Small businesses need help to compete against the larger businesses. Hair salons are no exception. Whether you have name brands behind you or are an independent barber, you need foot traffic through your salon to thrive. To do this effectively, you will need to market. Billboards, signs, word of mouth...they're all great tools for marketing, but in today's world we need to speak the average customer's language. And that's by using the one thing they always have with them: their mobile phone. Mobile marketing is becoming more and more popular.

Mobile phones have two basic ways to receive marketing material. The first is SMS, or short messaging service. This is where you receive a text, often from an unknown source, with a short message. The second and more common, is MMS, which is multimedia service. This format is where a photo or other media is sent to the phone, giving the end user information.

Hair salons are a great business that can benefit from marketing materials. Think about all the different things you can communicate to your clients. Specials on products, buy one get one spa services, or even when a certain hair stylist has time available. Many times, people walk into the salon, have their service done, and leave. But what about keeping track of them? How do you contact your entire customer base to share specials without calling each one of them?

QR codes are the answer. Everyone has seen these. It's the square box of black modules in magazines, signs and commercials that you can use your phone to scan. Once you scan the image, it turns into data, either showing you a picture or sending you to a website. This can turn your salon upside down! Think of the possibilities...

Hair salons everywhere should put QR codes into their marketing plans. A sign in the salon with a QR code will attract attention. Clients will scan the code and then be directed to a link where they can opt in to the salon's mailing list. You will then have access to everyone's contact information without messy papers and data entry to deal with.

Once you have a customer base with their phone numbers in an easily manipulated database. Send specials instantly letting them know you're running a three hour special on shampoos. Or let them know that tomorrow you're running a customer appreciation day. They get information immediately and are happy to enjoy in the savings.

Send occasional specials to your customers to keep them happy. Don't overload them with something every day, but enough to keep your salon in the back of their mind. It will improve customer retention and will ultimately increase profits. More profits mean a booming business and opportunities to expand. All because of the mobile phone.

Mobile marketing for hair salons is the best way to increase business. Marketing in general will help expand a business, but using the very thing that everyone has with them at all times makes sense. QR codes are the biggest form of marketing now and small businesses can easily get in on them as well. It will be the best thing that ever happened to your business.

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