With each new year comes new business opportunities, and you’d be remiss not to take advantage of them. Regardless of how your salon performed in 2017, it’s essential to take stock of your business’ current operational and financial situation. Once you assess the current state of your salon, you can work toward creating a powerful salon and spa marketing plan for 2018. After using the tips below to create an effective marketing plan for your business, you can execute each step of your marketing plan.

Review 2017: The first step in creating a marketing plan for the year ahead is to look at what your brand did, marketing-wise, in 2017. Did you create a marketing plan for 2017? If so, find the file or document detailing your marketing endeavors for 2017 and look at it in earnest. What on the list was accomplished? Of the things that you did achieve, which items were valuable, and which things didn’t add to your overall success? Perhaps some things brought in business, but weren’t worth the monetary or time investment you had to put into them. The key here is to assess your strengths and weaknesses as far as business strategy goes, and find more effective ways to carry these items out in the new year. Additionally, if you didn’t have as marketing plan at all in 2017, now’s the time to research how to create one and start the year off in the right direction.

Conduct a SWOT Analysis: Now that you’ve reviewed last year’s marketing plan, it’s time to perform a detailed SWOT analysis. SWOT is an acronym for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. Identifying the four elements of SWOT as they pertain to your business will help you to create the most powerful marketing plan possible. What are your business’ strengths? Do you have stylists that are well-known in the area? Is your location nearby a shopping mall or university, prompting lots of foot traffic to come your way? Think of ways you can play up these strengths – showcasing your stylists on Instagram and hanging physical posters in the area to attract clientele could be a major component of your marketing plan. Continue building out your plan by looking at your salon’s weaknesses, and any potential opportunities you should be taking advantage of. Lastly, you need to look at possible threats, or things that could set your business back, and understand how to address them head-on.

Income and Pricing: Financial components need to be considered when creating a marketing plan. What are your salon’s sources of income – as in, what services do you offer that clients pay for? Create a list of everything that brings money into the business, and generate a sales forecast, or projected annual revenue for the year. Once you know what you’re doing to make money, and how much money you need to continue operating, it’s time to look at your pricing modules. What strategies are in place to help your business succeed? Are there opportunities for add-ons or upselling that you or your stylists are overlooking? Conversely, are you charging too much for a particular item or service, and possibly deterring customers from buying that item? Be realistic with your projections for the year, and understand how much you need to make to be comfortable.

Goals and Planning: Now it’s time to create an actionable marketing plan. Create a list of your goals for 2018, these could be things like getting new clients and increasing sales by 15%. Next, think of items that will help you achieve these goals – this will be the basis of your marketing plan. For example, if you’re looking to gain new clients, some ways to do so would be by bolstering your client referral program, ramping up your email marketing tactics and generating a larger social media following. If you want to raise the amount of money your salon makes, try things like offering additional holiday promotions, having more retail items available in the salon and creating an incentive program for the stylist who up-sells the most services each month. Your marketing plan should have your general goal listed, followed by the ways in which you plan to achieve said goal.

Creating a marketing plan for your salon is always a learning process. Each year, you should strive to reflect on what you did in terms of marketing previously, and work to grow on those efforts in the year ahead. For more marketing inspiration and resources to get your marketing plan off the ground, download your seven-day free trial of SalonTarget today.