Marketing course

[classychick]

After reading through threads I have decided that I am going to take a marketing course, do you think it would be worthwhile and can anyone recommend one are they all the same or are any better than the other xx
Posted via Mobile Device

 

[beautyandthebod]

Hi, you may be able to pick up free half day courses with business link or your local enterprise agency. some are not too bad. (may give you a few ideas) Di

 

[advetxt]

I agree with beautyandthebod, many course are free because it is funded either by the UK or EU. I did a NVQ business management last year which was free.
If you mention what you need to know or need help with then maybe i can help or give you tips. I have set up promotions in the past for the hair and beauty industry. Is it generating new clients or getting existing clients to create repeat business?

 

[classychick]

Thanks girls, advetext it is a bit of both really I sometimes do promotions but as I am mobile I feel slightly limited in the terms of offering taster treatments to new clients as I dont want to be going out for mini treatments and basically I cant target any market due to my lack of knowledge I dont know where to start! xx

 

[advetxt]

1)First of all, If you don't have one then I recommend you have a website?At least you can give potential and existing clients a way of showing what other type of services you offer. Without going into detail,the quickest and the cheapest to get a website running is to get a website template which looks professional cost between £30-50. You just need someone to add the content and have basic understanding of web design. Your own web domain name cost about £15 per year and to have the content of your website,you need a hosting account and again probably no more than £20 per year.

2)Once you got a website, a great marketing tool is use you clients to give you testimonials. Contact your top 5 or 10 clients and ask them if they write a brief on their experience and what they like about you and why to use your services? Then you can add what they quoted and create a dedicated testimonial page on your website. This act similar to word of mouth campaign as they are recommending your services and therefore your target audience are more likely to generate interest of your services.

Im just wondering,without getting being specifc here so i can get an idea,how many clients do you have? pick one answer
20-50
50-100
100+ clients

Do you do any form of marketing with your exiting clients and if you what format ad how often do you do this?

 

[duffield1]

Knowing where to start when marketing a salon is the trickiest thing - and so many people are pretty embarrassed that they don't actually know what they want to learn, which makes it hard to find a suitable course!

As a marketeer working in the leisure sector, I'd say that many of the Business Link-type courses are too general for what you will need - you need a decent foundation in the basics of marketing a beauty business, so really need someone who will tell you what the options are, and the pros and cons of each. Even from salon to salon, some techniques will work for some people, and not for others as it is dependent on location, service offering, etc.

However, one tip for what to avoid is the complete salon marketing packages for which you pay a subscription - there are a couple of companies offering these in the UK, and whilst they have fantastic testimonials on their websites, dig further into Google and you find a lot of people unhappy at having spent literally hundreds of pounds on these packages with very few tangible results.

I want to write more, but just need to check with a mod so I don't break site rules! I'll be back...