By Tara Sanders, Touchable Tans

It’s one of the golden dreams, isn’t it? To be able to promote your business and it not cost you anything?

Well, I’m about to tell you how to do just that! I have a way to get everyone talking about your business, and it is completely free! All you need is a great photo of one of your customers, a photo editing program, and a clean/simple caption to post. For example, I threw these together one night using www.canva.com, and some photos of my cousin.

The next morning, I posted one of the ads I made on all of my salon social media pages with only the caption: “Tag us in your best photos for a chance to be featured in our next ad!”

Within 2 hours we had people tagging the salon in all of their photos as far back as Halloween, and it didn’t cost me a penny. I’m no longer hunting and paying for image rights, plus I’m getting lots of social media coverage and referrals from clients. People are more interested in seeing their family or friends doing things than they are seeing some random model on an ad. And, even more than that, most people love being the center of attention! So, instead of using images of random people on a beach in your ads, use your real-life clients.

By posting photos of your own customers you are:

• Making that particular customer feel special
• Showing off a tan actually produced by your salon
• Causing people to stop and pay more attention to your posts when they recognize the person in the picture
• Going to get more “shares” and views of the post as people show off their moment of fame by being in your ad
• Saving yourself time and energy looking through ad images.
• Saving money!

Because of the caption that I put with my ad, I now have a stock pile of my clients’ photos to use to promote my salon at any given time. These photos have also made it easier for us to show new and potential clients what amazing tans they will get from our salon. Anytime we post someone’s photo, we make sure to mention what level of tanning they use and/or what color spray tan they are wearing. This has not only made selling tans easier but has also helped those skeptical new spray tanners who are worried about being orange. By having previous clients’ photos on hand, we are able to show the natural tones of our colors and put their minds at ease.

I hope this helps some of you to work smarter and not harder and really utilize the community you’re in.