Managers of beauty salons, tanning centers, hair salons, fitness rooms, etc.: whether you are starting a business or already well established, prospecting operations aimed at seducing new customers are always essential to maintain good economic health in these highly competitive markets. How and when to communicate with these consumers who do not know you yet? Whether it is to create or develop an existing clientele, the approach will be the same: you will have to identify and attract to your brand the people likely to be interested in your offer.
After our article ” Hairdressing, beauty, well-being sectors: how to retain your customers?” “, today we offer advice and ideas to develop your clientele.
Think of flyers in mailboxes
Effective and inexpensive, printed advertising is both mass and local media . It will allow you to contact all the inhabitants of your catchment area directly at their home. Thus, via the mailbox, your brand penetrates into the heart of homes.
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Through this channel, communicate on an “all public” offer or offer different services, so that everyone can find their way around. Or present a more specific offer and opt for a more targeted distribution , on the neighborhoods where your main target is the majority. Thanks to various geomarketing studies , La Poste and MEDIAPOST know how to identify the areas in which your potential future customers are located.
A discount coupon, special promotions, a gift to pick up in store, a game or a raffle will increase the impact of your campaign. Launch promotional offers for a limited time(from -30% on certain off-peak days) or on a service of your choice from a list of numerous services offered.
Choose the period well: either according to the times of the year with the lowest activity , or during periods conducive to good resolutions (you will go to a tanning center to prepare your skin before the summer holidays, to the hairdresser to get a new haircut at the start of the school year, in a beauty salon to get rid of your “grey look” in January…).
Communicate regularlyvia printed advertising; Distributed in the mailboxes of your municipality or your district, it will allow you to attract people who until then had not crossed the door of your living room or institute, and will serve as a reminder for those who already know you.
Rent a file for a personalized offer
Directed mail is a good way to encourage a qualitative target to discover your products and services; to invite prospects, in a personalized way , to a VIP event, a privilege sale, a preview access… Especially if you opt for a beautiful paper and/or add a sample.
Read also: 5 good reasons to distribute samples in mailboxes
Targeting will be based on geographic and socio-demographic criteria : young workers, women over 45, high-income households, etc. Know that you can go even further and select only consumers who have expressed an appetite/affinity for products and services related to your field of activity.
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Some leads for the rental of addresses:
- If you already have a customer file, but your customers are very local, launch prospecting actions by renting a file of addresses of people with a similar profile but living in a wider radius .
- For example, if you notice that your customers are all between 30 and 45 years old, rent a file of addresses of contacts aged 20 to 30 and offer a discount to attract them for the first time to your store (for example: “- from 30 years? – 30% from such date to such date”).
- If your clientele is almost exclusively female , address men with a specific offer, which will potentially allow you to double the number of your clients!
- Communicate first! Because it is important to make yourself known before your competitors to people who have just moved in , MEDIAPOST and La Poste offer a “ New neighbours ” file that is updated very regularly. You can send a letter with a special welcome offer to all people who have moved in less than 3 months in your neighborhood.
Note that if you opt for e-mailing (less qualitative but more economical), it is also possible to select e-mail addresses according to several criteria (geographical in particular).
A web presence is essential
Digital should not be left out, especially to bring in new customers! Indeed, 4 out of 5 consumers use a search engine to find local information* . It is therefore essential for any local brand to have a site or a page on the Internet.
Where the mailbox is ideal for communicating on one-off events or operations of limited duration, the website is perfect for presenting more permanent content.You can indicate your schedules, a map of the district, the details of the products and services that you offer, photos of your business… So much information that will reassure consumers who do not know you, and make them want to find out what you can do for them.
The best way to multiply the impact of your campaigns is to promote links between physical and digital media. Thus, on your letters, business cards and printed advertising, remember to indicate a link to your site, via a QR Code that the reader will only have to flash using his smartphone.
QR code digital paper
In addition, SMSHairdressing-Health-Beauty-Example-SMS-Promo-Hairdressing
The SMS is mainly a loyalty channel: you route your message to your customers, from your file. But be aware that if it contains an interesting promotion, it is also useful for attracting the entourage of the recipients, since 22% of the reductions sent by SMS are shared with at least one close friend**. Your customers therefore become the spokesperson for your brand and contribute to your prospecting objectives.
Some examples to launch your campaigns
- Offer a complementary service to yours : for example, if you run a slimming center, invite a dietician from time to time, who can give advice to your clients after their session. This will allow her, too, to make herself known to a new clientele. Communicate widely about this special meeting: it is perhaps the little “extra” that will make your prospects want to push the door of your brand.
- If you run a hairdressing salon, offer a “family offer” on haircuts at the start of the school year, to attract all the members.
- You can also offer an incentive offer on products via the advertising material (which will appeal to your regular customers as well as new customers): if you are a beautician, this can be “a treatment purchased = a make-up product offered” . Useful if you have stocks to sell before a new arrival!
- If you have a spa or a thalassotherapy center, launch a “bachelor party” offer in the spring with a minimum number of people, which will allow you to offer a group rate or an advantageous package with several services included (valid for several weeks, to make word-of-mouth work).
- The “mother-daughter” bundled offers are also attractive for Mother’s Day gifts and, for mothers coming with their teenage daughters, at any time of the year. You could potentially double your number of customers per family!
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Finally, don’t forget to set up a way to measure the effectiveness of your campaigns : a voucher to bring back, a code to communicate, etc. This will allow you to compare and thus understand on which types of offers, with which audiences and at which times of the year it is more effective to communicate.
Still looking for ideas?
It’s not always easy to know what action to take and what message to communicate. Don’t hesitate to find inspiration by studying what your competitors (including the very large brands) are doing. Ask the opinion of your customers (Why do they come to you? They will know very well how to define your main assets), and solicit the people around you by asking them to keep, for example, all the catalogues, flyers and leaflets they receive in mailbox.
Ready to launch your campaign?
- La Poste and MEDIAPOST have developed solutions to allow you to manage your campaigns independently , from home! Why not test a mailbox campaign via www.desclientsdsmonmagasin.com ?
- If you prefer to be accompanied throughout the implementation of your campaign, do not hesitate to contact us , our advisers are there to help you.