Is this the year we’ve all been waiting for? I believe every indication is showing increased prosperity for those that have made changes as the industry has matured and evolved. We are no longer the industry we once were. The salons of the ’80s, ’90s and the 2000s are no longer. We’re not tanning salons anymore; we are sunlight spas. What I mean by that is, you just can’t open a location with some beds and make it work. You need well-trained staff that will educate and pamper your clients. You need to give the client other optionsother than UV tanning equipment. Whether you offer spray booths, custom hand-held spray tans, infra-red sauna, stream pods, dry IR heat pods, body wrap or other spa service, you need to integrate some or all of these services in your salon.

Updating some of your UV equipment as well has shown to increase sales. Upgrading some of your UV equipment show your clients your reinvesting. Everyone loves to see new eye candy!! It doesn’t have to be new equipment, just new equipment to your salon. The salons that have done this continue to increase their sales. Why not have your clients do more than one session per visit? What I mean by that is when you have other services to offer, clients can do multiple sessions per day and you get more dollars per client.

Salons that put 2 or 3 collections of products on there shelves and educate their staff on those products see increased sales. This means investing in a large amounts of products that are diverse in price range, as well as ingredients. The client needs to see that you believe in your products. By having fully stocked shelves, that’s exactly what the client perceives.

The JCTA marketing program, as you may have read in earlier articles, started in October, two months earlier than previous years, due to increased memberships and spending limited amounts on government relations. The ads that we have been using have generated almost what we did in impressions for the whole of last year, and we still have six months to go. We made some changes this year with Google Ads: We’re using “Responsive Display Ads” which has increased our impression rate as well as click rate to TanResponsibly.ca. Twice the number of Canadians are going to the website every day compared to last year, seeing the closest three salons to them and getting our side of the story out there. Consumers are able to directly link to salon member websites and check out what each offer. The “PreTan/ ComeInside” campaign so far has far exceeded our expectations. With the relevance on ads at 10, our cost per click is at the lowest it’s ever been for Facebook ads. We hope our next campaign, which is “Lifestyle” will be as successful.

Here are some screenshots of Facebook video ads from the PreTan/ComeInside campaign. When seen on Facebook, the videos play to attract more attention. Click the images to view the video clips that play on Facebook.

Canada Man & Outdoor to Indoor

One of the most important things the JCTA has taken on this year is the Canadian Tanner Survey. JCTA members salons — from Jan 15^th to the 31^st — will take part in a survey to learn more about who a Canadian sunbed user really is. The survey will find out age, sex, location, why they tan, do they pre-tan – vacation or summer, how many times a year they sunbathe, benefits of pre-tanning, and further regulations. The survey will be used for a social media campaign, “Survey Says,” to educate the 7 out 10 Canadian that sunbathe outdoors to try indoor sunbathing. As we all know, testimonials are the best way to advertise your services and products. Our opponents have been telling everyone base tans don’t work; this survey will tell a different story and will be coming from people that use the equipment, not us. There will be a full report of the survey for members to use to help market in their area.

Just one more reason why you should be a Member of the JCTA. Check out this video on why to become a member.

Have a prosperous 2019, and let’s teach “Sunburn Prevention” to everyone.

FYI, Health Canada in 2019 is doing another survey on the indoor tanning industry, as they did in 2014. The survey on indoor tanning will be part of the Canadian Community Health Survey. Make sure you’re all up to date on regulations and are following JCTA Professional Standards.