by Greg Milner | Mar 7, 2014 | Advertising Tips, Blog, The Right Mindset
George Slater piloting the helicopter Google sent us. (Amazing what you can do with Photoshop!)
Next time you post a promotion on Facebook, or send an offer to your clients by email or SMS, take a moment to think about this:
“If the world’s biggest, richest, smartest internet marketing company (Google) thought that promoting its business purely online was THE answer, why would it send a helicopter – one that actually flies – to thousands of small business owners???”
ANSWER: because Google knows that anybody who says ‘social media is all I do or need to effectively market my business’ is DUMB.
In the Worldwide Salon Marketing office today we were delighted when our Director of Online, George Slater opened the mail and there, among all the usual, dreary bills, marketing flyers and other postman-delivered flotsam was a big, colorful box from Google. Inside, a real remote-control helicopter. (And, of course, an offer from Google to encourage us to spend money on Adwords, which we do anyway!)
So, for a bit of Friday Fun, George and a couple of our web developers Pash and Andrew took our new chopper for a fly around the office…
[cf]chopper[/cf]But here’s the lesson. Here’s what’s instructive about this little bit of fun:
When Google’s marketing message arrived, we were in the middle of a boardroom meeting with a group of serious businessmen. For 15 minutes, these MBA and CPA-qualified suits were absorbed by Google’s ‘helicopter marketing’ as they flew the little chopper around the office, bouncing it off the walls and ceiling and crashing it into each other, laughing uproariously.
And they read every word of the Adwords promotion that came with the toy ‘Trojan Horse’. The lesson is simple: don’t believe the ‘gurus’ who tell you that it’s ALL about digital marketing these days, that direct mail is dead. It’s not. It’s alive and very, very well. And if you learn how to use it even a tenth as effectively as Google, you’ll reap the benefits in more clients, spending more money with you, more often.
Want to discover how to really market your salon or spa effectively (both online and offline)? Here’s what Lords ‘n Lads Barbershop owner Jason Quarrell says about being a Member of the My Social Salon marketing & mentoring program. (Click here to find out how to get a 30-day Money Back Guaranteed Test Drive)
[cf]Jason[/cf]
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 | Oct 16, 2013 | About Us, Latest News, Marketing Superstars
Eric – our new Salon Marketing Superhero
I’ve often been asked by salon owners if I could help them “find somebody who can do all my salon marketing for me.” Write all the advertising copy, arrange all the promotions, do all the blogging, social media, video production and editing, search engine optimization, website changes, reputation management and a hundred other highly-skilled tasks that go into a comprehensive marketing plan.
The bad news: there IS no such person on the planet with all the skills required. They just don’t exist. And if they did, they’d be so in-demand you couldn’t possibly afford to pay their salary. But there IS an option. It’s far cheaper than hiring a full-time marketing ‘guru’. And far, far more accomplished.
Meet Eric. He’s our new Salon Marketing Superhero. For established salons & spas who want ALL their marketing done for them – online and offline – Eric is the one who gets it done.
Only TEN salons will be accepted into the Superhero program. Check it out here.
by Greg Milner | Oct 9, 2013 | The Smell of Success
A lesson in how to turn a marketing disaster into a triumph, from Elon Musk, founder of Tesla
Most salon owners have nightmares about this: a disgruntled client goes to the media, and suddenly you have TV cameras aimed at you, and A Current Affair is bad-mouthing your business to thousands of viewers. Or your client creates a storm online – anonymously, of course – with humiliating reviews on Yelp, Google or other review sites.
How would YOU handle that? Would you fall in a heap, bury your head in the sand and hope it’ll all just go away, or will you take action to turn a marketing horror story into a massive advantage?
Here’s a fabulous lesson in brilliant public relations – it’s a Case Study on “How to Turn a Disaster Into a Triumph.”
On Tuesday last week a car caught fire on a highway in America. But this was no ordinary car. It was a super-luxurious, expensive, electric Tesla Model S built by Tesla Motors, the company founded by Paypal co-founder Elon Musk. Within minutes, images and videos of the fire were all over the internet.
By Thursday, Tesla had lost more than $2.5 billion in stock market value. Elon Musk, a 23% shareholder, had personally tanked nearly $600million. Investors feared the fire, and accident, might have shown a flaw in the company’s battery pack despite being called “the safest car in America.” But some truly brilliant public relations soon saw the disaster reversed.
Have a careful read of Musk’s response to the accident. There are lots of things to pick up on here. As Joe Polish points out in his blog,
1. DETAILS. The first half of the letter is incredibly detailed. Complete and thorough. This not only instills credibility, but gives you a clear picture of what accurately happened. They don’t avoid the issue. They face the facts head on in a way that makes sense of the incident.
2. TRANSFORM ACCIDENT INTO ADVANTAGE. In the second half of the letter, Elon transforms the accident into a positive advantage, and actually differentiates the Tesla from normal conventional gasoline cars. He turns disaster into an advantage for Tesla by pointing out the weakness in the competition, and proving the Tesla is superior to the competition.
