How to make money with Birthday Marketing
Let’s recap last week’s post about birthday marketing for Spa’s and Salons. Here are the facts…
- Customers on your database will have a birthday in the near future. It’s almost guaranteed.
- Most of your customers will go out in public to celebrate their birthday.
- When they go out they will want to look good and feel beautiful despite being another year older.
- It is your job to make your customer look and feel beautiful!
If you are prepared in advance with the right marketing message then birthdays can be a source of consistent, dependable revenue for your salon.
If you still not convinced about birthday marketing, here’s a story about how important it is to recognize your customer on her birthday. A Salon Owner recently shared her last birthday experience with me. On her birthday, which happened to be a Tuesday, not one of her friends or family members (except her mom) phoned her, wished her well and made her feel special. She was obviously left feeling very hurt. However, on the Friday after her birthday she decided to visit her Facebook page which she hadn’t been to for a long time and guess what? All of her friends and family members had posted their well wishes on her Facebook wall. Isn’t it amazing that despite the fact that we live in a day and age where communication is quick, cheap and easy, we still don’t take the time talk meaningfully to each other! If you think individuals are bad at communication, businesses are even worse.
There is a saying that “people will die for a cause but they will kill for recognition.” In general, people love personal attention and recognition on their one special day of the year. You may as well be the one salon in your trading zone that uses personal birthday communication to your advantage.
How to use Salon Studio CRM to make money from Birthdays
I have proven time and time again that if you can just get a consumer to your Salon on the day of her birthday, she will spend money! So practically speaking, how do you use Salon Studio CRM to get customers to your Salon?
1. Prepare your sms template
If you really want to succeed at birthday marketing then get prepared in advance. Take some time out of your schedule and put some serious thought into your SMS birthday template. Make it sincere, relevant and personal. Despite the fact that you are going to send this sms to hundreds of your clients over the next year, it mustn’t sound like a bulk sms. Go to the templates page inside of Salon Studio CRM and create a personalised birthday template that you can use over and over again. Don’t slap the message together, put some real effort into it. Remember that you only have 160 characters so make them count. If you need some ideas and inspiration, download ready-made sms templates from Salon Management Studio and customise them for your own use. If you need more help creating your SMS templates, make sure you read our next blog post on “how to create your birthday marketing message.”
2. Pay attention to your Dashboard.
In general, communication between beauty salons and their customers is pretty poor. In fact, the number one reason in South Africa why customers don’t return to a spa or salon for repeat services is because of a lack of communication from the salon after the customer pays and walks out of the door.
That’s why there is a customer communication dashboard on the front page of Salon Studio CRM. We put important, yet easy to understand customer information in your face, every day, so that you can act on it. At a glance the dashboard tells you everything you need to do today in terms of customer communication and marketing. In fact, the dashboard is your marketing to do list for the day. It allows you to do your Birthday Marketing, Anniversary Marketing, After Sales Service and more with only 3 clicks of your mouse button. To get started with your birthday marketing simply click on the “Today’s Birthday” field on the dashboard.
3. Birthday SMS – Set it and forget it marketing
As a salon owner, you are a busy person so your salon software should work for you and make your life easier. The real reason why salon and spa owners don’t do birthday marketing is because their salon software makes it too complicated. Here’s the quickest, easiest way to launch your birthday marketing – it’s called “Set it and forget it” marketing. On the first day of every month, go to the customer communication dashboard on Salon Studio CRM and click on the Today’s Birthday field. When the Birthday SMS window opens, you can select the option to send out all of your Birthday SMS’s for the entire month. Next, select your salons ready-made birthday template and hit the send to outbox button. Salon Management Studio will deliver all of your customers Birthday SMS’s sequentially for you on the day of their birthday. It doesn’t get any easier than that.
SMS is critical to your birthday marketing campaign. Whatever you do, never leave SMS out of your birthday marketing. Here’s why – it doesn’t matter how many customer you have, all of them own a cellphone and all of them will have their cellphone with them on their birthday. SMS is the quickest and easiest way to put a personal message in front of your customer. But here’s an sms marketing tip that will put your birthday marketing on steroids. You must always use SMS and Email together. When you create your Birthday SMS, tell your clients to check their email for a special gift from your Salon.
4. Add Email to the mix:
You have just sent your customer a personalised, sincere birthday wish that told her to check her email. The great thing about SMS is that it is personal and delivery to your client is immediate. However, because an SMS is short, there is only so much you can say in an SMS. That’s why you must always tie your SMS and Email Marketing together. Your salons pre-made birthday email will build on your SMS marketing. The purpose of using both SMS and Email is simple – you are going to use every tool possible to give your customer a cleverly crafted, personalised, value added, totally irresistible reason to visit your Salon on the day of her birthday.
I am not going to say too much right now about your birthday email. Instead I am going to focus on email in the next blog post called on “how to create your birthday marketing message.” Here I will give you a complete step-by-step guide on what to say and how to create your compelling birthday offer. For Salon Studio CRM customer there are 4 brand new read-made birthday offers for you to download, customise and start using immediately. These templates will save you lots of time and hard work, making your job as a salon owner easier.
5. Don’t forget to take photo’s
When your customer comes in to your salon to collect her birthday service, make sure that you take a photo of her with your staff. Put the photo’s up on a wall in your salon and if you have permission, put them up on Facebook. Let everyone know that your salon is different because you truly value your customers.
By now I hope you are starting to see how important birthday marketing is not only to your bottom line but to developing customer retention and loyalty. I would love to hear from you so let me know if you enjoyed this article. Are you using birthday marketing in your salon. If not, let me know why. What is the greatest obstacle you face implementing birthday marketing?
