And each and every year the website grows as more material is added and the archive gets bigger.  In fact there is over 6 years worth of archived material on the website now.  It’s easy for some of the older archives to be lost in depths of the website.

And it’s safe to say that if you were to employ a design firm or an ad agency to create the material on the members website and give you multiple options for designs, template sizes and concepts, you would be looking at spending into the hundreds of thousands of dollars.  On the other side of the coin, if you were to try and design all this material yourself, well firstly you’d probably need a degree in copy writing, graphic design and a heck of a lot of time on your hands!!!

So, in this new feature I intend to delve deep into the archives, blow the dust and cob webs away and unearth some of the hidden gems that perhaps you have never come across before.

In this first feature I am going to look at a clever little flyer that was actually created by a Pizza Shop.

This was actually one of the very first promotions we use for our salon D’Aguiar: hair.skin.nails after joining the Inner Circle Program back in 2007 and it was a huge succuss. Our version was slightly different and at the top said ‘FREE $20 Voucher – No Strings Attached’  We then looped a piece of string through the flyer and hung it on peoples door knobs around our neighbourhood.  We consistently got 10 bookings from every 100 door flyers delivered and we had so many people saying they LOVED the out of the box marketing!

We still have dozens of clients that come to our salon today who originally came from this flyer. So when you think for the cost of a $20 service, we have made upwards of $4 – 5K from EACH of those clients since then, it’s a pretty good return on investment!

Here’s a link to find this template in the members only sealed section.

http://www.worldwidesalonmarketing.com/members/salon-marketing-ideas/ideas-to-steal/a-different-kind-of-mailbox-flyer-try-this/

If you are an Inner Circle Member and want to share a success story from another members only website ‘hidden gem’ then drop me an email chris@worldwidesalonmarketing.com and I’ll be sure to feature it in an up and coming article!

If you are NOT an Inner Circle Member and are sick and tired of sitting in front of a computer screen trying to come up with designs and copy for flyers and ads then you need to apply to join the Inner Circle Program and get access to the years of archives on the members only website and get your very own copy of the Essential Salon Owners Toolkit to help you market your hair or beauty salon/spa. Click here to find out more and apply for a 90-day Money Back Guaranteed Test Drive TODAY

Worldwide Salon Marketing is excited to announce that it is partnering with Salon Finder to launch the all-new Salon Finder app in Australia within a matter of weeks. It’ll be free to ‘claim’ your salon in it, add a bio, an image and contact details, and a tiny amount to subscribe and get your offers live on your salons very own App page…new ones every day if you like.

The All-New Salon Finder iPhone App

Salon Finder iPhone App (which is also available on iPad and iPod) was developed by Chris Sanders and his team in our Worldwide Salon Marketing NZ office and was released on the NZ App Store for download in December.  The App is not available in Australia yet but you can register your salon now at www.salonapps.co.nz so you are ready in time for the big launch in February!

As the world becomes increasingly mobile our industry has a fantastic opportunity to capitalize on this cutting edge technology while it is still VERY early days.

Think about when websites burst on to the scene 20 plus years ago. Done right, those early birds who got the worm set their businesses up for life! The only problem was the huge barrier to entry for Salon Owners – COST! Yes to have a website developed back then would set a salon back tens of thousands of dollars, which quite simply, most salon owners didn’t have!

And like the website craze from all those years ago, Smart Phone Apps are fast becoming the next big thing, so much so that many experts suggest that the internet is dying.

Similarly, with software developers charging tens of thousands of dollars (ouch!) to develop an iPhone App, cost will be a BIG factor preventing Salon owners from capitalizing on this technology now, while it’s running HOT!

So, Salon Finder and Worldwide Salon Marketing are making it very easy for Salon Owners to ride on this bandwagon now without the worry of crippling software developer costs.

Click this link here to see screen shots and information about how Salon Finder will help your Salon to capitalize on this ever-increasing market. 

