by Greg Milner | Apr 20, 2015 | Featured, The Smell of Success
A salon owner once asked me – with a completely straight face – if I could write her an ad that would flood her salon with customers and turn her business into a thriving cash machine. Overnight.
In other words, “give me one perfect off-the-shelf, simple solution to a complicated, multi-faceted, ever-changing and, more to the point, on-going, ever-increasing problem.”
It amazes me how so many people in small businesses somehow expect a single, ‘silver bullet’ answer to a complex problem:
how to get more customers.
Very, very few business owners ‘get’ the complexity and difficulty of the task, the details that matter.
Keith and his new bride Yumi…their wedding was an exercise in military precision
I’ve just returned from a family wedding on a tiny jungle island called Koh Tao in the middle of the Gulf of Thailand, where one of my son Keith married his beautiful South Korean bride Yumi.
At such a remote location, the wedding was a logistical nightmare, requiring more than 18 months of planning. Emails and phone calls went back and forth for month after month. Six months before the big day, Keith flew to Koh Tao to personally co-ordinate the various elements of the event.
Getting the wedding guests committed to booking their flights – from as far afield as Vienna and Brisbane – was an exercise in trying to herd cats.
Depending on where they were coming from, it took guests at least two, often three or four plane rides plus a two-hour boat trip just to get there. Co-ordinating accommodation for 30 people, plus caterers, wedding planners and photographers by remote control in a non-English speaking third-world country was an exercise in patience, understanding and persistence.
Koh Tao – a jungle covered speck in the gulf of Thailand.
The event went off without a hitch, all thanks to my son and his new wife. And it made me think;
It seems to me if business owners put as much thought, planning and attention to detail into their product launches or marketing campaigns, their lives would be so much more prosperous.
But people invest more effort, expend more energy, drive themselves into more of a tizzy over their…Christmas parties…than they do their own businesses. Go figure.
And yet, when focus, energy and attention to detail is turned into a carefully-planned campaign to generate business, much can happen.
Example: Kim Susskind’s Brazilathon Campaign
Just part of the free publicity generated with a carefully planned and executed marketing campaign…
Last year, Noosa salon owner Kim Susskind wanted to generate publicity to promote a planned ‘brazilathon’ – to create a ‘world record’ number of brazilians performed in a single day. Over a period of weeks, I worked with Kim to design a campaign that got her not one, but two front page stories in the local newspaper, radio air time, social media exposure, and a series of emails and text messages that – in combination – produced saturation coverage in her local market.
The result: a new ‘world record’, the talk of the town, and a backlash from competing salon owners jealous of Kim’s new-found fame. (Kim now features as a columnist in the same local paper, further cementing her ‘authority’ as an expert – the ‘go-to’ person in her area.)
Worth noting: this could not have been achieved with a lazy mere email, a single mailbox flyer, a hap-hazard text message, or a thrown-together post on Facebook.
Successful marketing isn’t an event, it’s a process.
Kim’s campaign required planning. But the most careful plans in the world are useless without timely, persistent execution.
“Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.”
Abraham Lincoln
by Greg Milner | Jan 17, 2015 | Ads that Have Worked, Advertising Tips, Beating the Competition, Featured, Getting Salon Clients Quickly, Packaging Salon Services, Salon Advertising Tips, Salon Marketing Online, The Smell of Success
I’ve lost count of the number of times over the past 10 years I’ve been accused of advocating ‘tacky’, so-called ‘unprofessional’ or ‘cheap’ marketing for salons and spas. In one memorable instance, a member of the ‘upper echelon’ of the beauty industry, a veteran of some 30 years, approached me during a marketing seminar I was giving and snootily told me “no self-respecting proper company would lower themselves to using your sales & marketing tactics.”
Well, I told her then, and I’m here to tell ya now, she was wrong in every possible way.
Have you heard of Time Magazine? Yep, the very same, establishment publishing giant that’s documented the movers and shakers of the world since 1923.
Like all publishers, Time makes its money from advertising, and to a less extent, subscriptions.
Now, nobody would ever consider Time Magazine any kind of hip, brash, swashbuckling outfit. Certainly not the kind of ‘old-money’ business that’d consider doing something even remotely ‘trashy’ or lowbrow just to boost its market share.
Um, well, yes they would.
Here’s a Time offer that arrived in WSM Director of Online George Slater’s mailbox this week. Yes, a full-color, four page direct mail piece offering
FREE WATCHES!
…in exchange for a drastically-discounted, 54-month subscription. (Watches. Time. Get it?) Now, for the serious student of marketing, this is worth studying. There’s nothing new here. Time is using one of the oldest, tried-and-tested, bait ‘n switch marketing strategies in the book. Because they know that people will often buy the product just to get the free bonus.
