Maximise your Business Presence Online
As a salon owner it's vital to be able to capitalise on the power of the to boost your business without spending a fortune. Our free online guide aims to make salon promotion that little bit easier for you and your business!
We'll be looking at every facet of online marketing to give you the best advice on how to promote your salon online, approaching everything from social networking to search engine optimisation (don't worry - all will be revealed shortly).
The market out there online is huge but if you don't know what tools to use, you could be missing out on plenty of potential business for your salon. We're here to help you maximise your salon's online potential...and best of all, all for free!
What is Online Marketing and Why is it Important?
Good question, we're glad you asked.
Online marketing is essentially the same as any marketing you might do, but moved into the online sphere. The online world gives you a huge platform to reach potential clients and customers who are looking for the things you offer, but just haven't heard of you yet. It also offers a platform to engage, interact and maintain current customers.
The main difference with the offline sphere is your potential reach:
Twitter has close to 4m users in the UK and is an invaluable platform for businesses to communicate with clients directly.
It is estimated just under 30 million UK people use Facebook, and around half of these will log on any given day.
Perhaps even more impressively, Google holds nearly half of global traffic volume on a daily basis and an incredible 5 billion searches
LinkedIn is a network of over 100 million professionals which is a great tool to communicate and interact with clients, past and present, whatever your business.
There's plenty more too - FourSquare keeps amassing more and more subscribers and even Secret Salons has had over 1.1 million users in the last 12 months since its launch (we just thought we'd throw that one in there as we're proud of it!). You can read all manner of tips and tricks on how to maximise their potential in our social networking section.
Considering these numbers, if you are not at least trying to catch these users you are missing a big opportunity!
Do I Need a Website for all this Online Marketing Stuff?
It's certainly helpful but not essential to have a website to make use of the the web - you can still maintain a very strong web presence by utilising some of the social networking platforms above.
However it's always helpful to have a central site which you can manage directly, meaning any changes of address or contact details can be amended directly where necessary. It also can make you look that little bit more professional, giving you a place to really showcase your salon without having to rely on another site's functions...plus it can be pure, unadulterated positivity!
Isn't it Going to Cost Me an Arm and a Leg?
First and foremost, no online marketing will cost you any body parts*. However, some facets of online promotion are inevitably going to cost you some of your hard-earned. However, our guide is absolutely free and aims to give you as many tips and tricks as we possibly can that won't cost you a penny or cent.
*This statement is by no means a guarantee that you will never lose any body parts performing online marketing. We sincerely hope, and expect, you won't though.
My Salon is Only Little! Is All This Still Relevant?
Of course! In fact, with the ever-increasing localisation of the online world (we're sure you will have noticed Google Maps making ever-increasing enroachments into the normal search results in Google) it's becoming increasingly vital for all business - however small or large - to have some sort of a presence online. What happens if someone searches for your name or your salon online and you don't have any results? Well, nothing. And nothing isn't good.
Get online today and maximise that business!
Right, I'm sold. Where do I start?
Great! We're sure our expert arguments swayed you. Well, first things first, choose an area from the toolbar above - Social Networking, SEO or Website Tips - and have a read. Social networking is always a good place to start, and there's some great tips there to get you going; SEO is perhaps a little more technical but most rewarding; and the website tips are great ways to get your site looking great as cheap as possible. Go go go!
Main image credit: Francisco Diez