And Salon Finder allows salon owners to take back some of the power from the ‘daily deal’ sites and do their own deals to tens of thousands of iPhone users who have high disposable incomes. And the best thing is that the customers contact them direct…there’s no middle man taking commissions of sometimes up to 50%. All a salon pays is a subscription fee, which begins from as little as $49 per month!

“The world has become more mobile, so our industry needs to move with it or risk being left behind,” says Chris Sanders. “Our industry is full of savvy, forward thinking business owners.  We are excited to bring this marketing tool to develop and enhance an industry we love. It also means salons can get away from their reliance on ‘daily deal’ websites that have been running loose and free offering cut price deals.  Salon Finder is all about empowering salon owners and building loyalty”

For more information on Salon Finder visit www.salonapps.co.nz or feel free to call Chris Sanders on +64 9 476 1592

The Trust is Gone! What are you doing to earn it back?

Consumer confidence is a fragile and delicate item.

It takes month and years to build up, through long sequences of events where the client and the salon share experiences. In an instant, it can be smashed into a million pieces, and for some clients, there is no going back to the salon.

Consumers are now realizing that the grass is not greener on the other side, and now feel that the daily deal websites and salons were “ripping them off”. The deals that they were signing up for, at what everyone could see were ridiculous prices for any services based business to try and honour, are proving to be bad experiences.. This was taken from an email that was sent across my screen earlier this week… It is about a value add offer that was sent to an existing client of a salon, as part of their marketing for the month.

“Thank you,

But please do not email me this type of thing.

This shows to me that consumers have had enough of the daily deals websites that have been extremely successful at taking their money ( and making sales happen when they would never have happened ), and delivered an experience NOT to remember. Consumers are angry that it has taken up 12 months for them to receive their $20 haircut, which they have had to drive 90 minutes to get to. They have over promised and under delivered on the whole experience. (AS a side note – it shows the emotional power that these sites have as clients will purchase something that they never would normally purchase, in a location that they never go. It is interesting to see how human respond to different emotional stimulus.)

They bought something for the “NOW” emotion that comes with bidding – you want it now and if you win it releases endorphins that make you feel good. Everyone is happy. The salon picks up some income, the clients gets a good deal and the daily deal website makes money as well.

Fast forward to the actual reality that transpired. The salon is probably at breaking point with an owner that is trying to figure out where it went wrong, while trying not to pull their hair out. The client will be wondering why they bought something that they will only use once ( buyers remorse ) and never go near again because the customer service was so poor. The company will be inundated with requests for refunds as clients will not wait for their allotted time for their treatment.

So this begs the question – “What are you doing to earn the consumers trust?”

What are you doing to make them see you as a knight in shining armor, who will slay the multi headed daily deal beast with your sword and wisk them away to a place that is safe and warm, where it is all about them?

Building trust is one of the key foundations of any relationship in today’s economy. You will not see it on the stock exchanges of the world, but it does carry that power. One way that you can build trust is through keeping your appointment times consistent. By this I mean that you do not change them around on the clients. They need to know that once they have booked in that they are going to get the appointment time and day they wanted.

Also you can make sure that you stay in contact with them through monthly newsletters that educate and entertain the clients. Fill it with content that the clients will want to read. An example is the process of what happens to the skin when the seasons are changing, and what the skin will need to look it’s best during this time.

A follow up phone call to see how the treatment was for the new client, an old client as well as it shows the existing clients that you still care about them, can go along way to establishing trust in the clients mind.

Another way to build trust is to give them all the information that they want, so that they can educate themselves, and see that you are the obvious choice for the service that you provide.

NOT yet a Member of the Inner Circle marketing & mentoring program? Don’t yet have the power of the Essential Salon Owner’s Marketing Toolkit? Click here to find out more and apply for a 90-day Money Back Guaranteed Test Drive of the entire system, including the Toolkit, one-on-one coaching (with our experienced coaches who are all salon & spa owners themselves) and access to the Members Only resources website.

But there is a problem : No marketing equals no clients. No clients means no lifestyle.

