Traditional vs Modern Marketing: Which should salons choose?

For most of us, it is hard to imagine life without Facebook, Twitter or Instagram, and not being able to share your latest happenings with the world. Nowadays, businesses worldwide, including those in the hair & beauty industry, utilise these social networking pages to help promote what they do, however, these modern tools we use for communication have come to exist only in recent years. Before their conception, businesses relied heavily on time-tested marketing methods that did their job - but are these methods still applicable in today’s day and age?

Old marketing vs new marketing

When it comes to identifying the two, there is one obvious difference - modern marketing is focused on digital channels of distribution, whereas traditional marketing focuses on physical ones. What do I mean by this? Let’s say you are looking to attract new clients to your salon - with modern marketing activities, you create an online offer or advertisment and promote it to potential clients. When it comes to traditional marketing, you print physical advertising materials and share them by interacting with others.

What works best for salons and spas?

As the salon owner, you know your clients better than anyone else. By simply looking at them, sitting at your workstations, you can learn much about them. Try this test - on a busy day, look at all of your clients and count how many there are in total and what number of them are on their phones. Although results may vary, you will probably notice the majority of clients looking at their phone screens. This shows that a modern marketing approach may reach a larger number of customers, but it does not necessarily remove traditional marketing from the game! When deciding which works better for your salon, you should try both strategies for a selected period. Based on your collected data, see which marketing method brought your salon more clients, revenue or sales! But before you begin, review each strategy - pros and cons of marketing can have varying impacts on your career!

Modern marketing

Let’s face it, if your salon does not have a presence on social media pages, how are online users supposed to know if your business even exists? When it comes to digital marketing, there are many paths you can take - some options are completely free, like social media posts, whereas others are paid for, and your decision depends on your goals. Are you looking to attract new customers? Increase sales? Or perhaps promote a new treatment option. Here are some of the pros and cons of digital media marketing strategies:

• Pinpoint accurate promoting - when compared to traditional marketing, modern marketing takes the cake in this aspect. Digital adverts created on Facebook and Instagram can be aimed at a specific audience. By filling in criteria such as age, gender, interests and location, you narrow down your target group, thus allowing your ad to reach potential clients who would be more interested in your salon.
• Direct marketing - for the salon owner who is not into social media, there is the option to reach clients with the help of beauty business software. Thanks to tools like Booksy, you can schedule email and SMS marketing messages to go out to your clients, notifying them on any offers, new treatment options or any events happening at your business. The best part is, your ads reach clients directly!
• Getting your name out - When you think about it, there are thousands of salons worldwide - but how can you find your spot among them and still stand out? With modern marketing, promote your business on a much larger scale! Share pictures of your work or any unique techniques on a variety of social media pages. By making a name for yourself, you reach a larger population of potential customers!
• Trackable results - digital marketing tools also come with data analysis options to help you track your ad effectiveness, and see where you can improve your marketing activities. During an active marketing campaign, Booksy collects data on sales, cash inflow and predicted revenue, from which you can conclude what campaign types work the best.

Although the positive aspects outweigh the negatives, there are a few out there that may make you want to stick with traditional marketing.

• Extra training: The first time you jump into Facebook Ads Manager, you may instantly feel like quitting. You are confronted with a variety of data reports, statistics, costs and types of reports. Getting to know each option may require training and a number of hours spent on studying.
• Lost ads: No matter how well-formulated your ad is, there is always a chance that it may get lost in a heap of other data. Other ads and posts may push your ad down a potential client’s newsfeed, never to be seen by the user.

Traditional marketing

It is important to have a large list of customers, but bear in mind that your local clients are the ones that count the most! And what better way to win their hearts than to hand them your business card and invite them for a service personally? Besides this, here are a few positives you can expect from traditional marketing:

• More human interactions - Digital ads are great for targeting people, but they lack any emotion that would compel us to make a purchase decision. Traditional marketing allows us to see and even speak with the salon owner or staff, and can more easily convince us to visit the business and even make a purchase.
• More locals - Sure, modern marketing attracts local clients, but it does not always create as much of a lasting bond as a leaflet from a salon in your area.
• Hard to forget - Social media ads have a tendency of getting lost once we refresh our Facebook or Instagram newsfeed, and are never to be seen again. With leaflets or a business card, there is less room for that to occur!
• To the point - A salon leaflet has everything you need - the salon name, address, phone number, email, a list of treatments and maybe even a promo code, redeemable at the salon. Instead of surfing the web, looking for this information, you have everything you need in your hands!

In a sense, salon manager systems, like Booksy, have aspects of traditional marketing - such as individual messaging campaigns, automatic booking reminders sent via SMS, push message or email, even automated birthday wishes, which give your salon a more human face! There is a surprising number of positive aspects when considering traditional marketing, however, there are some cons, such as:

• More expensive - Banners, leaflets and posters can cost you a significant amount of money, plus they are not always effective for bringing clients in to the salon.
• Difficult to reach target audience - Handing out leaflets is a practical method for getting your salon name out, however, how many of the receivers are actually potential customers?
• Data may be difficult to measure - If you are running multiple traditional marketing campaigns, how do you know which one is the most effective for your business? Data collecting can prove to be very challenging here.

When it comes down to it, both traditional and modern marketing methods come with pros and cons, however, your decision should be based on which is more effective for your business. Also, consider implementing Booksy to your regular marketing routine - be it a modern, or more traditional approach. Start your free account, and manage marketing activities with both a modern and traditional approach!