Email Design / Email Development / Brand System
Balmain Hair Couture
A welcome series that treats every new subscriber like a guest walking through the door.
+28%
First booking rate
from new subscribers within 30 days
2.4×
ROI
on the welcome flow in the first quarter
+19%
Average ticket
on the first salon visit
The challenge
Balmain Hair Couture by Fanor is a high-end salon. The brand is built around one person: Fanor K., ambassador, master educator and co-owner. But the emails that new subscribers were receiving didn't reflect any of that. Generic layouts. No personality. No invitation to book. The welcome flow was losing people at exactly the moment they were most likely to convert.
The solution
We built a welcome series that puts the salon and its founder front and centre. The first email leads with dramatic black-and-white editorial photography, introduces the world of hair couture, and drives a boutique visit with a complimentary samples offer. The second email shifts to personalisation, asking subscribers to share their style preferences in exchange for a tailored guide and curated product selection. Every email closes with the founder's personal signature, which keeps the premium positioning grounded in a real human relationship.
The approach
01
Discovery
Reading the salon experience
Spent time understanding the guest journey from booking to post-visit. Looked at who walks in, what they expect, and how the salon already operates. The emails needed to match that standard, not invent a different one.
02
Architecture
Welcome as a booking engine
Designed the sequence around one outcome: the first booked appointment. Every email carries the guest toward the booking CTA with zero detours and no competing offers.
03
Creative direction
Editorial monochrome
Chose dramatic black-and-white photography, typographic restraint, and high contrast. The treatment matches the brand's print and social presence, which the audience already recognises.
04
Build
Production and deployment
Built on Maizzle with Klaviyo integration. Preferences captured through a tagged form feed back into segmentation for future sends.
05
Verification
Render testing
Tested across leading email clients. Dark mode validated on every client that supports it, with particular attention to how black-and-white photography holds up in inverted palettes.
Design principles
Editorial over promotional
Treat subscribers like readers of a high-end magazine. Every email feels like an issue, not a send.
Booking as the only conversion
Every email ends at the same door. No competing offers, no secondary asks, no product-shop drift.
Founder presence at close
Salons are people-businesses. The founder's signature anchors every send in a real relationship.
Design decisions
Black-and-white photography over lifestyle
Reduces visual noise and elevates the hair as subject matter. Also translates cleanly into dark mode without losing intent.
Product samples as the opening offer
Low-friction, high-quality first touch for a premium brand. Gives new subscribers a reason to give up an address without pricing the relationship.
Preference ask in email two, not email one
Personalisation lands better after the first positive interaction. Asking too early reads as a data grab, not a value exchange.
The result
New subscribers now receive an invitation that reflects where they've landed. The onboarding flow handles the job a great front-desk team member does, consistently, for every new contact — converting interest into a first booking.