In this image conscious society, tanning is still big business. But, how can you go about successfully marketing your tanning salon on the limited advertising budget that most small businesses have to work with?

Traditional advertising such as the local Yellow Pages, or radio and television, however small the station, are just too far out of the advertising budget that many tanning salons have to work with. In addition, how well this kind of investment works is almost impossible to track. You may indeed be gaining a new client as a result of a commercial they have seen or heard, but the chances are you will forget to ask, and hopefully the new client themselves will be more interested in your line of great tanning crèmes than sharing with you how they found your tanning salon specifically. However, to survive and prosper, especially in the winter months, when the customer base for tanning salons is usually smaller, marketing your tanning salon effectively is crucial.

There is another, very effective and economical method of marketing your tanning salon that you may have never considered, or even heard much about. In today’s economic climate, the savvy tanning salon operator should consider the great power of online advertising. Thanks to the great spread of everyday Internet use by exactly the people you need to target and the power of major search engines like Google, you can target specific geographical areas for people searching basic keywords, in this case things like “tanning ” “sunless tanning” and “tanning bed”. Even better, online advertising lets you target the specific demographic you are seeking. Since it is people who already have a desire to look tan who will be clicking on your ad, half the battle is already won.

But how does this kind of marketing really convert into great tanning salon advertising? Most effectively you need to direct the person who clicked on your brief little online ad to a more expansive “landing page”. On this page you need to create a great and compelling reason for this potential customer, or visitor (they are “visiting” your page now) to share their basic contact information with you. Offering a free tanning session, or free tanning crème with paid tanning session in return for a visitor sharing their name, telephone number and email address with you via a short contact form. These results are emailed to you instantly, allowing you to follow up these “hot leads” while your tanning salon is still fresh in their minds.

The true beauty of using the Internet and this kind of tanning salon advertising is how little it costs. You will only be charged for potential customers who take the time to “click” on your ad specifically, those people who are demonstrating a real interest in tanning and your salon. Online advertising like this really is the best and economically sensible way to make the best of your tanning salon marketing dollar.