ETS Tanning Bed Blog

Tanning is the only thing you can do to change your appearance literally overnight.

Sometimes we just need a personal change. Change our look, change how we feel, change our image. Maybe you've got a special meeting coming up, or a surprise vacation, or you just feel like trying something new.

If you ever want a quick change, there are a number of things you can do. You can change your wardrobe, but that's expensive. You can change your hair color or hair style, but you'll be stuck with that for months, and a good hair stylist can cost you $100 or more.

Tanning is a good option, because you can start to develop a tan and healthy look after just one session, like you just took a quick trip to the beach for the weekend. And a couple of sessions in a week or two can enhance it.

Sure, you can go to the gym, but as soon as you're done, you'll look the same, just sweatier and stinkier. (Now, we do advocate going to the gym or getting some form of exercise, but it doesn't bring the quick change you wanted.)

Tanning is fast, convenient, and controlled. You can choose your session time, session cost and results you desire based on the various tanning bed alternatives offered in salons. Your salon professional will guide you based on skin type and your personal tanning experience.

While we like the sun and advocate people spending time outdoors, we also know that schedules don't always afford us the time to spend outside during the day. And by the time we've got a block of time, it's dark outside, or cold and in the middle of winter.

So if you want to make a quick, inexpensive change to your image, consider indoor tanning as a way to stick your toe in the water. Try it out and see if you like it.

Yesterday, we talked about how tanning salons can get started on Twitter. Today, I want to give you some ideas on how you can use Twitter to grow your tanning business.

CoffeeGroundz, a coffee shop in Houston, Texas, is credited with having one of the first commercial transactions on Twitter. It all started when one of their regulars sent a direct message (DM) to the shop for a breakfast burrito pickup. Since then, they have turned their Twitter presence into a regular communication method with their customers, even holding a special Twitter meetup (called a Tweetup) that not only let their regulars meet with each other, but brought in big sales that day.

So how can you use Twitter to grow your business?

CoffeeGroundz tapped their regulars for their efforts, so start with yours. Ask them if they're on Twitter – if they're not, get them on it – and start following them. Send out regular Tweets to your clients, and build the expectation that you use it regularly. When that happens, your clients will start communicating with you too.

Once you've built up a Twitter following, and are using it on a regular basis, here are some ways to use it.

• Send out announcements, sales, and special offers to your followers. ("Special Twitter sale: Refer a new member, get 2 weeks of free upgrades.")
• Send out cancellation notices to fill a spot: ("We had a spot open up from 3:30 - 4:00. First DM gets it.")
• Forward articles to your followers about the industry, tanning techniques, and things that might affect them (this is where it pays to get to know your clients).
• Create a "message-ahead" program. Let clients DM you for appointments and cancellations.
• Use GroupTweet.com to create groups of clients. Maybe you can communicate with your premier members with one message, regular members with another, and a third to occasional members.
• Run Twitter-based contests where the winner gets a special prize. ("Tell us your most outrageous vacation story, win a free bottle of tanning lotion."
• Make sure you send Tweets that are actually interesting to your clients. While it's good to have 1-on-1 conversations with your followers, if that's all you're doing, your followers will get bored. Get a personal Twitter account if you want the personal conversations.
• On the other hand, participate in group conversations with your clients. See if you can stimulate conversations between them, and build a community of Twitter tanners (Twanners? Why not?). (Asking questions to your followers, like the outrageous vacation example above, will generate this conversation.)
• Use a program like Tweetdeck – a Twitter client that sits on your desktop – and keep it open all the time. If you have an iPhone or BlackBerry, there are special Twitter clients for them too.
• If your clients are going on vacation and putting their tan to use, encourage them to Tweet photos to you via TwitPic , and retweet them to all of your followers. This will help build your community.

If you can build your Twitter following, you will have made your tanning salon a special place to be for your clients. The more they feel a sense of belonging – a sense of community – the more they'll stay involved. Occasional clients will become regulars, regulars will become premier members, and they'll refer their friends.

That's a great ROI for a free application that only lets you send 140-character messages.

Twitter has been in the mainstream media for the last several weeks, which means it has probably reached its tipping point. It was on Charlie Rose last night, on our local FOX station this morning, in the New York Times, and a lot of other mainstream media outlets.

Tanning salons are in a great position to take advantage of social networking tools like Twitter. Twitter is an important way for people to communicate with a lot of people quickly and easily. By typing a 140-character message, you can ask questions, provide information, tell people about books or articles you're reading, and even make plans with friends.

You build up your readers – called followers in the "Twitterverse" – by following them, and they'll follow you in return. Pretty soon, you have a small community of people with shared interests, geography, or relationships. Then, when you send out a message, your followers will see it, and respond. If they write a message back, their followers will see the response. It's like instant messaging in a crowded room.

Your hands are very important in the self-tanning process.

