Hair and beauty is one of those industries that customers are willing to pay for quality — looking good is big business. Women spend up to £40,000 on hair and £100,000 on make-up in their lifetime, according to hairtrade.com, and few people will book an appointment at a salon that looks shabby. So, it’s important that you project professionalism at all times and portray your services in an attractive fashion — which is where print marketing comes in.
But, which form of print marketing will work best for your beauty company? While there are many services available, from case bound book printing to Outdoor Pvc Banners, a well-designed leaflet could be the cost-effective, moneymaking opportunity for you. And here, we’re going to find out why…
Leaflets are visual and so is beauty.
According to studies, you have just 50 microseconds to make a good first impression — in other words, not a lot of time. So, surely, you need promotional material that creates an instant impact, immediately signals your USPs, and is positively and attractively presented. A leaflet, unlike a brochure or pamphlet that can feature several pages, allows you to condense the very best of your services and products into one, easy-to-read page for maximum effect.
As the owner of a beauty business, your target consumer will be someone who cares about how they look. In fact, a Consumer Insights 2017 report by Cosmetics Europe found that 71% of consumers believe that cosmetic and personal care are ‘important or very important in their daily lives’, which makes offering your customers a beautifully designed leaflet all the more necessary and effective.
Use pleasant, complementary colours to create a nice aesthetic and opt for an elegant font to create an impression of class. High-quality imagery featuring happy customers is also a shrewd tactic and will help catch your audience’s eye. According to 3M, a science-based tech company, humans process images 60,000 times faster than text. Therefore, incorporating two descriptive photos in your leaflet is likely to improve how much about your beauty business the reader takes in — which should mean they’re more likely to consider you.
Using direct mail improves the efficiency of your leaflet campaign
Women who are between the ages of 18 and 34 make up the largest part of the cosmetics market, and this age band may be your target consumer as a beauty business owner — but the problem is: how do you contact these women specifically? If you adopt your leaflet marketing strategy as a direct mail campaign, your leaflets will allow you to target potential customers within a particular age bracket in key locations around your business. Direct mail is a form of marketing that helps companies send promotional material to a targeted group of current or potential customers. Therefore, you can reduce waste, save on over-ordering at the printer, and increase the chance that your leaflet will reach the right person. To do this, either conduct your own target audience research — for example, by using social media or surveys — or purchase key data, like ages and addresses, from third-party sites.
Standing out with direct mail print marketing
We don’t need to tell you that your industry has a lot of competition. With new products constantly coming onto the market, fresh trends rising and dropping, and the growing influence of online beauty tutorials, you have a lot to contend with in the sector.
Out of all industries, the beauty sector was actually one of the few that fared relatively well throughout the recession of 2008. The global skincare, beauty and cosmetics industry is anticipated to reach a worth of $675 million by 2020. With a value of around £17 billion in the UK and employing more than one million people, these figures show that beauty is a lucrative and attractive sector for entrepreneurs. So, how do you stand out?
Using leaflets as part of a direct mail print marketing campaign will help get your logo and brand out there. At a time when digital platforms seem to be taking over multiple parts of our lives — from how we pay for goods to how we speak with friends — you need an advertising strategy that sets you apart. So, go against the grain and invest in print. You probably already have a Facebook page and Instagram account to keep in touch with your clients, as well as an email database to send out deals as you wish. Therefore, opting for print marketing campaign will allow you to widen your net and reach an offline audience.
According to research by a neuromarketing firm, direct mail requires approximately 20% less brain effort to process than digital media, indicating that it is simpler to understand and store in our memories. In a recall test, 75% of those taking part were able to recall the business name after viewing it on a direct mail ad, compared to only 44% who were able to after seeing it on a digital ad. Is it possible that all of those beauty brands that put all their ads and offers online are missing a trick?
Leaflets can boost your ROI
According to Direct Line for Business, starting and running a beauty salon is ‘not cheap’, therefore you should try and save money wherever you can. Unlike look books and catalogues, a single-sheet leaflet is one of the more cost-effective print options. Similarly, a one-off bulk purchase of leaflets may work out less in the long run than the cost it takes to maintain and run a digital marketing campaign. Despite common misconceptions that claim digital to be a free-of-charge platform for effective marketing techniques, your print material may actually be more effective than anything you could create digitally. A study that looked at the efficiency of print media compared to digital platforms including online banners conducted by research firm, GfK, showed that print ads provided the highest ROI: 120%. Perhaps digital is not as useful as anticipated.
Increase your marketing staying power
Think about when people visit you. Is it regularly or as a rare treat? If it’s often, this means you have to continually work to win their custom. If it’s seldom, you have to create marketing material that sticks in their mind so that, when they decide they want a beauty treatment, they think of you. According to the Direct Marketing Association, 45% of people keep leaflets on a board or in a drawer. So, while digital ads disappear, you can create an attractive, lightweight leaflet that your potential customer will be inclined to pin on a wall or on their fridge where they’ll have a constant reminder of your services and products.
Capitalising on discount offers
Leaflet marketing may also allow you to capitalise on attracting new customers with a discount offer. 57% of shoppers are encouraged to buy for the first time when they are given the chance to redeem a coupon, according to VoucherCloud, and 80% of consumers claim to use coupons regularly. If you’re looking to advertise new cosmetics or attract new customers for a flagging treatment, a leaflet that acts as a voucher can clearly help.
Since we’ve already discovered that people are inclined to retain leaflets, your audience will have more time to act on the tempting discount you’re offering, as opposed to receiving a pop-up ad or generic email. Plus, giving a time limit on your offer and highlighting this with a bold, coloured font on your leaflet will give your audience an effective reminder to act fast!
Leaflet marketing offers beauty businesses a world of opportunities. Research ideas and print companies online to find the ideal leaflet design to enhance and promote your brand.
