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diesel1978

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does any one here have any advertising ideas? i have been a nail tech for 2 years now going on 3 years and after being a mobile tech and beauty therapist i now work from home and since i started i have advertised in post offices , newsagents, local papers and the local admag but i never seem t get a flood f clients that i would like. i always sem to get enough to pay for the cost of the advertisement and always keep them and they always reccommend me to there friends but i honestly thought that i woul get alot more! My current offer is all treatments are half price and i must admit i have had a great response but not as great as i would like!! im so addicted to doing my nails and perfecting every part of them i ould quite happily do them 24/7!!!!!
 
Hi There,
You need to go where women are, for eg, gyms. swimming pools, large offices. etc.
I think about their salaries aswell, go to places where you think or know they wil be recieving a good salary, In my experience women who earn good dosh are more likely to pay, espeacially if they are high maintence!
I have been doing nails since May this year, I started the half price offer and now I charge £35.00 a set. and not doing too badly.
easypeasy :)
 
Thanx i really appreciate your reply i will certainly try that i normally charge £28 per set for permanent french and i never have not one complaint i just need the extra clients cos my little boy (diesel) started pre school last month and i have 3 extra hours a day to fill and i love doing nails, im that mad on them any freinds family and neighbours get them free if i dont have a client!!!
 
I keep a few little flyers in my handbag - each one in an envelope. It says some thing like this:

Hi, I noticed how lovely your hands & nails are, and as a professional nail technician I particularly enjoy working with beautiful hands & nails. Please accept this voucher to tempt you into letting me look after them for you. If you do not want the voucher, please pass it onto a friend who would like nails as beautiful as yours.


Then put a £5 off deluxe mani / new set enhancements voucher on the bottom with a 28day time limit.

Then list your services:

Manicure - Pedicure - Enhancements - Nail Art - Gift Vouchers - Bridal etc. etc.

Give this envelope to women who obviously take pride in their appearance as you walk around the supermarket, do the school run, are in the pub etc.

I have found this really successful. You are targeting the right people only (most of the time) and flattery WILL get you everywhere.

It takes a bit of guts to hand it over, but you get over this after one or two.

I also wear a uniform whenever I can in public, with ANT badge etc. and sometimes a product apron. I even do this on days when I am not working (yes this is true). Then when the woman in the corner shop asks what it is you are wearing - you can have a chat, give har a voucher and voila - new customer (or mother of customer or buyer of gift voucher) Sometimes you just sell them some cuticle oil or other product you just happen to have in your car.

Ask Local pub (if their clientelle are your sort of client) if you can pin up posters in the ladies. Check them regularly in case of vandalism.

Give every client 5 business cards. Ask them to put their name on the back, and say that if any come back to you with a new customer, you will reward them. I have a few retail items which I mark up vastly for this purpose. They cost me less than £2, but I mark them at £10. I know noone will buy them at that (well some do) but then when you give it as a reward, you are giving a £10 value (or so the happy client thinks) reward that actually costs you less than £2 and everyone is happy.

Last point - knowledge is power. If anyone calls you to get prices. get their address and say you will send them a price list / voucher etc. Answer their question, but you need their address for direct marketing at Christmas / valentines / etc. This is far more cost efficient than blanket marketing in the press.

Decide who your market is, then get the right product to tempt them and only them, price it right (too low can be offputting sometimes!) and figure out how to get to them directly. Where do they eat, shop, play, work. You can use your own computer for flyers if you like. You do not need to get things printed in large quantities if you use targeted marketing.

Then when you have done all this and find yourself turning away customers - put your prices up!!(LOL)

I have used similar tecniques to these in other businesses with huge success - in fact I built a very large company selling directly to parents based on these ideas. You can apply them to any business.

Good luck
 
oh my goodness i am overwhelmed!!! u have some fantastic ideas and i will indeed try them all. Iam lucky enough to have a talented friend who designs all of my flyers and brochures so i am sure these will be no problem for her. i thank u so much for taking the time to reply with such great ideas
many thnks
amanda : :D
 
To make your flyers look really good - contact you product supplier as some of them have artwork that you can use for free if it is within their guidelines. Creative and Grafton have been very helful to me on this front. You can use it for websites too.
 
as a mobile tech who is struggling with ideas to get clients you have given me so much enthusiasm on advertising
thankyou
 
..ella cheers some great tips ...being blonde duh!!! what do you write on the front of the envelope..i love that idea.
me too...i wear my uniform on days i have no clients in too...i have a iamante I DO NAILS badge and ok i get some people say "do you do nails" !! like duh!! i toddle around tesco and people just cant stop looking...i go into town look around the dress shops etc etc., go to collect the kids viola!!!
diesel1978 is that your son called diesel....my daughter was called diesel on her hospital tag, cos i loved it but her dad and my family and freinds all moaned so she's called Chanel (9 3/4yrs)but shes always saying why didnt you stick with deisel...great name
 
Thanx Ella, there are some fantastic ideas there... Will definately try out a few of those.

