Salon owner and Inner Circle member Cherie Underwood is a passionate convert to the power of her salon's new website to attract customers

Every salon owner dreams of the day when she can get ‘off the tools’ and reap the rewards of all those hard years slogging away on the floor. Few take the necessary action to achieve that dream. One who did was IC Premium member (two years) Cherie Underwood of Femme Fatale in Jannali, New South Wales.

Elsewhere on this site we reported on how ‘my’ kind of marketing enabled Cherie to leave the salon under management while she stayed at home with a brand new baby. But it also gave Cherie the time to concentrate on being a marketer of her business (that’s where the real money is).

A few weeks ago, Cherie took up our offer to build her a client-generating website, designed not just to look ‘pretty’ but to get noticed in the search engines, attract clients who want to spend, and create ‘passive income’ – in other words, money while you sleep.

Our ‘web nerd’, Marty Owens, not only built the site, but also created a Facebook page for the salon, with ‘follow us’ links on the main salon site.

Here’s the link to Cherie’s new website.

Results were instantaneous. As Cherie revealed in an interview with her today, she’s over the moon…and delighted that it’s another cog in the marketing machine that’s already producing income.

Here’s the power that Cherie is referring to:  anybody Googling for a beauty salon in Cherie’s local area for a beauty salon might, for example, type ‘beauty salon Jannali’ in the search bar.

When I tested it, Femme Fatale came up right at the top of the organic Google search listings. That’s pretty amazing, after only a week online.

If YOU want a website that’s working so well, so quickly – just like Cherie’s – go here to find out more about how you can get one. Marty has TWO slots available in the next week. After that, he’s buried in more work.

David sent me an article written by a purported ‘expert’ on customer retention that makes my eyes water.

Under the heading “Don’t ask customers why they left you!”,  Mark Fletcher argues, correctly, that customers leave for three main reasons:

* Drawn: They are drawn away to a supplier that offers them substantially more of what they value (e.g. service, benefits, savings, etc.).
* Drift: They drift away to a similar supplier who offers them marginally more. Most often this occurs at points of change in their own life (e.g. moving job/house/site, having children, etc.).
* Driven: In the absence of a strong engagement, they become disenchanted over time and then a particular incident (trigger) pushes them to change suppliers.

But then he falls in a hole, with the scholarly opinion that “…instead of asking them why they left you, try the following strategies to reduce customer defections:

1. Conduct value research

* Use analysis of relevant online discussion forums, traditional focus groups and other tools to identify what customers actually value from their relationship with you. Then use these insights to drive value into your customer relationships.

2. Leverage your customer data

* Use customer complaints data to prioritise and address those things that annoy customers (and start collecting it immediately if you don’t already!)
* Statistically analyse customer transactional behaviour to identify other change triggers (positive and negative).

Online discussion forums? Focus groups???

Oh, yawn. In other words, tip-toe around, do anything except send ‘em a letter, in an envelope, with a stamp on it, asking them to come back and giving them a bloody good reason (offer) to do so.

It’s classic avoidance strategy, padded with big words and fancy phrases, to give business owners comfort for not doing what it takes to get the damn customers back.

If you want to do ‘research’, here’s my contention: get the customers back first, then find out why they left in the first place. If they’re standing right in front of you, having eagerly responded to your ‘come back’ offer, that’s a pretty good place to start your ‘focus group’. Particularly after they’ve just been blown away by a ‘wow’ experience.

“C’mon Shirley, we haven’t seen you for three months. What happened?”

Sometimes, ‘experts’ just love to over-think things. Thankfully, our Members know the value of a well-crafted Raise the Dead series of letters they can simply download from the Membership area. Many are getting a 30% response rate, sending these letters to their ‘missing in action’ clients.

Good grief. If you really want to read this dreary, over-wrought article, you’ll find it here.

If you want to read some common sense about getting ‘lost’ customers back, go here.

Property guru Margie Baldock takes Academy members through some of her little-known investment strategies

Unless you’ve been living under a rock these past few years, you’ll have heard of The Secret, a cult book/video hit that flooded bookstores a while back.

