I can’t tell you how many times I’ve gone to a new salon or spa for the first time (I’ve moved from city to city quite a bit recently), love my experience, and then never hear one peep from them again.

I almost always follow the salon on Instagram (if they’ve got an account) but unfortunately I’ll likely never see their posts. They just got lost in a sea of Instagram posts from other people I follow, and they never make their way to me.

So what happens? The salon essentially disappears from my mind until I decide to book with them again.

But what if they were intentional and started a relationship with me from the moment I stepped out of their doors after my appointment?

The relationship might start with a followup email asking how my appointment went and if I love my hair, with a link to review them.

Then each week I might get updates about them through email; and don’t mean salesy emails that I roll my eyes at. I mean fun, binge-worthy messages that I love to read. If that happened, I would feel like I have a more meaningful relationship with the salon team than just as the people who do my hair who I see every couple months.

I would be the first to know about new services, products and promotions, and I would probably book more often. They’d be on my mind a whole lot more. After a while they would become my salon; I now have a relationship with them. I’d feel like I’m part of a community and I’d be less likely to try out a different place.

But how often do salons actually create these connections through consistent emails? I personally have never had it happen before. And it baffles me.

Why email marketing is the bomb dot com

I know why business owners shy away from email marketing. Because emails are seen as old-school and salesy. We tend to think email is an irrelevant tool now that we’ve got Instagram and Facebook. After all, emails are spammy and people don’t like reading them, right?

Actually, wrong. Trust me that your clients are checking and reading their emails multiple times a day. If you send out consistent emails, you’ll spend much more time in your clients’ minds than if you just wait for them to see your posts on IG and FB.

Did you know that your return on investment for email marketing is higher than any other type of marketing you can do? Why? Because sending emails is essentially free advertising, and it results in real actions and sales! The Return On Investment for emails is $44 for every $1 spent (source). If you knew you could spend $100 and make $4400, would you? I would say that’s a hell yes!

Also, as much as I love social media, you truly can’t rely on it for your only way to market. You don’t “own” your Facebook and Instagram pages. FB and IG could all of the sudden decide to change their platforms, or decide that only a small fraction of your followers will see your posts by changing the algorithm. Sound familiar?

On top of that, getting your followers to actually pay attention to and take action from your social posts is becoming more difficult. If you’ve found your reach and engagement going down, you’re not the only one. But with email, the engagement rate is so much higher. Typically 22% of your email list will open up your email, where on social media your reach is usually only 10% of your followers.

Plus, emails are carefully read and create more of a connection than a simple double tap on Instagram. Getting into someone’s inbox is an honour and a privilege, and your clients don’t take that lightly. You’ll find that most of them will devour what you wrote, and will feel much closer to you than if they just scrolled past one of your photos on social.

Let’s not forget that emails have huge financial/revenue benefits for your business as well.

In an interview I did with her, Jessica Kidner told me that email absolutely changed her entire beauty business. She ended up selling her salon for multiple 6 figures, but in the years she was building it up, email was crucial for her. Here’s what she said:

“Email marketing was a game changer in how I marketed my business. It was the game changer to build a consistent income. I already knew the clients, and it was my job to build a relationship with them. I liken it to a handshake, and then [with email] I was inviting them into my home. I was able to make at least $1,000 - $2,000 per email that I sent out, and I sent them out weekly.”

Imagine if you had a free tool at your disposal, that you could use every week to get more bookings, worth thousands each month? That’s email marketing!

If you’re ready to get serious about emails but not sure what to put in them, keep reading!

The 6 types of emails that build relationships and promote your business

First of all, it’s important to look at all the different types of email that are going to help you to grow your business. Most business do the bare minimum with their emails: One email to confirm appointments, and then a random email every few months when things are slow and you’ve got a promotion to sell to people.

Sound familiar? It if that’s all you’re doing for emails, you’re missing out on so much good stuff! Here are some of the different types of emails that will help create a connection with clients and grow your business. I want to thank Jessica Kidner, who’s a salon business coach, for sharing some of these ideas with me during our interview!

Weekly or monthly update emails. Don’t think of this as a newsletter, think of it as a personal letter that builds community with your clients. These emails should not be salesy. Instead, they should be fun, engaging, educational, and build relationships. They can also contain promotions and sales, but that shouldn’t be the main focus.
Special emails for birthdays, anniversaries etc . This is a great way of getting your clients to sign up for your email list, if they’re hesitant. Tell them that when they sign up, they can receive a special voucher on their birthday, for example. You can actually set up these automated birthday emails in Mailchimp. (Instructions)
A simple followup email after appointments checking in with clients and asking them for feedback in the form of a review. In this email, you could tell them a bit about yourself personally, ask them how they liked the service, and then link to your Facebook or Google page to leave you a review. This is such an easy, automated way to build up your reviews, but so few salons do this!
A special offer for your website visitors only available through email. You can add a pop-up on your salon website where you have a special offer for first-time clients or for clients who haven’t tried out a service yet. In order to get the gift voucher, they have to insert their email address in the form. Then you can send an automated email to them with the information and how to book.
Making personalized offers. If you’ve got a big promotion that you only do a few times a year, build up anticipation in your emails leading up to it, tease them, then send out an email just about the offer. These shouldn’t be your “bread and butter” emails, just every once in a while. If you only ever send promotional emails, your list will start to get bored and unsubscribe. But making big offers every once in a while, especially if you build up the anticipation, can be hugely profitable.
“Long time no see” emails to clients who haven’t come in in a while. Make them a special offer, tell them what’s new, and invite them back to try out a new service. Your booking software will tell you which clients haven’t been in in a while.

