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%.
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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.
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:
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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!
Most of us have had that horrible experience with a Yellow Pages or advertising sales rep in the past where they think they know best as to how your ad should look, we’ve gone with what they’ve said thinking that they are the experts, only to be left with an incredibly ineffective advert that looks ‘pretty’ but generates no phone calls and a large invoice!
Chloe Wilson of Unique Beauty, Timaru NZ
Well for Chloe Wilson of Unique Beauty in Timaru, New Zealand the days of trusting ad reps are long gone! She now trusts in one thing…her own opinion of how an effective advert should be constructed.
Since then she has been going guns blazing and has in fact tripled her salons turnover since joining Worldwide Salon Marketing around 8 months ago.
Here is what Chloe had to say….
“When I opened up my beauty salon in April 2011, it was very slow at the start, I spent over 6,000 on advertising that wasn’t working, in August I found WSM on the internet and started up with a 1500 leaflet drop to the surrounding area to the salon. I had 15 people book in from it and more from there just it just flowed.
After having a few phone calls with Toni, I let her know how scared I was about putting this advert in the yellow pages – she reassured me it would work, so I stuck with it. The advert cost me $2000 and doesn’t just look like an expensive business card anymore.
When the YP came out in October I had 3 phone calls on the day of it coming out and about 20 the next week following. I still get phone calls every week for the deal in advert and just people getting other treatments.
Since November I’ve only had 3 quiet weeks and I’ve had fully booked weeks, working 3 late nights a week and I’ve tripled my income a week from $500 a week to 2,000-3,000 weekly. I have also 10 weddings this year as well which has brought me more people to the salon and 3 booked in for the end of the year (friends from brides has make-up done with me).”
For Inner Circle Members I have made the actual Yellow Pages ad used by Chloe available on the members website for you to see.
Thanks for sharing your success with us Chloe. I’m sure you’ll have inspired many salon owners to give their ad rep a good old kick in the backside the next time they try and tell them they know best!
Keep up the great work!
Chris Sanders, Director Worldwide Salon Marketing NZ
Isn’t it time you started making some real money in your salon and doing marketing that actually gets results just like Chloe got? If you are ready to take the next step in your business then click here NOW to find out more!
WSM member Bec Woodage started with nothing two years ago – and built her business by over 1000% with the tools and education she obtained as a Member
Investing in your salon business isn’t just about buying equipment, stocking with products and paying staff. If that’s all it took, any fool could make serious money in a salon or spa, instead of only 5% that do.
One of those 5% is Rebecca Woodage, the young owner of Perfection in Beauty in Sydney. When Bec joined Worldwide Salon Marketing, she’d just returned from an overseas holiday and purchased the salon she’d worked in for several years as a beauty therapist. All went well – until the salon burned down 6 weeks later.
Bec attended one of our seminars, but as she describes in this video below, was too afraid to sign up for the company’s marketing & mentoring program (and the Simple Salon Marketing manual) because “I just couldn’t afford it.”
But she bit the bullet a month later…within two years, her business had grown a massive 1000%. Her story is a classic case of investing in her business education, combined with persistence and dedicated implementation of her new-found knowledge.
Every stylist or therapist dreams of starting or buying a salon and one day selling out for a fat payday. Few achieve the goal. For most, owning a salon is run as an income model. If and when it gets sold, it’s usually for little more than small change, with not much more to sell than fixtures and fittings, and what’s left of a lease, the owner only too happy to get out from under a pile of debt, the on-going bills and the stress of being the main income-earner.
Only a tiny percentage build their business with an equity model – a deliberate strategy to turn the business into an asset worth selling.
But there IS a formula, a process that can turn the dream into reality. It’s called
starting with the end in mind.
Nicki Nolan sold her Garaldton (WA) hair salon after 3 years in business – “Very happy with the price – the buyers didn’t even quibble”
The young lady you’re about to meet followed that formula to a ‘T’ – and reaped the rewards.
Nicki Nolan built her business in the remote West Australian country town of Geraldton.
Notably, Nicki sought out an appropriate mentor – joining up with Worldwide Salon Marketing very early in her business life – and actively, aggressively used the marketing and other business tools that came with her membership. She followed a plan, took massive action, and persisted, rather than giving up and throwing her hands in the air at the slightest hurdle.
So how did she ‘live the dream’ when so many never even get close, after 20 or even 30 years in the business? For 95% of people who own and run a business in the beauty and hair industry, it will never be much more than a poorly-paid job. Few take the trouble to educate themselves on business and marketing. Instead, they plunge into business ownership on little more than a wing and a prayer, assuming that because they are merely good at cutting hair or applying skin treatments, little else is required.
To build equity – something you can sell – you need systems. Written and implemented systems for raising leads, converting them to sales, re-booking them over and over again, up-selling products.
You need written systems that manage staff, systems for stocking products, systems for managing accounts.
Having documented, rigidly-enforced systems gave Nicki the confidence and the know-how to create that ‘Holy Grail’ of salon owners the world over; equity, something she could sell to an interested buyer.
Just this week, Nicki walked away from her salon in the mid-west town of Geraldton with a pile of cash.
Any salon owner can follow this formula. It is NOT rocket science. Nicki had no special opportunities, no advanced education, no lucky breaks; She just did what worked
One of the famous ads written by Gary Halbert for Tova Borgnine’s new perfume range. It was ‘tacky’ direct response, and it started Borgnine’s company on the road to multi-million dollar success
This is an ad written more than two decades ago for a new skin care product developed for Tova Borgnine, wife of the late actor Ernest Borgnine. Take a look at it. And before you screw your nose up, dismiss it as too ‘tacky’, not glossy and pretty, too much text and not enough glamorous pictures, consider this:
It was by far one of the most successful beauty ads ever written.
This ad was penned by the late, great copywriter Gary Halbert in the mid eighties. (Members can log into the ‘sealed section and download this and another great version in full size pdfs.)
If you did turn your nose up at these ads, you’re not alone. Back when Borgnine was starting her fledgling perfume and skin care company, she couldn’t afford to have the products stocked in the up-market shops. Instead, she used direct mail and direct response display ads extensively, many of them written by Halbert, in newspapers across the country.
Right up to (or down to, depending on your point of view) the super-tabloid National Inquirer. Her use of ‘tacky’ direct response marketing brought out the snobs.
“I love your products,” she was told by friends, “But I wish you would have them in the tops stores, like Saks – I couldn’t possibly tell my friends you advertise in the National Inquirer…”
But Tova had the last laugh. She eventually made it onto the home shopping network QVC, turning her start-up into a multi million dollar nationally-known success.
This ad had ALL of the essential elements of effective direct response…
Desire (To recapture youth),
Hope (That this will work),
Fear (Of plastic surgery – including a bad result),
Evidence (Picture of Tova – demonstrates she’s using her own product to look so youthful),
Social Proof (Big Name Stars use it – including Tova’s husband Ernest),
Curiosity (The ad never reveals EXACTLY what the gunk is – though it alludes to an “ancient” mystery discovered by Aztecs),
Exclusivity (“This formula is certainly not cheap”),
Dare (Try it for yourself – in front of a mirror – and see the amazing results),
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.