For me, it was all a bit New Age, crystal-swinging, pig-fur-weaving hippie mumbo-jumbo. I’m more of a nuts ‘n bolts kinda guy. Napoleon Hill’s ‘Think and Grow Rich’ shoulda been titled ‘Think, ACT and Grow Rich’. Which is exactly what our first Academy advanced business thinking session was about in Sydney yesterday.

For the long-term (over one year) Inner Circle Premium members who attended the Academy session from all over Australia and New Zealand, it was ‘total immersion’ in an ocean of action-provoking instruction in wealth creation, advanced entrepreneurial thinking and sophisticated direct response marketing strategies.

Pat Mesiti's goal is to help create 10,000 millionaires through strategi business thinking

Uber-motivator and corporate trainer Pat Mesiti – who opens the speaking bill for Sir Richard Branson in Perth next week – had the Academy members in stitches with his frenetic, laser-focused, brutally funny delivery on what stops business people from being successful.

Margie Baldock, the ‘perfumed steamroller’ property developer and business thinker, had a queue of Members wanting to get ‘in’ on her property strategies, and the southern hemisphere’s best direct response copywriter and former “Rebel Without a Clue” Pete Godfrey widened a lot of eyes as he showed how just the tiniest change in an ad or letter can triple response. It was stunning stuff.

Self-made multi-millionaire businessman Justin Herald still has the kind of no-nonsense attitude he encourages all business owners to cultivate

Best-selling business author Justin Herald had the audience enthralled as he told the story of how a broke 25-year-old turned 50 bucks and a bad attitude into a multi-national, multi-million dollar clothing empire. (Turns out Justin and Pat are brothers-in-law, having married identical twin sisters!)

And for those who were there, feel free to give your feedback in the ‘comments’ field under this post. And let us know how we can improve the Academy experience for you!

Next Academy event: Melbourne, Tuesday, May 18.

We’ve lined up another stellar roll-call of business entrepreneurs and trainers for this event, PLUS, for the first time, a

Marketing Brain Challenge

At the Melbourne event, Academy members will be split into teams, with one hour to come up with a sizzling marketing Action Plan for a mythical start-up salon. And there’ll be a cracker of a prize for the winning team!

NOTE TO INNER CIRCLE PREMIUM MEMBERS:

We’ve already had several Inner Circle Premium members who’ve expressed their disappointment at missing out on the Academy. It’s not too late. If you feel you’re ready in your business life for more advanced wealth-creation and entrepreneurial strategies, call the office on 08 9381 6621.

Except when it isn’t. I’ve just had a less than exhilarating maritime experience that could have been much worse had it not been for one of the most remarkable examples of ‘above-and-beyond-the-call-of-duty’ customer service I’ve ever encountered.

Managing all the electrical and mechanical systems on a large, modern boat such as mine can do one’s head in. And, because it’s a boat, Murphy’s Law is even more applicable; if it can go wrong, it will, at the worst possible moment.

Michelle and I had been looking forward to this recent long weekend. The late summer weather was forecast hot and still, so with fuel and fresh water tanks brim full, we eagerly pointed the nose of our 40ft Caribbean ‘Tides’ west, gunned the diesels and skimmed across the 15 miles of Gage Roads to our mooring at Longreach Bay on the northern side of Rottnest Island.

My elderly parents arrived late the following day on the ferry, and it wasn’t long after that that the wheels started falling off.

Without plenty of fresh water on a boat, life afloat can be pretty ordinary. You need it for drinking, washing dishes, showering, flushing the toilet…try doing without it for a day, you’ll see what I mean.

So the Milner floating household was not a happy one when, just as the sun dipped below the horizon and we were all looking forward to a nice hot shower followed by dinner on the deck, the fresh water pump down in the bilge decided to call on Murphy.

Rottnest Island raft-up - looks great from this angle, entirely different when you're down in the bilge lathered in sweat...

Without that pump, you’re toast. It ain’t like turning on a tap at home, where it just falls out of the thing. On a boat, it has to be pumped out of a tank.

All that night, I glumly contemplated the prospect of heading home the following morning, and missing out on a weekend of the best weather we’d had for weeks.

I knew my chances of ferreting out a new pump and getting it across to the island were worse than slim, they were anorexic. But I knew my brother Peter was bringing his boat across that day to join the family.

I called him. He called a guy he knew who owned a marine parts business. That guy was also at Rottnest Island, enjoying his weekend. “But I’ll call one of my staff, see what he can do.”

