How to Create an Email Marketing Campaign for Your Beauty Salon

As with any business, achieving return customers is undoubtedly one of the key tactics in keeping your beauty salon in business. As much as you’ll benefit from one visit trade, it’s the customers who come back time and time again that keep you performing well within a congested marketplace.

When it comes to marketing to your clients, there are a number of different methods you can follow, however one hidden gem that many salons neglect is the use of email marketing. If you collect the email address of every customer who comes through the door, you have a direct method of marketing to them, which can make a real difference to your bottom line.

But how do you go about creating an email marketing campaign? How do you collect email addresses? What content do you send and how frequently should you be keeping in touch? Hopefully, you’ll find all of the answers below to help you kick-start a campaign for your salon.

Capture lots of email addresses at every opportunity

In order to run any form of email marketing, you need a lengthy list of email addresses to send your content out too.

It’s not easy to get someone to give you their email address, so consider some of the following ways of capturing this crucial data:

• Via the online booking system on your website (if you have one)
• Through pop-ups on your website, encouraging them to sign up for the very latest news and offers
• In the footer of your website
• On your existing social media pages like Facebook or Instagram
• When customers are in your salon; before, during or after their appointment. You can enable them to do this digitally by creating a simple form for them to fill in on a tablet or simply get them to write their details down on a slip of paper
• Through an existing database, no matter how old and outdated you might think it is

Plan out your content

Once you have a strong database of email addresses, it’s now time to start thinking about the content you want to put in front of them.

It can be very easy to go into full promotional mode, highlighting all the great things about your salon and why they should never look anywhere else; yet this is actually likely to put many people off.

There’s no harm in showcasing what you do, however you need to do this in an interesting and engaging manner. Some of the content ideas that can help you achieve this include:

• Seasonal information, promoting what’s hot for the coming season and how your team in the salon can help you get the look
• Tips for hair styles or make-up looks that can be achieved at home- everyone loves a little freebie so don’t be afraid to create tutorials that those on your email list can try at home
• Send out a salon pic of the month; an image that you are particularly proud of or some great feedback from a client
• Run a fantastic monthly promotion that will draw clients in, get them booking appointments and spreading the word about your salon. This could be as simple as 10% off when referring a friend through to the launch of a full blown loyalty scheme that rewards clients for their continued custom over a long period of time.

If you can make each email you send out to clients essentially break down into three clear parts; something that informs (like a beauty tutorial), something that excites (like the latest photos of client’s finished looks) and something that leads to an action (like claim your 10% discount by showing the email on their next visit), you’ll be well on the way to creating content that is welcomed into your client’s inboxes.

Don’t forget to also include links to your social channels to help promote and build up your following here, as well as the all-important link to your online booking portal or details of the best method of making a booking so people interested can get themselves booked in through the easiest route possible.

Segment your audience

The great thing about many of the online email marketing platforms today is that you can segment your audience, therefore not sending everyone on your list the exact same email but instead one that is targeted specifically to them.

There are lots of different ways you can segment your email list to then create tailored content to really appeal to them, including:

• Breaking down your database by the date of their last visit. You can then send a different email to those who have visited within the last 6 months, those who haven’t been in to see you in the last year and then those who haven’t been through the door for a considerably longer period
• Send gender specific emails with promotions on the treatments you have available for women at that particularly time and those that are suited to your male clientele
• When users give you their email address, ask if they’d mind you knowing their date of birth so you can send them a surprise birthday treat of a discount or free treatment

If you segment your email addresses well, you’re likely to have much higher click through rates, open rates and fewer people unsubscribing to your emails because they are fed up of them not being relevant to them.

Start experimenting

Once you’ve got all the above in place, don’t delay. Start sending some emails, experimenting with the content you send out alongside the time and day of the week you do so.

With the majority of email marketing platforms offering reporting capabilities, you can look back over the emails you send to assess the number of people who opened them, the number who unsubscribed as well as any out of date email addresses that simply saw your email bounce back.

On reviewing the outcomes of the initial campaigns you run, you’ll quickly be able to see which days and times your audience was most engaged and the type of content they like to see, whether it be video tutorials, updates on what you have to offer or the latest promotion you are running.

From this you can really tailor and target your email marketing efforts moving forward to achieve the best possible impact.