3. BEHIND THE SCENES. In the last part of the letter, the communications between the Tesla owner who was in the accident and the VP of sales and service for Tesla are reproduced. This gives you a behind the scenes look at how the issue was handled with the customer experiencing the issue. Total transparency. This breeds trust.
Here’s the letter – they even published correspondence between the company and the customer:
October 4, 2013
About the Model S fire
By Elon Musk, Chairman, Product Architect & CEO
Earlier this week, a Model S traveling at highway speed struck a large metal object, causing significant damage to the vehicle. A curved section that fell off a semi-trailer was recovered from the roadway near where the accident occurred and, according to the road crew that was on the scene, appears to be the culprit.
The geometry of the object caused a powerful lever action as it went under the car, punching upward and impaling the Model S with a peak force on the order of 25 tons. Only a force of this magnitude would be strong enough to punch a 3 inch diameter hole through the quarter inch armor plate protecting the base of the vehicle.The Model S owner was nonetheless able to exit the highway as instructed by the on-board alert system, bring the car to a stop and depart the vehicle without injury.
A fire caused by the impact began in the front battery module – the battery pack has a total of 16 modules – but was contained to the front section of the car by internal firewalls within the pack. Vents built into the battery pack directed the flames down towards the road and away from the vehicle.When the fire department arrived, they observed standard procedure, which was to gain access to the source of the fire by puncturing holes in the top of the battery’s protective metal plate and applying water. For the Model S lithium-ion battery, it was correct to apply water (vs. dry chemical extinguisher), but not to puncture the metal firewall, as the newly created holes allowed the flames to then vent upwards into the front trunk section of the Model S. Nonetheless, a combination of water followed by dry chemical extinguisher quickly brought the fire to an end.It is important to note that the fire in the battery was contained to a small section near the front by the internal firewalls built into the pack structure.
At no point did fire enter the passenger compartment.Had a conventional gasoline car encountered the same object on the highway, the result could have been far worse. A typical gasoline car only has a thin metal sheet protecting the underbody, leaving it vulnerable to destruction of the fuel supply lines or fuel tank, which causes a pool of gasoline to form and often burn the entire car to the ground. In contrast, the combustion energy of our battery pack is only about 10% of the energy contained in a gasoline tank and is divided into 16 modules with firewalls in between. As a consequence, the effective combustion potential is only about 1% that of the fuel in a comparable gasoline sedan.
The nationwide driving statistics make this very clear: there are 150,000 car fires per year according to the National Fire Protection Association, and Americans drive about 3 trillion miles per year according to the Department of Transportation. That equates to 1 vehicle fire for every 20 million miles driven, compared to 1 fire in over 100 million miles for Tesla. This means you are 5 times more likely to experience a fire in a conventional gasoline car than a Tesla!For consumers concerned about fire risk, there should be absolutely zero doubt that it is safer to power a car with a battery than a large tank of highly flammable liquid.— Elon
Below is our email correspondence with the Model S owner that experienced the fire, reprinted with his permission:
From: Robert Carlson
Sent: Thursday, October 03, 2013 12:53 PM
To: Jerome Guillen
Subject: Mr. Guillen, Thanks for the support. I completely agree with the assessment to date. I guess you can test for everything, but some other celestial bullet comes along and challenges your design. I agree that the car performed very well under such an extreme test. The batteries went through a controlled burn which the internet images really exaggerates. Anyway, I am still a big fan of your car and look forward to getting back into one. Justin offered a white loaner–thanks. I am also an investor and have to say that the response I am observing is really supportive of the future for electric vehicles. I was thinking this was bound to happen, just not to me. But now it is out there and probably gets a sigh of relief as a test and risk issue-this “doomsday” event has now been tested, and the design and engineering works.rob carlson
On Oct 3, 2013, at 12:29 PM, Jerome Guillen wrote:
Dear Mr. Carlson: I am the VP of sales and service for Tesla, reporting directly to Elon Musk, Tesla’s CEO.I am sorry to hear that you experienced a collision in your Model S 2 days ago. We are happy that the Model S performed in such a way that you were not injured in the accident and that nobody else was hurt.I believe you have been in contact with Justin Samson, our service manager, since the accident. We are following this case extremely closely and we have sent a team of experts to review your vehicle. All indications are that your Model S drove over large, oddly-shaped metal object which impacted the leading edge of the vehicle’s undercarriage and rotated into the underside of the vehicle (“pole vault” effect).
This is a highly uncommon occurrence.Based on our review thus far, we believe that the Model S performed as designed by limiting the resulting fire to the affected zones only. Given the significant intensity of the impact, which managed to pierce the 1/4 inch bottom plate (something that is extremely hard to do), the Model S energy containment functions operated correctly. In particular, the top cover of the battery provided a strong barrier and there was no apparent propagation of the fire into the cabin. This ensured cabin integrity and occupant safety, which remains our most important goal.We very much appreciate your support, patience and understanding while we proceed with the investigation. Justin keeps me closely informed. Please feel free to contact me directly, if you have any question or concern. Best regards,
Jerome Guillen I VP, WW sales and service
Now, that’s how to handle a PR disaster.
