Steve Underhill

You must never assume that because you have a great product that tanners will find you. Never assume that because a tanner has been in your salon that they will come back.

As important as your salon is to you it is not that important to your clients. Therefore you must constantly be reaching out to new tanners and even more importantly you must maintain a consistent communication or relationship with tanners that have been in your salon.

Reaching out to tanners to promote your salon with current promotions or even more important, acknowledgment that you recognize that tanners have a choice and you appreciate their business and reward that loyalty.

Treat them like a person that you want to establish and maintain a relationship with.

Consumers are creatures of habit and routine. It is important to make sure that tanning at your salon becomes a part of their routine. This can only be dome with constant contact through all of the fantastic medias that are available today.

Make their relationship with your salon fun and rewarding. By maintaining this relationship and making sure that you are providing the superior product and experience at affordable prices that adjust according to season, your salon will always be on the radar of tanners.

If you do not maintain this contact, tanners will forget you and move on to the salon that is pursuing them.

Remember there are three distinct advertising and tanning activity seasons that should be addressed accordingly.

Also remember that the little things in your salon presentation make a big difference in creating the best selling environment.

We are reaching that time of year again that we must ask, Did I do enough? Did I do everything I could have done to invigorate sales? Is my salon the best choice for tanners in my market or did I let other salons steal my thunder? Better yet did do so little to change things that I became my own worst enemy?

It is a new day and the decisions you make can make a big difference in what the future brings.

__________________
Stephen Underhill
Consultant
steve@smuconsulting.com

Wynwood

Remember there are three distinct advertising and tanning activity seasons that should be addressed accordingly.
[/quote]
What are they and how should they be most accordingly addressed?

Steve Underhill

What are they and how should they be most accordingly addressed?[/quote]

First let me say that there is going to be other opinions and disagreement regarding this post. That is welcome. This is only my opinion based on the success my clients have experienced based on the 3 season theory. Obviously there is a great deal of additional detail to this, but here is a quick view.

The amount of business a tanning salon generates is in direct relationship to the amount and type of advertising done.

Because tanning has become a seasonal business, your strategy should be broken down into three advertising seasons.

(1)January through May
(2)June through October
(3)November through December

You should first establish your advertising budget. Your advertising budget should be a minimum of 8% to10% of your projected annual gross sales.

The first advertising season should focus on selling long term EFT memberships.

Your salon should always have a web site with links to your social media pages. Images of your salon, equipment, lotion lines and maybe a virtual tour. You can list services and other helpful tanning tips. Never give tanning prices over the phone, a new tanner offer that can’t be ignored is important. The new tanner offer is for tanners with local picture identification that establishes residency in your market. I also believe it is not a good idea to list prices on your web site except for specials and new tanner offer. You can’t make a sell unless the tanner is standing in front of you.

80% of your budget should be spent during the first advertising season.
You should do a post card mailing to reach new tanners. (A great source for an email advertising program is available upon request. You should also send weekly text message specials. You should place ads in any school paper within three miles of your location. Also include Facebook invitations associated with a coupon on all forms of advertisements. Any and all social media sites are useful for building advertising data bases.

If you are opening a new business 80% of your annual budget should be spent by the end of April.

You should also be handing out business card size advertisements to businesses, management at apartment complexes and fitness centers in the area. Also put these cards on cars in parking lots. These cards should offer the new tanner special. Tanning to new tanners, is the key. Post card offers should always have an expiration date. Business card advertising should not have an expiration date.

Never try and make a sale with advertising. Advertising should be designed to get the tanner into your salon. The sale is made in the salon. I suggest that post cards and business card advertising should always offer the new tanner special, * see store for details.

The second advertising season should be based on weekly text messages and emails every week along with social media post. Social media paid advertising is also a great way to expose yourself to new tanners.

During the second and third advertising season your specials should emphasize short term packages.

The third advertising season should also be email and text message promoting gift packages for the holidays and one month packages at a discount.

Be creative with your advertising specials and more importantly be aggressive with the specials that are offered in the salon after the tanners are there.

