Nail Salon Marketing Plan: when customers leave you, it isn’t ALWAYS bad news…
Last week we lost two of our long term Inner Circle members…and I couldn’t have been happier to hear from them.
No matter how good your business, no matter how much value you give, all businesses will lose customers from time to time, for all sorts of reasons. And the manner of that departure is a critical indicator of both the health of your business, and its future prospects.
Nothing gives us more delight here at Worldwide Salon Marketing as hearing that we have been instrumental in getting our Members into a position where they can sell their now-profitable businesses – instead of merely closing the doors and walking away, as so many are forced to do.
From Angeline and Andrew Griggs of Nails and Beauty with Attitude in Cairns, far north Queensland, a lovely letter to thank us for helping them realise their dream of business success:
“Andrew and I would just like to extend a warm North Queensland ‘Thank You’ for all your help and support over the last few years that we have been with you. It’s the end of an era for ‘Nails and Beauty with Attitude’, we have sold after 18 years and are looking forward to new adventures.
“We say goodbye for now and thank you for truly giving us the freedom to now do what we want to do. With many thoughts of gratefulness, from our family to yours, Andrew and Angeline Griggs.”
And from Maria Walsh, of Scentual Beauty Therapy in New South Wales, a beautifully-written letter describing her sorrow at having to leave the group for personal reasons, after taking her one-woman salon from a meagre $600 a week takings to more than $2,500 a week in less than a year…and still operating as a one-woman salon!
I have, with Maria’s permission, made her letter available here so you can read it in full (click on the pictures at left to enlarge them in a new window), but to paraphrase, “I learnt so much and you have given me a strength and boldness I never knew I had. In the beginning, I challenged the way some advertisements were worded (being a shy person!) but the response has been ‘That didn’t sound like you Maria but I would love to book this package because it sounds like just what I need!’ “
Of course, we also get a LOT of mail from Members thrilled to share their new-found success…and who wouldn’t leave the Inner Circle program for any reason.
“…We are doing fantastic. 18 months on we have approx 1800 clients – growing by 15-20% per month. I joined the inner circle program in Oct 08 knowing I needed more information and inspiration and since then I haven’t looked back. My hair and beauty salon has grown consistently thanks to the marketing, my clients nag me about what promos are coming up and they are starting to pre pay just to make sure they don’t miss out.
Gail Smith of Charmed Hair & Beauty – growing by 20% per month thanks to Inner Circle membership
“My salon target for the next financial year is over $500,000 and I am confident we will make it.
“When I first started using your type of marketing I had quite a few disappointments and failures and I will be the first to admit I fell on the old blame game – this just won’t work for my salon – its obviously just a bad idea, etc and one thing I learned is, that no matter what piece of marketing we’re given it can work, if you use it at the right time, to the right clients with value added offers that other salons would look at and say ‘no way am I giving that much away’.
“So I thank you, Greg and your wonderful team (had some great conversations with Jill and Jemma, too) you have helped me grow so much and I know I have still heaps more to learn – and share.”
IF YOU ARE NOT YET A MEMBER: If you do not yet have the done-for-you marketing tools, strategies, support, mentoring and continually-updated material that these and hundreds of other Members have used and are using to make their businesses successful, you are fighting your battle blindfolded with one arm tied behind your back.
Mystery Inner Circle member reveals she’s broken the chains of franchise marketing holding her back….
Hair Salon Marketing Strategies:The Mortal Danger for Franchised Salons & Spas
A glowing testimonial from one of our freshly-minted New Zealand members this week made me laugh out loud, but under that laugh were some warning bells.
It came via our New Zealand franchisee Chris D’Aguiar-Sanders, from a salon owner who, for reasons which will become clear, doesn’t want to be identified – yet.
If you are you part of a franchise network, thinking about buying a franchised salon, or joining a franchise, then listen carefully, ‘cos you could be buying trouble. Now, that is not to say that franchising per se is a bad idea. There are many excellent benefits to being part of a franchise network, but in our experience – and that of many of our Inner Circle members – the ability of the franchisor to provide effective and efficient marketing copy is NOT one of them.
