What use is your website if it doesn’t get you CUSTOMERS???

by Greg Milner on 14/05/08 at 7:47 pm

Computer rage? Thankfully, you can actually make money using the internet without having to know anything about it...

In another life, when I was Executive Producer of Television News, I was rudely dismissive of anything to do with computers. So much so that while the rest of the civilised world was rapidly adopting new technology to make working easier, I point-blank refused to give up my noisy old manual typewriter.

As for the Internet…well, even as little as 6 or 7 years ago I would have laughed out loud at anybody suggesting it would ever be more than a source of porn and sports scores.

Fast-forward to 2008, and I’m eating my ill-considered words. Frankly, if it weren’t for the web, my own business would be growing at a fraction of the rate it has expanded since we started in 2004. I am now prepared to admit that for almost any business – and certainly, for the average salon or spa – the web is now, for the first time, more important as a source of new customers than all other forms of media combined.

So how does this matter to you, the salon owner? I’ll give you just one example. Regular readers will know of Karen Briffa, owner of Le Beau Day Spa, the 2006 Spa Establishment of the Year. Most salon owners looking at Karen’s website – and certainly all ‘graphic designers’ – would turn their nose up in distaste at how ‘tacky’ and ‘amateurish’ it looks. So why would a millionaire business owner with Karen’s fanatical attention to detail put up with that?

Because that simple-looking website makes Karen at least half a million dollars a year in business she would otherwise have missed out on.

Trouble is, most salon & spa owners just about have a BRAIN FREEZE when it comes to web stuff. If they do any marketing at all, it’s limited to the odd mail flyer, direct mail to clients, a newspaper ad or two, and referrals. Because the whole ‘web thing’ is just TOO HARD to think about. But hark unto me, and do this little exercise:

Get a bucket of money, and empty it on your kitchen table. Now, take half the money, and push it aside. Label one Pile A, and the other Pile B.

Pile A is what your salon is currently making. And Pile B is what you are actually missing out on RIGHT NOW, because you either don’t have a website, or your existing one is USELESS.

So, what’s the Dirty Little Secret? I’m glad you asked, ‘cos I’m gonna tell you.

“Most so-called web-designers DON’T HAVE A CLUE about
building a website that actually sells anything!”

It’s true. Most ‘web designers’ are actually not much more than computer-equipped graphic artists. Sure, they make things look ‘pretty’, with cool graphics and lots of flashy moving things. If you have a web designer, or know of one, prove my claim for yourself by asking him or her this:

“Can you guarantee me this…if you built me a website and I don’t get enough customers from it to make it worthwhile, will you give me all my money back?”

Now watch the blood drain from his face.

The Internet is not a ‘business’ in an of itself. (And there is no such thing as an ‘Internet business’ – but there are businesses who rely solely on the Internet to generate sales and leads. More fool them.) The Internet is no more, no less than another form of media – just like newspapers, magazines, direct mail, radio, TV, even word of mouth are forms of media.

The Internet, of course, has a few bells and whistles. Like the ability to automatically bill your customers, like the precise way you can use it to track results, and a bunch of other trick stuff.

BUT…They are all simply means of communicating a message. The simpler, clearer and more succinct, the better.

So, when a ‘web designer’ tells you “oh, you’ve gotta have this flashy thing, I can make this bit look really cool, how about this moving, flowing, amazingly gripping opening sequence….” you should immediately take him quietly out back, tie him to a stout post, and carefully pour fresh cow dung all over him. Because he has totally, utterly, completely missed the point.

Your website should never, ever, ever be first and foremost a monument to your web designer’s towering ego. (They are a strange breed. They really get off on all that flashy stuff.)

No sir. your website should be conceived, designed and executed to do only TWO things:

1. SELL stuff

2. Capture the names and contact details of people who might one day book an appoinment with you – and buy stuff.

That’s IT. Your website should NOT be designed to do ANYTHING else. (Unless, of course, you’re really just in business to make people feel good. That you? I didn’t think so.)

Unfortunately, there’s an awful lot of…well, crap written and spoken about the internet. And, if you don’t talk to the right people, you’ll get bamboozled by it. In reality, it’s very simple.

But getting that simple result – sales, and names – requires laser-focussed thinking, and skills that 99% of ‘web designers’ don’t have. Because they are designers, NOT marketers. ANY fool can design a pretty website. VERY few people know how to put a website together that actually makes sales, and captures names and addresses.

So, with that in mind, if you’re frustrated by lack of results from your existing website or you’re thinking you need your salon online to boost business (and you do, for sure) then you should investigate further.

Rating 3.00 out of 5

A post by Greg Milner

The odd idea, a bit of prodding, a nudge here and there, a little fun, and the occasional dose of brutal reality. Greg is co-founder and CEO of Worldwide Salon Marketing, a writer, direct response marketing consultant, specialist marketing systems adviser and coach. He (sometimes) accepts private consulting clients.