To begin, there are both a handful of solutions for your salon management as well as a handful of solutions for marketing automation and email management.
Start by understanding the ins and outs of your salon management tech stack.
There are options across this space that cater to smaller businesses:
Brands like Fresha work great for independent stylists and smaller salons, providing basic online booking, payment, and schedule management without all of the technical sophistication required by a larger team
Platforms like Canvas Me offer website building and design for those without resources to pay for custom design and development.
Some platforms also provide more flexible and affordable payment plans – either on a percentage basis of sales or as an affordable subscription
Alongside these management tools exist a massive array of email marketing and customer relationship management tools that can help you know, reach, and retain your customers.
Many of these solutions work across industries:
HubSpot, Marketo, Eloqua are examples of fully integrated Marketing CRM platforms that handle everything from email marketing, to customer database automation, to advanced analytics and business reporting.
Mailchimp, Constant Contact, and Sendinblue are leading brands in the email marketing space that focus specifically on email and SMS marketing, including one-time announcements, newsletters, as well as automated email campaigns based on the recipients personal needs and engagement level.
These email marketing platforms allow you to easily create professional looking marketing emails while managing your client database and optimizing your email marketing returns. With these kinds of tools you can create automated drip campaigns, A/B test different subject lines, personalize messages to your existing customers, create online polls and giftcards, and automate emails to identify cross-sale opportunities or re-awaken a non-responsive customer.
Of course, the big question, if choosing multiple solutions like these, is how to integrate these tools, ensuring that your customer data is being put to its optimal use.