The investment that you make in the business by marketing to the public, and to your existing clients, is paramount to the success of your salon. And with any investment that you make in your business career, you want to invest now and see a return for a long time to come.

The results that you want are new and existing clients in the door spending their money with you, and not even giving a thought to any other salons.

Simple isn’t it!

So how do you make your marketing an investment? How is the marketing something that you will be able to “see” the returns on?

Your marketing, and learning how to market your salon CORRECTLY, is an investment in your business, and yourself. They are skills that once they are learned, are not forgotten, and will be used frequently in all your future business life. You will see the returns from the increased knowledge of how to market your business, through the business being marketed more efficiently to the market place, and more clients coming into the salon.

Your marketing, along with your salon owning mentor who will coach and guide you with learning how to market your salon, will become a tool that is used consistently to put new and existing clients into the salon with a minimum of fuss. The tools in the Essential Salon Owners Marketing Toolkit that you will use frequently and successfully, will need to be monitored to make sure that you are getting the returns on the investment that you want to achieve. There are headlines to test, offers to alter, and scarcity to create.

All of these help to improve the results that the marketing achieves for the business.

The investment in learning how to create and adjust your marketing so that you know you will get an “expected” result when  a piece of marketing is put into the market place, will pay enormous dividends to your salon.

The salon marketing tools need to be sharpened after every use. You will want to look at what the marketing  has achieved, and find where the tools have not performed. With razor sharp marketing tools and increasing skills, you will be putting clients in the salon, and see the investment in the marketing is producing positive results.

When the marketing puts clients in the salon, the investment in yourself and the salon is working. When your clients see you as the expert in the field, then the investment in the marketing has worked. When the client enters the salon and PRICE is not an issue, then the investment in the marketing is paid for. You now have marketing that is an investment. It leads clients to your salon who are pre conditioned to buying, no matter what the price.

There are many  forms of marketing that you can do that will be an investment in the salon. There are newsletters that you can use to talk to your clients about products and the benefits of using them ( versus the Coles and Woolies bought products ) and make them aware of what is happening in the salon, now and in the future. You also have Facebook available as a tool for letting your clients, and their friends know, what is happening  in your salon.

NOT yet a Member of the Inner Circle marketing & mentoring program? Don’t yet have the power of the Essential Salon Owner’s Marketing Toolkit? Click here to find out more and apply for a 90-day Money Back Guaranteed Test Drive of the entire system, including the Toolkit, one-on-one coaching (with our experienced coaches who are all salon & spa owners themselves) and access to the Members Only resources website.

Are you taking advantage of the situation and planning how to increase the average customer sale? Even when you are flat out there is an opportunity to let the back end of the business actually shine brighter that it has ever shone before. You can increase the average customer spend by doing small things that will get clients loading up their pockets with extra retail sales.

What are you doing for your clients to increase their average spend?

The tools that you use to increase the customer spend are not new and they are easy to implement, if you have the  right marketing tools and know how.

But first, we need to look at your sales process first, and see where you can improve.

When you go through the local “Golden Arches”, have you ever wondered how it is that a crew of hormone laden teenagers, who have the ability to focus for all of 2.74 seconds at a time, manage to build a burger, yet alone  an empire? Simple – they use a “system” that works, and they ask the question that no one else wants to ask: Do you want fries with that? (Up sell!) And they ask this question hundreds if not thousands of times a day.

Oh, and by the way, the results are worth it. It is worth $2 million dollars A DAY to them globally!

So back to your salon, and see where it is that you and the staff can ask the question. Look at how it is that you can improve the clients life by giving them a product or service that will give them great rewards far beyond what they originally came in for.

Your salon can also look at several other methods to increase the client spend, some of which are described below and other are found in the Essential Salon Owners Toolkit.

You can have products that are to be purchased at the point of sale. Places like fuel stations are experts at that. Milk, bread and chocolates are the real reason that fuel station exist. Petrol product sales are not that a bigger earner (1c per litre), so they use the petrol as a lead generation tool to get clients in, and then pitch to the paying client as many products of convenience that can be bought. The real profits for these places is the price that a client is willing to pay to purchase an item THEN AND THERE! It increases their profits hugely.

