Crystal Knox, Color Me Tan

When her young son inherited ownership of Color Me Tan, Crystal Knox’s career trajectory shifted dramatically. She left the construction world to run a tanning salon, finding an appreciation for the industry along the way. After only a few years, she has made in indelible mark on the business, in part due to her perceptive approach to marketing. Crystal shares her experiences with Facebook and Pandora Radio:

Facebook is quite the tool. We are constantly doing contests and fun little things on our page. For example, we posted a meme that let customers figure out their leprechaun name for St. Patrick’s Day. We also post little trivia games about tanning where we give away bottles of lotion. That has made the page more interactive and has brought our fan base up. We don’t advertise airbrushing a whole lot, but we do show before and after pictures for spray tans, and we’ll post pictures of me working a pageant or competition.

Pandora has been great. I just can’t believe how many people have heard our ads. People I haven’t talked to in years will send me an email or text that they heard the ad. Out here in Alaska, the radio stations are difficult because they are all so different, and we have a really diverse client base, so it’s tough to pick a single demographic to target. Our first ad on Pandora was a play on “Game of Thrones.” We set the right mood with music and talked about they could avoid being a White Walker by coming into Color Me Tan. If they mentioned the ad, they got a percentage off.

I got into it when a representative for Pandora contacted me. I was at an event and he approached me, so I followed up with a meeting. I wasn’t sure at first because it was different from what most people were doing up here. We ended up doing it, and there was a moment when I knew we did the right thing: I was at Taco Bell at two in the morning, and the people in the car ahead of me were having a good time when I heard our ad play. We were part of this cool moment they were having and I knew we were onto a different kind of advertising.

Even if you don’t see the return immediately, people know your name, and that makes it feel like you’re the only salon in town. They see your logo, they see you sponsoring events, and that makes a difference, especially in a community like Anchorage. I feel confident about the money I spend on marketing even when I’m at the higher end of my budget. There are a lot of ways to save money, but when you cut corners on marketing, you shoot yourself in the foot. You shouldn’t stop marketing if you’re doing well. People try to advertise when business is down, but it’s usually down because of something else that’s going on. Marketing helps keep you on top; it doesn’t bring you from the bottom up.

To learn more about the salon, visit www.colormetanak.com.