Michael Hill Was Creating A Buzz!

Last week I walked past a local jewelry shop and noticed a long queue of customers eagerly waiting outside.  There was a rope fence separating them from the entrance and a red velvet curtain blocking customers from seeing inside the store.  The customers were standing on tippy toes trying to see what was going on inside…they were REALLY excited!

The blackboard outside the store said…

‘TODAY ONLY – Make Me An offer on All Jewelry in Store’

They had created a buzz, excitement and mystery with their customers and passers by, and put a time limit on it to add to that – TODAY ONLY!  People are naturally inquisitive and if they see people flocking like sheep then they don’t want to feel left out…they want to be in the know too!

As salon owners we need to be creating this type of hype with our clients, planning and executing our marketing with thought and not just being impulsive or reactionary.  That’s how so many salons waste money – as they say ‘you fail to plan, you plan to fail.’

And planning is exactly what Louise Gray of Louise Gray Skin Care in Ponsonby, Auckland did in order to sell over $6000 of Christmas 2 for 1 vouchers.

Louise Gray and her Team in Auckland, NZ

In a coaching call early in November last year I talked through with Louise the importance of building hype especially when doing a promotion such as this or similarly memberships.  I helped her to construct a 3-step email campaign and planned what dates to send out the emails.

The initial email called for her clients to register to get early bird notification when these vouchers went on sale – just 15 minutes more notice than non-registered clients.  The email also limited the number of 2 for 1 vouchers going on sale to create urgency and get people to register.

Email 2 reminded her clients to register and also let them know how many had registered so far.  This increased the urgency as it showed the demand for the 2 for 1 vouchers was HOT!

The 3^rd email was to pre registered clients announcing the vouchers where ON SALE NOW and created urgency for these clients to call and get their voucher before the email was sent out to all 2136 clients on her database 15 minutes later.

The sequence of emails created a buzz and subsequently sold $6000 worth of vouchers.  And of course that means there is going to be an influx of new clients in the salon over the next few months as the ‘free’ voucher had to be given to a new client and had an expiry of 3 months to get these people in the door fast!

And the best thing of all…email is FREE!

I have made the emails available to Inner Circle Members by clicking the link here…

So next time you are planning any marketing campaign, think about how you are going to deliver that campaign to your target audience to get the best results.

If you want to know the secrets to putting together a successful marketing campaign and creating hype and buzz with your clients then isn’t it finally time you joined the Worldwide Salon Marketing Inner Circle Program and got your very own copy of the Essential Salon Owners 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 with done for you marketing and systems, 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.

So what do you do to make that happen?

Well, the next thing you do is identify what market you are targeting.  If your offer is a Brazilian waxing promotion then the local Rest Home may not be your ideal market! 

Once you’ve identified your market you choose your media to deliver this message to market. 

Let’s say you decide to do a mailbox drop to attract the new clients, and a direct mail piece and email for your existing clients.  Now that all sounds great, but how do you absolutely maximise the results that you get from this promotion. 

If you follow the principles of direct response marketing that we teach at Worldwide Salon Marketing, then there is a VERY good chance that you will get a great result.  But the question is, can you take things a step further and get even better results using some simple, yet clever techniques.  I think so! 

Which is the reason for me writing this post – How can you maximise the amount of people that are actually going to open your mail and look at your offer, so that YOU can get the most bang for your marketing buck?

There are some simple, highly effective techniques you can use to increase the responses to your marketing through direct mail

Last week I went to my Po Box and saw what looked like one of those envelopes that you get from a Courier, letting you know that you have a parcel waiting for you because it was too big to fit in the Post Box.  Curious and eager as to what the package may be, I ripped the perforated edges of the courier envelope to find out where I collected my parcel from, only to discover that it was actually an advert for a company called Scotpac who do debt financing. 