Within the hour, as Peter pulled alongside one of the jetties that dot the river banks down near its Fremantle Harbour mouth, young Alex arrived with replacement pump.  Barked knuckles, a layer of sweat and three hours later, I’d restored our water supply, and our weekend afloat.

How often have you heard of a business – any business – going to those lengths, particularly on a Sunday.

I often rant about the Sales Prevention Department that grows like a cancer in all businesses. Maybe I should start an award for the Above and Beyond Department.

(But the Sales Prevention Department will always be more finely-tuned, and much more widely distributed. Two days ago I paid a $9,000 invoice for some cosmetic work on the boat by another marine supplier. The actual work was okay, but the mess left behind by the tradesman – pencil marks on the gelcoat, tiny sharp metal filings all over the teak deck – was totally unacceptable. And not so much as a phone call from the owner of that business to check if I was happy with the job. Good grief.)

If you have any similar experiences of extraordinary customer service, tell us about them below. The world needs inspiration, and most business owners need more than that. A size 12 boot up the backside, for example.

It shows clearly that most people in the salon business regard the ‘job’ of marketing as a mere chore, to be grudgingly endured rather than embraced as the most important task in any commercial operation.

(And don’t imagine that this is restricted only to ‘small’ businesses. The Big End of town is just as guilty. Most big companies have Marketing Departments, as sure a sign as any that they too, mistakenly regard ‘marketing’ as some kind of
separate, compartmentalized component of business. Dumb, dumb, dumb. Marketing IS the business. Every part of every business should have its ears cocked and eyes open to marketing and sales opportunities.)

If you put a gun at my head and said I could only use one regular method of marketing to my clients and prospects, it would without doubt be a monthly hard copy newsletter. Yet if they do it at all, most salon owners do the very bare minimum,
throwing a few ‘specials’ into a haphazard  single sheet document and calling it a ‘newsletter’.

Thankfully, there are some salon owners who ‘get’ it. Inner Circle member Louise Adkins of Lavish Life in the little Victorian country town of Benalla is one of them. Louise doesn’t just do a ‘newsletter’ she puts enormous effort into a monthly “Lavish Life’ newspaper, sending it to clients with excellent results.

We have found it is big enough to stay around for 6 weeks, we are already working our new one. On Monday I emailed it to 50 of my clients and suppliers, and placed a cover letter on it as well, if they commented on the paper i would give them a $25 voucher. 5 clients replied and gave back some positive feedback. here are 2 of the ones and i picked up 2 raise the dead clients as well.

I also tell the clients that there is a spelling mistake and a prize for it if they can find it ! makes them read the whole paper …………We are still working on it- we are now re-promoting Valentines day to say “what did you get ?”… nothing or very little, then ‘treat yourself to our Valentines day package as a treat to yourself for missing out!

Louise Adkins' well-crafted and beautifully-laid out client newsletter (actually, more of a 'newspaper'), demonstrating maximum effort rather than the grudging chore most business owners relegate marketing to. IC members can download the full-size newsletter in the MEmber's Only 'sealed section'.

“Hi Lou, Loved the newsletter, it covers a broad range of interesting topics.  Just wondering though, is VPL better than IPL.  I couldn’t determine much difference from the article?”

“I love the newsletter – I seem to read it more than once just in case I miss something!  I especially look out for the deals on the back page…..seeing the savings is a great excuse to book an appt. Keep the newsletter coming. J”

So far this is great ! we have had it mail box dropped to 3 different areas and clients have returned from this, we also place it on our beauty beds on a rolled up towel and give it to our clients before they get on the bed, and explain the specials to them.

It is also in our new client gift bags, and the local paper that produced it came and asked if they could showcase it at their meeting. The local business network are looking to do the same idea, and have said ‘why didn’t we think of it first?’ ! I have places for business to advertise in it and help me out with the costs.

So far to this date we have done in packages-

$99 nail packages= 6

$99 facial packages = 2

1x valentines singles package

$60 IPL vouchers = 5 plus 6 free consultations

Confronted with such a task, most business owners would rather stick their head in the sand and hope it’ll all go away….and go back to furiously cutting hair or doing massages, in the deluded belief that that’s the ‘real’ work.

