Print Advertising
The Yellow Pages Association found that 73 percent of adults use the Yellow Pages on a weekly basis. That means that a salon has to have a listing in there somewhere. A common misconception is that only one directory exists; however, a major metropolitan area might have several delivered for free or in conjunction with local phone service. This generates the question of which directory to list your information in, as well as whether you should buy a listing, an ad or both.
If affordable, you should buy a listing in every possible directory and pick the one that is most widely read to house your ad. Though the number of categories is growing in most directories, the listing “tanning salons” makes the most sense regarding where to list your information. When creating a listing or ad, keep in mind that size isn’t as important as frequency—taking up huge chunks of the page isn’t necessary as long as the design is eye-catching and contains pertinent, customer-driven copy such as pricing, hours, credit cards accepted and slogan.
Don’t forget newspapers. Metropolitan or large circulation—more than 100,000—papers will charge considerably more for an inch of space than a smaller paper. For salons serving a large metropolitan area, the free suburban papers are generally well-read and will sell much cheaper ads than the major dailies. The weekly entertainment papers will likely offer less-expensive rates, too.
The best way to decide which print publication to list in is to compute the cost per thousand, or CPM. In newspapers, CPM has a base of 1,000 viewers, so for a $200 advertisement in a newspaper with a circulation of 20,000, the CPM is $20. Most papers have these stats readily available.
It’s also important to use design to reflect your image in print ads. All your ads should have a consistent “family” look (same ad size, typeface, basic layout and illustration style). Repetition is reputation and having a consistent tone of voice and graphic look will build audience recognition. It becomes your business’ signature.
For great looks on a budget, experts recommend hiring an artist to create one “shell” ad. Have the artist select a type style and border, and show where the headline, illustration, copy and logo will be. For future ads, you simply write your headline and copy, and drop in the appropriate illustration. For do-it-yourselfers, here are a few design tips:
- Limit yourself to one typeface for the headline and one for body copy. Use boldface or larger type for emphasis, not another type style. Having too many typefaces is like mismatching clothes, plaid with stripes and dots. Is that the image you want to send out?
- Make it readable. Don’t use type smaller than that used by the newspaper. Don’t put type over your illustration and avoid “reverse” type, white type on a dark background.
- Use photos sparingly. Because newspapers are printed on rough paper, photos generally don’t reproduce well. If you do use a photo, ask the newspaper’s photo department for tips on how to get the best reproduction in their paper.
- Leave enough white space so the ad looks clean and balanced.
Online Advertising
If your salon doesn’t have an online presence—preferably a Web site but at least an online phone listing—you could be alienating a growing faction of tanners who do their business hunting exclusively online. Here are some of the basics to getting a Web ad campaign rolling.
Links. The goal of an online ad is to get people to visit a company’s online presence and ultimately use that company’s services. Before purchasing an ad, get as much free exposure on the Web sites of your industry allies by asking them to link to your site. Linking and online customer-sharing work best between places that share an audience but aren’t competitors. It won’t bring people in by the busload, but it’s free and a good place to start.
Pay-Per-Click. The Internet-savvy probably have noticed that search engines like Google or Yahoo! display a list of advertisements on the side of the page after a search is performed. The businesses featured in these ads use pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, expecting that when searchers view the results for a word or phrase, like “tanning salons,” they might want to click on one of the ads that appear on the side of the page. Presumably, someone who clicks on a Web ad is more likely to buy services than someone perusing a print news page.
Creating a PPC ad—which usually is all text—is easy, and like an eBay auction, advertisers bid for high placement on the page. The highest bid—the amount you will pay per click—gets the most recognizable spot. Then, every time a user clicks on the advertisement and goes to your Web site, you owe the ad host—Google or Yahoo— the bid amount. So, if you bid 5 cents per click and someone clicks on your ad, you owe the host 5 cents. Keep in mind that the word or phrase you bid on has an effect on how much you will pay for the ad and the amount of response that you will get. For example, a franchise with locations all over the Denver metropolitan area might be tempted to bid on the word “tanning.” They’ll reach the broadest audience that way, but they’ll also have to pay a lot for high-page placement or suffer from being buried under other ads. A smarter bid would be on “Denver tanning,” where fewer competitors will be trying to advertise.
Cost-Per-Impression. Essentially, cost-per-impression (CPI) is like buying a newspaper ad for the Web, and it’s similarly tracked with CPM. It operates around the premise that the advertisers pay every time someone views an ad, not necessarily when they click on it. The bidding concept usually doesn’t exist here—instead, you make your own deal with the Web site and buy space.
Cost-Per-Action. Some Web sites might agree to sell a cost-per-action (CPA) ad, which means the advertiser has to pay only when someone uses the ad to complete a transaction. Often, this is the best kind of advertisement to buy when running a banner ad or an ad sprawling across the top of a Web page. It’s the safest investment, but exposure may be less and the cost is higher than PPC or CPM. Salons should experiment with all of these and figure out which is the most profitable.
