How to Jumpstart a Dead Email List
Why salons & spas are sitting on their most underused growth lever
If your salon’s email list is collecting dust, so is a very real chunk of your revenue potential.
I know that’s not the most soothing opener but we don’t have time to be precious, my precious. You’ve got clients to book, hair to fluff, lashes to glue, and a business that deserves better than “hope marketing.”
Most salons & spas think they have a visibility problem.
What they actually have is a communication and retention problem and email is where that gets solved.
But before I go off about why you need to start emailing your list more let’s anchor this in real industry data:
Email has the highest ROI of any marketing channel for every $1 spent, email returns $36–$42 more than Instagram, TikTok, and ads combined. (source: HubSpot, Litmus)
Salon clients also check their email far more consistently than social.
Roughly 70–80% of appointment-based buyers prefer brands that:
send reminders
offer personalized recommendations
share insider tips
keep them in the loop with updates and offers
And here’s the one most people gloss over:
60–70% of salon revenue comes from existing clients.
Email is the #1 channel for rebooking and retention.
This matters even more if you offer high-ticket services—extensions, color corrections, skin plans, lash memberships anything that requires trust and timing. (source: Square + GlossGenius industry reports)
Email lets you:
educate
build trust
handle objections
create desire
position yourself as the expert
Social introduces you.
Email closes you.
Email is so wildly underused in salons and spas that it remains a goldmine for the businesses that treat it with intention & specificity (this is you starting today!)
If you did nothing in 2026 but double down on building trust through thoughtful, consistent email—my guess is you’d double your business. Not by doing more but by finally supporting the part of the client relationship that actually drives decisions.
So let’s talk about how to wake a “dead” list up without sounding awkward, salesy, or desperate and let’s get you rocking email on a level that will have everyone going “How did she do that?”
The quiet advantage salons don’t realize they have
Most businesses struggle to build trust. Salons & Spas already have it.
Think about it… Clients literally hand you their appearance, their confidence, their time and that level of trust is rare.
Email doesn’t need to create trust from scratch.
It just needs to maintain it.
The majority of salon revenue comes from existing clients.
I’m talking about the clients who raised their hand and said, yes—keep me in the loop.
They’ve already chosen you and trust you.
And yet, when I ask salon/spa owners if they are emailing their list they say “yes when we have a sale or a promo.” I quietly wilt inside*
Imagine rewarding a trust fall (AKA them giving you their email) with a discount code (whomp whomp)
When email skips relationship and goes straight to selling, it skips something important and truthfully, it’s a missed opportunity. It isn’t just a sales channel, it’s one of the few places you can build trust at scale, over time, without asking for anything in return.
And trust is the real driver in the buying cycle especially for high-ticket services like extensions, corrective color, advanced skin plans, and long-term treatments. These decisions aren’t impulsive. They’re built slowly, through consistency, clarity, and feeling understood.
Social introduces you.
Email deepens the relationship.
Trust closes the sale & keeps them coming back!
You’re already doing this —you’re just not calling “email”
Salons and spas are excellent at invisible systems.
You don’t call it strategy when you:
reorder towels before you’re down to your last clean one
note a client’s formula so you don’t have to “start from scratch” next time
recommend maintenance timing instead of waiting for damage
adjust a treatment plan based on how someone responded last visit
You don’t label this as marketing, you label it as doing your job well and servicing clients at the highest level because that’s who you are!!
Email is meant to work the same way, as the operational layer that holds the relationship together between appointments & clients.
When email is treated like a random extra, it feels like rushing someone off the table.
When it’s an extension of service to your clients, it’s the follow-through that keeps them coming back.
Why marketing feels harder than running out of towels
I know you HATE to run out of towels and I know most of you probably hate marketing more than you hate running out of towels.
But the reason marketing feels so draining isn’t bc you’re lazy or lack of discipline.
It’s because marketing is usually framed as constant output but it’s not. Email done well is actually the opposite. It’s fewer touchpoints, clear timing & simple guidance.
It doesn’t ask clients to pay attention constantly and it shows up when it matters.
That’s why appointment reminders work.
It’s why post-service follow-ups convert and why rebooking emails actually turn into paying clients over clever Instagram captions…. every time.
The Reset email (what everyone does vs. what works)
A dead list doesn’t need enthusiasm or apologies and please, for the love of all things holy, it does not need a paragraph explaining why you’ve been quiet.
I always laugh a little when someone announces they’re “taking time off socials.”
As if the entire list has been checking their watch.
As if anyone was like, Wow, she’s been gone 3 weeks?! hope she’s okay.
No one noticed.
And that’s both the good news and the opportunity.
Because it means you’re not returning to judgment or scrutiny. You’re returning to a clean slate which is exactly why most “we’re back” emails miss the mark.
So we aren’t going to send a “we’re back” email because I think we can do so much better.
What actually brings a list back to life isn’t the announcement, it’s the tone reset.
You reset email needs authority and calm.
You’re not reintroducing yourself, you’re re-establishing leadership.
A good reset email answers one quiet question every reader is asking, even if they don’t realize it yet:
Can I trust you to guide me again?