By Friday, Tesla’s stock market price was back up almost to pre-accident levels.
by Greg Milner | Sep 12, 2013 | The Right Mindset, The Smell of Success
A salon owner wrote to me a few weeks ago, bemoaning the fact that “I’ve run out of salon marketing ideas. Everybody’s doing package deals now, value-added offers and so on. It’s frustrating, if we all do it, there’s nothing to help the customers differentiate between us any more….”
That kind of thinking betrays a dangerously narrow view of what marketing is, and what makes a business successful.
Yep, everybody’s doing special deals. The daily deal sites, bless their black and bleeding hearts, have made an entire industry out of it. And it’s bitten a lot of businesses on the backside.
But to concentrate all your marketing focus on the next package deal, the next offer, and ignore everything else in your message is akin to expecting a perfectly baked cake when the only ingredient you’ve used is sugar.
Apple’s new iPhone – will it maintain the company’s cult status?
Let’s be clear; your offer is only the tip of your marketing iceberg. All the other ‘below the surface’ stuff is what holds it up in clear view, above the waterline. Imagine if all Apple did was build mobile phones and offered a ‘buy one, get one free’ deal. Sure, they’d sell a bunch of cheap mobile phones. Until somebody else came along with a better offer, a cheaper deal. It’s shallow, creating little more impact that a stone skipping across the surface of a lake. The ripples fan out, and just as quickly die off.
No, what Apple has done for decades is build a cult, it’s nurtured a culture, created a massive below-the-surface support structure that turns mere customers into raving, evangelical fans. The most fanatical, tub-thumping born-again Christian ought fear for his life if he gets between a gospel-preaching Apple fan and a new MacBook Air. It’s Apple’s culture, its below-the-surface iceberg, that’s allowed it to enjoy the fattest profit margins in the business. Apple charges more than any other company producing similar products. It never discounts.
(But even Apple isn’t infallible – the launch of the latest iPhone has hardly set the world on fire. Evidence that without the theatrical inspiration of it’s spiritual leader, any company can slide down to ordinary.)
So, let’s roll up our sleeves and examine for a moment what your iceberg might look like below the waterline. And there has to be a LOT of it, otherwise the tip of the ‘berg will sink.
First, what stories do you tell your clients, customers and prospects about you, about your salon, about your beliefs, successes, failures, achievements? People want to do business with real, flesh-and-blood people, not faceless entities. In your client newsletters, in your website and social media posts, do you tell stories about yourself, your family, your kids, your dog? Do you present a human face, or do you retreat self-consciously behind the front window of a pretty, stylish website and a salon facade that holds customers back behind a wall of ‘professionalism’?
Do you invite your customers into your life, or do you hold them at arm’s length?
Second, what is it about you and what you do/say/deliver that is unique, that cannot be found at a competing salon, that cannot be ignored, that is compelling, magnetic, attractive…or are you just another ‘me-too’ business, doing/saying/delivering pretty much the same as everybody else? What’s your Unique Selling Proposition (or propositions plural)?
Third, what kind of customers do you want, and what do you do to attract them? Are you trying to be all things to all people (and therefore nothing special to anybody in particular) or do you deliberately and carefully filter out the kind of people you don’t want, and only let in the kind of people you do want?
On my local TV news last night, a perfect example – a gym that deliberately makes it difficult to join. They have a long waiting list. If you don’t jump through all of their hoops, you don’t get in.
[cf]Gym[/cf]
Fourth, what interests do most of your customers have in common? Are they from a recognizable niche? Smart business owners will forensically examine their list of clients, collecting as much useful data about them as is possible to do. And then identify key factors which might give them a clue as to why certain types of people are attracted to the business – vital information that gives the business owner the ammunition to go after more of those types of people.
It’s niche marketing at its most basic.
Fifth, what intellectual capital do you have that you aren’t using? Qualifications, awards, photos of you with ‘celebrities’ (or, people who are well-known within perhaps a very narrow circle of people/professions/groups).
Trying to build a viable, profitable, in-demand business based only on the ‘tip of the iceberg’ special offers and package deals is going to give you a shallow result at best, a grass castle easily blown away by the lightest puff of breeze from a rival salon.
Spend time and energy on the basic foundations. When you do that, you won’t need special offers. People will queue up. And pay top dollar.
FREE for Salon Owners – the ‘BIG 5’ Salon Marketing & Sales ‘Cheat Sheet’!
These are the five crucial business-building strategies ALL successful salons use – are you doing this in your business? Fill in your first name and email address for an Instant Download.
[cf]cheatsheet[/cf]
