by Greg Milner | Dec 4, 2012 | Featured
Corinne Bull’s Pure Serenity Clinic in New Malden, Surrey enjoys 39% growth in 2012
Like many salons in recession-hit Great Britain, Corinne Bull’s salon business in New Malden, Surrey was struggling in post GFC 2011. But as I’ve often taught, there are ways you can ‘create your own’ economy. Like master retailer Sam Walton, she was aware of the state of the economy, and simply made a decision not to participate in it.
Corinne signed up with Worldwide Salon Marketing in October 2011. A year later – as she describes in this video interview, her October turnover was no less than 85% up on the year before, with overall 2012 business up by 39% – with final quarter 2012 still to come.
%CODE1%
by Greg Milner | Nov 23, 2012 | Featured
If you’re anything like me, the tiny details behind how technology works probably send you into a coma too. BUT…I have to face facts, and the facts are that local businesses – like salons and spas – which fail to embrace what their customers and prospects are now doing with technology are doomed to fail.
The world has changed dramatically just in the past couple of years. Your customers and prospects are now doing something – every single day – that would have been considered unthinkable just a few years ago.
They’re using their smartphones to search for products and services.
Right now, as you’re reading this, somebody is Googling on their cell phone, or using an App, to look for a hair or beauty service near you.
Pull your head out of the sand and take a look at the graphic on this page. If that’s not enough to change the way you think about how you reach your customers, nothing will.
Which is precisely why more and more salons are coming to us to build them websites and mobile phone apps that get their business in front of the eyeballs of clients and prospects – on their mobile devices.
Here’s an example of a mobile app we’ve just built for one of our salons (it happens to be in Robina, Queensland.)
%CODE1%
by Greg Milner | Oct 31, 2012 | Featured
Tamara O’Dowd of NRG Hairdressing in Leederville, Western Australia. “Business has grown by 40% in the 4 months since joining WSM and getting the My Social Salon online system…”
Every day, as Perth salon owner Tamara O’Dowd looks through her plate-glass front window to the inner-suburban street beyond, she knows that somewhere close by, at least seven prospective customers are typing ‘hair salon leederville’ or ‘hairdresser leederville’ into the search bar on their phones, iPads or laptops.
She knows this because Google’s keyword tool tells her so. And every day, one, two even three brand new clients walk through her door and hand over their cash for a hair service of some kind, having found Tamara’s brand new website at the very top of their Google search. Not just at the top of organic searches, but at the top of Google’s maps as well. (See picture below)
Every single day, day after day after day.
Think about that for a moment. I’ll do the sums for you. If a regular client is worth say, $1,000 to you in a year (roughly, $160 X 6 visits per year) then even ONE new client every single day, 5 days a week, 52 weeks a year is adding….wait for it…
$260,000 to Tamara’s annual revenue.
(click here to see videos that show exactly how Tamara did it – My Social Salon)
That’s how important it can be to be at the top of Google searches for your local area, in your industry sector. It’s now the end of October. Tamara’s website has only been live online since the end of July – 3 months. But as this image shows, it’s already dominating a very competitive geographical area, crowded with rival salons. 
Being able to be FOUND by prospective customers looking for your service, in their local area, has become not just ‘nice’ to have. It’s more important than that. It’s actually costing you money, lots of it, if they can’t find you.
Here’s another image of a Google search I did just today, ‘beauty salon ulverstone’ (a town in northern Tasmania).
Not surprisingly, at the very top of the search results was a website we built for another of our members, Silvia Bell of Bohemian Beauty. Silvia’s new website has been ‘live’ for about 12 weeks…
Now, at the risk of boring you witless, this matters because of studies which show that the difference in traffic you attract – and therefore, customers – is MASSIVELY dependent on your position in search rankings. Take a look at the graph below, showing the huge drop off in clicks from Number 1 position compared with Number 2 and beyond….
by Greg Milner | Sep 14, 2012 | Featured
Want a FREE listing for your salon on the world’s most downloaded salon app? Check it out here.
Next time you have a client in your reception area, sitting in your chair or lying on a treatment bed, take a minute or two to check ’em out. Because I can pretty much bet my own mother they’re not browsing your product shelves, or reading your brochures.
Nope. Nine times out of ten, they’ll be staring into their smartphone; texting friends, playing games, checking out their Facebook page, browsing the web…anything but paying attention to you, your business, your products or promotions.
Do you really wonder why it’s become so difficult to get your message through to your customers and prospects?
Times have changed. It wasn’t so long ago that marketing a salon was limited to direct mail, the occasional newspaper ad, word of mouth, and a face-to-face up-sell or re-booking at the reception desk. That was about it. Life was….simpler.
Those media are still hugely effective, much to the chagrin of the ‘gurus’ who long ago predicted the internet spelled the ‘end’ of traditional hard-copy. (Yes, email might be cheap and efficient. But nowhere near as devastatingly effective in generating response and sales as a letter, a stamp and an envelope. Our own WSM member salons attest to that over and over again.)
