by Greg Milner | Jan 13, 2014 | Blog, Getting Salon Clients Quickly, New Zealand, Salon Advertising Tips, Salon SMS Marketing
It’s less than 2 weeks in to 2014 and our Worldwide Salon Marketing members are already out of the blocks with a roar with emails and phone calls coming in to our office from excited salon owners telling us about their successful campaigns.
This morning I spoke on the phone with Maree Hoare, of Red Hair in Palmerston North. Maree joined us just one month ago and has shown immediately what it takes to be a successful marketer of her business.
She hasn’t sat around waiting for the phone to ring, instead she’s got straight down to business, is creating her own success and taking complete control of her business.
When Maree opened her salon this morning she noticed some gaps in the booking system later in the week. So armed with the tools she needed to fix that problem, she opened up her computer, visited the members only template website and found an SMS example that she could adapt for her own salon.
She sent the message out to just 400 people of her SMS list and within 30 minutes had no fewer than 12 bookings.
“With schools being on holiday it gets a bit quiet around this time of year in Palmerston North, I need to keep my team busy and so at this late stage it seemed a text message to my clients would be the quickest option to fill the gaps later in the week. It took me a few minutes to put the message together from the examples on the website and then I sent it out and within minutes the phone was ringing hot! The system says the SMS’s are still being sent out so I am sure I will get even more calls than the dozen we have already had in the last half an hour. But I am really happy with the result.”
The hair offer Maree sent out by text was for $79. Given that a text will cost about 10c per message that’s a $40 cost for a return so far of $948. I would call that a great return on investment.
And the message also saw at least 2 long lost clients make a booking in the salon.
Since joining WSM in December, Maree has already put in to action steps to help her work more as a marketer on her business. Could you imagine earning $948 in 30 minutes if you were cutting someones hair or doing a facial? Not likely unless you are the hairdresser to David Beckham. So Maree is already seeing the value of her time spent marketing rather than being a technician cutting hair.
And in addition to Maree’s amazing SMS campaign she also launched her mini memberships last week which she has already sold 7 bringing in and extra $1400 in income.
A massive congrats to Maree for her great start to 2014 and we can’t wait to hear more from her as the year progresses.
For WSM members, you can see the SMS that Maree sent on our members only Facebook forum. Click her now to check it out.
If you are not a member of one of our WSM programs but want to kick start 2014 the way Maree has done then click here now to apply and one of our team will be on the phone to you immediately. Or call one of our worldwide offices to speak with someone now.
New Zealand 09 476 1592
Australia 08 9443 9327
USA & Canada 250 590 0449
by Greg Milner | Jul 16, 2013 | New Zealand
Over the last 5 years since starting Worldwide Salon Marketing in New Zealand we have seen and heard many success stories from salons owners, some of whom prior to joining WSM have been close to closing their doors, and others that already have successful and established salons but just want to know how to improve their businesses even further and make more money.
It’s fantastic to be part of helping salons achieve great success and reach goals, so when that success is recognized by a third party its even more satisfying.
Which is exactly what happened to Margaret Walsh of Face & Body in Titirangi.
At the recent New Zealand Beauty Gala Awards at the Pullman Hotel in Auckland Margaret and her team at Face and Body in Titirangi, picked up the ‘Runner-up’ prize in the category for Marketing Excellence, an Award sponsored by Worldwide Salon Marketing NZ.
Worldwide Salon Marketing wants to congratulate Margaret for her achievement. Marketing is always evolving and Margaret has shown that her salon has used a great blend of traditional media, whilst embracing new media like apps and social media.
WELL DONE MARGARET WALSH & THE TEAM AT FACE & BODY TITIRANGI!!!
CLICK HERE TO WATCH A VIDEO OF MARGARET WALSH
And I also want to extend a MASSIVE congratulations to the winner of Marketing Excellence, Nicola Quinn from Nicola Quinn Day Spa in Christchurch.
There’s a funny story behind this also. Nicola is not a member of WSM, however I have always been an admirer of Nicola’s salon, even more so since the terrible things that have happened with the earthquakes in Christchurch over the last couple of years.