You see this exact strategy every time you browse your local newsstand; a free DVD or CD, glued to or packaged inside the magazine. Only a handful of people actually want the magazine. But many more just want the bonus CD. In Thailand, the Talisman 
Billiards Company gives away a free golf shirt with every order over $100. “I do see people increasing their order just so they can get the free shirt,” says Talisman owner Tony Jones.
This strategy works in almost any business. Salons and spas are no different. Got a cupboard full of products you haven’t been able to give rid of? Give them away, with an offer tied to an appointment for a service. “Yours Free” has for more than a century – and remains – one of the most powerful phrases in any marketing arsenal.
by Greg Milner | Sep 16, 2014 | Featured, The Smell of Success
After more than a decade of coaching and advising thousands of salons & spas around the world on marketing & sales, there’s one question cropping up repeatedly that I simply can’t answer. Not because I don’t understand the question, but because it’s the wrong question.
Typical is this version. It lobbed into my email inbox today from a subscriber in Nicosia. (Look it up. It’s the capital of Cyprus, off Turkey. But it’s essentially the same question I get from Sydney, San Francisco, Dublin and a hundred other places.)
“I need your help, I am opening my salon and I need a good name so that I can make a good logo…”
Kyriakos, I’m here to tell you – and anybody else who’ll listen – when you’re starting a business, the last thing you need to spend your time and energy on is a damn logo. Good grief. In the six-inch-thick “How to Set Up, Market and Run a Super-Successful Salon Business” manual, the appropriate ranking for “Designing a Logo” is approximately Chapter 114.
Picking ‘Logo Design’ as your first, all-important priority is akin to the general sending his troops into battle with the first order of business being the colour of their socks.
So here it is, for Kyriakos and tens of thousands of starry-eyed hopefuls all over the world, many of whom have been inspired into business by the misguided words of encouragement from an aunty of their best friend’s second cousin who said “Oh, you’re so good at facials, you should start your own salon…”
The 10 Rules of Engagement for Would Be Salon Owners (and plenty of others already in the salon business.)
Do you really think even McDonalds would sell a single hamburger if all they did was stick their logo out front?
Rule #1: The Logo.
Forget about the bloody logo design. Outsource it on Elance to a graphic designer in India for 20 bucks. In terms of its value to anybody but you, it’s actual, measurable ability to attract customers to you who are willing and able to give you their money, it’s worthless. There are hundreds of far more important tasks you need to accomplish.
(Need a new name for your business? Go to http://www.salon-business-names.com/)
Rule #2: The List.
As my colleague and chief technologist at Worldwide Salon Marketing, George Slater is often heard to say, ‘the money is in the list.’ That is, building, nurturing and constantly adding to your list of prospects, customers and clients. And I mean a proper list, with full contact details, not just a lazy mobile phone number.
Your database is gold. Having a solid, well-maintained and growing list gives you options. It allows you to reach them in many ways – by email, by SMS, by ‘push notifications’ to your app on their smart phone, and most important of all, by direct mail – yes, that old-fashioned, clunky but still devastatingly effective form of media almost everyone ignores these days.
(But, done my way, almost everybody opens and reads.)
There are lots of ways of building a list of prospective customers, and you should be using all of ’em, but one of the most effective is online search. In its simplest form, it’s some kind of landing page where you offer visitors some kind of reward – a free series of ‘beauty tips videos’, a downloadable report, a free ‘introductory Gift Voucher’, a free sample you pop in the mail to them, to name a few – that potential clients get in exchange for their valuable contact details. In other words, an opt-in form that puts their name and precious contact details straight into a database on your salon computer.
(Effective online name capture is part of what we do for Members of our My Social Salon marketing & mentoring program. Go here to find out more.)
Rule #3: Your USP, or Unique Selling Proposition
Nobody except you gives a toss about your logo, or even the name of your business, except in so far as it tells them instantly exactly what business you’re in. (Hint: resist the temptation to be ‘clever’ or ‘arty’ with your business name. Make it clear what the business does.)
What prospective clients actually care about is ‘what’s in it for me?’ They want an answer to the unspoken question, “Why should I, your prospective customer, want to do business with you in preference to any of a dozen other salons?” And the answer is not “…because we’re really good at what we do.” Work hard, agonize, write lists, spend time and effort identifying things about you, your salon, your location, your advantages, that speak directly to the customer about what’s in it for them. (Clue: make your USP about the customer, her preferences, desires, fears, needs – not about you, the business, how many qualifications you have, the awards you’ve won, how wonderful your customer service is. Sure, they’re all important (kind of) but only as support for a great USP.
