Time to put an advert in the local paper or on Facebook. So what do you write? Well there are tons of books on this and lots of advice around on the subject but what is the right and the wrong way. Let’s look at the right way…

First of all what is the purpose of the advert? 

In my experience most Hair Salon owners think the whole purpose of the ad is for it to look good in the press. The facts show the look of an advert is secondary.

Message Always Comes First. 

Great content with a clear message that has value to someone will always get your message read and understood. 

Do great looks pull results?

No, not really. Although branding is really important the ready wants to know what’s in it for them.

What is a result?

A result is the response that comes from the advert.

What kind of response are you wanting?

The obvious answer is you want some business from it. You want a client to pick up the phone and ring you NOW.

If you have spent $/£1000 in advertising for one week it needs to be measured by the result it gives, not the way it looks.

Leaving it to the paper to prepare is a total waste of time and effort. They simply do not understand your salon business or what they want your advert to achieve.

So getting back to my main point about what are you saying in the advert. Most business will spend time talking about themselves in the advert.

For example…

AD1: since 1989 we have been doing hair of all kinds for people everywhere. We are an established local business and Mary is herself one of the best at what she does.

AD2: Stylish, shiny drop dead gorgeous hair. Want to turn heads walking down the street. That’s what we have been doing since 1989… changing lives like yours with a beautiful fabulous hair. Making you look and feel fantastic!

Which one would you respond to?

Get the point here it’s the text that sells the product.

Build in the right mindset of the client and it pulls results easily. When I say build the right mind set I mean this.

Do clients want a haircut? No, they want their dream look, nothing more, nothing less. So don’t sell haircuts, sell looks instead. If you do that you sell the clients mind set first and that pulls more response. The mindset is what the client is thinking about in relation to your service.

What you say is more important than the look.

Don’t get me wrong the look is essential and you need a superb team that create stunning looks but potential clients respond to words first and foremost.

Not sure still?

Ask yourself what kind of response do I get from ads I put out now?

There are far too many hair salon ads out there that have that usual picture stolen from a mag or Google and a bit of text about how great the salon is and how wonderful a haircut you can do.

That stuff is poor and gives nothing in return for you. Clients don’t care how great you are they care about what you can do for them… it’s that simple.

Do yourself a favour, hire a copywriter or ad man to do it for you if you cannot do it yourself. Get a good advert written and if it works for you let it run and run and you will get good results from it.