(And before you go all smarty-pants on me, Worldwide Salon Marketing is an exception to the rule!)
In general, the hair salon marketing strategies provided by the typical beauty industry franchise is, frankly, hopeless – the standard ‘branding’, imagey kind of marketing that looks pretty, doesn’t sell. Worse, in most franchise agreements, the franchisee salon is forced to not only use this ineffective marketing material, but pay dearly for it.
This salon owner – we’ll call her Jennifer – is part of a large franchise network, and suffered greatly because she has been forced to use the marketing provided by the franchisor. (And rest assured, I have seen this franchisor’s advertising. It is unutterably dreary. Little wonder it hasn’t worked for ‘Jennifer’.)
‘Jennifer’ joined the Inner Circle program in late March, and writes:
“After 3 years of struggling to get my revenue up in my medispa, and having a small client base, in desperation I madly grasped at the flyer from Worldwide Salon Marketing, offering a FREE DVD, that other salon owners had used and had literally doubled their sales and profits by changing the way they marketed.
“This I thought was for me, what else have I got to lose except my business, so I needed to act now especially in these times of recession.
“After watching the DVD, I thought this is for me so became a member, and I have had fantastic results! I have never had this type of over whelming response from any advert I have done previously (who said flyers don’t work!)
“Very simple but very powerful marketing tools, that have convinced me. So upward and onwards to grow my business, I feel I am now starting to take control of my business as I can see it already has started to grow. The support and encourgement , and feeling of working in a strong supportive team, leaves me with a very motivated fantastic feeling.
Thank you Worldwide Salon Marketing.”
Jennifer’s story is not an isolated one. All over the world, salon owners who are part of franchise networks are using the tools, ad templates and sales strategies in the Essential Salon Owner’s Marketing Toolkit to double, triple their sales and profits in spite of the marketing ‘rules’ imposed on them by their franchisors. Many are doing it without the knowledge of the franchisor, and in several documented cases, our Members have ‘seen the light’ and fired their franchisor.
The are two points here: 1) franchisors would actually make more money if only they got out of their own way, swallowed their own egos, and allowed their franchisees to market themselves with the best tools at their disposal. And 2), the last thing the owner of any business should do is delegate their marketing to a third party, e.g., a franchisor.
Marketing IS the business. It’s the only thing that brings in the money. By accepting without question the marketing knowledge, experience and most importantly of all, the actual marketing material the franchisor insists you use, you effectively abdicate from responsibility for the results.
Salon Marketing Tips: “I took an extra $9,500 in the next 72 hours!”
Yes, the tortoise WILL get there…eventually. But you don’t have to do it at a crawl.
Being part of the Inner Circle program and using the tools and strategies in the Toolkit is NOT a ‘get rich quick’ scheme. It does take work.
But there’s nothing inherently good about ‘getting rich slow’ either.
It’s always a mystery to me how it is that despite having exactly the same tools and support, the speed at which some Members implement those tools and strategies – and therefore the speed at which they reap the rewards – varies so greatly. Some leave the Toolkit sitting on their shelf, or tucked away under the reception desk, for months before actually bringing it out and using it. (One member recently told me that it was a full year before she actually got off her backside and put the ads, flyers and letters to work…lo and behond, in the next 12 months she increased her salon’s takings by a full $109,000 over the previous 12 months!)
But others do it at warp speed. Just last week, salon owner Lidija Siskopoulos of Enigma for Hair (right here in my home town) was so excited about getting into the Inner Circle program she refused to wait till the courier delivered her Toolkit, she jumped in her car and drove to our office to collect it herself.
This week she told me
“I took an extra $9,500 in the next 72 hours!”
Lidija is clearly one who understands that success is about Massive Action.