Whilst in Christchurch visiting some of our WSM members I popped in to say hello to Nicola who was unavailable. So I left her a hand written note encouraging her to enter the Marketing Excellence award, which she obviously did. When presenting her award on the night Nicola told me she still has my note, which I thought was great.
So a BIG CONGRATS to Nicola Quinn and her team at Nicola Quinn Day Spa.
Finally, Worldwide Salon Marketing NZ also co-sponsored the ‘Best New Business’ category to which we would like to congratulate Louise Dickinson of ‘Chrysalis’ in Browns Bay, Auckland.
Well done to ALL the finalists from the Team at Worldwide Salon Marketing!
Christopher and the Team at Worldwide Salon Marketing New Zealand help salon owners chase the dream of becoming more successful and profitable. If you like the sound of that then click here to find out more – obligation FREE. We have packages that can fit ALL salon types and sizes!
by Greg Milner | Jan 12, 2012 | New Zealand
Whenever putting together any marketing campaign it’s not just as simple as printing a few flyers or emailing a handful of clients and all of a sudden being bombarded with calls from them wanting to buy what your advertising – sure that would be nice but with the increasing competition out there all vying for your customers dollar or pound (not just from rival salons) then you have to think smart about how you are going to get your clients so excited and worked up about a package or product you are about to release, that they are already pre-disposed to buying it from you when it finally does go on offer. You have to build the hype in advance.
Michael Hill Was Creating A Buzz!
Last week I walked past a local jewelry shop and noticed a long queue of customers eagerly waiting outside. There was a rope fence separating them from the entrance and a red velvet curtain blocking customers from seeing inside the store. The customers were standing on tippy toes trying to see what was going on inside…they were REALLY excited!
The blackboard outside the store said…
‘TODAY ONLY – Make Me An offer on All Jewelry in Store’
They had created a buzz, excitement and mystery with their customers and passers by, and put a time limit on it to add to that – TODAY ONLY! People are naturally inquisitive and if they see people flocking like sheep then they don’t want to feel left out…they want to be in the know too!
As salon owners we need to be creating this type of hype with our clients, planning and executing our marketing with thought and not just being impulsive or reactionary. That’s how so many salons waste money – as they say ‘you fail to plan, you plan to fail.’
And planning is exactly what Louise Gray of Louise Gray Skin Care in Ponsonby, Auckland did in order to sell over $6000 of Christmas 2 for 1 vouchers.
Louise Gray and her Team in Auckland, NZ
In a coaching call early in November last year I talked through with Louise the importance of building hype especially when doing a promotion such as this or similarly memberships. I helped her to construct a 3-step email campaign and planned what dates to send out the emails.
The initial email called for her clients to register to get early bird notification when these vouchers went on sale – just 15 minutes more notice than non-registered clients. The email also limited the number of 2 for 1 vouchers going on sale to create urgency and get people to register.
Email 2 reminded her clients to register and also let them know how many had registered so far. This increased the urgency as it showed the demand for the 2 for 1 vouchers was HOT!
The 3rd email was to pre registered clients announcing the vouchers where ON SALE NOW and created urgency for these clients to call and get their voucher before the email was sent out to all 2136 clients on her database 15 minutes later.
The sequence of emails created a buzz and subsequently sold $6000 worth of vouchers. And of course that means there is going to be an influx of new clients in the salon over the next few months as the ‘free’ voucher had to be given to a new client and had an expiry of 3 months to get these people in the door fast!
And the best thing of all…email is FREE!
So next time you are planning any marketing campaign, think about how you are going to deliver that campaign to your target audience to get the best results.
by Greg Milner | Apr 7, 2011 | Selling Salon Products, The Right Mindset
Inner Circle member Jane Mason of Pure Day Spa in Caloundra was facing a double challenge: not only was her primary market tourists – her spa is in a hotel, with little or no walk-by traffic – but she’s in the heart of the area devastated by the Queensland floods this past January.