Here’s what that looks like in practice:
1. Lead with orientation, not explanation.
Skip the backstory. Open with what you’re focused on now.
What season are you in? What are you paying attention to? What matters to clients right now?
2. Be specific instead of enthusiastic.
Specificity reads as confidence.
“I’m excited to be back” doesn’t land nearly as well as
“Right now, we’re helping clients prep their hair for winter dryness / maintain extensions between visits / think differently about skin heading into spring.”
3. Set expectations gently.
A single line is enough:
“I’ll be sharing a few thoughtful notes here each month.”
Calm. Predictable. Professional.
4. Close with guidance, not a CTA.
A reset email doesn’t need to sell, it needs to reassure.
End with something useful, grounding, or clarifying. Something that makes the reader feel steadier than when they opened it!
A good reset email doesn’t shout, I’m back!
It quietly communicates something far more important:
You’re in good hands again.
The “one useful thing” (where most people fumble)
When salons hear “value,” they usually think:
tips
tricks
hacks
And but in 2026 giving more value doesn’t mean anything they can Google or find out from Chat. Your clients don’t need more information, they need help deciding what actually matters.
That’s why the most effective “value” emails do a few very specific things:
they narrow the focus
they explain why something matters now
they sound like advice you’d give chair-side, not online
This is the difference between:
“Here are five products you should use”
and
“Here’s the one thing I’d pay attention to this month and why.”
Dead lists don’t come back to life because you taught someone something new.
They come back when clients feel looked after, not educated at.
Rebooking emails (these work!)
When clients haven’t booked in a while, most salons reach for urgency.
Limited spots.
Expiring offers.
Last-chance language.
But hesitation isn’t always resistance often, it’s just… life.
The most effective rebooking emails don’t ask,
Why haven’t you booked?
They imply,
We’re paying attention to you. We know life is busy so we are here to remind you….
That distinction matters.
Timing-based emails work because they feel like follow-through, not persuasion like maintenance, not marketing and that’s why they quietly outperform offers every time.
Write a Series Email
One of the simplest ways to take the pressure off email is to stop treating each send like a standalone event.
Think in series.
A series gives you a container. It answers the question, What am I talking about right now? so you’re not starting from scratch every time you open a blank draft.
This works especially well for high-ticket services.
Extensions. Corrective color. Skin plans. Long-term treatments.
These aren’t impulse decisions. They’re considered slowly, often privately. Clients are thinking through questions they may never ask you out loud about maintenance, timing, cost, results, commitment.
A short, focused email series creates space to address all of that without pressure.
One email can introduce the service.
Another can explain who it’s for (and who it isn’t).
Another can talk about upkeep, expectations, or common misconceptions.
You’re not trying to convince but you are helping someone think clearly and clarity builds confidence.
About promotions (and the balance that actually works)
It’s not that promotion emails are bad. I know you think are since I poo-poo’ed them but truthfully, sales emails aren’t the enemy.
The problem is when every email asks for something.
One cadence we’ve seen work especially well inside SPF House is balancing sales-driven emails with what we think of as a love note.
This doesn’t have to be gushy or sentimental (unless that’s your style).
A love note might be:
something you’re noticing with clients lately
a few things you’re really into right now
a seasonal thought, a reminder, a moment of connection
There’s no transaction at the center of it.
That doesn’t mean you never mention what’s happening in the salon or spa it just means selling isn’t the focus.
We think of these as two different emails doing two different jobs:
one builds trust, familiarity, and brand depth
the other converts, fills chairs, and drives revenue
When you treat them as separate, both work better together.
Clients feel cared for and guided.
Sales feel natural instead of forced.
Write to one person. Always.
This matters more than templates, subject lines, or frequency.
Email works when you’re writing to one person and one person only.
Not your audience.
Not your list.
Not “everyone.”
One person.
Recently, someone told me my writing made them feel naked and honestly it’s one of the best compliments I’ve ever received.
Because what they were really saying was: I felt seen.
The moment you start thinking about “your audience” something shifts. Your language pulls back and create distance without realizing it.
When you write to one specific person—the client who’s been quietly considering, the one with questions they haven’t voiced yet your words change. They get more precise. More honest and more naked.
Email isn’t meant to broadcast.
It’s meant to meet someone where they already are.
And when it does, trust builds naturally.
The pattern worth noticing
In every one of these steps, the goal isn’t to convince anyone of anything….whew
It’s to carry the relationship forward which, if we’re being honest, is already how you run your salon or spa.
You don’t disappear between appointments or skip aftercare.
You don’t wait for things to fall apart before paying attention.
Email works when it’s treated the same way. Not as a one-off campaign but was continued care for the client.
For the salons reading this thinking “I get it — I just don’t want to do it”
If reading this made you think, this makes sense but I don’t want another thing on my plate, that’s fair.
Email works best when it’s consistent, considered, and aligned with your voice which is hard to do when you’re also running a floor, managing staff, and keeping towels stocked.
Inside SPF House, this is exactly what we support:
custom email strategy built around your services and client lifecycle
templates written in your voice (not marketing-speak)
execution that actually gets sent
If you’re ready to take email off your plate or finally turn it into something that works quietly in the background — we’re here for you.