E-Mail

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 must decide what their goals are and what they want to get out of e-mail marketing, says Chris Sadler, permission marketing strategist for Milwaukee-based Fullhouse Media, which creates business communication to help companies increase their marketplace value. "It may sound like, ‘Well, I just want to sell more time on my beds,’ but it’s more complex than that. You want to drive traffic in your slow months. You want to increase your presence in town."

Unsolicited e-mails are more commonly called spam—unwanted messages that bombard inboxes every day. 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.

"You’re marketing your brand, your message, your services in a channel that is specific to the online world," Sadler says. "As more and more people have e-mail, it’s really become a good avenue of communicating with your clients."

But just to be sure your e-mail isn’t spam, it’s best to check with your state’s legislature, as well as your legal representation, says Al Bredenberg, publisher of EmailResults.com, a site where people can find e-mail marketing services. Currently, there are no federal laws that govern e-mail, but plenty of legislation is in the works. Also, there are 36 states with some sort of spam restrictions on the books. For information on federal and state e-mail legislation, visit www.spamlaws.com. 

An e-mail marketing strategy is only as good as the e-mail list, Sadler says. Fortunately, the lists used by many indoor tanning salons are generated from existing customers who are likely be interested in what the e-mail says.

The better the list, the higher the response rate, he says. "If your list is really well-maintained and sanitized, and you started with a good list, then your click-through response rates are through the roof. I’ve seen higher than 50 percent. At that point, it’s almost like you’re sending an e-mail to your friends—you expect to hear a message back from them."

Many salon owners who are trying out e-mail marketing are building their e-mail databases at the point of contact. A veteran salon owner in Columbus, Ohio, does a lot of e-mail advertising. "When customers first fill out their skin-type analysis and register to tan at the salon, everyone is asked to give me their e-mails, for possible specials and things like that," he says. "I keep in touch, probably four to six times a year with specials."

If e-mails are sent far enough apart, they may not be effective, but if they’re sent too often, recipients could get annoyed and hit the delete button.

Every day is probably too much, Bredenberg says. That’s why he likes the idea of a monthly e-mail. It could be used to highlight a current special or could be more in-depth, such as a newsletter. If salons owners get complaints about receiving too many e-mails, they might consider not sending them out as often.