But the way your prospective customers are searching for hair and beauty services has changed forever. And if your salon isn’t at the top of a Google search, can’t be quickly and easily found and located on a mobile phone, and shared via social media, there is now no question that you are losing business. Lots of it. To your competitors.
You are being left behind. To put your head in the sand, plead ‘technophobia’ and pine for the ‘good old days’ is akin to insisting the earth really is flat.
Think about this for a moment; this week, Apple launched its latest gadget, the iPhone 5. Since 2007, they’ve sold 250 million of these things. Plus 87 million iPads. That’s more than the entire population of the United States. (Compared with Android devices, Apple’s iPhones and iPads account for no less than 91% of all mobile web browsing.)
But for most owners of salons, it’s hard enough to know what needs to be done, let alone actually understanding the technology and getting it done. Which usually means dealing with a dozen different suppliers, web developers, sales people and technology companies. It’s like trying to herd cats. And it’s expensive.
Which is why, long ago, we recognized that somehow, the team at Worldwide Salon Marketing had to find a way that salon owners could get the benefits – more customers, more repeat business, more engagement with their clients – without having to figure it all out for themselves.
With the launch of My Social Salon, it’s finally come together. Website, SEO, social media, mobile apps – in addition to the vast amount of traditional marketing material we’ve supplied since 2004 – all in a single, done-for-you system that completely removes the pain and headache for 90% of salon owners.
Tamara O’Dowd of NRG Hairdressing in Leederville, Western Australia. “Business has grown by 40% in the 4 months since joining WSM and getting the My Social Salon online system…”
Case study: until a few weeks ago, Tamara O’Dowd’s hair salon in inner-suburban Perth was doing okay. But only okay. She had a website, but it was barely on the radar, and certainly couldn’t be easily viewed on a mobile phone. She had a Facebook fan page – any ten year old can set one of those up – but like most business owners, she found it difficult to maintain and engage fans with interesting material, other than daily offers. And she certainly didn’t have an iPhone app she could use to promote special offers to her clients’ phone screens.
Tamara signed up for My Social Salon – and almost overnight, her business grew by 40%.
%CODE1%
Kerri-Ann Ryan, Water Lily Day Spa, Tipperary, Ireland
Around the world, My Social Salon is changing the way salons interact with their clients. It’s not just about having a website that ranks at the top of Google searches. It’s also about having ‘sticky’ social media that engages clients, keeps them close, with status updates that are done for you every day:
“I am absolutely delighted with the daily fan page status updates!!! It has created a much more personal touch to my page which I wasn’t able to create myself. I have gained a few more followers already…” says Kerri Ann Ryan of Water Lily Day Spa in Tipperary, Ireland. (Check out the new VIP club on Kerri Ann’s Facebook fan page here.)
Anita Bell, WSM Member and owner of Platinum Hair in High Wycombe, WA
And a new, free iPhone app that gets clients engaging – and booking services – on the run:
“I am loving the Salon Finder app, we had our first booking from a client while she was in the salon buying a gift voucher for her friend – too easy!”
My Social Salon is now available for salons in North America, Australia, New Zealand, the UK and Ireland.
Click here to find out more about My Social Salon.
Or simply call one of our offices here:
Australia: 08 9443 9327 New Zealand: 09 476 1592 USA & Canada: 250 590 0449
by Greg Milner | Jun 26, 2012 | Blog, Featured
Women battling cancer – and the debilitating side-effects of chemotherapy – are to get a morale boost with the announcement today of a million dollar fund raising campaign led by Worldwide Salon Marketing.
WSM CEO and founder Greg Milner has kicked off the campaign with a personal $100,000 donation to the global support community Look Good Feel Better. Throughout the world, Look Good Feel Better runs hair and makeup workshops to help women fighting cancer feel more confident about themselves.
Salon Marketing Webstore to Donate $10 from Every Purchase
WSM’s new salon & spa marketing webstore will provide salon & spa owners with a huge library of proven, ‘done-for-you’ advertising and marketing templates. From Sunday, July 1, salon owners will be able to choose from hundreds of templates to help them promote their salon’s services and treatments – and $10 from every purchase will be donated to Look Good Feel Better, in the purchaser’s own country.
“I’m excited to be part of this massive effort on behalf of Look Good Feel Better,” said Mr Milner.
“The hair and beauty industry has been very good to me over the years, and you get to the point where it’s time to give back. And Look Good Feel Better is the perfect way to do that for us.
“Most of our Member salons are of course owned by women, and they’re all over the world, just like Look Good Feel Better, so no matter where you are when you purchase a product from the webstore, your donation will go to a Look Good Feel Better branch in your own region. You’ll be benefiting women fighting cancer in your own country.”
Sally Harald,Program Manager of LGFB said “On behalf of the thousands of cancer patients Look Good…Feel Better support each year, we extend our gratitude to Worldwide Salon Marketing for their generous support of our program. We look forward to a long and happy association with Greg and his team”.
Look Good Feel Better began in Australia in 1990, and quickly spread around the world. The video below shows just what a fantastic volunteer organization it is:
%CODE1%
Please do what you can to SPREAD THE WORD and let’s together build a ONE MILLION DOLLAR fund for women battling cancer all over the world!
