Written by Shan Hughes of The Shantastic Hair Life

You know social media marketing is important to your business, but have you explored the power of email marketing? With the right strategy, email marketing will keep current customers interested in your brand and it will convert potential customers into buyers.

At first, I didn’t understand how important email marketing was for my business, but once I began to experiment with StyleSeat’s email marketing tool, I immediately saw the positive impact it had on my marketing strategy. It has given me a simple way to build my reputation as an expert, keep clients informed about what’s going on in the salon, and offer beauty tips and tricks beyond the salon.

In the beauty industry, the standard open rate for marketing emails is 17% — we have an average open rate of about 30% Follow these guidelines and you’ll see for yourself how email marketing not only has the power to bring back old customers, but to turn them into loyal clients who refer you to their friends and family as well.

STOP TRYING TO SELL SELL SELL

I get lots of positive feedback from clients about my brand’s personal touch. Nobody wants to read generic salesy emails that sound the same as all the other emails in their spam folder.

  • If you send an email with the subject line “80% OFF!” your open rates might be high, but they will decline over time because clients aren’t always ready to make a purchase/ booking. Even worse, they may eventually unsubscribe from your mailing list because your content isn’t relevant to them or offering them anything new.
  • If you want to maintain your email list, the key is to use your emails to keep clients informed about your brand/business — include things like business updates, community events, and helpful tips they will actually use.  
  • Get creative. Set your brand apart by doing more than just sales. When a customer is ready to buy, they will buy. What leads people to buy is information and feeling like they have a relationship with a brand rather than them feeling pushed to buy from yet another salesy email campaign.

MAKE YOUR SUBJECT LINES STAND OUT

This is what grabs your reader’s attention — it’s the most important trigger that gets clients to push that open button. How will you stand out from the sea of emails in their inbox? I learned that when I use subject lines like, “Last Minute Appointments” or “Openings Today,” my emails get overlooked and unopened. But, when I experimented with subject lines like “Did you see this transformation?” my open rates skyrocketed. It’s about standing out and piquing their curiosity.

PRO TIP:

With a transformation email, you can do two things —

  • Throw in your best transformation photo of your client’s hair which will probably get your readers to want to make a change which may lead them to book an appointment.
  • You can let them know in the email that you have last minute appointments for the day.

Take a look at the difference in open rates between these two subject lines.

Generic Subject Line: Happy Valentine’s Day

Open Rate: 13%

Unique Subject Line: My Gift to you…Will you be my Shanlentine?

Open Rate: 32%

DON’T UNDERESTIMATE YOUR LEADING SENTENCE

The leading sentence should summarize what your email is about. This sentence is just as important as the subject line because it displays as “preview text” next to the subject line in your client’s inbox. It also appears in the pop-up notification on their smartphone or tablet — it will determine if your customer decides to open your email, keep it closed, or simply delete it.

Here are a few examples of good subject line/leading sentence combinations that have worked for me in the past:

Subject Line: My Gift to you…Will you be my Shanlentine?

Leading Sentence: It’s February and love is in the hair…

Open Rate: 32%

Title: Thank you soooo much

Leading Sentence: You made my day…

Open Rate: 44%

Title: Crazy Substitute Teacher Almost Ruined IT!!!

Leading Sentence: Thank goodness school is out…

Open Rate: 46%

WRITE LESS, SEND MORE OFTEN  

Keep it short and easy to read. Nobody has time to read lengthy emails these days. With the fast-paced world we live in, customers want information, but they want it FAST. Keep your emails around one to two paragraphs with no more than three to four sentences each. Chose a simple email template that will be easy for customers to navigate.

Stay in your customer’s inbox. You want to stay in front of your customer by dropping in their inbox not every day, but at least every two weeks. The truth is, the average email account receives hundreds of emails a day and your emails will become just another email that may go overlooked or into the junk mail. You may need to experiment with frequency, but try to stay on a schedule. Your clients should grow to expect your emails on a regular basis and when they see your company pop up in their inbox, they should be eager to read what’s going on with your brand.

Check out Shan on Instagram! 

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