NOTE TO INNER CIRCLE MEMBERS: download Louise’s complete newspaper in pdf format so you can see exactly how she’s done it by logging into the Member’s Only site here.

Some of our veteran Inner Circle members were also there to share their experiences and inspire and motivate fellow salon owners, including Lynda Moodley of Lynnel’s Hair Studio in Manukau who had a record of 72 new clients in her salon in January!  In fact, things are going so well for Lynda that she has employed staff and is now only on the floor 3 days a week.

Sandra Pringle (left), proud owner of a Superkit!

And a HUGE congratulations to Auckland salon owners Margaret Walsh of Face and Body and Sandra Pringle of Cross Cut, who became the latest salon owners to get hold of their very own Essential Salon Owner’s Marketing Toolkit®

Watch this video to see what Sandra had to say after the seminar…

The next Road Trip Mini Seminar is Monday 22^nd February in Palmerston North at the Hotel Coachman.  If you haven’t got your ticket yet then hurry, there are only 5 tickets left.  Call us NOW on 0800 029 668 to secure your spot!

Here is the full list of remaining seminar dates….

February 22^nd, Hotel Coachman:  Palmerston North

March 01^st, Sebel Trinity Wharf Hotel:  Tauranga

March 22^nd, Rydges Hotel:  Christchurch

March 29^th, Kingsgate Hotel:  Dunedin

Tickets are strictly LIMITED to 30 per seminar so call us now on 0800 029 668

Your Investment is only $87 and as a special bonus the first 10 people to purchase their tickets at each seminar will receive an additional ticket for a partner or colleague absolutely FREE!

If you don’t want to miss out on learning vital marketing techniques and strategies that could double and even triple your salon or spa’s turnover then you need to book for one of our Road Trip Mini Seminars. 

Rachael D'Aguiar-Sanders, director of Worldwide Salon Marketing NZ and owner of successful Auckland Salon D'Aguiar: hair.skin.nails

In this 2 hour action packed seminar Rachael D’Aguiar-Sanders will reveal “why 99% of everything you’ve been told about marketing for hair and beauty salons is utter nonsense”

You will also learn how to get new clients ‘on tap’ when you want them, zero cost strategies to get your existing clients spending more, how to work less in your business and more on your business so you can start earning the $$$ you deserve and create offers that your customers simply can’t resist (without discounting!). 

And one lucky salon owner will be brought up on stage to have a killer ad written and designed for them by Chris, Rachael and the combined brain power of the room!

And Worldwide Salon Marketing New Zealand continues the Road Trip Mini Marketing Seminars throughout the South Island in March at venues in Christchurch and Dunedin.

Here is a list of the Seminar dates and venues:

Takapuna, Spencer on Byron:   February 15^th

Palmerston North, Hotel Coachman:  February 22^nd

Tauranga, Sebel Trinity Wharf Hotel:  March 1^st

Christchurch, Rydges Hotel:  March 22^nd

Dunedin, Kingsgate Hotel:  March 29^th

All mini seminars are from 9am to 11.30am and attendees will receive a FREE Business Building pack valued at $320.

Tickets to the seminars are ONLY $87 and the first 10 people to purchase tickets at each seminar will receive an additional FREE ticket for a business partner or employee. 

Be quick, these mini seminars are strictly limited to 30 tickets per venue.

So if you are truly sick and tired of wasting money on marketing that doesn’t work then call us today on 0800 029 668 to book!

P.s. An exclusive Inner Circle members only closed door session will be held after each seminar from 12.30pm – 2.30pm.

A producer emailed me with the details. Basically, I give up two weeks of my time, and at the end of it hand over $100,000.

It’s hardly a new idea. The franchise runs in a dozen or more countries, all the same format.

Undercover millionaire introduced to poor community, gets to know locals, volunteers to help, and at the end whips out a bag of cash and gives it to one or more of the downtrodden.

I don’t have a problem at all with donating to charity. I do it all the time. But call me old-fashioned and a cynic, I just have a problem with the concept of this show.

To me, it reinforces the dangerous idea so harmful to the working poor that simply because they are working poor, they deserve to have somebody hand them a bag of money. From the rich, who clearly have too much of it.

Seems all ass-backwards to me. How come nobody hands out bundles of cash to those who’ve worked hard, educated themselves, scrimped and saved, started and built businesses, created employment opportunities for others?

