SMS

Demystifying SMS Salon Advertising & Transactional Texts

3 min

Demystifying SMS Salon Advertising & Transactional Texts

In many industries, mobile messaging provides the most effective direct marketing channel. This is no different in the hair, beauty, spa and cosmetics industries – SMS salon advertising is one of the biggest marketing assets a business can have. And while it’s blooming in Europe, laws in North America, however, made it hard for salons to catch on to this salon marketing strategy. That is… Until now!

SMS Salon Advertising: A Great Opportunity With Rules & Regulations

The latest Phorest Salon Software product update was all about the Snapchat marketing feature, but also about a new SMS Marketing feature for clients located in the US. We figured it would be the perfect occasion to explain the differences between the two types of mobile messaging your salon can send to clients. First, the marketing message.

sms salon advertising

Sometimes, despite you and your team’s best efforts, you find yourself stuck with some empty slots in the calendar. Nothing more frustrating right? With SMS salon advertising, you’ll be amazed at how fast you can fill out your appointment book – and SMS marketing isn’t too expensive considering the ROI it provides.

Think about this: the only universal application across all mobiles phones is text messaging, and 98% of SMS text messages are opened and read by recipients – therein lies the opportunity for marketing through this particular channel.

sms salon advertising

CAN-SPAM Act

If you operate a business in the United States, you might have heard of the CAN-SPAM Act before. Part of the rules issued by the Federal Communications Commission, this act defines “commercial messages as those that primarily advertise or promote a commercial product or service.”

While this affects messages like: “Free Shampoo when you purchase one of equal or greater value. Show text to redeem EXP 31/05/15. Call 01 111 11 today.”

…it doesn’t affect what are called transactional text messages (we’ll get into that later).

The law requires you to do these main 2 things if you want to send marketing text messages to clients:

#1: Give an adequate notice of what exactly you’re going to be sending & how frequently you plan on doing so.

#2: Ask for an opt-in and offer an opt-out possibly

Sending SMS salon advertising messages to your customers can really make a difference in the sense that you:

> Instantly connect with your client

> Increase customer engagement

> Increase revenue

> Fill empty spaces in the salon fast

> Can easily target clients

Opt-in & Opt-out

Opt-in is the consent to marketing. A customer that opts-in means he/she is giving you the right to be targeted by marketing communications via SMS. This means that you need to ensure that consumers are informed about what they are about to receive before sending them marketing messages. In the Phorest system, this is quite simple to do:

sms salon advertising

Opt-out is the removal of consent to marketing. You’ve probably seen this before” “Send STOP to 018304 to opt-out.” Again, a STOP confirmation message must be sent to the consumer to confirm the opt-out. This message should include the name of your salon and a similar message to this: “You have opted out. You will not receive additional messages.”

It might seem like a lot, but really, opt-in & opt-outs are as simple as that. Oh, and if you’re looking for SMS salon advertising templates for your upcoming festive season campaign, have a look at these 4 FREE Phorest SMS templates!

How Transactional SMS’ Differ From Marketing Text Messages

sms salon advertising

Whether you’re in the US or the EU, transactional texts are probably something you’re already quite familiar with. This type of SMS includes any notification with the goal of facilitating a transaction a consumer has already agreed to, for example:

> Booking confirmations

> Appointment reminders

> Review requests

Transactional text messages aren’t affected by the CAN-SPAM Act, by the way. Just like marketing text messages, this type of SMS will greatly help your salon’s customer experience. And happy days actually, appointment reminders are perfect for reducing no-shows. Click here to learn why and how to make it happen.

The Key Takeaway

Chances are you’re already sending transactional texts to your clients. The next step is getting your client to opt-in to marketing SMS messages.

While marketing in email is something customers are used to ignoring (thanks to spam folders), they aren’t quite as used to it with SMS. You’ll need to work on finding what content works for your salon. However, when you find a winning approach, your SMS marketing campaigns are bound to bring in amazing results.

Are you looking for an interactive way to learn more about client retention? Our Client Retention Masterclass webinar is all about how to leverage your staff to support client retention, master client referrals to build thriving return business, put together a lucrative loyalty scheme and get your salon to do all of this client retention work for you!

sms salon advertising

Thanks for reading!

#LetsGrow

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