Rule #4: Forget ‘branding’.
Branding for its own sake might make you feel all warm and fuzzy, swooning over the compliments showered on you by friends and family about your wonderful colour schemes, pretty posters and wow fixtures and fittings. But relying on pure ‘branding’ to drive customers through your doors with their wallets wide open is an absolutely guaranteed way to send you broke before you start. What I call ‘direct response’ marketing is the only proven, measurable, accountable (over many decades) way for small businesses to spend their marketing dollars effectively and efficiently. At Worldwide Salon Marketing we constantly hear “I spent $150,000 on my logo design, decorating my salon, buying furniture, products, machines etc etc and I have no customers!” But how much on effective marketing? “Er, I didn’t have anything left over for marketing.”
‘Branding’ says ‘let’s put up some lovely logos, expensive ads with pretty pictures and not much else, and hope that if we throw enough mud against the wall, some of it might stick and eventually, people might recognize my brand and come see me.’ You don’t have the luxury of ‘eventually’.
Direct response is what it says – identifying a narrowly-defined target market (your list), crafting an offer supported by your story (with your USP as its cornerstone), distributing that offer as efficiently as you can (using several media, not just one) to as many people in that target market as possible, and measuring the response to that specific marketing campaign.
Rule #5: Be somebody, do something, be everywhere.
Sir Richard Branson built a multi-billion dollar business called Virgin thanks to his willingness to do things, be places, re-invent himself in a way very, very few people are prepared to do. You may not want to create an empire like Branson, but to succeed in any business, you need to do what your competition is not prepared or willing to do…become the recognised, go-to expert in your field. And that means writing articles, recording videos, getting interviewed, publishing your knowledge and expertise in as many places – online and offline – as you can. Sales coach John Lees used to say “Our knowledge is ours to give, not ours to keep.” You have talent, education, knowledge, expertise that your prospective clients do not. Don’t be shy about it.
(As part of our flagship My Social Salon marketing & mentoring program, we coach and advise salon owners on exactly how to do this. Check out My Social Salon here. But be warned, we don’t take prisoners, and we expect Members do what it takes to achieve success)
Rule #6: Get off the tools
You will never, ever have a real business if it relies either wholly or mainly on you to earn the income. That’s not a business, it’s a job. Or even worse, a hobby. If you want a real business, start it with the end clearly in mind. Ideally, to build a saleable asset – real business equity. At worst, a business you can walk away from, take a holiday in Tuscany for a month, while it runs on ‘automatic pilot’. Yes, that means you must have staff, and you must have systems in place, for all aspects of the business. (Clue: if you ever get a phone call from a staff member asking “Mrs Splonge has complained, what should I say to her?” then your systems need fine-tuning.)
You need systems for everything; stock ordering, retail selling, re-booking, opening and closing procedures, complaints policies, treatment procedures, and most important of all, marketing systems in place that bring a constant and steady stream of new and returning customers through the doors.
Rule #7: What marketing actually is.
Marketing is ‘any and all activity which brings a customer to you who is willing and pre-disposed to buy from you at the price you want to charge.’ Simple outcome, complex challenge. Ray Kroc, the founder of McDonalds, used to say “clean toilets is marketing”. So is a smile, an unexpected small gift, a simple thank you, a hand-written word of congratulations or gratitude, the opening of a door. But too many business owners come to me and ask for a single, one-size-fits-all, set-and-forget solution to a complex problem. “Write me an ad or a sales letter that’ll turn my business into a raging success, and I’ll never have to do any marketing ever again, so I can concentrate on doing the job and running the business.” In the history of the known universe, that’s never happened – for any business – and never will.
Marketing IS the business. You’re not in the beauty business, or the hair business, or the massage business. You’re in the marketing business. Get your head around it, or you’re doomed to fail.
Rule #8: Marketing is a process, not an event.
Not everything you do is going to work. Yet a big mistake almost every salon owner makes is doing one thing, running one ad, sending out one set of mailbox flyers (usually, to too few people), writing a single email, putting all their effort into a single big event three months from now, and expecting a stampede of customers. And, of course, being bitterly disappointed when that one thing doesn’t produce a flood of cash.
Successfully marketing a business – any business – is about doing a dozen, twenty, a hundred things, simultaneously, knowing and understanding that not everything is going to produce great results. The number ‘one’ is the most dangerous number in business. Relying on one of anything – one staff member, one supplier, one customer, one form of marketing (you Facebookers, I’m looking at you) and you’re destined for a fall when that one thing fails, or is taken away from you. In 1997, I spent months working with a major mortgage broking company planning a street parade to generate publicity for a product launch. It was going to be a real knockout. Come the day of the big parade, a Sunday, the entire side of a mountain collapsed all over the ski village at Thredbo in the Australian Alps on the other side of the country, burying 18 people alive. How much publicity do you think our little street parade got? We’d put everything into a single stunt, and it failed through circumstances beyond our control. But that’s Murphy’s Law. Don’t let Murphy run your business.