Or you can make the clients feel more at “home” by offering subscriptions to your salon.  Or you can have “in salon” promotions only, that they clients who come in will only have access too. The options are endless and the time is right for you to look at how it is that you can get more money from existing clients.

NOT yet a Member of the Inner Circle marketing & mentoring program? Don’t yet have the power of the Essential Salon Owner’s Marketing Toolkit? Click here to find out more and apply for a 90-day Money Back Guaranteed Test Drive of the entire system, including the Toolkit, one-on-one coaching (with our experienced coaches who are all salon & spa owners themselves) and access to the Members Only resources website.

Sales professionals also know that it is also what you DON’T say that can destroy any sale. My point was  highlighted by an event yesterday, where we were on the “customer” side of the sales process.

Is your Sales Prevention Department causing you to scream?

Our salon was looking to invest in some new technology so that we could be the first in WA to implement it into our salon ( and of course upgrades on other services). The “education” course was pay up front ( as all major purchases should be in your salon as well!) before you get there. Not a problem so far as the sales person on the phone was very good at making sure the whole process went smoothly and we were guided through their sales process ( if you do not have a sales process yet – GET ONE! ) with out any incidents.

And then the sales process went? DOWNHILL. And fast.

The address for the training that was given was incorrect to begin with. I am pretty sure that a trucking company will not be doing this tye of training. Not a huge problem as we had plenty of time to spare, and quickly found our way to the right location. Then the “sales prevention” department kicked in. The “salon” itself was in the front room of someone’s house. Not an issue as we started our business the same way, but the house was in the middle of the renovation! It was a building site with a “salon”at the front…

We walked in the front door and the stench of stale cigarette smoke attacked our senses straight away. The “salon” bed was a table that had to be cleaned down so that we could use it, and the toilet was a place that words truly cannot describe. ( As a side note: I have seen better toilets in Bolivia where they have NO plumbing to speak off.)

The “rep” looked as though it was all to much, walking around the salon with socks and pants, hair left as if it had not been done in the last week. And when she breathed on you, it was enough to strip paint off the walls. (Ever had the feeling of your own skin crawling?)

I wish that this was “creative writing” but it is not. It is the NON VERBAL CUES that ended the process. Just like that.

Then came the phone call to the office to find out what the idea was about having them do demonstrations in the front room of a house? They did not know that it was a home salon. ( Their shock was evident on the phone.) Never in my life have I seen such a great example of non verbal cues terminating a sales process.

When you have clients coming into your salon you need to make sure that you have everything right to go. That the salon is clean and tidy and that you are able to help the client solve their problems.

This is all part of your “sales system” that should be organized, and functioning, in every salon. The biggest part of your sales system is the marketing that you do for the business. Using the right tools that are in the Essential Salon Owners Toolkit,to get the clients into the salon, is as important as making sure that the staff are not preventing sales from happening.

It made me take notice of how we should not be doing things in our salon.

NOT yet a Member of the Inner Circle marketing & mentoring program? Don’t yet have the power of the Essential Salon Owner’s Marketing Toolkit? Click here to find out more and apply for a 90-day Money Back Guaranteed Test Drive of the entire system, including the Toolkit, one-on-one coaching (with our experienced coaches who are all salon & spa owners themselves) and access to the Members Only resources website.

Get both of these elements right and you can charge what you want, when you want, and make PROFITS while other salons fall off the face of the earth!

The Experience will get your clients back in the door time and again.

You have to be able to deliver a service AND product that will provide the clients with the ultimate experience that they have never had before, or a service that you can deliver time and again to the most incredible levels so that clients WILL NOT WANT TO GO anywhere else. This will start from the very first phone call booking an appointment, through to how the receptionist says good bye to the client after they have taken the investment from the client and made the next appointment.

So the big question here is: How do I figure out what I can do to create this raving fan who never wants to go anywhere else? How do I create the ultimate client experience?

