More salon owners and managers are choosing to automate their marketing to improve business operations and client relationships in their salons, spas and clinics. Marketing automation is still new to the hair and beauty industry but it’s destined to become a must-have for salons that aim to grow their business and increase revenue.
With marketing automation, you can streamline and automate your regular client emails and SMS text messages. For example, invite your clients to review your salon after their appointment and set up an automatic email to be sent on special occasions, like birthdays.
We spoke with salon business owners across Australia and New Zealand to learn how they use marketing automation to stay connected with their clients, increase repeat appointments, reduce no-shows, and encourage referrals. Ultimately, it drives sales from new as well as current clients. We used Kitomba Salon and Spa Software to illustrate how marketing automation can help you grow your business.
Create a better salon experience with automatic messages
Nadia Howard started Bedlam Hair Design & Bliss Day Spa 13 years ago in Paraparaumu, New Zealand, and grew it into a successful thriving business. Nadia told us about how automatic client messages help her team to keep client engagement high, improve rebooking rates and delight clients with special offers and rewards.
Thank clients for referrals
“Doing marketing through Kitomba is very straightforward. We’ve got a great referral system in place, so as soon as a client visits and they mention they’ve been referred, we add the referrer’s name into the referred by customer field in the new client’s card in Kitomba. The referrer then automatically gets an email saying ‘Thank you so much for your referral. We really appreciate it’. We find clients just like to be thanked for the referral, however, you could also add in a small gift such as 10% off their next service or team up with a local cafe to provide them with a free coffee.”
Contact clients who haven’t visited for a while
“We also set up an automatic message for when a client has had an appointment in the last eight weeks but doesn’t have a future appointment. They’ll automatically get an email saying ‘Hey Jude, it’s time you visit for a refresh, come see us’. We also include a link to our online booking in emails, which has been huge for getting clients to rebook. Some people just forget they’ve got an appointment and then it’s too late and they can’t get in. So that reminder is great.”
Celebrate clients’ birthdays
“We also have a birthday automated email that goes out the first day of the month of their birthday, and they have a month to use a $10 off voucher for their birthday.”
Remind clients to book their next appointment
“We’re planning to set up automatic reminders for our facials. If a client is on a facial package, they need to come in every four weeks for that facial. If they haven’t rebooked their next appointment within two weeks, they’ll automatically get an email saying ‘Hey, your next appointment is due in two weeks. Book now’. It makes my job a lot easier as I don’t have to be on the computer all the time. It takes ten minutes to set up an automatic email or text and then once it’s set, you don’t have to worry about it.”
Share after-service care instructions
“You can set up an email or text to go out automatically for your clients that have booked a certain service. Whether it’s a spray tan or a certain facial, you can send off the personalised aftercare instructions.”
Improve client engagement with targeted marketing campaigns
Laura Smyth owns Lush Skin and Body in Melbourne and has recently opened a second location in Perth, Australia. To make marketing automation more effective, Laura sends out targeted campaigns to engage with her clients and generate new bookings.
Set up targeted marketing campaigns
“I use Kitomba’s automated marketing tools to help me run my salons more efficiently and effectively. I love that I can set up targeted marketing campaigns to go out automatically, so I can generate bookings while I sleep!”
Build strong client relationships
Kaaren Whale, Manager at Studio 31 in Palmerston North, New Zealand, uses automated emails to help grow relationships with their clients through customising marketing messages and making them more relevant to their audience.
Use handy templates
“My favourite Kitomba feature is the campaign marketing. It’s only something I’ve learnt how to do recently, but now that I’ve got the hang of it I find it really easy. We use it all the time to directly market to our existing database and it’s really good value.
The Kmail feature in campaign marketing is great because you can set up the templates and get everything ready in Kitomba so the messages just fire off automatically. We have a main template that we use and then we just pop in whatever content we want to talk about that week or that month.”
Take advantage of targeted marketing campaigns
“We use Kitomba to create lists to target certain groups of people, for example, we created a list to send an email to people that hadn’t visited us after the lockdown, to entice them to visit us. We’ve learned that we have much more success when we actually target the lists and know who we’re sending it to.”
Connect with your clients
“We also have marketing set up to automatically send emails out after a client’s first visit and for happy birthday messages.”
Improve your client journey
Samantha Jones, Owner at Ms Monaco Hair Society on the Sunshine Coast in Australia, uses automatic messages to ensure that the client experience is the best before, after and in-between appointments.
Welcome a new client
“Before a client comes to see us we send them a welcome message that we’ve set up in Kitomba. It tells them where we’re located, what beverages we have, what kind of experience to expect in the salon, where to park and our facilities. I’ve had feedback that it’s been really useful to know a little bit more about the business before they arrive.”
Follow-up with your clients after a visit
“When a client leaves our salon, we follow up with a series of automated emails to keep in touch and hopefully continue building that relationship with them.”
Automate your marketing, save time and increase your revenue with Kitomba Everyday Marketing
Did you know that Kitomba Salon and Spa software has marketing features that enable you to take care of your digital marketing automation in one place?
You can set up automated emails and SMS messages, manage client details, create segmented email marketing lists, and so much more.
Watch this video to learn how to set up personalised texts and free emails which are automatically sent out to your clients with Kitomba Everyday Marketing.
To learn how Kitomba can help your business grow, book a free demo.
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