John Marcy, Internet Marketing Manager, ETS LLC.
Mike Seidle, Internet Marketing Consultant

Building a successful salon requires that you constantly attract new customers to your salon and encourage your members to regularly use your salon's services. The internet can help you find new customers and can be very powerful in increasing revenue from existing customers. The best part: you don't even have to have a website for your salon. One word of warning before you start with the internet: The internet is not a replacement for traditional tanning salon advertising and marketing methods. Do not think for a minute that the internet will replace sending postcards, participating in coupon campaigns or having a solid, high traffic location. What the internet can do is add a few more new customers every month and and extra few tanning sessions per week – all of which have a significant impact over a year, but absolutely are not going to deliver short term results.

First, create a directory listing for your site at Tanning Salon Central (www.tanningsaloncentral.com). Tanning Salon central is a directory of US tanning salons that performs very well in search engines like Google. When people search for “tanning salon” and their city, salons listed in TanningSalonCentral.com are likely to show up on the first page of search results in Google and Yahoo. Customers who find your salon through TanningSalonCentral are able to call you or even contact you via email through a simple web-form that does not reveal your email address to spammers. If you do have a website, be sure to enter the address so that people who find you through TanningSalonCentral.com find their way through to your website. When creating a TannningSalonCentral.com listing, make sure you put in plenty of detail.

Next, create a MySpace.com site for your salon. MySpace.com has become a phenomenon among single men and women age 17-35. There is a lot of overlap between the demographic profile of an average MySpace user and your salon's customer base. All you have to do to create an account is register and answer a few questions. MySpace users who tan at your location can list your salon as a friend, and that in turn tells the user's friends about your salon. One word of warning: if your salon has customer service problems, listing on MySpace will create a storm of negative press.

Third, consider using an email marketing service like Constant Contact or Topica which charge less than $100 for sending emails to small mailing lists with only a few thousand names. Email is a great way to remind your salon's customers to come back, announce new products and tell people about new equipment. Just remember that to comply with the CAN-SPAM law, you must always, always get permission and be able to prove the date and and how someone gave you permission to send them an email. Having people fill in a response card or adding a place to check “send me your email newsletter” on your membership forms.

If you take the three steps above, your salon will be equipped to reach internet connected tanners in your area through search engines by leveraging TanningSalonCentral.com. Many of your customers will connect with friends and tell them about how wonderful your salon is using MySpace. Finally, you'll be improving customer loyalty by telling your customers about your salon via email – which is a great low cost way to get in an extra marketing touch.