Email marketing is an essential part of any business, as it helps increase awareness for new clients and keeps existing customers connected and engaged. But for salons, email marketing is also a great way to stay in front of clients in-between visits to help reduce client loss and no-shows and will help to prevent your clients from wandering into the salon down the street! Learn more about the importance of email marketing and why it’s essential for your business.
Built-in Tools
SalonInteractive’s Client Connect email marketing features are integrated into your salon software, so you already have quick access. Just look for the SalonInteractive tab on your Rosy dashboard. It’s there on top next to the Support tab.
Client Connect marketing tools are designed to be easy for busy salon professionals – that way, you don’t have to hire a professional marketing person to do it.
For example, with automated emails, you just set it and forget it. It’s super simple to send a birthday greeting, thank a new client, even remind them to make their next appointment without even thinking about it. It’s all automated in the system and happens behind the scenes.
With mass emails, you can create email communications ahead of time using one of our easy templates and schedule announcements, promotions, holiday greetings, even newsletters when it makes the most sense for you and your business.
So, instead of no communication for 4-6 weeks between client services, salons can use the platform to help make their clients feel special and stay engaged.
Why Email Marketing?
Email typically has a higher engagement rate than other mediums. According to Hubspot, 78% of marketers have seen increased email engagement over the last 12 months.
As of 2021, there are 4 billion daily email users, with 64% of small businesses using email marketing to reach their customers. More than 306 billion emails are sent and received each day, with nearly 22% of all email campaigns opened within the first hour of sending.
OptinMonster claims that 99% of email users check their inbox every day, with some checking 20 times a day. Of those people, 58% of consumers check their email first thing in the morning.
Email Marketing Best Practices
First, you’ll want to make sure you have current email addresses for your clients. Without an active email address, you can’t effectively market to them using the platform.
Second, you’ll want to have a clear message and call to action. For example, if your objective is to remind clients to prebook their appointments, be sure you have a path to do that. You’d want to include a link to your online scheduling or list your phone number if you want them to call to make the booking.
It’s also important to always brand your emails to your business. That way, your clients clearly recognize where the emails are coming from and are more likely to pay attention to your messaging. One way to brand your emails is to use your salon logo in the email header and your business information in the footer.
Just make sure you use a large enough file so that your logo looks good. It’s easy to add – just go to Client Connect and email header. Drag and drop your logo into the box and save. It’s that simple.
Next, you’ll add your salon location and contact information for the footer, even your website, and social media links if you wish. Just remember to use proper capitalization, punctuation, and address formatting.
Automated Emails
There are essentially six types of emails that you can automate based on a specific action or need. You can:
- Wish your clients a Happy Birthday
- Use Drive Backs to re-engage clients missing in action
- Send a Due Back notice for those who need to make their next appointment
- Send a Thank You, which is great for new clients
- Remind clients who buy retail that they may be running low
- And if you have enabled your free online store, you can automatically thank clients for their online orders
Automated Email Best Practices
It’s important to set your timing. For example, birthday greetings are set up for zero days, which means the emails will deploy on each client’s birthday (day 0), assuming you have that information in their file. The thank-you emails are typically set for one day after the most recent visit, so the salon experience is still top of mind.
For Due Back emails, you’ll want to think through what timing makes sense to send these out. These are for regular clients who may have simply forgotten to make their next appointment. Around 35 days may be a good place to start. So, every client who has not booked their next appointment will receive an email reminder this many days since their last visit.
Drive Backs are for those clients that have gone missing for a while. These communications are typically a little more along the lines of “we miss you” versus just “book your next appointment” – you’ll need to decide what timing makes the most sense for you and your business – otherwise, the default is 60 days.
To set up an automated email, select which type you want. Choose standard templates, and either select the blank template to design from scratch or use one of our existing templates. You can add more copy or imagery if you wish, or just use it as-is to keep things clean and simple.
Notice the 35-day default on this one. You can change that if you want. Also, select Use My Header and Use My Footer, so your email is branded to your salon, and check Active when ready to start sending these emails out. It’s advised to send yourself a test, then click the green checkmark to finalize.
You can do the same setup process for any of the other types of automated emails as you see fit. It’s suggested to change out the imagery or freshen up the messaging at least once a year.
Mass Emails
Unlike automated emails where you set it up once and forget about it, mass emails are used as needed and can deploy to any or all of your client list. Let’s say you changed your business hours or your landlord is doing construction on your parking area – you’ll definitely want to let your clients know about anything that affects them and their salon visits. You would create a one-time email and schedule it to send whenever you want, in this case, to your entire clientele.
To create a mass email, go to your SalonInteractive menu, then Client Connect. Choose Mass Email Campaigns and start a new campaign. Toggle to either Design it Myself for a blank template or Standard Templates to use or alter a predesigned template.
Select a template. In order to launch your email, you’ll need to add a subject line. You can also change the image if you want or add copy underneath the image – resize or change the color of the copy, even alter the spacing between lines.
Now, notice the Use My Header and Footer boxes – click those to brand your email and save. Add a subject line and rename the email, so it’s easy to find later.
We always advise sending yourself a test, and you can do that with the envelope icon. You can also click the preview to see how your email looks on desktops and phones. Go back to make any needed changes and save when done.
Now add your clients by clicking the red person icon for that email campaign and segment your list as desired.
One of the great things about having SalonInteractive and Client Connect integrated into Rosy is that clients are already in the system. You simply select what segment of your client list you want to send your campaign to and deploy when ready.
Once your clients are added to your email, click the green icon and choose a date and time to deploy. As far as timing for sending out emails, mornings typically have better open rates. And for consumers, Fridays are usually best.
To see how your campaign did, you can go to campaign tracking to see an overview of deliveries, bounces, opens, clicks, etc., for all campaigns. To check how a specific campaign did, use the campaign tracking feature. Click through a campaign and filter to see what was delivered to whom, and what clients opened or clicked on their emails.
You should know that a 15% open rate with a 1% click-thru is considered good for most industries. However, we have found much higher open rates, like 45-51% and an average of 1.15% click-thru rate on Client Connect. That higher open rate is attributed to stronger bonds between salon clients and their favorite stylist or salon. The higher rates are proof that your clients want to hear from you. You are, after all, their beauty experts.
For those interested in email marketing, Client Connect features may be purchased individually or bundled as the Premium Package at a discounted price. To activate Client Connect email marketing and bundle it with your Rosy subscription, go to Activate under Client Connect in your SalonInteractive menu. View your options for automated email marketing, mass email marketing, and enhanced text messaging through your Rosy account.
Scroll down to see pricing based on the number of service providers, and check the appropriate boxes at the bottom of the page. Check the last box to confirm that you understand that this is a paid feature, then hit Enable Client Connect Features when you’re ready.
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