Businesses have all kinds of operating costs. But unlike most other costs of doing business, marketing is just about the only one that produces a direct return on its investment – the return is almost always more than the initial cost.
Even though we know marketing is important, many business/salon owners do very little marketing…They often have the strategy of doing some marketing when they have extra money. But since marketing activities are necessary to create business to begin with, marketing must be a priority when it comes to budgeting and the cost of doing business, every day, every week, every month, every year. Its not a accessory in the salon business, its a necessity.
As a salon {or spa} owner, you wear many of hats ~ including that of “marketing director”. In this role you have probably become familiar with the term SEO or Search Engine Optimization {def ~ keywords, phrases and tactics specifically designed to push you further up in Google and other search rankings}. Salons need to utilize the art of “getting found”. Few people refer to the yellow book anymore, most simply look online for local businesses {20% of online searches are for local businesses}. Therefore the competition for online ‘find-ability’ is high—and this is when Inbound and Content Marketing give you an edge.
The edge that Inbound Marketing gives you is the streamlining of 3 marketing tactics: SEO, social media marketing {Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest}, and Content Marketing which is defined as “an umbrella term encompassing all marketing formats that involve the creation and sharing of content in order to engage current and potential consumer bases.” Everything you “publish” in the name of your salon or with content relating to your business {ie: email newsletters, blogs, articles and videos repost} and any content that presents you as an industry leader or beauty expert {ie: videos or articles on hair, beauty, fashion trends}.
Google has recently made search rank {how high your site shows up in a search} heavily dependent on content marketing. This means that it’s not enough for you to simply have a website that is professionally optimized for search results. In fact, some of the things that web masters did in the past ~ like loading up a website’s unseen content with keywords and phrases to boost SEO ~ might even hurt your rank now.
The good news is that your actual content dictates where you land in search results. The bad news is that these changes represent a challenge requiring more work for most salon owners; busy professionals that wear multiple organization hats are the very people that need to outsource marketing services.
BeautyMark Marketing makes salon marketing simple with one consistent promotion both in store and online; try on our Ready-To-Wear campaigns right off the rack. There is a package to fit every budget; $99, $199, $299 or $399. Look over our packages at Ready-To-Wear Campaigns