Inner Circle Members can view the envelope on the members-only website by clicking the link below….

http://www.worldwidesalonmarketing.com/members/marketing-to-existing-clients/email-marketing/a-smart-direct-mail-example/

Now the fact that I didn’t require Scotpacs services was irrelevant.  My immediate thoughts were, ‘that’s smart marketing’. 

First of all, their use of the imitation courier envelope was a stroke of genius.  Some may say they tricked me into opening it.  I would say that they are so interested in having me as a client and telling me about what services they offer, that they will go to any lengths to get me to open their mail. 

The next thing here is that Po Box holders would be their ideal target market – mostly business owners.  There were probably 300-400 Po Boxes who would have received this courier envelope in my post shop alone.  

Finally, they made it as easy as possible for me to enquire further.  A freephone 0800 number and a freepost envelope. 

Like I said earlier, you will no doubt get great results from using the direct response techniques we teach, but why not put a bit more effort in and go that extra mile to maximise those results!  You want as many potential customers to look at what it is you’re trying to sell them, right?  Otherwise it’s income lost.

Do you know how many of your clients are opening your emails?

Email is another example.   Think about how many emails you get every day from people whether its friends, facebook updates, newsletters that you’ve subscribed too, whatever.  How many of them do you actually read?  Many people will just click ‘delete’ and that’s the message gone FOREVER.   Your customers could and probably are doing this to you when you send out an offer by email.  Being able to moniter these statistics is crucial – in our salon D’Aguiar:hair.skin.nails we use a systems that can tell you how many people actually opened up and read the email, allowing us to tweak our marketing each time for better results.  

Your subject heading is crucial with email and can make or break your campaign.  Inner Circle Members can go to the Members-Only website here to view some great examples of attention grabbing headlines  http://www.worldwidesalonmarketing.com/members/salon-marketing-ideas/ideas-to-steal/headlines-you-can-swipe-and-modify-for-your-own-salon/

You have to give your existing customers and potential new customers a reason to want to open up & read your marketing.  A belief that there is something worth reading about that might change their life, or in some way benefit them.  Make them think that if they don’t open up this mail, they might be missing out on something special, an opportunity gone begging….and the truth is, they may be missing out on something pretty amazing  – A glamorous makeover in your salon perhaps!!!

If you want to learn the secrets to marketing and sales strategies that REALLY work and gets your phone ringing red-hot all the time, then you need to be a Inner Circle Member! Go here for more information and complete the brief online form to apply for a 90-day Risk Free Test Drive of the entire Inner Circle system, including the world-famous Toolkit.

Heidi joined the Inner Circle program in the midst of a global recession (July 2009), but this didn’t stop her from growing her salon by over 40% and being so busy that she had to move to a new premises that was double the size of her previous spa!

Here’s an email I got from Heidi just yesterday….

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“After a full year of being involved in Worldwide Salon Marketing the results for our business speak for themselves. Whilst I had a good grasp of business and marketing options prior to becoming involved, Chris, Rachael and the team certainly made sure that I didn’t forget how important it is to ensure MASSIVE ACTION means MASSIVE RESULTS. I am now a firm believer in all wheels of the spoke.

Just over a year ago I had a profitable business that was making ends meet but certainly not a retirement plan. Being a busy Mum and a non beautician partner in the business I often neglected the marketing aspect of our business, focusing too much on the numbers at the other end. We had no trouble attracting and keeping clients but I knew we could do better, a lot better.

12 months later we have a brand new spa on Lambton Quay in Wellington, double the size of our previous spa, all paid for out of the increased turnover in our business. I would not have the courage to do this if I didn’t know of all the tools we could use that could generate us money.

We try everything and anything that WSM throws our way or we think can think of. Our Queen of Referrals competition run during 2010 (a version of the Queen of Referral program, but our Queens are competing for $1,000 of prizes by referring the most new clients and the most spend) has so far bought in over 200 new clients in 8 months whose first visits have spent over $10,000 let alone what they have spent after that. This doesn’t count referrals outside the Queens competition we run.