The answer: Reverse Engineering

For those of you who are not sure of what this means, it is about looking at the point of view that you as a client would have when you are client leaving the salon with a feeling of sheer delight , and then telling all your friends about it. Form there you will then start to map out the process that this “client” will follow so that they have the best experience every time, and that it is delivered consistently across all staff and all clients.

How do I create business consistency?

Consistency is created when policies and procedures are installed in to the business, and when you go through and actually use a lot of little marketing tools all at once, as part of a system. This may be an offer that you have created from our range of templates found in the Essential Salon Owners Toolkit, and that you have implemented into an email, SMS and Facebook campaign. You will advertise this offer in several media all at once so that you are creating the biggest splash possible, and letting your clients know that you have an offer so good that they will be mad to NOT take you up on the offer.

The major difference between you and your opposition is the marketing. The ability to get your message out to your clients and know that you are going to get a response from an ad, means that you need to focus your time on the marketing message that you are portraying to the clients. This message will have two parts and is about your salon as it physically presents, both in the paper and in the store front sense. But also consists of a lessor known form of marketing, that is just as important.

The lesser known message that salon owner’s miss  is the unwritten and overlooked “non verbal” cues that you DON’T say to your clients, that can undo ALL your marketing. I am talking about how you and your staff present to the clients. ( Ask Greg about the tradesman that tell you a time and then don’t show up! What sort of message does that tell clients?) Do your staff wear pants that have stains, or my personal favorite, pants that  have hems on the floor and are torn or frayed from being dragged across the ground. If you stop and think what this message presents to the clients, what would you do in that situation? I know that I would never go back. EVER!

Your opposition may not have figured this out yet, that clients are after an experience for their money,  but very soon they will figure “it” out. When that happens you will want to be in a position where you ALREADY KNOW what they have just figured out.  You want to be the front runner in the local area with the knowledge and experience so that you can use your marketing skills as a weapon.

We know that times are tough for some, and that there people out there who are in real trouble, but for the entrepreneurs amongst us we can’t allow this to slow us down.  We have to make sure the “who” that we have in our salons are the ones that are affected LAST when times are tough. You will want clients that have money to spend on looking great, and who don’t have to stretch their appointments out to 10 or 12 weeks.

Your sales process needs to make sure that you are getting the right “who” into the salon. The right “Who” will make a massive difference in how the bottom line of the business looks. If you don’t have  the right who, then CHANGE what you are doing and make it so that you start to go after the “Who” that have the money.

NOT yet a Member of the Inner Circle marketing & mentoring program? Don’t yet have the power of the Essential Salon Owner’s Marketing Toolkit? Click here to find out more and apply for a 90-day Money Back Guaranteed Test Drive of the entire system, including the Toolkit, one-on-one coaching (with our experienced coaches who are all salon & spa owners themselves) and access to the Members Only resources website.

The right tools for the job make it that much easier and more enjoyable, that it would be criminal NOT to use the tools that are starring you in the face. The idiom in the title says it best; If someone brings a knife to a gunfight, they are very badly prepared for something.

With the RIGHT tools, your salon will take you to places you had only dreamed of!

This email from brand new Inner Circle Premium member Susan Nguyen, of Classy Cuts unisex hair design, in Melbourne, says it all.

“Hi, I’m Susan Nguyen, you might remember me from the Melbourne hair and spa boot camp seminar last month ( the little Vietnamese girl that brought every packages that day)lol. The Reason for my email is to say a very BIG BIG THANK YOU for designing this amazing Marketing Toolkit ! I’m so so happy that I’ve finally found something that really works for our salon! I’m so impressed with the amazing, instant results! and also how much more motivated I’m now. Therefore I’ve decided to write to you at 3:44am to express my Thank-you.

You’ve taught me how to work with my head! work Smart! and now i can see light at the end of the tunnel.

thank you so much! and it was great to meet you last month Greg , keep up your great work, and have fun on your trip away .

ps : thank God i purchased every tool kit that day, best money ever spent .:)very ThankfulSusan Nguyen from Classy Cuts unisex hair design.”

