Getting the word out about your tanning salon can be a costly venture; advertisements on TV, radio, in newspapers and other media outlets are expensive. While these are certainly excellent ways to market your business, there are other, more cost effective methods to promote your salon in your community. “Marketing on a budget” relies more on the size of your imagination than the depth of your wallet.

What Is Marketing?
If you were to talk to a professional marketing guru, they might have a fancy way of defining what marketing is. Take Roy Carrasco, Director of Marketing and Promotions for the Michigan-based Tropi-Tan salon chain. He defines marketing as, “the process of planning and executing the conception, pricing, promotion, and distribution of ideas, goods, services, organizations and events to create and maintain relationships that will satisfy individual and organizational objectives.” What this means, in plain English, is that marketing encompasses the many methods a business owner can utilize to help communicate information about their company and reinforce their name recognition in their market. “Word-of-mouth is a terrific way to promote your business, but salon pros cannot rely on it as their only marketing strategy,” said Carrasco. “Truthfully, there is no one ideal way to achieve all your marketing results; it requires utilizing several approaches to truly saturate your market.”

E-Mail ‘Em!
E-mail is fast, efficient and best of all, free, making it one of the best ways to market your salon. Of course, as most salon owners must already be thinking, getting clients to supply their e-mail address can be quite difficult, to say the least. Roy Carrasco designed something that can help. “Offer a VIP e-mail club, or similar promotion,” he said. “This is something that every tanner can join for free – all they have to do is provide their e-mail address to become a member. One way to get them to do this is to offer a free upgrade session or other incentive to everyone who joins.” Once a salon pro begins to accumulate e-mail addresses, they can then offer specials that are only available to members of the VIP Club. Carrasco recommends making these VIP specials better than those offered to the general public, and further suggests including coupons in the email message for the recipients to print and bring to the salon. “This helps track how many people are taking advantage of these specials and how effective the email is,” he added.

The “Happening” Tan
Ever work with a popular local nightclub or bar to promote your business? These kinds of promotions are excellent opportunities for salon pros because they allow them to “piggyback” with the nightclub’s advertising campaign. “Salon owners should approach the promotions director of a popular bar or nightclub that regularly advertises on the radio and offer their regular patrons an awesome deal on tanning, such as half off on any sessions purchased,” Carrasco explained. “In order for this to work, make sure to include as a condition that the nightclub announce your offer in all their advertisements. If the nightclub has been promoting heavily, people will have heard about it often enough to become interested and show up at the nightclub to take advantage of the special deal.”
Carrasco says there are some things to keep in mind with this type of promotion. “Make sure to only do this on one night a month, because if you do it more than that, it won’t be perceived as such a special deal by the public,” he added. “Also, it’s good to offer a couple free memberships to the club’s promotions director and owner in return for their cooperation.”

Referrals Rock!
Many of today’s successful salon pros have practically built their entire client bases utilizing referral cards. “This is an easy technique, but an extremely valuable one,” Carrasco commented. “It’s as simple as printing up some guest passes, which are relatively cost effective, for your current clients to give to their friends. As an incentive, offer your clients two free weeks of tanning for every two new tanners they refer, and if they refer three people who purchase membership, they get a free month of tanning.” The key here, Carrasco points out, is that the referrals must become members in order for the incentive to be given. This popular promotional idea is heavily utilized in other membership-oriented industries, such as fitness centers.

The Power of “Free”
Here’s another marketing tool that’s widely used, highly successful and very inexpensive – offering free trial sessions. “The typical tanning salon always has people calling for the latest specials,” Carrasco commented. “If these are people who have never tanned with you, offer them a free trial session in an entry-level tanning unit as a way to get them into the salon, then sell them on your equipment, service and cleanliness once they’re in the door.” Carrasco also added that salon pros can place signs in their windows advertising “first session free,” as well as in any future radio, TV, newspaper and Yellow Pages advertisements.

A Good Cause
A great way to market your salon is to get involved with local fundraisers – again, this is very inexpensive, and the contacts you make could wind up proving priceless. One way Carrasco suggests doing this is by enlisting any of your local high school’s sports teams, such as the girl’s pom squad or cheerleading team, to sell your memberships. You could, in turn, donate a portion of the proceeds back to the team, thus benefiting their organization. “Any time a salon owner gets involved and helps out with a local cause, it increases their name-branding in a positive way within the community and introduces them to people they might not otherwise meet,” Carrasco explained.

As you can see, there are many ways to market your business without kissing your savings goodbye. And these examples are just that; you’re only limited by your imagination. And if you think you get good word-of-mouth advertising from your clients now, you won’t believe the great things they’ll say once you begin to employ a few of these inexpensive yet highly-effective tips. Try it and see!

by John P. Ribner______________

Do you want to step up your marketing efforts but don’t have the “cabbage” needed to launch a major media blitz? That’s okay. There are plenty of cost effective ways to successfully market your salon!
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• Carry business cards and guest passes with you all day, every day.
• Create a personal nametag or pin with your company name and logo on it and wear it at high visibility meetings and local events.
• Subscribe to an Internet usenet newsgroup, discussion board or list-serve that serves your target market.
• Collect your competitors’ ads and literature; study them for information about strategy, product features and benefits, etc.
• Get a marketing intern to take you on as a client. It will give the intern valuable experience and provide you with free marketing help.
• Try bartering. Offer discounts to members of certain clubs/professional groups and organizations in exchange for promotions in their publications.
• Publish a newsletter for your clients and prospects.
• Update your media contact list often so that press releases are sent to the right media outlet and person.
• Join your local Chamber of Commerce or similar organization.
• Sponsor or host a special event or open house at your salon in cooperation with a local non-profit organization.
• Volunteer your time to a charity or non-profit organization.