Rule #9: back yourself.
That means giving your prospective customers the comfort of a guarantee. A strong one, not full of ‘weasel words’. You don’t have to guarantee results, if those results depend almost entirely on the customer dieting properly, exercising a little bit, using the product in the prescribed manner. But you’ve got to guarantee something, to take away the single most important factor that stops people picking up the phone and calling you, rather than your competition. And that is fear of making the wrong decision. Remove the fear, reverse the risk. In all my years of coaching salons on their marketing, those who shouted a strong, money-back guarantee from the rooftops have enjoyed the most success. (And have you noticed? Almost nobody actually claims on a guarantee!)
Rule #10: Meaningful specifics beat meaningless generalities.
Too much marketing is full of fluffy, meaningless words and images. The term ‘anti-ageing’ has been so over-used it’s become a cliche. Does your product or service make your customer look younger? How much younger, in years? If you guarantee not to keep your customers waiting long, what is ‘long’ – 3 minutes and 24 seconds? Seven minutes and 42 seconds? Say so! Be accountable. Few things enrage me more than warm, fuzzy motherhood statements like ‘join us for a night of fun and games’ (what fun? which games??) or ‘relax and de-stress with a one-hour Indian Mystic hot stone massage…’ (Which Indian mystic? Is it an Indian from India, or a Red Indian from North America? How will it de-stress me? Where do the stones come from? How hot are they? Will they burn me? Grrr!)
The more you tell – about you, your service, your customers – the more you sell. In marketing, less is not more. More is more.
NEED HELP WITH THIS STUFF? Members of our My Social Salon get all this – and a LOT more. It’s an exclusive, elite group of salon owners all over the world who want their businesses to work for them, not the other way around. And, if you qualify, you could get a 30-day Money Back Guaranteed Test Drive of the entire system, including the one-on-one coaching support.
by Greg Milner | Sep 4, 2014 | Advertising Tips, Blog, The Right Mindset, The Smell of Success
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I’ve taught a lot, written a lot about the enormous amount of ACTION required to make a real difference to a salon’s financial performance over time. It’s simply folly to rely on ONE thing to bring customers through the door. Success is doing a dozen different things – simultaneously, persistently, relentlessly.
Amber Clayton of Pearl of Beauty, Port Pirie, South Australia
Amber Clayton is a living example of this. In the back blocks of regional Port Pirie, South Australia – hardly a hub of economic prosperity – her beauty salon went from sales of $12,429 for the month of August 2013, to $21,764 for August this year…an increase of nearly $10,000.
But she didn’t do that by relying on merely email, or Facebook. Here’s a partial list of the marketing activity Amber undertakes as part of the normal operation of her business:
Newsletters – every month, written and posted in hard copy, as well as emailed. (From templates downloaded from the Members Only Resources Library)
Promotions via her Mobile App (built for her as part of her WSM membership)
Radio advertising – using the same direct response techniques applicable to all other media
Website leads – generated via her WSM-built website
Direct Mail – New Client letters and ‘Raise the Dead’ lost client letters downloaded from the Members Only Resources Library
In this video recorded via Skype, Amber details how she went from being a tiny, struggling salon in April this year when she joined WSM’s My Social Salon marketing & mentoring program, to being the busiest and most profitable salon in her town.
ATTENTION MEMBERS: download Amber’s successful promotions, posters, newsletters and client letters in the Members Only salon marketing Resources Library here.
NOT A MEMBER? Go here to find out how to get a 30-day Money Back Guaranteed Test Drive of the entire My Social Salon program, including the famous Essential Salon Owner’s Marketing Toolkit, one-on-one mentoring, hundreds of templates, done-for-you online marketing, a bonus Mobile Phone App and much more.
In any business – and the salon business is no different – the way you think about your position in the market, and how you act on that thinking, is fundamental to your future success.
It’s selfish on my part because I simply can’t be bothered dealing with people who won’t read, who must be dragged kicking and screaming to the trough, who – if they manage to slip through the net (and a few do) – will sit their copy of Simple Salon Marketing on their salon shelf and expect it to miraculously leap off and gang-tackle prospects as they walk by the shop, with no input or effort from themselves. Who argue with our coaches at every turn, insisting that ‘it’ (the system) doesn’t ‘work’, despite overwhelming proof that it does work for thousands of other salon owners all over the world.
