How to Make Direct Mail Work for Your Salon

Although in recent weeks we have been discussing the use of the internet to promote and market your beauty salon or nail bar, this week we’re going to look at another popular, and effective, form of marketing – direct mail.

Direct mail has developed a bit of a bad reputation over recent years with companies bombarding people with mailings that aren’t relevant and ultimately known as spam. However sending targeted mailings to existing beauty or nail clients or potential new customers can be very effective, if it’s done in the right way. Here we look at the two main elements of sending direct mail – choosing who to send to and choosing the message to send.

Who should you be sending direct mail to?
There are two groups who you may wish to send direct mail to – existing customers and new customers. However it’s important to bear in mind that in order to send clients or potential clients direct mail, you have to have their permission. You can obtain the addresses of existing clients by asking them, usually in a client questionnaire but remember to add a tick box which asks if they are happy for you to use their address for promotional materials or newsletters. The addresses of new clients are much harder to obtain and usually involve buying the rights to use the databases of other companies. This can be costly but there are any data centres throughout the UK who deal in data brokering and can offer highly targeted data – not just random addresses in your area.

What message should you be sending?
There are two main types of message that you are likely to send to your nail or beauty customers and prospects. The first are promotional messages like special offers and new treatments. The second are newsletters which highlight important information. Generally these are more warmly received as they are less like spam. You can use a newsletter to highlight new and existing beauty or nail treatments, to advertise your opening hours (especially useful around bank holidays, Easter and Christmas) plus you can add the odd promotion to increase sales. Whatever you decide to send, add something like a voucher or ask the customers to bring the flyer in with them as this will allow you to gauge the success of that direct mail promotion.

Until you give direct mail a try, you won’t know how effective it is in your area or for your business.