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10 | AUGUST 2009 | CALIFORNIA STYLIST & SALON
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SAVE!
Back to School Marketing
Three Months
of Marketing
Elizabeth Brown
As salon and spa professionals, we live in
a world that runs two to three months ahead
– if we do it right.
School typically doesn’t get out until
late June, which makes it almost painful to
write an article focused on Back to School,
but there it is. Target local schools, PTAs,
and school districts with offers for teachers,
administrative and other staff.
Catering to teachers
makes sense. They
appreciate value and
convenience and they
appreciate having a
style that is easy to
maintain and replicate.
Their time is at
a premium; days start
early and end late, so you might create special
hours set aside for teacher’s appointments, or
even set up a weekly teacher’s happy hour.
Ask your local school and PTA to place
flyers with your contact information and a
menu of offers in their break rooms. Contact
local schools to ask about advertising special
offers for teachers, students and parents in
school newsletters. Support local athletic,
music, art, theater, and other programs. Attend
school events, get involved in auctions
and fund raisers. If the school will allow you
to, provide them with copies of the flyer that
can be inserted into student folders. Public
schools may have policies that prohibit or
restrict this, but don’t miss out on the private
school market -- while they represent smaller
student bodies; their parents are likely to be
part of your salon’s prime demographic target
in terms of home ownership, income, professional
work status etc.
The Back to School season presents a
time and opportunity-concentrated market.
Most kids get their hair cut just before the
beginning of the school year. Even kids who
wear their hair long get everything freshly
mussed before they head back to class to face
their peers. Chances are you have clients
who come to you for their hairstyling but
take their kids to what they perceive is a less
expensive walk-in salon. They are not saving
time and may not be saving money doing
this, but their perception is that they are.
While your client is in the chair this summer,
ask them about their kids.
Then, when your client is checking out,
book your client’s next appointment and offer
them the opportunity to book their children’s
appointments at the same time at a “family
rate” discount. A great cut is especially
important to teen students - peer pressure is
While your client is in the
chair this summer, ask
them about their kids.
tough. Having a custom cut and style from
you, someone personally interested in them
will ensure that their hair, at least, is something
they don’t have to worry about. This
is a great opportunity to create some type of
BOGO where the client pays full price for
their cut and color and style, but save half on
their child’s haircut.
Add a feel-good element this fall, give
clients a discount when they bring in school
supplies that you will donate to needy families
or local schools for kids in need.
Teachers and parents talk to one another
in the parking lot, the classroom, at meetings,
sporting events, the
coffee shop, and even in
the grocery store aisles.
They share referrals. If it’s
good, they ask each other,
“who does your hair?” It’s
a market worth courting
and extending special offers
and events to.
Add-On Marketing Strategies
As you create student- and teacher-focused
promotions, you may be working to
create new products and services to add to
your menu; after all, this has been a slow
year and it is time to get creative and begin to
carve out new sources of revenues and profits
in order to start building business again.
Just as you create add-on menus in the
salon and spa, you can create an “Add-On
Marketing Strategy” to help you discover new
clients, pool resources with other business
owners, build business, and increase profitability.
Reach out to other businesses and share
contacts and cross-referrals. Find at least five
other businesses who would be willing to
display your cards or menus at the register or
waiting rooms. Doctors, dentists and orthodontists
share your desired demographics to
some extent, as do fitness centers, exercise
and dance studios.
To build male clientele, get into the waiting
rooms of your local car repair, oil and tire
change businesses. As you watch new coffee,
wine, gift and other stores opening nearby,
be among the first to walk through the door
to offer to do cross-marketing. New business
owners are full of energy, have lots of ideas
about marketing and events, and would love
to build business with you.
This is more than sharing counter space.
It is reaching out and bringing in new clients.
Elizabeth Brown is the founder of Be InPulse Marketing and Design in
Auburn, Washington and the author of 12 Months of Marketing for Salon
and Spa. Email the author at elizabeth@12monthsofmarketing.net.
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