Every year, thousands of salon and spa businesses fail. No business owner plans to fail, but they fail all the same. One of the main reasons for the high failure rate is an over reliance on getting new clients.

Marketing isn't about the medium; it's about getting and keeping customers. In order to succeed, every salon or spa must have brochures and other forms of printed sales literature to hand out to customers and prospects. Brochures can help, but only if you use it in conjunction with other tools.

A salon or spa needs printed marketing literature for two reasons:

Credibility – People expect a "real" company to have printed sales literature. Anyone can spend $60 on business cards and letterhead and call themselves a company. But if you want people to know you mean business, you need a brochure.

Time – People want printed material to take home and read at their leisure. Brochures also support other advertising, direct mail, and online promotions. In short, a good brochure sells.

Here are 12 tips on writing a brochure that will support your marketing efforts and increase your sales.

1. Know what your reader wants – Write your brochure from the customer's point of view. What are your customers' concerns? What do they need to know before they come in for a service or make a purchase? Try writing down all the questions you hear from your customers and try and answer them in your collateral.
2. Motivate your reader to look inside – The first page your reader will see is the front cover. Get it wrong and you will likely lose the sale. Start with the benefits of your product, or use thought-provoking statements that motivate the reader to pick up the brochure and open it. Tell the reader there's something inside just for them — an exclusive invitation, a free report, a special discount, or advance notice of sales. Don't put just your company logo or product name on the front. That will not work.
3. List the contents – In brochures of eight pages or more, a table of contents is essential. Design it so that the table of contents stands out from the rest of the text. Use the contents to sell the brochure. Don't use mind-numbing words like "Introduction" or "Services." Use your key sales points in your headings.
4. List your product's benefits – Purchasers care about benefits, not features. To develop a list of benefits, draw up a list of service features and add the words "which means that…" after each point. For example, "This treatment includes a foot massage, which means that…it feels o-so-good." Or, "This facial has an exfoliation component, which means… your skin will glow." Benefits are what sell products.
5. Make the brochure a keeper – Putting helpful information in your brochure will encourage the reader to keep it, refer to it often, or pass it on to other people. If you are selling skin care products, you can give your readers tips on how to combat pimples, dry skin, fine lines, and wrinkles.
6. Alter the shape – Who says a brochure has to be 8 ½ by 11? If you are selling massage, design a brochure in the shape of a person’s body. Hair coloring services? Design it in the shape of a paint brush. Use your imagination to come up with an original, eye-catching piece. Try tall and slim, square, oblong, whatever you like. The only limitation is your imagination, and, of course, your budget.
7. Make it personal – An experienced speaker talking to a large audience will pick out someone in the crowd, and talk directly to him or her. This connection allows the speaker to make the talk more personal. In a similar fashion, write your brochure with an imaginary person in mind. Why? Because writing in a direct "I'm-talking-only-to-you" style will increase response.
8. Add atmosphere – You don't want your brochure to sound aloof. Let your reader share your feelings. A description about a body treatment does not need to go into the ins and outs of how the body treatment is performed. Instead let your words show them how warm, snug and relaxed they'll be when they get one of your body treatments.
9. Start selling right away – Not everyone needs to know about every aspect of your product or service. Don't waste their time telling them about things that don't convey a benefit.
10. Address your reader's needs – Don't get carried away with your own interests. Talk about your reader, not yourself.
11. Give directions – Organize your brochure so readers can flip through the pages and easily find what they want. Provide clear signposts or headlines throughout the brochure and make sure each one says "Hey, pay attention to me!"
12. Ask for action – Regardless of how you organize your brochure, there's only one way to end it. Ask for action. If you want your reader to come to your salon or spa and get a service or purchase products, include an 800 number, gift with purchase offer, or some form of response mechanism. In fact, to increase your brochure's selling power, include your offer and a response mechanism on every page.

Ana Loiselle, President of the Secret Salon and Spa by Design in Royal Oak, Michigan. A former salon and spa owner, Ms. Loiselle can be reached at 248/546-4312 or at www.thesecretconsultant.com.

3 Responses...

1. Larry Donahue says:

   April 27, 2007 at 12:03 pm

   Ana, thanks for the GREAT post! It's interesting, from SpaBoom's perspective, to compare the differences between spas and salons selling well on the Internet versus those spas and salons that aren't. There are a number of factors, but two come to mind almost immediately: First, the high-selling spas and salons are placing the Instant Gift Certificate link in obvious places on their website. And second, successful spas and salons are creating service menus and websites that take much of your advice into account.

   I want to take a moment to shamelessly plug the consultants we have posting in our blog. Ana (the SECRET Salon and Spa by Design) and Skip (Resources and Development) are top-notch and very well respected in the industry. These consultants are very accessible and easy to talk to. I encourage everyone who thinks there's room to expand, make more money, or generally do things better, to consider giving one of these consultants a call.

   I've personally talked to a number of Ana's clients, who just rave about her. She's really done an outstanding job for a number of our clients!
2. Erskine says:

   June 2, 2007 at 6:55 pm

   Maybe I'm too early in my career but I don't know if I agree with you. When I started cutting hair about three years ago, I wanted to quickly build a base of repeat customers. I was relying on walk-in traffic. I wanted to quickly have people calling ME and setting appointments with ME. I didn't want to depend on my employer for income – I wanted to "own" my client list.

   Printing a brochure is expensive and I still work for a national chain, so I don’t have any power to influence the marketing they do. But I can run my own marketing campaigns – really simple stuff using my own email to send past customers notices about specials and simple hair care tips.

   I started reading about asking for referrals and decided that a formal referral program could help increase my business. I decided to reward referrals with a free cut – send me a new customer and get a free haircut. That’s how I got satisfied customers to talk to their friends and families about me.

   To keep track of everything, I use a service called ReferNow.com – the importance of this is that when you know exactly who referred your new customer, they can be thanked via mail, email, or you can pick up the phone, which I highly recommend. When you go out of your way to thank someone with a letter or phone call, they'll keep doing business with you.
3. Spa Beginner says:

   March 12, 2008 at 7:08 am

   I was wondering if anyone knew a fun and easy website that will let you design your own brochure, and than pay them to print and mail out to you?