bttspa

hey everyone! We have a website, are on all local searches, we advertise with a gym (30 second moving ad that plays 300 times a day and the gym gets 3,000 people/day), we've done groupon, advertised in local newspapers, high school newspapers, done coupons on grocery receipts, did a local event that had 30,000 people. Our spray tans are priced appropriately and still we are maybe doing 10 a week! (we offer tanning as well). There are a couple other spray tan only businesses in our city. I'm just wondering where we are going wrong? I feel we've taken the necessary steps to promote and get the word out there, and I wonder how the other businesses do. Is this all due to the economy or is there something I am missing????? Advice is much appreciated!

delany

I found many will come to me instead of their local salon because I specialize in it. I often say its like coming to me for highlights...i can do them, but its not something I specialize in. How are you results? Is your staff good at spraying? Are you results consistent? DO you have lots of people spraying so when people come in they have no idea who is going to spray them? (when i had my tanning salon, i had all my staff trained to spray...i found people didnt like not knowing who they were getting and actually had an increase in appts when i started doing the sprays only, even if i had limited availability.)


80% of my people come from internet searches, 18% yelp the rest is random (this is an approximation)

bttspa

I am the only one who sprays, and yes any advertisement and search engine thats what we specialize in. I have never had a complaint, honestly every client of mine says how much they love it! How long does it take to get enough people each week to where this will profit??
ps i have had so many issues with yelp! it won't let me update anything!

delany

Yelp is a blessing and a curse...but we have to deal with it since you have no control over anything other than address and specials.

hmmmm not sure then.10 a week should make you profitable. solution etc is pretty inexpensive.

do you do a referal program?

bttspa

Well we are a full salon, so there's more money going out i guess. There is a spray tan only studio here and I wonder how they can do so well?! With employees and rent and stuff?? Ive seen on their facebook that they do 40 a day sometimes!

delany

I can do over 40 a day easily with my spray tan studio...depends on the day etc.

bttspa

So what have you had to do to get that many people a day? We can do that, just have yet to get that many clients to spray!

delany

I am a sunless only salon...so people come to me because they hate the sun and dont believe in tanning. Ya I used to try to educate people, i do not bash the sun, but since that is my demographics, I just sit there and nod my head. My sprays increased emensly when i closed my tanning salon and went sunless only.

I get lots of free press...voted top tanning salon for 2 local tv stations (even though I do not have uv beds), articles about the salon in local magazines etc. I have yet to pay for advertising.

bttspa

Where are you? I am in the suburbs of a fairly large city.

delany

I am in the downtown of a very large city. My tanning salon was in the suburbs near a college and numerous HS. I just had about 15 salons within 3 miles of me so I closed it. It was lack of education on the industry that brought me to buy it. I did increase sales year over year, but not enough to make me want to deal with it.