Planning for a new year has the potential to feel overwhelming, but it is time well spent. Having a road map for marketing your business is essential and will help function as a blueprint for your decision-making in the coming year. Remember, what you say “no” to can be as important—sometimes more so—than what you say “yes” to. Here are five steps to help you craft your 2022 business plan.
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Planning for a new year has the potential to feel overwhelming, but it is time well spent. Having a road map for marketing your business is essential and will help function as a blueprint for your decision-making in the coming year. Remember, what you say “no” to can be as important—sometimes more so—than what you say “yes” to. Here are five steps to help you craft your 2022 business plan.
Step 1: Assess where you’re at.
The first step to planning your 2022 strategy is to step back and evaluate what worked and what didn’t in 2021. You can’t move forward until you take into consideration an honest assessment of your current state. Are you happy with your revenue? Are your expenses in sync with your profitability goals? What about your guests—do you have a good idea of who they are and where they are?
Take some time to look over your salon’s business metrics and evaluate how you’ve tracked to the previous year’s goals. Consider performing a quick SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) analysis list to help you highlight great wins, uncover blind spots and reveal areas of opportunity. A lot has changed in the past year in the beauty industry and likely in your business, so make sure to take this into account.
Step 2: Create stretch (yet achievable) goals.
Once you have taken time to reflect on 2021, you’ll want to start establishing key goals for 2022. Create three to five specific goals that can be tracked and measured. A few broad stroke goals include average ticket price, visit frequency and team retention.
While it’s good to be optimistic about what you want to accomplish, you must also be realistic. Tell yourself the truth. Setting goals that are not achievable can hurt confidence and reduce productivity; after all, everyone enjoys a good win!
Step 3: Set a budget.
The word “budget” alone might send shivers down your spine. That’s completely understandable. Money conversations can be uncomfortable, but they are 100 percent necessary. These are some tips that may make you feel more at ease with allocating your marketing spend:
- A general rule of thumb is to budget about 10 percent of your sales goal, then manage it up or down based on specifics. For example, if you’re opening a new location, you’ll want to boost your budget to fund tactics that drive new traffic.
- Focus spending on channels that work for you. Advertising on Facebook/Instagram is more expensive than emerging channels like TikTok, but if your audience isn’t Gen Y or Gen Z, you may find TikTok isn’t ideal and spending on targeted Facebook/Instagram programs is money well spent.
- Make sure to take internal expenses into account—that includes content creation, email marketing and referral programs.
- Ask for help. Make sure your team is supportive of your budget by scheduling budget check-ins each quarter, or whenever you feel it’s necessary.
- Don’t be afraid to change course. If something is not working the way you want or need it to, stop paying for it.
Step 4: Target your efforts to your audience.
You’ve probably heard this before: Speak to everyone, and you speak to no one. Marketing efforts should be targeted to the right audience for your salon, and it’s you who should know this audience best.
It could be helpful to survey existing guests if you’re considering new services, new products or even a new referral program. Talk to your customers, engage them. With our clients at Brandettes, I’ve found Instagram polls, a brief email survey or a quick question/answer at the reception desk to be easy-to-execute options that yield great information.
Once you determine where your target market lives, works and plays, or how they are evolving, you’ll be able to start developing strategies and campaigns that speak directly to them, and therefore convert at a higher rate.
Step 5: Develop a simple, ROI-based plan.
Marketing plans don’t have to be complicated to be effective. In fact, the simpler the better, with all activities designed to drive a return on investment (ROI).
Build out a 30-, 60- and 90-day tactical plan. For most small businesses, it’s not necessary to tax yourself with trying to plan nine or ten months ahead—focus on short- and medium-term plans that can flex as needed. Consider organizing your plan into the following:
- Owned activities—your website, organic social media content, email marketing, loyalty programs, referrals, promotions and in-salon merchandising
- Paid programs—paid ads (social included), influencer marketing, events, sponsorships and more
- Earned exposure—media exposure, word of mouth, Yelp/Google reviews, awards, unpaid endorsements
When determining the channels that will reach your target market, start listing out some actionable campaigns to support your goals. The more specific, the better to best capture attention. Make sure the message you’re delivering clearly communicates your salon’s unique point of difference.
At the end of the day, nothing is set in stone. If you start executing on your strategy and you don’t like the outcome, change it. Rework your goals, budget, target market, channels and deliverables to help you achieve the desired outcome.
But wait, what if things change? They absolutely will! And that’s why your strategy will help. No matter what happens in 2022, your plan will help you stay true to your salon’s model and marketing goals. That’s why planning your marketing strategy now is vital—it should act as a foundational and flexible guide for the year ahead.
LISH Creative
