Business Showcase: The Vanilla Rooms

What is the name of your business and what industry are you in?

My business is called The Vanilla Rooms and we’re based in Bawtry, Doncaster, and we’re in the hair dressing industry. We’re an upmarket salon, we’re couture and we're experts in our field!

 
What inspired you to start up?

It was always a lifelong dream to start up my own business. I was always really creative from a young age. As a child, I wasn’t bothered with kids' magazines, I just wanted to look at my mum's fashion mags! I always knew I wanted a future in fashion, makeup, hair design, photo shoots, you know, that sort of thing to really bring to life the creativity inside me.

 

What print products do you use and how do you use them?

Well, we recently ordered a Premium Roller Banner with instantprint which works perfect at all the high-end wedding fayres I attend. It’s a fairly simple design; I had a photographer take a photograph and edit it of a popular wedding hair pin up I did on a staff member. The same staff member attends all the wedding fayres I’m booked into and we recreate the pin up in a live demonstration.

I’ve also recently ordered my usual A4 Folded Leaflets with instantprint which I use to let my customers know our prices but they also talk about our services too. These usually sit in leaflet holders in our reception area but I like to give them out at events and to all the nearby businesses I’ve built contra relationships with.

 

Why did you chose to use Roller Banners and Folded Leaflets? 

I chose these printed marketing materials mainly to grow my client base and get clients picking up their phones and booking with us at The Vanilla Rooms. Whenever you hand something out, it increases your brand awareness so more people know about you and then there’s usually a direct correlation between your exposure and your business revenue.

 
What results have you seen from your printed products? What benefits has your business had as a direct result?

I feel that no other marketing tool is able to communicate to prospective customers who you are, what you’re about and help drive a conversation like I’ve found a Roller Banner can. I always use photos of real customers or staff because I’ve found, by doing this, it makes us a relatable brand. There’s a real value to producing relatable print, especially in the hair and beauty industry. 

Folded Leaflets work great at events, especially wedding fayres. I can get all the information I need to put on them on there and they’re something nice the bride-to-be can take away and look back over. Having attended wedding fayres for years, I like to think I can instinctively spot which brides are going to book their wedding hair and which aren’t. By giving everyone I speak to a Leaflet containing my unique selling points and prices, I find brides booking their bridal hair in at the salon a couple of months after the wedding fayres. 
 

Why do you think your products do a good job at achieving your business goals?

For me and my business, it’s imperative that my business looks like it’s at the forefront of the industry. I think it’s really important to keep on top of updating print marketing, especially in the hair and beauty industry. There is always a new hair colour trend, popular celebrity style or something that’s going viral on social media that, if reflected in our print marketing, positions us as a cool, current and up-to-date salon.

I think the beauty in buying print from instantprint is that it’s super affordable. I always look at how much my order is and think how many clients do I have to have booked in the diary to break even? I think that all marketing materials should be seen as an investment into your business' future growth.

 
What stock options did you use and how did you find it worked for you?

I always have my price lists printed as A4 Folded Leaflets on the exclusive 350gsm silk stock type. I think it’s important to spend that bit extra when your marketing materials are going to play a vital part in your customer’s experience. The thick silky quality tells my customers without words that I’m a luxury brand.

 

How have you found buying print on our website?

In a word I found your website to be: easy. I’ve always found the site easy to navigate. I have a very limited knowledge on Graphic Design and anything too technological but, being an instantprint customer is so effortless; it’s almost like someone has done all the hard work for me!

 

Did our Studio Team flag any issues when you had submitted your artwork? What do you think of the 10 point check system?

Luckily not! I work with a graphic designer who’s pretty good at setting up my files ready for print. However, I will say it's really reassuring that real people quality-check my work before it’s actually produced. It gives me the peace of mind I need when I’m investing money in my business. Shopping at instantprint, I know that what I’m buying is going to be of quality, arrive promptly and made by people that clearly care about the products they’re producing. 

 

If you had to contact customer services about anything you were unsure of, what was your enquiry and how did you find the team?

When I first started using instantprint, I did contact customer services once, just for peace of mind that I’d not missed anything. I felt like the teams really understood that, to me, I was spending quite a bit of money, was a little nervous of the unknown and that I just wanted everything to be perfect. It was actually refreshing that they just seemed to ‘get it’. Being a small business owner you have to be a jack of all trades: an accountant, a manager, a councillor, a marketer, a social media expert, the list is endless! When the guys at instantprint actually explained the processes, how products are made and delivered to me in plain English, it actually gave me the confidence to order more without feeling like I didn’t know what I was doing. My customer service experience was quite empowering.