3 Tanning Salon Marketing Tips And More...
Your tanning salon marketing plan should incorporate effective direct response marketing campaigns into it's grand design. Secondly, and as a side note, do not spend a lot of time on your marketing plan either. Too many salon owners spend valuable time drafting, redrafting, editing, and redoing their marketing plan, when they could be spending that time actually getting new business in the door. With that said, tanning salon marketing can include many different types of media. There are coupons, display advertising, Yellow Pages, Billboards, Radio, TV, and direct mail for starters. And within each media are many choices as well. This is where the sales reps can magically pull wads of cash out of your pocket because they know it's confusing, and when you start asking them what they think, and what they would do, pretty soon, your in the whole a few thousand bucks and with only a few new customers to show for it. Focus on a specifc media, and a specific strategy, and then move on to the next one. Be clear on what your tanning salon marketing goal is in that campaign. For example, the Internet is a giant world of marketing potential, and it's easy to get lost in the chaos and lose a lot of time and money. There is Pay Per Click (PPC), Organic Search Engine Optimization, Local Advertising, Joint Ventures, and other advertising platforms. So if you write down 'Internet Marketing' as part of your tanning salon marketing plan, be very specific. Pick one area of Internet marketing and focus on it. Like, PPC. And if you choose PPC, pick one search engine to focus on, like Google Adwords. And then write down a realistic goal of how many dollars you will spend to get X number of prospects and customers. For more simple website marketing tips read my article in the March 2008 issue of Looking Fit Magazine. Lets get to some tanning salon marketing tips that you can start implementing in your current marketing campaigns today: Marketing Tip #1: Headline. One tanning salon marketing mistake I see over and over are direct mail pieces, coupons, sales letters, and display ads that do not have a headline, and are a waste of space and a waste of money. Nobody cares about your business name, but you or your competition is using it as the main headline on every ad they send out. So get that very clear right now...nobody is looking for your company name. You may think a couple people here and there are somewhere in your city or town, but they are not. What are they looking for? Solutions to their problems, news, drama, controversy. Use a headline that caters to on are more of these emotional hot buttons, and you will see a boost in your response rates. Side Bar: Where you advertise is also an important factor as to what your headline should say. For example, the Yellow Pages may get a better response from one headline style, where as a Val Pak or Money Mailer Coupon may work better with a headline that is the exact opposite. 
Marketing Tip #2: Images. Do not settle for any old image in your tanning salon marketing pieces that your lotion company is handing you. And do not settle for a graphic designers opinion of what looks good on your ad. The only result that matters is how much money you are making from you advertising efforts. Test different images, and test where the images are placed. Even test your pieces without images to see what the results are. Test small first. Also, the image is not as important as your main headline and/or offer. But a good image will enhance your ad copy (headline and body copy). You should also test using an image of yourself. You might be surprised at how much importance people are putting on relationships. A picture of the owner and/or manager may out perform an image of a supermodel just because it's more believable. Mix it up, test, and have fun with it. We even used our dog a few times and had the best response rates of all times! Of course, the ad copy was effective, and that's what drove the tanning salon Marketing Tip #3: Offer. Are you sticking with the same offer over and over? Are you using a similar offer that your competitors are using? Another common tanning salon marketing mistake is assuming you know what a good offer is, and sticking to it. For example, when I was visiting Sand Diego several years ago, I saw so many FREE Tans offers, that I thought I was going to lose it. How does that differentiate you from everyone else? It doesn't. I am not saying to stop using it, especially if it's working in different media, but you should test a totally different offer to see what's working and what isn't working. For example, 3 FREE Tans may work well in a Penny Saver, but could a different offer in a Val Pak or Money Mailer work better? There are many different tanning salon marketing techniques you can test, but the main thing you should remind yourself of is this -- do not get complacent and lazy when it comes to creating and testing your marketing pieces. Advertising is expensive, so use your dollars wisely. Rely on your actual results, not what your friends, graphic designers, and Yellow Pages advertising reps 'think' is good. Follow the rules of direct response marketing and you will discover a road map to new profit centers in your business. Copyright Tanning-Salon-Channel.com
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