YellowPages Online. Unlike the print version, listings on YellowPages.com are free. Feature ads will cost you, though. Sign up for a free account at www.yellowpages.com to ensure that loyal Yellow Pages users who have converted to the Internet still find you.
Direct Mail
Direct mail is a written communication providing information or an offer intended to elicit a response. It is a precise and well-crafted offer that targets prospects and turns them into dollar-wielding customers. Salons that apply this form of advertising find it one of the best and cost-effective methods to create new customers and retain current ones.
This is because mailing-list information—which includes information like age, income and homeownership status, it buying preferences and lifestyle-interest information—allows small-business owners to target a very specific audience that most likely would purchase their product or service.
Direct mail also is scalable, which means salon owners have the ability to adjust the amount of pieces it sends out based on their business cycle. For example, if a salon wants to take advantage of the spring months, they can send out more pieces during that time and scale it back during slower summer months. It’s up to the business owner to decide, based on budget, the market-area or market-penetration factors.
Salons typically focus direct-mail campaigns around customers in their database. A typical mailing will reinforce information such as the salon’s address and services, and advertise any specials or new offerings. It’s also a good way to notify former clients of anniversary specials or salon improvements.
Direct-mail marketing is a very large business, and small businesses have many options available to their limited budgets. There are a number of companies that offer small businesses all the tools they need in order to plan, create and execute a direct-mail campaign. With most marketing companies, salon operators can create a direct-mail campaign from their desktop with no human intervention, or they can take advantage of marketing specialists on staff to help with each step. There also are companies that do individual components as well as those that handle all the pieces of a direct-mail campaign and speclalize in helping businesses that have never done direct mail before.
Direct mail allows salon operators to easily track the results by creating a call to action. This means the customer must bring in the mail piece to take advantage of a special offer or promotion. Or, salon owners can place a code on the mail piece that requires the person to relate the code to take advantage of the offer.
E-mail Marketing
Electronic mail has become an acceptable form of communication and, therefore, can be an effective tool to supplement a salon’s advertising campaign. Salon owners can develop an e-mail marketing strategy and monitor it closely to generate leads and turn online traffic into paying customers. Owners simply must decide what their goals are and what they want to get out of e-mail marketing.
First and foremost, salon owners considering e-mail marketing must understand the difference between solicited and unsolicited e-mails. Commonly known as spam, unsolicited e-mails are those that bombard inboxes every day without the inbox owner ever agreeing to receive the information. Solicited e-mails, on the other hand, are the basis of permission-based marketing, a fancy term for advertisements and other forms of marketing that people want to receive.
When embarking on an e-mail campaign, your focus should be on your e-mail list, because the better the list, the higher the response rate. Many salon owners who are trying out e-mail marketing are building their e-mail databases at the point of contact, asking clients to give e-mails when the sign up with the salon.
When determining the frequency of your campaign, be aware that if e-mails are sent far enough apart, they may not be effective. Conversely, if they’re sent too often, recipients could get annoyed and hit the delete button. If you get complaints about receiving too many e-mails, you might consider not sending them out as often.
E-mail resources are already available to most small businesses—basically, a computer, e-mail program and Internet connection are all that you need. Those needing assistance, however, can buy a software program specially designed for e-mail marketing. A few hundred dollars will buy software that generates simple, plain-text letters to a few hundred recipients, where much more money will get a program complete with campaigns, test groups and reaction surveys.
A third option is to use an ASP, or application service provider. The application hosting company will provide software on the back end and take care of everything for you.
Co-op Advertising
Co-op advertising allows salons to be refunded a percentage of what they spend on advertising the merchandise of a specific brand. These agreements are particularly important to salons that are trying to win over a consumer base, and the deal varies from company to company. Some companies offer aggressive co-op programs that usually require salons to sell their brands exclusively. Along with invoices, the salon also must provide print advertisements—Yellow Pages, fliers, posters and periodicals— that have a percentage of space covered with the manufacturer’s logo and product.
Creating a Marketing Strategy
The first step in planning a marketing strategy is to analyze the amount of money to allocate for the year’s advertising budget. This is a report that the salon owner can request from the accountant that should be easily accessible. For the owner that does his or her own books, the advertising expenditures always should be kept separate and year-to-date totaled, so this will hopefully not be a difficult process.
Take the total amount of money that was spent on advertising over a year’s time. Divide this total by the gross income for the salon through the same dates. The result is the overall percent of the annual gross income that was devoted specifically to advertising.
The minimum consideration that a salon should spend in advertising in order to expect effective results is at least 3 percent of its annual gross income.
The next step is to assess the previous tactics used, and decide which were the most successful. In trying to determine the success of a specific promotion or advertisement, make sure to evaluate its ability to attract new customers, drive sales and increase profits.
Take a look back at the amount of money that was spent, in what areas, at what time of the year, and in what form. If you’ve truly tested the waters, you will have a variety of information to work with—examining the effectiveness of your efforts with the local paper, Yellow Pages, radio, coupon mailers and other mediums.