Here’s one thing I’m sure of: there will never be a reality TV show about people who pull themselves out of the gutter, start with nothing or less than nothing, make fortunes from ordinary businesses and prudent financial behavior over time. There are many more of those than there are Paris Hiltons or Madonnas or Wall Street bankers.

There won’t be such a show because TV producers think such a concept is passé, that the Haves only have by luck and theft, and have too much anyway. And the Have Nots can only be helped by hand-outs.

Or am I just being grumpy?

Right click and ‘save file as…’ to download the Academy explanation letter and registration form

Successful Inner Circle members who’re now ready for more advanced ‘success training’ are rushing to sign up for our brand-new Academy business excellence group for 2010, drawn by the oppportunity to rub shoulders with not only their fellow salon owners who’ve ‘made it’, but also get a ‘seat at the table’ with some of the brightest business brains in the country.

Jennie Armato, the 'godmother' of internet business

Among the latest entrepreneurs to sign up as trainers for the Academy events (in Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne) is internet business guru Jenni Armato. For most salon & spa owners, online marketing is sometimes a ‘fog’ of incomprehensible gibberish -- but Jenny makes it so easy to understand, and she’ll be showing Academy members how to use social networking to dramatically boost business.

Here’s Jenny explaining the five key concepts of marketing online:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=TDVqn9SrPaY

Among the first to sign up, Robyn Curnow of Beauty on Ryrie in Victoria, who successfully took herself  ‘off the tools’ while growing her salon from 500 clients to 1200 clients inside a year. Getting off the tools and working ‘on’ the business and not ‘in’ it is one of the most difficult transitions for thousands of salon owners. This lady did it, is taking the whole of November off, and will be fired up and ready to share her secrets by the first Academy gathering in Sydney on March 8, 2010.

Another new Academy delegate, Amanda Rickman  of Making Waves Hair Design in Queensland -- grew her retail sales by 128% almost overnight. Others to sign up less than 24 hours after registration opened only yesterday afternoon include Claire Francoise of Claire Francoise Hair & Beauty Salon in Melbourne, Marsha McIntyre of Mornington Medi Spa in Mronington, VIC, Marnie Kallmeyer of Beauty Image in Wembley WA, Stephanie Bergamaschi of The Natural Approach Skin & Body in Clarendon SA, Amanda Rickman of Making Waves Hair Design in Kirwan QLD, Jane Mason of Bliss Beauty in Gympie QLD, and more registrations are continuing to come off the fax machine and by email.

(NOTE: there are only FIFTY places in the Academy)

The Academy has a ‘who’s who’ line-up of some of Australia’s brightest and best entrepreneurs to share their success secrets in a series of strictly closed-door events in several states throughout 2010.

Here’s just a partial list of speakers and trainers that Academy delegates will get to rub shoulders with:

Justin Herald was told at age 25 he had an ‘attitude problem’. So her borrowed $50 from his brother, started selling T-shirts with ‘Attitude’ emblazoned on them, founded the Attitude clothing brand which went on to become an international success, and retired rich at 31.

But that was just the beginning. Mr Herald went on to author seven books on entrepreneurship and success, founded yet another company just recently, and is in demand as a corporate speaker and trainer where he regularly commands tens of thousands of dollars for a keynote speech.

A broke TV reporter, Margie Baldock decided enough was enough, co-founded a successful investment software company called Conscious Investor, sold out, made another fortune developing and selling property all over Australia, and has just launched a brand new business venture -- all while starting a family with husband Ben.

Margie’s energy, sharp wit and ability to juggle a vast number of projects all at once is remarkable… and she’s going to share with Academy members how they too, can do exactly what she’s done, with other people’s money.

When Clare Matthews founded her new grooming products range for men in 1999, there was barely a market for the stuff. Now, Vitaman is sold in 28 countries, and Clare is an entrepreneur in demand -- as a speaker travelling all over the world for corporate clients like Amway, she’s addressed more than 150,000 people on the risks and rewards of product development, how she and business partner Glenn Kiddell overcame a thousand obstacles, and how others can do what she did while avoiding many of the pitfalls.