As you read this you can hear that same thought in your own heads. Susan is a classic example of taking your salon from where you are now to where you want it to be. Although Susan is at the beginning of her journey, she has the right mindset and the right tools to get her there.

Here is “what is in it for you” inside the Essential Salon Owner’s Marketing Toolkit -

-A hardcopy Toolkit that contains “done for you” marketing that you can use straight awayto get new clients in your door tomorrow,

- Coaching calls that guide you through starting to use the “tools” and how to get the best results for your salon,

- Access to our “Members Only Inner Circle” webpage where you can access our library of tools that can be used in your salon,

- And last, but certainly not least, the world exclusive “Members Only Facebook Forum”. This is where the best of the best, or the TOP 5% of salon owners, go to discuss what is working in their salon.

This is only the tip of the iceberg. There is so much more to see, under the surface.

Susan invested in herself for the good of the salon, only 4 weeks ago, and is seeing real results straight away. Only really happy people send emails at 3 44 am in the morning!

How do you plan to make the transition from where you are now to where you want to be? Do you have the right tools to get you there?

NOT yet a Member of the Inner Circle marketing & mentoring program? Don’t yet have the power of the Essential Salon Owner’s Marketing Toolkit? Click here to find out more and apply for a 90-day Money Back Guaranteed Test Drive of the entire system, including the Toolkit, one-on-one coaching (with our experienced coaches who are all salon & spa owners themselves) and access to the Members Only resources website.

With the 2011 Salon and Spa Superstar Bootcamp being only days away for Melbourne, and a matter of weeks for Sydney, Brisbane and Perth, it can be revealed who the mystery special guest is. The person in question has been a motivational speaker and author who has sold over 2 million books worldwide. His expertise is to SHIFT MINDSETS AND TO BUILD BIGGER PEOPLE to produce results.

This man has spoken for, and shared the platform globally with some of the world’s most influential people including, Sir Richard Branson, Donald Trump, Denis Waitley, Robert
Kiyosaki, Mark Victor Hansen, Jim Rohn, Charlie Tremendous Jones, Captain JerryCoffee, Allan Pease, Bob Proctor, Willie Jolley and Morris Goodman “The Miracle Man”.

So, the question remains… WHO is this mystery guest speaker?

Who managed to cause the phone to melt as salon owners scrambled to get the last remaining tickets? Ladies and Gents, I present to you …

Pat Mesiti.

His enthusiasm combined with his great sense of humor gives him the ability to move an audience into action as well as give them practical resources to help them achieve their goals. He is a gifted communicator and will add tremendous value to the lives he touches. Pat is Dynamic – Entertaining – Unforgettable!

And if you think that Salon marketing does not apply to you, then read how Dee Lawson, of Dee’s Classic Cuts in Armidale in NSW, gives another reason why salon owners want the Essential Salon Owners Toolkit from the 2011 Salon and Spa Superstar Bootcamp.

“Hi eveyone. Just letting you know we have had 167 new clients come in to our new salon since the 4th April 2011. WOW…. I checked the retention and only 18 people have not been back and some of these people were only in in May.”

Dee has implemented marketing out of the toolkit so that new clients beat a path into her NEW salon, and is now seeing massive returns in the number of new clients that are coming in, but also in the retention rate, which is just UNDER 90%.

This is no small achievement in any language, and has been created by Dee implementing systems into her salon that allow her to work on her business.