When you're applying self-tanning lotion, the problem is that you'll end up rubbing more tanning lotion onto your hands than the rest of your body, and they'll look unnatural.

If you want a natural looking, glowing tan, the last thing you would have is tanned palms. If your hands are orange or built up, everyone will know it's fake. Of course, the best tans come from tanning beds and indoor tanning, rather than lotion. But if you're traveling, or your schedule doesn't let you visit your regular tanning salon, then this will do in a pinch...

The best method is to wear gloves while you're applying the lotion. You can buy latex gloves at Wal-Mart or Target, and these are ideal. They're thin, inexpensive, disposable, and they don't soak up the lotion like cloth gloves will.

If you don't have any gloves, then it's important that you wash your hands several times during the application process. Be sure to scrub the creases in your hands and in between your fingers. You don't want any build-up in those areas. But don't skip the gloves if you can help it.

After you're done washing your hands, be sure to use a moisturizing lotion so your hands don't get dry and cracked. Repeated washings can dry out your hands quickly, so be sure to take care of them.

It’s been a couple of busy weeks for tanning beds in the news. Here are the top stories:

Tanning Business Inspiration from Michigan  -  A couple in Michigan open a tanning spa that combines both skin rejuvenation treatments (infrared phototherapy) and three levels of tanning beds. If you’re looking for some new business ideas, pricing examples or even a little new-business inspiration - it’s a good read. Gettin’ Brown in the Downtown  click here to read.

A Tanning Salon Turn-Around Story from Texas  -  An inspirational tanning salon success story from Texas – a young woman took over a small, failing salon in 2002 and has since turned into a major business with add-ons like 30-minute circuit training, lumiere light therapy, 18 beds and a gift shop selling over $100,000 worth of inventory. The story, Island Tans Still Going Strong, can be found here.

The Edmonton Sun Reports on the Benefits of Tanning and Vitamin D  -  According to the Edmonton Sun, a Canadian newspaper, Vitamin D is an integral part of healthy living. In an interview with Dr. Marc Sorenson (the author of Vitamin D3 and Solar Power for Optimal Health), he recommends a few sessions per week in a low-pressure tanning bed. The article can be found here, but scroll down for the good part.

Tanning beds have traditionally been divided into 4 levels, level 4 being the highest quality. But, the new Velocity HP 1000 is so advanced; it’s being dubbed the first level 5 tanning bed.

Standing 7.5 feet high, the Velocity HP 1000 is a radically new type of horizontal tanning bed with an open and inviting design that has no sides and puts space between the tanner and the bulbs. It’s incredibly innovative and so distinct and unique that true tanning bed connoisseurs will be clamoring for it.

Of course, the Velocity is more than just a pretty face…

Here are 6 key strategies that you can use to bring tanners back into your tanning beds more often. Remember, your repeat and returning clients are your business’s bread and butter, so use these strategies wisely to not only get them coming back, but also spending more at every visit.

1. Communicate with your customers.
Communicating with your customers doesn’t mean sending them a mass email, it means building a personal relationship with each of them.

• Start by learning everyone’s name.
• If a customer tries a new lotion, call them in a few days to see how they liked it.
• If a customer upgrades to a new tanning bed , follow up with an email asking about the results.

Basically, start communicating with your customers on a truly personal level.

2. Acknowledge your customers and make them feel special.
Keep your tanning bed users coming back by acknowledging them and making them feel special. A great way to do this is to host a special event around the holidays, put on an open house or treat your best customers to free samples of lotions, tanning bed sessions, etc.

3. Create and sell long-term buying programs.
You should already have monthly membership scheme for your tanning beds, but do you have:

• A Tanning Product of the Month Club?
• Do you offer discounts on tanning package "refills" or multiple tanning lotion purchases?
• What about varying tanning membership levels?

These are all programs you can create to get your customers buying more over the long term.

4. Use price incentives to lure clients into trying new services.
Let’s say you just got a new Velocity tanning bed in, but no one’s trying it (hard to believe that would happen, I know!). Instead of letting that new bed sit empty, try offering your clients one free upgrade or a discounted rate on the new bed. That kind of price incentive could convince a client to try the new tanning bed and stick with it at the higher price.

5. Develop a range of products you can sell.
Stop and ask yourself:
The goal of this exercise isn’t to flood your business with non-applicable offerings, but to focus on what could fit into your existing product line.

For example, one tanning salon owner I know noticed that the bulk of her new clients came in because they were planning a vacation and wanted to get a base tan. So, she started stocking small travel accessories that were functional and chic. She saw a major return on her investment.

6. Promote other businesses.
We’ve talked about cross-promotion before, but it’s definitely worth mentioning again. Just as your own client list is valuable, so are those of fellow businesses. Develop a relationship with a complimentary business like a nail salon, cosmetic dentist or local gym and start trading referrals.