Marketing your business

[mommaritter]

Someone mentioned they use VISTA but would switch to din? What is din, I would be interested in switching to a new card company.

[Din]

Wow, i've never been used like that before....i am open to new things though. :)

[caribbean tan man]

Din is a member of our site and a sponsor who is also the owner of chronos marketing

im the one who mentioned switching everything to him soon...what i liked best was the fact he understands where we come from and what we need as salon owners! because he is a salon ownere also..

[Din]

Oh...okay, i thought someone thought i was an operating system or something. LOL.

You can click on my banner/website below to see what we offer.

[caribbean tan man]

haha vistaprint not windows vista!

[mommaritter]

Everyone here cracks me up!! Sorry for my confusion and thank you for the info!!!! Love this site!!!

[Esglow]

I think a lot of the confusion of what marketing & advertising means stems from the misunderstanding that there is a distinct difference between the two and that you have to have your marketing in place first. Correctly Marketing and Advertising is key in figuring out how to appropriately spend your money.
Marketing : The process of planning and executing the conception, pricing, promotion, and distribution of ideas, goods, and services to create exchanges that satisfy individual and organizational objectives.
Branding : the act of stigmatizing
Advertising : a public promotion of some product or service
As a salon owner you have to find your little niche’s that separate you from your competitors and they have to be real! You can’t just buy a radio spot and have a cute jingle that says “Come tan at E’s Glow, because we are friendly” and then have rude, uneducated, and uninterested workers representing your salon. And the customer never coming back and you wondering why that advertising didn’t pay for it’s self like the rep told you? If you are going to advertise friendly service- you better be sure your employees are the happiest people a least when they are working for you and take no exception! If your salon is relaxing and tranquil figure out how to market that and brand it- having a stigma about your salon isn’t a bad thing as long as the stigma represents positive thoughts to customers.
Then advertise it
With your campaign figured it out now- research what media’s will speak and spike interest to potential/inactive customers for your campaign… if picking radio research the demographics and psychographics of the station make sure the listeners are potential tanners… same for newspaper the actual hard paper readership in our town is a 60+ demographic, but the online version is much younger so maybe not buying in ad in the hard paper, but buying a banner ad with a clickable link to your website is the route. Or if you want to do both market the tanning as help to get rid of achy and sore muscles to the older readers and then on the online side advertise you’re convenient long hours and super quick beds for those on the go with busy lives. Last, but not least FREQUENCY in any media is very important put in enough money in your campaign to make it worth it.

[MobileGirl]

I used "Boss Logo" they are based out of Canada but completely amazing work! AND CHEAP CHEAP CHEAP! www.5000cards.com or 1.866.689.2677

[lucid89]

Myspace & Facebook are working really well for some people out there.

For those of you who have had success with those sites, what strategy do you recommend for attracting potential customers?
Do you go out and just start requesting everyone around you? If so, do you offer some kind of incentive for becoming your “friend” or “fan”. Last time I left this to my employees all the friends we had were hot blonds and meatheads. Our pages the became really unprofessional as people were posting everything from a monkey smoking a cigarette video to “which cartoon character are you quiz”. I want to take the lead on this and I want to keep it professional. Any suggestions?

[mommaritter]

I have a myspace and a facebook for my tanning salon. I added my friends kids who were in there teens and just started going to all the kiddos and adults sites that lived in our town. I will add specials to only my "friends" and they have to come in and say they are on my facebook and myspace. I have had a huge success with this so far.
Friends tell friends and so on and so on.....I am very glad I did it. But only I work the sites that way it stays professional and clean.
Good luck~