3 Ways to Keep Your Salon Sales Up with “Pandemic Proofing” Against Covid-19

3 Ways to Keep Your Salon Sales Up with “Pandemic Proofing” Against Covid-19

Do you feel the lockdown is a disaster, or…an opportunity

Greg Milner, Founder, Worldwide Salon MarketingGet a FREE 30-minute “Massive Action” strategy session with WSM’s founder & CEO Greg Milner and find out how YOU can take advantage of the downtime to keep the cash register ticking over. 

AND be ready to hit the ground running when the crisis is over. 

Hit the button below now and choose your day and time for a free strategy session with Greg. 

Thousands of salons all over the world have been forced to shut their doors due to coronavirus.

Many owners are frozen in fear.

But the crisis WILL end.

And there ARE actions you can take to prepare yourself for when the lockdown is over – when you can open your doors again.

The salon owners who are using the down-time to fine-tune their marketing and online assets are going to be in the best position to hit the ground running.

As soon as long-time Worldwide Salon Marketing member Effie Tsopolous was told to shut down her big Hobart skin care centre, she was on the phone to us.

“Help!” she said. “I need to make changes FAST to our website and Facebook pages so we can at least sell retail products, gift vouchers, and promote skin consultations by Zoom video.”

So our team of developers went to work. First, a major update to Effie’s home page: 

(Click on image to go to Escape’s home page)

Then, designing a new page and uploading a raft of images of the products she wanted to sell online:

(Click on image to go to Escape’s online shop)

Next, an overhaul of Effie’s Facebook page, with a new cover photo, and tweaking the page to allow for online booking of free skin consultations:

(Click on image to go to Escape’s Facebook page)

seo-salons-and-spas-australia“Being quick to make these changes and updates is already having an effect,” says Effie. “We’re getting sales online, and we haven’t even started making phone calls to clients or emailing them with links to the site.” 

 

Here’s another example of a salon taking “Massive Action” to keep the cash register ticking over during the coronavirus pandemic. 

Karen Skewes is an award-winning owner of Le Beau Day Spa in Perth. This morning, she sent out this carefully-worded email: 

Do you feel the lockdown is a disaster, or…an opportunity

Greg Milner, Founder, Worldwide Salon MarketingGet a FREE 30-minute “Massive Action” strategy session with WSM’s founder & CEO Greg Milner and find out how YOU can take advantage of the downtime to keep the cash register ticking over. 

AND be ready to hit the ground running when the crisis is over. 

Hit the button below now and choose your day and time for a free strategy session with Greg. 

[VIDEO] How to check your salon’s website images are set up the right way

[VIDEO] How to check your salon’s website images are set up the right way

Feel free to comment below if you find this post useful:-) 

In my previous video, I showed you why it’s important to ‘optimize’ the photos on your Google Business Listing.

(If you missed that video, it’s here.)

And in the post before that, an easy way to get more reviews on your Google Business Listing.

(That video is here if you missed it.)

In this video, how to check that your lovely looking website is also doing its job – in other words, getting in front of people searching for the services you sell!

One of the key ways to help Google help your website up to the top of search results is making sure your photos are ‘optimized’ for best results.

It’s something that few website developers pay any attention to.

But it’s a vital part of what’s called Search Engine Optimization, or SEO.

(You’ve heard of that, right? It’s the dark and detailed art of making sure people find you, ahead of your competitors.)

Take a look, and once you’ve watched this video, do a check on your own website.

Want a FREE “Health Check” of your website and Google Business Listing? Just fill in the form below, we’ll do the complete audit for you, and send your report within 48 hours, complete with suggestions on how to improve your ranking, get more leads, and make more sales…

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Setting Yourself Up for Salon Business Success in 2020

Setting Yourself Up for Salon Business Success in 2020

“I’m just starting out in my salon business,” she said. “Obviously, I need clients. So I was thinking I will just need a Facebook page, and maybe a sign on the street…”

Hmmmm. We get a LOT of inquiries like that. Inquiries that betray a not-unexpected naivety about what it actually takes to start and run a successful business. (NOTE: by successful, we mean a business that doesn’t rely entirely on the owner to generate all the income. That’s not a business. It’s a JOB. Stands for Just Over Broke.)

