Understanding your clients is crucial to the success of any marketing strategy for salons and spas. It is only through truly understanding who your clients are that you can clearly define what they want and need from your hair and beauty business. So before you even start developing your marketing strategy for the year, continue reading to find out how to define your salon or spa’s target audience.
1. What is a target market?
A target market is defined as a specific group of potential buyers that a business creates and positions its products and services for, or in other words, the group of people who are the most likely to buy your products or services.
2. Who is your target audience?
Now that you’re clear on what a target market is, you need to determine who your target audience is. Take the time to look at your current clients and gather some information on them. Think about age range, gender, interests, hobbies, lifestyle and values and any other aspects that will impact their buying behaviour with your salon or spa.
If you’re able to do this easily, great! If not, you may need to do a little research and the good news is there are lots of tools.
Salon software
You can use your salon software, like Kitomba, and run reports that can give you an overview of your current clients and their buying habits.
Have meaningful conversations
You’re wanting to learn more about your clients, so why not have conversations with them. Look at your appointment book for the week and identify a range of clients that are coming in for a service that would give you the time to speak with them.
Survey your clients
A good way to receive lots of feedback is by asking your clients to fill in a survey. There are lots of tools like Survey Monkey and Google Forms, and you can use your salon software to send these out via text message or email.
3. Clearly define your target market
You can’t be everything to everyone and trying to do so will result in casting your net too wide and not getting the return on investment that you hoped for. Instead, it’s best to look at the information you’ve gathered about your current clients and select a specific group or perhaps a couple of key groups of clients to focus on. This will allow you to be more targeted with your future marketing campaigns.
4. Develop client personas
A client persona is a semi-fictional representation of your ideal clients. The idea is that you create one to four of these personas, which together will represent the majority of your client base. For example, “Female, 35-55, medium to high income, prioritises looking tidy. Tends to be a business woman who is time poor and wants a low maintenance look”.
The benefit of having client personas is that when planning your marketing activities for your hair and beauty business, you can ensure that the messaging and channels selected are in line with the clients you’re trying to attract. This leads to much more successful marketing activities that produce positive results for your business.
The first step to creating a successful marketing strategy is to have a very clearly defined target market first. So work through these steps to define yours!
Learn more about marketing your salon, spa or clinic
Want more tips for marketing your hair and beauty business? Check out our Marketing Guide, which covers everything you need to know about marketing, including tips from industry experts, how-to guides, the latest marketing trends, and fresh promotional ideas for your business.
Read next:
- How to create a strategic marketing plan for your salon, spa or clinic
- The best marketing channels for salons, spas and clinics
- 5 steps to digital marketing success for salons, spas and clinics
Editor’s note: This post was originally published on 10 September 2020 and has been updated for accuracy and comprehensiveness.
