Nail Salon Marketing Plan: when customers leave you, it isn’t ALWAYS bad news…

by | Jun 29, 2009 | Blog

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.”

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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.

Like Gail Smith, of Charmed Hair & Beauty in Morayfield, Queensland, who writes:

“…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.

 

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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.

Beauty Salon Marketing 101: Back to Basics

by | Apr 8, 2009 | Salon Advertising Tips

Beauty Salon Marketing 101: Back to Basics

 

Asking Too Much Of Your Advertising.

Most business owners try to get their ad to do too much, to appeal to all possible prospects. And by doing so, it achieves nothing. Asking a single ad to do everything is asking too much of it.

A single ad should have one purpose, one job, one expected outcome, and nothing more. If you want to sell a particular kind of body treatment or hair service, only sell that service…sell it hard, with a great offer, a terrific headline, a strong guarantee… don’t simply fill your ad with a bullet-pointed list of everything you do. That’s not an ad, it’s an expensive ad_1.jpgbusiness card. And nobody ever sold anything off a business card.
Here’s a typical beauty industry salon ad…. typically thoughtless, wasteful advertising, trying to do everything and in the end achieving nothing.So instead of saying in your advertising something like “call us for all beauty needs such as body treatments, pedicures, manicures, massages, nails, facials, blah blah blah…’ make your ad specific, make the offer very clear…
A word of warning: Most of the people who sell you advertising space are ignorant of this kind of advertising, and if they’re not ignorant of it, they fear it, because it is so accountable.
Many, many times we have had Members tell us that advertising reps have mocked the copy-intensive style of advertising in the Toolkit, sneering at it because it looks unprofessional, doesn’t look glossy, doesn’t have lots of pretty pictures in it, has too much text, etc etc.
Often, magazines have even refused to run this kind of ad, because their main interest is producing a glossy publication that looks pretty to their readers, rather than accepting advertising that actually works for their advertisers…the people who actually pay the magazine’s bills.
The general advertising industry is not at all tied to results. What the smart business owner has to do is educate himself enough so that he’s an informed, well-researched consumer when he does deal with service providers like agencies and printers and publishers.
As a small business owner, you should be investing only in marketing that is results measurable, so that you can track what you get for your dollar. You have to learn to say no to certain advertising reps or advertising opportunities, unless and until those opportunities pass the accountability test, for example if you’re approached to advertise in a magazine, you ONLY go ahead with that offer if you can run YOUR kind of ad, not their kind of ad – and only then if you’ve satisfied yourself that that particular publication is attracting the kind of readers you want as clients.
Most businesses in the beauty industry are out there with no message at all. Typically, salon owners will buy or lease their space, hang a sign out the front, spend a huge amount of time and energy on the interior, fret over the logo etc etc…. and open the door and wait for customers.
Very few spend any time at all on the only thing that really matters, which is getting customers through the door. Very few spend any time or research on what they’re going to communicate to the market about who they are, and why prospects should do business with them. Very few spend any time doing what we call ‘sales thinking’: which is analyzing what you sell, what your USP is, what your customers really want – and crafting a perfectly-pitched message that sells you and your business.
You see, advertising is nothing more than salesmanship in print.