Book a ticket now, before it’s too late:
Online: www.salonprofitsecrets.com/buy-tickets/

If you have NOT yet secured your ticket(s) to one of these events, time is short.
The venues and dates are:
Melbourne:
Monday, July 4, Citadines on Bourke
Sydney:
Monday July 11, UTS Function Centre, Level 7, 235 Jones St (Building 10), Ultimo
Brisbane:
Monday, July 18, BTP Technology & Conference Centre, 1 Clunies Ross Court, Eight Mile Plains
Perth:
Monday July 25, Royal Perth Yacht Club, Australia II Drive, Crawley

How to book:
Online: go to   www.salonprofitsecrets.com/buy-tickets/
Phone: call the Bootcamp hotline, 08 9381 6621

NOT yet a Member of the Inner Circle marketing & mentoring program? Don’t yet have the power of the Essential Salon Owner’s Marketing Toolkit? Click here to find out more and apply for a 90-day Money Back Guaranteed Test Drive of the entire system, including the Toolkit, one-on-one coaching (with our experienced coaches who are all salon & spa owners themselves) and access to the Members Only resources website.

NZ Salon Owner Coffee Group Session Kicks Off in Ponsonby, Auckland!

If you are interested in registering for future ‘Coffee Group Sessions’ then email chris@worldwidesalonmarketing.com to get notified first!

Both inner Circle and non inner circle members came together to share ideas and knowledge on how we can improve our businesses in general and how we can make these daily deals websites work for us.

There has been an explosion of these websites over the last 12 months with some 80 plus in New Zealand alone and I have been fielding calls from salon owners on a regular basis asking me my thoughts, so we felt it important to discuss the pros and cons of these daily deals sites so that salons can make an informed decision before committing to it.

The coffee group started with 2 stories about businesses that had embarked on a daily deal offer.  One story reflected on how these daily deals can work against you, another on how it can work for you.  Here’s a brief outline of these 2 stories.

How a Daily Deal Offer Worked Against a Business

The first story was about a restaurant who signed up for a deal and quickly sold 500 vouchers.  They simply were not ready for the onslaught that followed as they didn’t have the staff or infrastructure in place to cope.  Once the deal had expired the restaurant owner said they would never do a similar deal again because the coupon they did proved very costly after the discount they offered and the commission they gave away.  In addition the customers that bought the deal were either existing customers already or they came from out of town and would be unlikely to return again in the future. They felt like many of these customers were on the coupon track and would keep searching out the best coupon deals and not be loyal to any one business.

How a Daily Deal Offer Worked For a Business

The next story was about a massage therapist who had just started up a new business and as a way to kick start her business she felt what better way to launch herself than to do a daily deal offer and get her name out in front of a whole bunch of people who had never heard about her before.  She sold 219 deals and about 75 signed up for more services. As a new business the influx of clients was invaluable to her and brought in people from areas of town she never thought about targeting.  The massage therapist explained that it was important to do a deal  that encouraged people to buy more (services or product), but not to expect to make any money from doing the daily deal, instead use it as a marketing tool to get customers in the door.

After hearing these stories and sharing their own experiences, what did salon owners at the coffee group session see as the major pros and cons of these websites?

Here is some of the feedback we got from Salon Owners about the cons of daily deals

• Bargain Hunters: Many of the salon owners felt like the majority of people coming in with these vouchers were bargain hunters with another 5 vouchers for different salons up their sleeve.  Therefore it was hard to build any loyalty from these people and turn them into regular clients.
• Not the Salons Target Market: As the daily deals have such a large database many of the customers who bought the offer were not the salons ideal target market. Lots even found their regular customers had bought the deal too.
• Annoys Loyal Customers: As the salon was busy with daily deal clients it made it hard to find appointment times for the regular loyal customers.  This annoyed the regulars who pay a premium price and they would not come back and instead go to a nearby competing salon.
• No Profit:  There was no profit to be made doing these deals as by the time you take off staff costs, product costs, daily deals commission, tax, gst you would be actually losing money
• Discounting: Salon owners felt like doing a daily deal lowered the value of their business and makes them look desperate.  A new client buying a discounted daily deal offer will always see this as the original price making it hard to charge more in the future.  The discount also devalues your service and costs you cash in the till.
• Too Busy: Sounds like a good problem to have, but many salons who had done these deals felt that they just couldn’t cope with the onslaught of customers and did not have the infrastructure or systems in place to cope.  This annoyed the people who had bought the deals as they couldn’t fit in sometimes for weeks.  You know what they say…’first impressions count!’  The salon would also be left with weeks of coupon clients to service and no profit to be made.
• Cash flow is Difficult: Some salons found they would be waiting up to a month to be paid, but they would still have staff and bills to pay in the mean time putting them under considerable financial stress.
• No Restrictions or Limits: Many found they were unable to set limits and didn’t put any restrictions on the offer, so their late nights or peak times were filled with coupon clients
• No Rewards or Incentives:  Because the profit margin is minimal if nothing at all, then salons could not offer incentives or bonuses for staff, meaning staff were unmotivated to rebook these clients.

