In a highly competitive industry built upon word of mouth recommendation, getting your salon brand out there is really important if you want to stay relevant and at the forefront of your client’s mind. Salon industry awards are the perfect way to amplify your brand to a wide range of people whilst engaging your competitors and clients. And this is particularly the case if you want to show off the skill-sets and talents of your salon staff by nominating them for industry awards. Here, we catch up with the award-winning stylist, Martyn Maxey to learn more about salon publicity and industry awards.

The benefits of award publicity…

“All publicity is good publicity. You should enter each and every competition you can that is free to enter. Depending on budget and objective as some competitions charge a ‘selection fee’ or an ‘entrance fee’ you can enter loads more. Local competitions always enhance you and give great awareness. National competitions show you where you stand nationally both as a used as a salon edit and to give you some insight as to how much more you need to better yourself.”

More on industry competitions…

“Doing competitions every now and then is nice but done over a sustained period of time shows dedication and continual elevated ability that few salons or stylists ever achieve. We can all be good for a day and great for an hour but success over many years is very hard and very rare.”

“I entered my first competition in 1978 and won, after 40 years of hairdressing we are still winning, currently London Salon of the Year and last month voted Afro Caribbean salon of London. Along with winning national awards in 2014/2015/2016/2017.”

Winning competitions…

“Winning, even being placed, will enhance the salon and make clients feel good about their choice of salon as well as motivate the staff and confirm their chosen place of work is the right one to succeed. You should also enter all members of staff when you get the opportunity, best junior, best newcomer, best reception, best marketing, best charity, best image, best customer service. all important all can be achieved and all will benefit the salon at some level.”

And any parting advice?

“Don’t just go for the same old, same old competitions, do all and every one, and give as much effort to all as you can.”

And if you aren’t quite ready to enter the world of industry competitions, have you thought about trade events? We have previously discussed why hair and beauty trade shoes are good for your salon business. Find out about all the popular events and get to grips with networking.

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