Marketing 101Do you know how to market your business? Do you rely solely on “word of mouth” to bring business into your shop? If you do, you are not reaching your full potential.

When we interviewed Sy Sperling recently, his words stuck….”Try everything!!” It’s true that many cannot afford television commercials or magazine ads and it’s also true that many don’t know exactly what to try in order to attract new business. It will take research and reaching out to those who are experts in the field to market your business.

Sy also told me that he surrounded himself with the best and the brightest in each and every field that he needed in order to fulfill his goal to be a success. Everyone knows someone who is an expert in their given field. You all know of a good attorney or a successful business person who has honed the art of marketing down to a fine tuned skill. Seek these people out. It can’t hurt to ask around and there are lots of avenues on the Internet to find and build a team of experts to advise you.

What can you afford ? Perhaps an ad in a local newspaper would help or forming a series of programs for your Salon that keep your customers coming back for regular treatments? These programs can be as simple as set amount of treatments on a weekly basis/monthly. The cost of this standard program would be lower than a Gold Membership or even a Platinum one. The cost would depend on the type of treatments required and needed by your client. Appointments could be arranged to suit the convenience of the client and so can the price of each membership program.

Giving a free consultation would help to determine what type of treatments are necessary and beneficial and all programs could include within their cost a scalp analysis (for example). After the consultation, one of your new memberships could be introduced to the client and it could be pointed out how much money they would be saving if they were to join. During the course of their membership they would not only be getting the benefits of what you have to offer in the way of hair restoration (methods and products) but they would actually see the treatments working. Wouldn’t a client be more willing to continue using your services if they actually saw improvements in their condition over a period of time that they paid for in advance? Wouldn’t that help your bottom line?

Sit down and figure out what you can offer in the way of membership programs and how this type of marketing would increase your cash flow. Then, figure out a way to introduce your programs to the public. A small ad run for a certain period of time where it would be most beneficial would be a good start. If you can afford to spend more, than go for local access television spots. Many cable companies offer this type of advertising and many of them can be financed.

Sy had his daughter send out press releases to the media and elsewhere so that he could actually appear on radio and television shows to talk about his business and his methods. Do you have a local news show that does human interest pieces? Do they ever interview local businesses like yours? Talk about your industry and what you contribute to hair restoration. Let the public know who you are, where you are and why they need your services.

There are many ways to market a business and I’m going to list a few web sites where you can get more information.

 

How to Calculate an Ad Budget
http://www.gaebler.com/Opening-a-Hair-Replacement-Business.htm
http://www.entrepreneur.com/topic/online-marketing
http://chartermedia.com/advertising-platforms
https://www.legalzoom.com/articles/cost-of-marketing-ii-advertising-on-cable-tv

These are only a few links that I found on the Internet. There are many ways to market and you have several choices. Sy Sperling was right, “Try everything!!” At least, look into everything until you find exactly what suits your needs.