Here is some of the feedback we got from Salon Owners about the pros of daily deals

• Good marketing Tool: Some salons found that the daily deals were a great marketing tool in order to get their business in front of thousands of customers who had never heard about them before.  Provided you didn’t just rely on them for income then it was a great opportunity to get new business and fast.
• Bigger Reach/Database: It allowed a salon with a relatively small customer base and no email software system in place the chance to reach a wider audience with no upfront costs.  It also allowed them to build their own database quickly.
• Utilising Downtime: It was a great way to fill downtime in the salon provided you had put day or time restrictions in your offer
• New Clients: It was a fast way to get new clients through the door and once they had established a relationship with the client they could personalise their future marketing to that client.
• Up-selling Opportunity: A few salons had put in place an up-sell so that when these clients booked in they were given the opportunity to upgrade to a higher priced serviced allowing the salon to make more money
• Mini Referral System: Although the client who has bought the deal may not be your ideal client or may even live out of town, if they enjoy their experience they may even refer other clients to you or buy a voucher for a friend or relative who does live in your area.

The overall consensus from the first NZ Salon Owner Coffee Group Session was that daily deal websites should be treated as a loss leader.  A great marketing tool to get new customers in the door and build a database, but certainly not something that is going to make you rich!

After attending the Coffee Group, Michelle Govender has decided that Daily Deal websites are not for her Salon Rejuven8 Health & Beauty.  See her video below!

As with any marketing campaign that is a loss leader you need to know what a customer is worth to you so that you know how much you are willing to spend or give away in order to get a customer worth $xxxx per year to your salon.  If you don’t know what a customer is worth to you in a lifetime then it’s something you need to know!

So how can a salon beat the daily deal websites and keep all the money? Well, if you are determined to do a daily deal then you need to become familiar with the concept of value adding instead of discounting. This is a great way to offer your coupon hunters more perceived value but at the same time you will not be affecting your profit margin.

To answer my opening question, are daily deal websites destroying our industry? Well to a certain extent yes they are.  But I also believe that salons need to put more thought into their marketing long term instead of just going for the ‘quick fix’ which in many instances is leaving salons out of pocket!

Answer this question.  Do you make a sale to gain a customer, or get a customer to make a sale?

It seems like salons are continually trying to undercut each other on these websites and to be quite honest, it screams of desperation and resembles a pack of salivating hyena’s, all trying desperately to scrape the last bit of meat from the carcass.  In an effort to get a quick fix of cash, short sighted salons are inadvertently destroying the industry as a whole – these are the salons that see the purpose of a customer is to make a one-off sale. Harsh words I know, but it’s this thoughtless approach to marketing that really irks me.  I have spent years trying to get salon owners to see more value in what they do, and drive the price of our services up.  Why is it that many salon owners de-value what they do so much to the point of bankrupting themselves?

Hopefully this blog will help you make a more informed decision as to whether you should or shouldn’t do a daily deal, and if you do, how to manage it so that it works for you!

I would love to get more feedback on this topic so please leave your comments below!

If you want to know the secrets of gaining customers for life then you need to be a member of the Inner Circle Program and get your copy of the Essential Salon Owners Marketing Toolkit™ then Click here to find out more and apply for a 90-day Money Back Guaranteed Test Drive of the entire system, including the Toolkit, one-on-one coaching (with our experienced coaches who are all salon & spa owners themselves) and access to the Members Only resources website.