So we’ve created this graphic to give you an idea of what a successful business (kinda!) looks like. It’s a lot like an iceberg. 

Most of an iceberg is invisible, below the waterline. Only the tip is visible in clear air. Fully 90% of it isn’t visible.

And that’s the bit, like the foundations of a house, that supports the tip. It’s where all the stuff that you and your clients don’t see is built, maintained, tweaked, tested and refined.

The tip of the iceberg is easy to visualize. It’s the obvious stuff. Your shop. Your website. Your social media. Maybe, if you do any, your advertising.

The 90% under the water is where most new salon owners (and a lot who’ve been in business for years and still struggle with it) have trouble imagining.

So let’s go through just a few of the above in a bit more detail.

Search Engine Optimization (or SEO): 

Lots of salons have a website these days. A website is an iceberg all by itself.
The bit you see on your screen is just the tip.  Just about any kid with a laptop can build one. But if a prospective client can’t find your website when they search on Google for “hair salon (your town)” or “cosmetic tattooing (your suburb)”, then your website is pretty much useless. The tedious, technical and manual-labor process of getting your website seen on Page One of Google is called Search Engine Optimization. It’s not cheap, precisely because it’s so labor-intensive. But don’t even think about spending money on building a website without also budgeting for the SEO process. Otherwise you may as well flush your money down the toilet.

Here’s a new site we built recently for one of our long-term Members, Escape Skin & Body in Hobart, TAS: 

It’s a beautiful site, and took more than four months to build, with constant liaison between our development team and the salon’s owner. 

But it would have been a waste of money if we’d just built the site without paying attention to the SEO that keeps it right at the top of search results, as you’ll see here: 

RESOURCE: Worldwide Salon Marketing builds, maintains and optimizes websites for hundreds of salons & spas around the world. Call +61-8-9443 9327 and ask for me or Sam. 

Google Business Listing: 

These are the listings that appear at the top any Google search for a product or service in your area. The graphic below shows typical Google Business Listing results, in this case for a search for “hair salon berwick” – they appear at the very top of searches, which means that your Google Business Listing is even more important than your company website. You have to treat your GBL as if it were a separate, stand-alone website – it has to be set up correctly, and it has to be optimized not just with the right photos and business information, but with backlinks and citations from elsewhere on the internet. See how Allura Hairdressing Boutique appears at the top of the ‘Big Three’? This salon gets more than 200 calls per month from prospective new clients who have found it and ‘clicked to call’ on their smartphones.

 

Watch: 

Here’s a simple explanation of the immense value of ‘online real estate’: 

RESOURCEWorldwide Salon Marketing sets up and optimizes Google Business Listings for scores of salons & spas around the world. If you want more info, simply pick up the phone and call our head office, +61-8-9443-9327.

Database Management: You simply cannot efficiently and effectively manage a salon or spa business without a competent booking and appointment software program. There are scores of these on the market, and most of them do a pretty good job.

Social Media Advertising: Everybody knows about Facebook. But have you ever noticed how hardly anybody sees your business promotions when you simply post them in your business page timeline? Yep, that’s because Facebook wants to you pay for advertising to reach more people.
Advertising on Facebook can be incredibly effective, if it’s done the right way. That requires time, patience, technical ability, some talent with graphics, and a clear idea of what outcome you want.

Watch:

Here’s a brief video on how to make your Facebook (and Google!) advertising work for you:

Website Lead Capture: Websites only have two prime purposes; 1) to sell stuff/generate appointments, and 2) to capture the contact details of people who might not be ready to buy yet, but will in the future…IF you keep marketing to them. A lead-capture device is just a form on your website that they fill in to get something for free, for example, a free gift voucher. In exchange, you get their contact details.

 

Watch what I mean here: 

Online Reviews:

As you’ll see in the graphic below, Worldwide Salon Marketing member salon About You Salon in Gatlinburg Tennessee, Organic Infusion and Fox Place Salon & Spa, all have a star rating. That’s because they have reviews – an online version of testimonials. These are reviews on Google – reviews on Facebook are all very well, but Google takes more notice of reviews on its own search platform. Salons with reviews and star ratings get more calls than salons without.