As Jane writes below, she had to take MASSIVE ACTION – and used some classic “Sales Thinking” to come up with a clever twist on the famous Queen of Referrals system in the Toolkit.
It worked brilliantly – and Jane has generously shared the marketing pieces she uses in this campaign with other Members.
“It is quite basic and the letter could most probably do with tweaking. I rolled this out to 4 of my top hotels, as at a recent meeting they all said they were struggling and to be honest so was I (and looking at closing the door).
MASSIVE ACTION was needed. My salon has a 30/70 split in favour of the tourist due to us being inside a hotel and very little walk past. Although not directly flooded, a lot of my regular holiday clients are from Brisbane, Grantham, Toowoomba and the Lockyer valley.
The way it works is simple, I send the hotels 60 vouchers to the value of $25, which they can do with as they wish… Staff incentives, booking incentives, hotel Guests and residents.
When they run out they call and I take them some more. I keep track of the vouchers and at the end of the month the winning hotel gets a $100 voucher. Some of the hotels have gone to town with it, putting posters in lifts etc, others are a bit more discreet.
We gave out 240 vouchers in March and got back 67 (the girls also tried to upsell on the pedi’s so that in actual fact we didn’t give anything away).
The average spend per service $122.75. We have found that even if they don’t use the voucher the seed has been planted and they call us first without looking around town at what’s on offer.
We also had an offer that was value added that they couldn’t use the voucher on which the girls upsold (some were better than others at doing this). We have found that hotels that didn’t have them were phoning me to get in on the act so in April we have rolled this out to another 8.”
Now that’s what we call smart marketing. And obviously, getting results.
67 new clients at an average spend of $122 = YOU do the maths!
of the entire system.
by Greg Milner | Feb 22, 2011 | Done for you Newsletters, Shop
If you put a gun to my head and told me I could only use ONE method of marketing to my clients, I’d always give the same answer – NEWSLETTERS!
Not once every six months, not once every quarter, but every single month. Nothing puts an ‘iron fence’ around your clients like a regular hard-copy newsletter, in an envelope, with a stamp on it. (Email? Sure – it’s efficient, but it’s nowhere near as effective.)
Now, there are THREE ways to do a monthly newsletter.
1) The HARD way. Sit down at your computer and write the whole thing yourself, lay it out so it looks attractive, and get it printed.
2) The EASY way. Download the many templates for newsletters in the Members area, sit down at your computer, and write all the content for it.
3) The REALLY EASY way!
Long-time IC member Susan Vincent has set up a brilliant ‘done-for-you’ newsletter service for salon owners who know the value of a monthly newsletter, but just don’t have time to do it themselves.
For just $97 a month, Susan will do everything for you, and email you the complete newsletter, in Word format, every month. All you need to do is insert your own details, and send it off to the printer.
Here’s a sample newsletter you can download (Right click and ‘save as…’)
Frankly, it just doesn’t get any easier than that. For $97 a month, there’s no way I’d be sitting down at a computer for hours on end!
Here’s what Inner Circle member EvaTzschaschel says about her experience with Susan’s newsletter service:
‘Hi Susan,
I just wanted to let you know how excited my clients are about the newsletter. I know I would have never gotten my act together if you didn’t offer your fabulous service. Here are some comments of my clients: “I enjoyed reading your newsletter”, “It’s a really good read”, “Very professional”; and a few people asked me for the next issue. I think it’s a good way to stay in front of clients without being pushy. Thank you so much for your help.
Kind regards,
Eva Tzschaschel
Face Body Wellness
4/3 Julius Ave
North Ryde
NSW 2113′
And here’s what Claire Mason of Integrity Paramedical Skin Practitioners in Seven Hills, Queenslandsays:
“During November for marketing I released 4 newspaper ads, Glossy DL clinic package promotions inserted into envelopes and home delivered, Email’s sent out to the data base (I had purchased a beauty salon prior) and hand delivered DL cards. Nothing sold more clinic packages than the newsletter.B ecause of the style of your text, even clients of 11 years can’t tell it’s not me talking. Thank you Susan for your passion. Integrity is growing with you on board.”