Plus there’ll be extensive and detailed sessions on

• Staff recruitment and interviewing -- how to avoid the mistakes all salon owners make, and get Rolls Royce employees motivated to make your business successful -- with David Osborne
• Advanced copywriting -- how to turn out ads, sales letters and fliers that SELL like mad, with Australia’s top copywriters Pete Godfrey and Scott Bywater
• Taking the mystery out of web marketing with our own guru George Slater
• How to franchise your salon -- the pitfalls, costs and BIG benefits

That’s just a taste. Remember, only 50 places, first-in, best dressed.

Right click and ‘save file as…’ to download the Academy explanation letter and registration form

The salon marketing Toolkit contains hundreds of advertising templates, campaigns and strategies - but the basic premise behind all of them is simple

This might just be the most important few paragraphs you read this week, this month, or even this year.

It was sparked by a converstion with a brand new Inner Circle member, who called shortly after the courier knocked on her door to hand over her Essential Salon Owner’s Marketing Toolkit®

This salon owner was clearly overwhelmed by the task ahead of her. “There’s so much material in the Toolkit, I just can’t get my head around what to do first,” she wailed.

(My immediate thought, left unsaid, was ‘maybe we’re giving Members too much material’. But then, how do you eat an elephant? Same way you eat a hamburger, one bite at a time.)

So I told her to take a deep breath, and took her through the only THREE things she needs to concentrate on. “Once you GET this,” I said, “everything else becomes easy, logical, simple.”

When we take on a new Member salon – about 30 of them every month, somewhere in the world – we work on three main areas, and here they are:

1) MESSAGE

2) MARKET

3) MEDIA

First, under Message: what do you say to your past, present and future prospects, customers and clients that is magnetic… that cannot be ignored…that must be responded to. In other words, what is your

USP – Unique Selling Proposition

Most salon business people – and this applies even MORE to big, dumb companies who pay advertising agencies a fortune in shareholders money – make the mistake of believing that some cutesy slogan is their USP.

Eg., here are some slogans used by three of America’s biggest advertisers:

1. We’re with you.

2. That was easy

3. The stuff of life.

Do these bring instantly to mind the name of the company? Nope, vague, meaningless drivel, all three of ‘em.

Here’s what’s instructive: these slogans could be used by almost any company on the planet, with about as little impact. As Dan Kennedy writes in a recent article “…if anybody and everybody can use your USP, it ain’t one…”

I’d be a rich man indeed if I had a buck for every time a salon owner told me “Our USP is ‘we give our clients great service’….”

Put your USP through this test: is it a GREAT answer to the question, ‘why should I do business with YOUR salon as against any of the others?’

If not, go back to the drawing board. Take some of the truly great USPs as a model, lay them down next to your USP, see how they compare.

Fedex answered the question uppermost in every customer's mind with its USP - "Absolutely, Positively Overnight". Does your salon's USP do that? If not, you've got some homework to do.

Does yours do for your business what Tom Monaghan’s did for Dominos Pizza? “Fresh, Hot Pizza Delivered in 30 Minutes – Guaranteed”…?

Does it answer the question like Federal Express answered with “Absolutely, Positively Overnight.”

Let’s say you’ve crafted a great message with a terrific USP at its core, next problem: your MARKET.

Who do you deliver that great message to – and deliberately, who do you exclude from it – do you do that effectively, efficiently with little or no manual labour, are you smart about this or are you simply throwing mud against the wall?

When asked ‘Who’s your target market?’ most salon owners will say ‘Er, all of the adult female population within a 5 mile radius.’

Terrific. If you want to send a postcard once a year to all adult females within a 5 mile radius of your salon – hardly an intense, focussed campaign -  what’s your budget have to be? Um, $50,000. How much have you got? ‘Uh…600 bucks.’

Problem. Somehow, preferably by science, you have to shrink your target market to a small, carefully-selected list of the best prospects so that your marketing efforts are concentrated for maximum effect with minimum expense. Jump up and down in a puddle, not the ocean.

And third, the MEDIA.

Having chosen your target market and crafted the perfect message to that target market, what MEDIA are you going to use to deliver that message to that market?

(If you haven’t twigged to this already, once you’ve figured out your perfect target market, and the message to send to it, the media tends to choose itself).

So there.

That’s it in simple terms. Message, Market, Media.

Get those things right, the rest almost automatically falls into place.