Advance Planning Promotions: Most salon owners do their marketing ad hoc. In other words, “Gee, it’s Friday, I need customers for Monday…better think about that…”
It’s not good enough. And it’s scary. Better: plan your entire marketing year in advance. You know that throughout the year there are many marketing ‘trigger’ events – Christmas, Mothers Day, Black Friday, Change of Seasons and more. You can make a LONG list of events and special occasions, many of them only relevant to your salon, or your local area.
Once you’ve made a list (a big wall calendar is a good idea) you can then plan for each event. In many cases, weeks out.
But you need tools, templates, systems to help you do that, otherwise you’re just reinventing the wheel every time.

FREE RESOURCE: 

Get your own online ‘real estate’ audited at no cost by my team of online marketing and technical specialists: 

I hope at least some of that you’ve found helpful!

Founder
www.worldwidesalonmarketing.com

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7 Reasons Your Salon’s Online Marketing Could be Putting Your Business in Danger (PLUS Free Gift Below)

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Enter your website’s address here to get your FREE, comprehensive (30+ pages) Functionality Report – a $245 value – and find out the key changes that’ll turn your website into a sales and lead-generating machine.

 

It seems to have become fashionable – particularly in the hair & beauty business – for many owners of these businesses to put all their marketing eggs in one basket.

More and more, we’re hearing from salon owners who declare “I just use Facebook,” or “It’s all about Instagram these days.”

And worse, many are either letting their own websites go, or not even bothering to get one built in the first place. This is really, really short-sighted, damaging thinking.

Here’s why: 

  1. Of all the digital media platforms you can use – and the list is a long one, including but not limited to Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Yelp, Google and a dozen others – your website is the only one you can completely control.
  2. Facebook, Instagram, Google etc – they are all controlled by the companies that own them. They can and do change the rules, often. And they can drop you like a stone, without notice. Your account can be cancelled, your access to it blocked, or the whole platform can go down. If that’s the only media option you have to reach out to your market, you’re toast.
  3. Think all those people who ‘like’ you on Facebook and Instagram are your prospects and customers? No, they’re Facebook’s customers. Only Facebook as direct access to them, only Facebook has their direct contact details.
  4. Your website, on the other hand, is the only digital asset over which you have complete technical and creative control. You alone decide what it looks like, what messages it carries, what functions it performs, when and how it is updated, how many pages it has, how many images it contains, what experience your visitor has, and whether or not you want to link it to other parts of the internet.
  5. Your website is the only digital asset under your control that you can use to generate leads and sales the way you want to, rather than the way Facebook or Instagram or Google wants you to.
  6. Unlike Facebook, Instagram and all the others, your website gets people away from all your competition, to focus on only you and your business. Once they’re looking at your website, they’re not distracted by the next salon’s post on Facebook, or another salon’s tweet or Instagram photo.
  7. On social media platforms and search engines, all businesses look pretty much the same. Thanks to the platforms themselves, it’s very, very difficult to make a stand-out statement when you’re restricted by the necessary guidelines of Facebook or Instagram. (You can’t change Facebook’s layout, or background colors. It’s blue, and always will be.)

People might find your business using a Google search. But they won’t understand what you’re about unless and until they can click through to your website, and see your business the way you want them to see it, not the way Google or Facebook wants them to see it. The very first thing people will do when wanting to find out about your business is look for, and at, your website. Quite simply, if you don’t have one to visit, you are very unlikely to get their business. It’s that simple.

Having your own website is security for your business. Imagine the unthinkable – that one day, through market changes, technical disaster, or legislative changes, suddenly Facebook and Instagram were wiped out, simply disappeared from our screens. Where would that leave you if you had no website, or it wasn’t functioning properly? Dead in the water. 

So yes, it is madness for any small business to be without its own website.

But even if you have a website, is it set up to do its job properly? 

  1. Is it visible – on the first page of Google – when your prospective clients are searching for a hair salon, beauty salon, a massage, a facial, a haircut, in your local area?
  2. Is it easy for people to find your phone number and call you, on their cell phone?
  3. Is your site set up properly to send you free leads? 

HERE’S AN EASY (AND FREE!) WAY TO FIND OUT: 

Enter your website’s address here to get your FREE, comprehensive (30+ pages) Functionality Report – a $245 value – and find out the key changes that’ll turn your website into a sales and lead-generating machine.