In other words, that massive action paid for Lidija’s entire first year Membership of the Inner Circle program in a single swoop.Now, to dismiss Lidija’s story as a flash-in-the-pan, as something out of the ordinary and quite unachievable for the average salon owner is akin to insisting that the earth is flat, and that she must somehow have gotten ‘lucky’. Success is all about taking action… not just in one area, doing ONE thing, sending out a single flyer or placing a single ad, but doing many things, all at once, rapidly. And luck has nothing to do with it. It’s simply planning meets opportunity.
As you’ll see and hear in this video, recorded at our recent Inner Circle Members Only Closed Door Mastermind session after our Road to Riches seminar in Sydney last week, those salon & spa owners who combine action with the right tools (eg the Toolkit) get a disproportionately-large result compared with merely putting the same amount of effort into just ‘doing the thing’ eg cutting more hair or applying more facials.
Inner Circle member Bruce Fisher (left, with wife Beth) of Fisher Experience in Braintree, Massachusetts writes that since he joined the program and got his Toolkit a few months ago, sales at his salon (www.fisherexperience.com) have leapt by over $10,000 a month.
But as Bruce explains, it took a lot of effort – and startling results – to get his staff believing that ‘our’ kind of direct response marketing for salons is a far better option than the typical beauty industry ‘branding’ style advertising they were accustomed to wasting money on…
“Greg, I certainly appreciate the opportunity to give back to the hairdressing community and many thanks to (Worldwide Salon Marketing) for what I see as breaking new ground.
I, like many others, have been a bit slow getting all of the ideas off the ground but the ideas that I have received from the Toolkit as well as from my Worldwide Salon Marketing coach coach Annette have worked for me quite nicely. I would advise new Members to adhere very closely to the principles of direct marketing and if you find you need additional help taking action you might find it helpful to recruit a local marketing student on an as needed basis.Our $99 dollar facial and massage special (normally 162 dollars) worked brilliantly as well as our ‘Raise the Dead’ campaign having resulted in 125 returned clients. When my team saw the results they started to come on board whereas in the past they were very doubtful. That has changed for the better and now I am getting much more enthusiasm and cooperation.
We are ready to launch our Mother’s Day campaign – e-mail, newspaper, mail drops, and banners and signs inside and outside of our building. I will be happy to report on these results next month but for now I am very excited about the response we will be getting.
Thank you to World Wide Salon Marketing
Bruce and Beth Fisher, Fisher Experience, Braintree, Massachusetts.
Marketing Plan For Hair Salon: New Zealand salons get local access to Inner Circle support
IC member and now New Zealand representative for WSM, Rachael D’Aguiar. “All we did to be successful was copy what works. If we can do that, we figure most other NZ salon & spa owners can too…”
Beating the recession has suddenly become a lot easier for Kiwi salon & spa owners; they now have local access to mentoring and marketing tools developed by Australia’s Worldwide Salon Marketing.
Following expansion into the huge US salon & spa market, the company has appointed Auckland salon owners and long-term Inner Circle members Rachael D’Aguiar and husband Chris Sanders as sole NZ agents of its Inner Circle marketing & mentoring program, and the Essential Salon Owner’s Marketing Toolkit™.
“We beat the recession and actually grew our sales – so we figured we could help other Kiwi salon owners do the same!”
According to Chris and Rachael, their Auckland salon D’Aguiar Hair Skin Nails has enjoyed a huge growth spurt in 2008 as a result of using the direct response marketing tools and strategies in the Toolkit.
The couple will be duplicating the successful Australian business for NZ salon owners, including conducting training seminars, individual coaching sessions for members, group coaching calls and supplying on-going and updated, proven marketing support.
Rachael is already well-known in New Zealand as the voice of Whitcoulls’ TV and radio campaign, as well as one of the Huggies Mums.
Chris Sanders has a background in events management, including the recent David Beckham visit, and the NZ tour by (Spandau Ballet’s) Paul Young and Tony Hadley.
“Being successful in business isn’t about being a genius, it’s just copying what others have done and applying it,” she says. “That’s all we did. And if we can do it, hundreds of other NZ salon owners can do it too.”
NZ salon owners can contact Rachael or Chris on Auckland 09 441 6906
