DAY TWO: WORKSHOPS #salonsmart18

A highlight of the Salon Smart agenda is always the interactive workshops and this year was no exception. Guests were given the opportunity to experience both topics, one on a new approach to marketing your salon successfully, and the other on the business of colour.

“There’s no longer a single channel of communication – you have to take a full circle approach to attract new clients and increase revenue from existing clients.” – This was the opening gambit from Zoë Vears, the director of publicity at Salon Success in her ‘Integrated Marketing’ session. Zoë took the audience through five key channels of communication needed to achieve business success in the modern world: philanthropy – to connect you to the community and press (but make sure it’s authentic!); education – to give stylists confidence and grow their skills; support materials – to help you work with your brand partner or distributor to amplify your message; digital marketing – to provide out-of-hours awareness and engage with your client base; and public relations – to build a favourable reputation for your business.

Straight talking salon owner Alan Edwards set out the objective of his workshop session with a typical no nonsense approach – “We’re going to stimulate and provoke your thought processes and approach to the business of colour.”

Breaking down buzzwords, Alan explained that many salons actually have more skills than they think – they just weren’t using the language to engage their clients. “We have been doing freehand painting for years,” he said. “We just weren’t calling it balayage. Balayage is massive because there is the technology to promote it.” And as for goals? Alan recommends aiming for 70% of female clients having colour done – show them what you’re capable of!

Check out more images from Salon Smart 2018 in our Facebook galleries.