Marketing To Mature Clients

Why Market to Mature Hair & Beauty Clients?

So why should you be interested in marketing to mature clients, this over-45 mature hair and beauty audience?

Marketing to mature clients because:

It is one of the fastest-growing segments of the population.
It’s very ‘me-focused’.
And has a higher level of disposable income and more leisure time than any other demographic.
Many are newly single, actively seeking a new relationship and want to look and feel their best.

Targeting this mature audience is a must-have marketing strategy for any salon, aesthetic clinic or spa. Many salons and spas pay only lip service to this group so it’s a clientele ripe for the picking.

Over 50’s often feel patronised and stereotyped. How many times is the marketing for hair thinning products or anti-ageing treatments packaged up to look like something your granny would choose? Hardly appealing to a glamorous mature woman.

SAM Salon Software gives you the tools to run a targeted campaign, but first, you must clearly create your message on marketing to mature clients.

Think about your own salon, spa or clinic marketing. Are your marketing messages bursting with generalisations about older clients? Could your marketing messages be alienating and annoy the very audience you should be attracting? Have a look at your salon, and your promotional material and consider if you are providing a welcoming environment for this market.

If your idea of marketing to mature clients is a cute silver-haired couple walking along the beach, holding hands and admiring the sunset then you’ve missed the point.

You’ve also missed out on a massive, highly lucrative hair and beauty audience. Think Elle MacPherson, Julieanne Moore, and Helen Mirran as examples of women over 50 who spend a fortune on their hair, beauty regime and anti-ageing treatments and body. They look fabulous and could not be further from the marketing stereotype of ‘mature woman’.

So how do you create a campaign for this customer group?

A good place to start is to visualise a salon client you know well;

What does she wear?
How does she spend her leisure time?
What are her favourite hair or beauty treatments?
Where does she shop?
When does she visit your salon?
And, most importantly, what are her hair or beauty concerns?

Armed with this information, you can now write precisely targeted marketing messages to appeal to your mature clients. Create a separate marketing list for these mature clients by filtering your salon database to identify everyone who falls into this age bracket.

The secret here is to find the right marketing slant that will appeal to these diverse older salon clients. We’re talking savvy buyers here, with a ‘you get what you pay for’ attitude to beauty, aesthetics and hair.

This mature audience wants and expects quality from hair and beauty treatments, products and customer service. They have no qualms about shopping around for the right salon or aesthetic clinic. With their insistence on looking and feeling their best, settling for second best isn’t an option.

Consider a targeted marketing campaign;

Encourage trial: More brand loyal than younger clients, they are nevertheless, more than happy to experiment when given the opportunity. Capitalise on this with salon offers to encourage trials rather than giving discounts.
Up-selling: Get them experimenting and make the most of their ‘me-focus’. A complimentary pedicure promotion when they book a facial doesn’t cost you much but will open their eyes to the delights of fabulous feet in summer sandals.
Fill quiet days: The ladies-who-lunch set with time on their hands can fill your quieter days early in the week. This is the occasion to offer a discount. To maximise salon profit, restrict it to selected (for which read your least busy) therapists/stylists only and in a tight time frame – aesthetic appointments starting between 9 am and noon, for example.

Educate your staff;

Remind your team of the value of building rapport.
Gently probe to uncover client concerns. When your therapist is younger than your daughter you don’t always want to admit to your beauty/age insecurities.
These clients want a beauty therapist or hair stylist they can trust and feel comfortable with.

Achieve a great marketing campaign and these clients will be a fruitful source of recommendations. Introduce a “Refer a Friend” encouraging referral scheme to capture this market.

Marketing to mature clients by the team at Australiapos.