If you’re a regular reader of Smart Tan’s Member of the Month features, you’ve probably noticed the trend in marketing: The vast majority of tanning businesses are doing more of their advertising online.

The world has evolved, and your audiences are far easier to find on Facebook and Google than at a particular intersection or radio station. Other elements that favor digital advertising include cost, efficiency and ability to track results. No company can tell you exactly who saw a billboard or heard a radio ad, but Facebook and Google can guarantee you a certain number of impressions or clicks per dollars spent, and that those dollars are only spent on potential customers, not random listeners or passers-by.

For those reasons and more, anecdotal evidence points to Facebook, Google and Instagram as the most vital platforms that tanning businesses are investing in to drive new clients and revenue. And beyond offering initial value and ease of use, the resources and tools the sites provide will help you modify your approach as you go and continually become more efficient with your digital marketing ventures.

“We’re seeing more salons turn to online resources because it can be more budget-friendly and allows you to track and manipulate with incredible detail,” says Smart Tan Marketing Manager Lydia Calderon. “All the tools and data are available in real time for you to analyze and help you improve your strategies and tactics.”

Marketing Matters

When considering your marketing budget as a whole, many of us might first need a simple reminder that marketing does drive revenue. There’s a reason the world’s largest companies still invest hundreds of millions of dollars in marketing. On average, businesses spend between three and 20 percent of revenue on marketing. For smaller companies, it tends to be around eight to 10 percent.

There are two different sides to the coin that most salons cite for not allocating substantial resources to marketing: Either they’re not doing well enough to fit marketing in their budget, or they’re well enough established in their community that doing more seems unnecessary.

But, both views are shortsighted. If your tanning business isn’t making enough money, it’s not going to magically turn around on it’s own; enhanced marketing is the cheapest and quickest way to start in the right direction.

On the other side, there’s always more room to grow, and as they often say, “if you’re not moving forward, you’re moving backward.” Even if you’re an independent salon in a small town with no competition, and you feel like everybody in town knows you, strategic marketing can still convince people to come in more, spend more, and spend in the ways that are most beneficial to you and them.

Click here to read the entire article in the latest issue of Smart Tan Magazine online.