call <salon tel> to secure your slot today!” 

You can then put together some little holiday bundle packages, so for example where you have a ‘lash tint’ then a ‘eyebrow wax’, you could merge these treatments together as a ‘holiday eye pack’ for maybe a slightly lesser price than the 2 individual treatments would be, in order to attract those clients to have more treatments done at your salon. Even if you have to put a slight discount on the package, in the long run this should work out more profitable for you as you’ll be selling more treatments this way.


Do you sell product minis in the salon? Another great sell around holiday season, especially for those going abroad, as you can advertise the ‘less than 100ml’ bottles & sachets, perfect for plane journeys! If you keep a track of your best sellers, maybe this is a good time to see whether our suppliers offer mini versions of your products, to stock up for Summer. If not, how about investing in the mini empty travel bottles and then advertising these next to your normal retail products, to try and sell your faves but prompt clients to buy the mini bottles so that they can still take their preferred products away with them! Something to think about!

If you are a tanning salon, this is the perfect time to upsell your SPF-inclusive bottles and sun creams. Especially if you run some deals and are in line with the supermarket prices, as if you have loyal salon customers, they are more likely to trust your business and hopefully purchase their sun-lotions from you. Safety-first for your clients and also promotes that you are looking out for your customers welfare over Summer.



Then there’s your general Summer pamper pack, that are applicable to all events. What about something inclusive of: highlights, a brow tint, spray tan and nails? Little idea for you, as through research we’ve found that people go to separate salons for their brows, then nails and then their hair treatments - so if you are a multi-service salon that can offer all these together, a great opportunity for you and really profitable.


If you however are solely a hair, or just beauty or a nail bar, why not look in to partnering with your surrounding salons, or mobile technicians who offer different treatments to you, to boost each other’s business throughout Summer? Or could you perhaps rent chairs? Self-employed therapists will pay a flat rate to rent your space but then take their sales just as they would if they were mobile? But the plus side for you here is that you will get more footfall in the salon, which will contribute to hopefully further retail sales for you.


Other things that you could promote are competitions or selfie contests, to increase brand awareness & engagement, and hopefully attract some new clients too. Facebook advertising is a great technique to use during this time, especially with Prom, Wedding and graduation season coming up. Advertise to certain age ranges, genders, and liked pages, to ensure that you are targeting the correct audience. You could run a competition to win a gift voucher for your salon, in the hope that this promotes your services to a new client who may return in the future.


And finally, if you offer online booking, promote your client base to use your booking app by sharing your unique link with them. This could be done either by text, email or a social media post. With our software, we’ve actually introduced QR scan, where you could display a salon-branded mount board at the front of the shop for clients to scan your QR using their smart phone – which will instantly open your salon’s registration page. A simple way to advertise that you offer online booking, which means clients can make bookings with you from anywhere, 24/7!


Hopefully we’ve given you a few ideas to give you something to think about over the coming summer months. If you need a bit of help or inspiration with your salon Summer marketing, our team are always here to help you with a few tips! Just call on 0113 3508230 or email us at info@salontracker.co.uk and we’ll help you out! Looking forward to a busy (and hopefully successful) few months!


Salon Tracker x

How to make the most of Prom and Wedding Season!

One of the busiest, most hectic times of the year for salons is fast approaching as prom and wedding season is upon us. Here at Salon Tracker we have a few helpful tips and tricks in order to help you manage and make the most of this time. 


Package Deals


Package deals are a great thing to offer especially around this time of the year. Offering package deals such as ‘Hair, Makeup and Nails’ all together for a set price of £100 or doing a ‘Bride and Bridesmaid’ bundle may then encourage potential clients to get all of these different services all done at your salon rather than just going to multiple different places for each different service to try and save a bit of money. These deals may also attract the attention of people whom haven’t previously been to your salon and you could then after this have a new group of regular customers.


Online Booking


Online booking and only taking pre booked appointments are a must during this busy time. Making sure you advise all your customers to pre book their appointments and deciding not to take in any walk-in clients will reduce the stress load significantly for both you and your customers and will make the atmosphere of your salon a much calmer place to be.



Advertising

Advertising is a really good thing to do to make the most of this busy season and it will remind existing customers to pay a visit to your salon and will also be able to draw in new customers. Using social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram are some of the most efficient ways to advertise your company and will come at little to no cost!



Competitions


Running competitions are also a great way to help promote and advertise your salon. By running a competition which encourages people to share your salon page or tag their friends. This will help you reach a bigger audience for the small price of one person getting a free service. You could also look into giving away one of the package deals we mentions earlier!



This wouldn’t be a Salon Tracker prom and wedding blog if we didn’t leave you with a little look book of some of our favourite hair, makeup and nail looks for this season!

If you have any more questions about any of the points here today or would life some more information on our software please don't hesitate to contact us on 0113 350 8230 or email us on info@salontracker.co.uk


Salon Tracker x

Effective Salon security with Salon Tracker.