What to put in your weekly emails to your list

Out of all those types of emails, I want to focus on the weekly updates email, because this is where the real relationship building comes in, as long as your content is engaging. I say weekly email, but you could start with a monthly and then build up to weekly once you start seeing results. Trust me, weekly is not too often. I sent out weekly emails to 17,000+ people and it has been the best way to build up relationships with my community. It’s not too much.

Remember, the purpose of these emails is not to sell. The purpose is to maintain communication and build relationships. Like Jessica said when I interviewed her, it’s like turning a handshake into inviting someone into your home. You’re turning clients into deeper relationships through your weekly emails.

If it’s your first email, and you’re feeling weird about it, just re-introduce yourself with a photo of you in that first email. Be personal and tell them why you’re sending out the emails (to keep them updated) and tell them what’s been going on in your life.

From there, in each email do some personal updates or updates about your team. Where you’ve been travelling, updates about your family, what events you’re attending in town, new hair colour… anything! People really do want to hear from you and they’re interested in you as person, not just as a business.

Next, include updates about your business. What new treatments have you added, and what are the benefits? Include photos whenever you can. What new trainings have you done and how are they helping you with your skills? Include photos of this, too! Have you changed around your decor or added new products? Tell them! And don’t just be salesy about it, give your personal opinions, feelings, and share your excitement too!

Next, try getting visual in your emails by sharing photos from the week before. Share your most recent photos from Instagram, or links to some of the videos you’ve done. If you’ve written any blog posts, share links to those as well with a bit of “teaser” text to get them interested.

I also love the idea of sharing your most recent reviews from clients as a screenshot. Just go on Google and Facebook, find your most flattering reviews, and share those!

Next, be educational in your emails. For example, you could share a quick beauty tip every week. These tips may seem simple or obvious to you, but your clients love these! Whether it’s about aftercare for a tan, or a photo about how to do a braid, or a tip for doing flawless eyeliner wings… it’s another reason why clients will open up and devour your emails. You can even include a link to a longer blog post you’ve written about this topic, or an educational video you’ve done.

Lastly, at the end of the email, share the monthly promotion that you’re running, or any special offers or sales you have on. If possible, add in urgency and scarcity: Tell them it’s only available for a certain amount of time. Include info about the benefits of this service and photos from your clients who’ve done this treatment, and even some reviews about it. Remember to include links to book at the bottom of each email. Don’t be afraid to talk about this same promotion more than once in different emails, as long as you’re talking about it in a different way.

When I was promoting my course last month, I sent out 8 sales emails about it to my list in a matter of 2 weeks. This was a limited time thing that I was doing, and I don’t recommend you send out sales emails so often (most of my emails are not sales emails) but my point is, it works! I just needed to talk about what I was selling in a different way in each of my emails.

So only part of these weekly emails is sales-related. The rest is personal, updates, educational - the real reason your clients will open up and read. These seemingly personal pieces of content are what will help develop those relationships beyond just you being the lady who does their hair/nail/lashes etc. And don’t think that your clients don’t care about the personal side of you… because they do care so much!

My client Sara, a spray tanner, had never done email marketing to her list before. When I helped her to create and set up an email, she was so tickled at the results. Right after she sent out the first email she not only got some immediate bookings from it, she actually got some amazing client feedback. One of her clients came in for a spray tan and raved about Sara’s email. She repeated back to Sara every single thing that was in the email, and went on and on about how cool it was to know everything going on in Sara’s life. The client was so happy to get those personal updates and feel included in Sara’s life.

So how do you get started with email marketing for your salon?

First of all, just get started. Make sure that you’re collecting email addresses and getting clients to opt in for emails by giving them something special (for example, birthday vouchers and access to flash sales). Then the next step is to decide how you want to send out those emails. You can send them through your booking software, or you can connect your software to Mailchimp (it’s free!) if you want to have more options and personalization.

Set up automated emails in your booking software to remind clients of an upcoming appointment, with some personal info, directions, and info about parking, to make it easy for them. Also set up an automated email for 1-2 days after their appointment, asking for their feedback and a link to review you (it’ll help so much with your Google reviews!).

After that, set up a template to send your monthly, biweekly, or weekly emails. And just start with your first one. If it’s been a while since you send out an email, give some personal updates since last time. And then just send out your first email. It might feel difficult, because it’s new. You’ll get better and more comfortable with it, I promise. Take some of the ideas from above, throw in some photos and links, and send it off.

Before you know it, you’ll become addicted to email marketing, and it’ll be part of your regular marketing system to grow your business, connect with your clients on a deeper level, and make more sales!