Your main focus should be to sell EFT memberships. Always suggest up-grade tanning and remember it is easy to up-grade membership levels.

Customer retention is achieved through consistent advertising and verbal communication in the salon. Build relationships with each and every customer. Maintain a high level of customer service.

In salon advertising, is done by creating a buying environment as apposed to a selling environment. I suggest a menu board reflecting memberships and package prices. I also suggest a sign with large detailed images of each of your tanning systems. Another important selling area is your tanning rooms. Lotions, memberships and specials can be advertised here. Back lit signs ad to the overall packaging of your salon.

There are a lot of places that you can waste your advertising money. Don’t try every advertising method that is offered to you.

Only do the free yellow page listing, never pay for a larger ad.

Remember if you do not advertise you will never reach your income potential. Effective advertising requires repetition.

After you advertise you must present a great salon with a current equipment mix based on your market. A great plan is only as good as it is executed.

__________________
Stephen Underhill
Consultant
steve@smuconsulting.com

Steve Underhill

What are they and how should they be most accordingly addressed?[/quote]Did that answer your question?

__________________
Stephen Underhill
Consultant
steve@smuconsulting.com

sunrisetan

Steve, why do you say, never give prices over the phone? I see this as an instant turn off to the people calling for just that...an idea of your pricing. I would think twice about, not, going to a salon that said, sorry but we don't give pricing over the phone. Why even answer the phone then?

Steve Underhill

If a person is calling you for prices, they are price shopping and calling other salons. If they are price shopping they are going to base their decision on price alone. They are not going to see your salon or base their decision on the tanning experience at your salon.

I think if you ask have you ever been to our salon and they say no, you say great new tanners get (this is up to you) a free week of tanning or first 3 tans free. They are no longer price shopping they now come to your salon where the sale is actually made. Because they get to tan several times it gives you time to learn their name and create a relationship while they are establishing a tanning routine with you.

You collect all contact information of a tanner that can now be marketed direct. You can also offer a promotion for new tanners if the purchase before the complete the free tans.

If you are properly marketing your data base, they never call for prices, only potential new tanners call for pricing. You must have a local photo ID and be 18 to get the free tan.

It is a small price to pay to build a data base of tanners and insure they get the experience of tanning with you.

Or you can give prices over the phone and run the risk of never seeing that tanner.

I know many salon owners are against giving new tanners anything, but i can only say the salons I work with are doing great numbers and increasing sales every month.

This is just a small piece of what I teach my clients but it works.

There are a select few that can't get past the free week so they give new tanners a week of tanning for $7 to $10 dollars. They of course never get as many new tanners as those that always give new tanners a free great experience to base their buying decision on.

You can only tan once every 24 hours so they never tan every day.

__________________
Stephen Underhill
Consultant
steve@smuconsulting.com

sunrisetan

If you are more expensive than all the other salons in town, it's your job to explain what the difference is. Why it's worth the extra monies. You don't have to give it away free, well, I guess the cheaper salons have to, to get new clients in their door. Not everyone falls for the cheapest place or the "free" offer. Seems there's always a string attached to anything free. The nicest restaurants don't give it free to get you in the door.

I disagree with you...not giving out prices...losing clients only interested in finding the "cheapest" is not a loss.

Robert K

We never gave put prices over the phone. If they had never been to our location we invited them in to try our services. If a free tan did not get them in the door then no low price would have gotten them either. We would explain that we offered many different packages and many different services so please come by so we could give you a tour and a complementary tan.

Remember that tanners tan.

__________________
Robert Klem
Superior UV Technologies
(888) 526-7712 x77
robertk@superioruv.com

sunrisetan

Whatever...if a business can't give me a price over the phone or online, I wouldn't bother going in. Scam.

Robert K

No Scam at all a free trial of our product.

There is always someone cheaper so we tried to overcome that by offering a better service overall. That is much easier to portray in person then over the phone. We wanted them to come experience the better equipment and better service.

__________________
Robert Klem
Superior UV Technologies
(888) 526-7712 x77
robertk@superioruv.com