I’m sure the matter of your own Salon Security has crossed your minds multiple times; wondering if your customer data is actually safe and if your staff care about the well-being of the Salon just as much as you do… especially if you’re still old-school and use the paper diary as a way of organising your salon and a filing cabinet for all those disclaimers!

Well worry no more, Salon Tracker is cut out to keep your Salon more than secure and here are the reasons why:

User logins with passwords

Salon Tracker gives you the ability to create multiple staff logins for your staff, each protected with a pin and the option of finger print recognition. Each staff member will have their unique log in and pin and of course with finger print recognition only they can access their account and make actions on Salon Tracker. Furthermore, the owner of the account has the ability to prevent certain staff members from accessing certain parts of the software, such as specific reports or making admin changes.

Our software also has an ‘Action log report’ which entails every single detail of what's occurred within the software in any given time frame. From the minute the software is launched to the minute it is shut down, any transaction that was made, any movement on the software down to a report being pulled or a client card being looked at – it’s all tracked. So, nothing in the software would go a-miss! 

Auto log-out

Salon Tracker also has the option to turn on an ‘auto log-out’ feature where after a given amount of no movement on the software, it will automatically log you out and will need a user to log in with their fingerprint or password before it can be used again. Perfect for busy salons that doesn’t always have a receptionist or someone at the desk 24/7.

Finger print technology and secure ID
As mentioned previously, Salon Tracker hosts the ability to interact with fingerprint technology for staff members to log in with. The best part about it is that your customers can also register their fingerprint for added security, to protect their account and minutes/ pre-bought services. All you need to do is register their finger print when you register them as a customer and from there forward they will just need to place their finger on the reader and the software will bring their client card up already without you having to search for their name. Which is perfect for busy salons or new salon owners that haven’t got to know their customers yet. The option for secure ID to be turned on (where the client has to put their fingerprint down) is also available when they’re going on a bed or for certain services which can work as an authenticating feature for added salon protection.

On top of that, our software also allows you take a head shot of your clients and store it to their client card. You can do this by either using your integrated webcam or uploading a picture from your files, which is an alternative way of checking the client’s identification.

Virtual disclaimer

Sick of storing all those signed paper disclaimers in a full filing cabinet with no sense of organisation to it? Salon Tracker does all the hard work for you by giving you the ability to upload a PDF format of your Salon disclaimer to the software and by using one of our integrated signature pads, gives you the ability to store a signed copy of the disclaimer onto every client’s customer card. Say goodbye to those messy filing cabinets and hello to a much safer way of protecting your Salon disclaimers!

Secure shell

Secure shell is a utility we’ve created as a request by some of our clients. It is a utility that makes the computer in your Salon only accessible for the software itself so there isn’t any way of your clients being able access the internet in work hours; making your salon their number one priority. All you have to do is request this feature when setting up the software and we’ll be able to add that in for you!

I’m sure a secure Salon is just what you’re looking for, so why not give us a call to get booked in for a free demo and 2-week trial? You’ve got nothing to lose!

I look forward to speaking with you and being part of your Salon Journey.

Salon Tracker x

May Feature of the Month - My Reports

It’s 1st May, how time flies! Almost half way through the year already and about to enter one of the busiest times for Salons. So, with this in mind, we have tried to improve our features for you to stay in control of your business and be able to track sales data easier during peak times.

For those of you that have had our Salon Tracker Professional package for a while, you will be used to our advanced reports section, where you can view information on anything from takings, to stock levels and the productivity of each of your employees. And for any of you that are on our Enterprise package, these reports are then visible online where you can log on to our site view app and run them, 24/7, from anywhere you like!

We have realised from recent feedback from you guys that this feature has being really useful to those of you that are utilising our Site View application at the moment, but however some of you recommended that it would be furthermore beneficial if we could create some reports that could be viewed by individual staff members only. Especially if your salon is structured where a lot of your therapists are self-employed. So, with our recent release, we wanted talk to you about our new exclusive feature: ‘My Reports’.

For those of you that create individual staff log-ins, you will now be able to provide each of your employees with their own reports, detailing their individual takings and retail sales. For those that are self employed but working in your premises, they can then password-protect these reports to be viewed by themselves only, so that their colleagues don’t also know what they’re earning.

So, we have currently created 2 reports that are visible under the ‘my reports’ section. We have a ‘booking sales by staff’ and ‘retail sales by staff’, breaking down each individual therapist’ takings based on their treatments carried out and also retail products sold. See examples below: 

The benefit of this is your staff members can now check this throughout the day, which should hopefully prompt self-motivation to boost sales figures, as it is only the staff members themselves that can improve their own individual takings. It is also useful for self-employed staff members, as they are no longer having to bother their owners each time that they would like a copy of their own sales -improving sales privacy for those therapists too.

Staff members would have to be subsequently logged in on their own account when confirming their own appointments and when taking payments for all treatments & retail products in order for the ‘My Reports’ to generate properly. However, any staff member can still make a booking for any therapist, so it won’t hinder the productivity of appointments being booked in the salon. This process is just to ensure that the staff member is dealing with their own appointment takings, to ensure the ‘my reports’ are accurate. Plus, this also helps to personalise the customer journey, as the same therapist will deal with their own clients for the duration of their appointment, from arrival through to payment and leaving the salon.