I've spent half an hour in my local town today giving out flyers, but got some very strange looks and real attitude. I hated it..

I thought about going round carparks and putting the flyers on cars, has anyone tried that?? Anyone got suggestions on what carparks to try?? I thought about Gym carparks but they tend to be private and they don't like flyers because of their onsite Salon.

So far my best advertising has been Yellow Pages and ads in newsagent windows..

Has anyone else got any good ideas??

xx
 
Hi,

Obviously the best advertisment is your own nails, but im sure you already have them looking perfect!

A few more suggestions....Ask if you can leave leaflets/business cards in wedding shops, or hairdressers, they usually wont charge, and as an incentive to them say if you get a good response from advertising in their shop/salon you will give them a free manicure or treatment. Also i hear wedding fayres are good places to advertise your services, speak to someone in a wedding shop who might know when local fayres are held.

Also if you can get clients to come to you, go to them! you could leave a poster at a local office or somewhere there are lots of people who like to take care of their appearance, and say you will be there during lunch times to do treatments, im sure lots of ladies would love to get their nails done on their lunch break.

Also, it might not sound very glamourous, but why not try local residential homes? older ladies love to be pampered, and take care of their appearance, so perhaps you could go there one afternoon a week. I know someone who did this and got a huge queue of people!

Hope these suggestions help. And definitely dont cut your prices, if people want their nails done they wont care about the price, in fact they might even thing there is something wrong if you are charging so little - think about how you would choose, you go to a shop wanting to buy an item, you see the very thing you are looking for, but one costs £20 and the other costs £25. most people would go for the most expensive because they think it will be better.

Let us know how you get on!
 
Hi - ever thought of running a few flyers off on the computer and then engaging the help of your local Avon representative.

She slips flyers into her brochures - and for every flyer returned to you by a new customer ... well, that's for you and her to come to an arrangement - perhaps a free set of nails for every so many returned flyers!?

Know a taxi driver - why not print off a small flyer that he can display in his cab ... if he's VERY kind he may also be prepared to take a few business cards out with him too! I know this works for me.

Love
Sue
xxx
 
hi all

Today i went into my daughters school and gave them one of my leaflets that they are going to print off onto their news letter that comes out every friday with the kids so hopefully this will reach over 300 mums this is a really good way of advertising and it doesn't cost a penny ;)

vicky
cornwall
 
Really good tips, Ella you have some really good tips, may even try one or two :D
 
..I was gonna try the car park thing but hubby said maybe the council will get funny...lots of people take one look and throw it on the floor (So ouncil will know its you) hubby said something about littering etc.,!!! just a thought
you girlys (& Guys) have some great marketing/ad ideas.....
 
Hi all,
I used to work as a recruitment manager for a large Direct Marketing Company. My boss insited that we put flyers on cars in car parks in supermarkets.
You can only do this for a short time because you usually get chased away.
But.............It did work, I used to get loads of response for people wanting to earn extra cash.
Just a tip fold the leaflet so the info is on the inside, people are generally nosy and will open it up to see what it says instead of just chucking away
Ella your envelop Idea is brill, I will be trying this one Ta very much.
Thanks
Karen
 
Thehandsanctuary said:
..ella cheers some great tips ...being blonde duh!!! what do you write on the front of the envelope..i love that idea.
me too...i wear my uniform on days i have no clients in too...i have a iamante I DO NAILS badge and ok i get some people say "do you do nails" !! like duh!! i toddle around tesco and people just cant stop looking...i go into town look around the dress shops etc etc., go to collect the kids viola!!!
diesel1978 is that your son called diesel....my daughter was called diesel on her hospital tag, cos i loved it but her dad and my family and freinds all moaned so she's called Chanel (9 3/4yrs)but shes always saying why didnt you stick with deisel...great name

yes my 2 year old son was blessed with the name diesel, and fortunatley it suits him to a t!!!! which is very lucky cos his father chose it and i jus hated telling people his name when he was first born, but i absolutely love the name now!!!
 
Isn't that just a lovely name! Having the name Fenella, I can say that having an unusual name has been something I've always been really happy with - but it does get shortened to Ella.

I named my daughter Willow (after the Paul McCartney Song "Little Willow") and at first all the older members of my family hated it, but now they all think it really suits her. It is a Romanian name meaning "freedom".
 
Willow's a lovely name . Matbe it's a nail tech thing. We all give our children wierd BUT wonderful names lol!!!
 
yes...from our very limited survey it must be nail techs who give their children "special"names ;) .....My son is named Xi'an (pronounced sea-arn) and my daughter is Verity...not a very unusual name, but people always seemto comment on it.
 
Hi,

You can also put a small poster on the window of your car or a friends (not to obscure your vision, which a rather friendly police man informed me, who's wife later got her nails done lol ) as you leave your car parked, travel it's amazing how much it does advertise, or go to www.vistaprint.co.uk they do business cards at a fraction, think it's about £11 for 1000 coloured, some designs you only have to pay the p&p, wink

Collette
 
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