So if you are currently on our Pro or Enterprise package and would like to upgrade to this feature, please get in touch with our team and we can sort this for you! Alternatively if you’re not currently a Salon Tracker customer and would like to get an insight in to how our software could help to improve the day to day management of your business, you can request a FREE demo & trial download at https://www.salontracker.co.uk/FreeTrial.aspx or just call a member of our Sales Team on 0113 350 8230 who would be happy to help you!

We look forward to hearing from you!

Salon Tracker x

What to Expect From us at Beauty UK and Our Show Tips!

If you don’t know already…we’re exhibiting at Beauty UK this year! For the past few months we have been working on a number of different features, and we can’t wait to show them to you at the upcoming event. If you’ve never been to one of these shows before, it can be quite daunting at first, purely because of the vast number of people there. But I can guarantee that it’s definitely worth the visit! You’ll be able to not only have a demonstration of our Salon Tracker software and ask any burning questions, but you’ll also be able to have a look around hundreds of other exhibitors and even get some great deals!

So, you might be wondering what new features we’ve been working on? 

My Reports

Our new ‘My Reports’ feature allows each staff member to look specifically at only their sales, and this can only be seen when that specific staff member is logged into their staff user account. For this to work, staff just need to make sure that they are logged into their accounts when they are confirming any bookings, as this will ensure that the money shows on their personal report. The reports are currently separated into two sections, my retail sales and my booking sales. We are currently working on a couple more that we are hoping to add in the near future. This feature is great for those of you that rent out chairs in your salon, as you can see exactly what each staff member has brought in, in both bookings and retail sales.

QR Code & NFC-Tap

The QR Code & NFC-Tap feature is something that we introduced briefly at the Professional Beauty show in London last February. This feature enables your customers to easily register their details or access their online account, simply by just scanning the QR code or by tapping the NFC chip. The mount board will be salon branded to your salon with your colour scheme and logo, which you will then be able to display at the front of your shop. With the QR Code and NFC-Tap feature it will not only help to persuade more of your customers to use your online booking but will also help to speed up to wait times and reduce queues as customers will be able to register themselves on their phones instead of taking a few minutes to do so at the reception desk.

Online Split Booking

For a lot of hair and beauty salons some treatments need development time, and for many people they use that time to serve another customer. For example, if someone is having a hair colour treatment, there will be development time before the colour is washed off, so the booking will need to be split. This is a feature that has been available within the actual software for a few years, and more recently it’s something we have now developed for people who are wanting to book online. How it works is that on the software you will set the time needed for the delay, and then when someone books that treatment it will automatically put the delay in for you, making it very easy for both you and the customer to use. It will also help you get the maximum amount of bookings you can, as the development time will then be available for someone else to book in for an appointment.

Beauty UK Offer

At Beauty UK this year, Salon Tracker are offering 30% off your first 3 months subscription, as well as up to 30% off hardware purchases. This is an exclusive offer to those of you at visit us at the Beauty UK show, and will be available until the 14^th of June 2019.

Our Show Tips

If you want to come see any of these new features on display at the Beauty UK show then feel free to drop by our stand T40 and we will be happy to give you a live demo of the software. Although when we go to the show we will spend most of our time on our stand demonstrating our software, it won’t be the same for you. There will be around 750 brands exhibiting at the show, and it’s even FREE to attend as long as you register for your tickets before-hand, here’s the link for anyone that’s interested http://www.beautyukshow.com/register.jsp.  

Beauty UK have released an app where you can see all of the exhibitors, and you can even favourite them, which is perfect for those of you that want to plan the stands you want to visit. All you have to do is click on the love heart next to the exhibitor name and it will then add it to your exhibitors list, which you can find under the ‘My Show’ tab. At the show you will have access to an event guide, where you will be able to view a stand plan, so you know exactly where each stand is, which again is great for those of you that are wanting to plan your visit. The stand plan is also available on their app; however, it doesn’t currently show who’s on each stand, but this might be added in nearer the time of the show. On the app you can also see the schedule for the different stages, and these can be favourited as well, so if there’s a demonstration you are wanting to watch then you can favourite it and it will be added to your ‘My Show’ Section. At the Beauty UK show there are a four different shows under one roof, so there’s Beauty UK which is the main event, and then there’s also Hair UK, Barber UK and Holistic Health, and these can all be viewed again on the app. So, if you’re wanting to plan you’re visit I would definitely recommend downloading the app, as this pretty much gives you any information you would need about the show.

I hope that this has given you not only an insight into what we’re going to be demonstrating at the show, but also on how you can plan your visit to make sure you get the most out of the day and out of your time. You've got just over 3 weeks to plan your visit, that's got plenty of time to make sure you’re ready. Don’t forget, we will be exhibiting at Stand T40 in the Beauty UK area of the show, we can’t wait to see you there! 

Salon Tracker x