We have a monthly package deal that normally sells over 30 packages a month with add ons not discounts! We regularly do the Wellington Women’s package (our version of Hollywood women’s ? yes I like to put my own touch on everything!) and bring in 20 or so new clients when we do it. We sold over 100 of the packages on a voucher site when we ran it. 100 new clients in a day, $10,000 in a day – fantastic.

We put our karma cards on car window wipers outside the shop a free 30 minute service. The recipients of this love it and rave about how we have made their day. They refer their friends and we get more new clients. We use the yellow pages to advertise a package, not how pretty we look. Over the last 12 months we have had over 500 phone calls from our yellow pages ad (last year about 100). We display our packages everywhere , have a montly newsletter, weekly e-specials (always with add ons now not discounts). The only time I discount now is with our txt-a-deal days, whereby we may have a quiet day once in a while and then it is a discount to get them in the door today. Of course we don’t forget the basics, new client letters, raise the dead postcards, birthday vouchers, referral thank yous. These basics keep your current clients happy. Funny enough we recently moved from a $10 to a $20 birthday voucher and doubled the number we are getting back in the month, and a larger percentage of these back were clients we have not seen for a long time. At Christmas we wanted to up our retail sales so packaged together the retail products with free gift vouchers for treatments, this went down a treat. From December to February we always offer a deal for rebooking a free ad on service or product. We find if we can get the client 3 times monthly in a row then they won’t shop around elsewhere for a while.

Numbers wise, our turnover is up over 40% year on year, month on month. I have employed more staff and we are still growing. We have not gone backwards in over 15 months. I want to double over two years and we are on track for this to happen. Our staff love that they are more busy and have more $’s in their pay packets.

WSM is not an easy fix, it takes time and effort. I love the way it prompts me to think outside the square, I have some great ideas to implement in 2011 (2010’s move took up too much of my time!) and can’t wait to see what happens with my business.

By the way, this year I have had two overseas holidays, won another trip overseas (karma coming back to get me!), spent more quality time with my kids and have felt a lot happier about where I and the business is heading. However I never lose sight of the customer, our most important asset and whilst I know I can get new clients easily I still look after our current clients with quality, friendly service with value added services for them as well. They love it and complain to us if they are not getting enough deals or promotions like last month, which was our best ever and contained no promotions other than our monthly special as we were too busy all our rooms busy all the time. Now if only I could find some quality staff to expand!!”

Cheers Heidi

Now these are the type of emails that I LOVE to get! Fantastic results Heidi and I can’t wait to hear more in the future.

Not a member? Want results like Heidi Morton? Go here for more information and complete the brief online form to apply for a 90-day Risk Free Test Drive of the entire Inner Circle system, including the world-famous Toolkit.

But before I let Terra explain to you how she did it, I want to tell you some of the benefits of having memberships in your salon….

Memberships are a great way to get a huge chunk of cash up front from your clients or regular cash flow depending on the membership type.  If cash flow is a bit tight and you have a GST bill coming up then memberships give you that much need boost.  Or perhaps you want to go on a holiday or buy a new car then memberships give you more financial freedom so you don’t have to go grovelling to the bank for a loan!

Memberships are also a great way to guarantee your clients stay loyal to your salon for a long time and if a staff member leaves and starts working at a salon down the road it also stops clients going with that person.

You will often find that people on memberships will try out other services that they have never had before which opens up more opportunities to sell lots of product.  Remember these people have paid their money upfront, so they are going to feel like they have got money to burn when they come in for their treatments….so SELL, SELL, SELL like crazy!

But enough from me, here is what Terra has to say about memberships and being a part of the Inner Circle Program…..

Terra Evans, Owner of Skin Deep Face & Body, Auckland

“I have been a member of the Inner Circle program for 2 months now. I decided to join because even though my salon is already doing well I knew it wasn’t working it to its full potential. So when I saw the ad for a free DVD on how to make more $ and do fab marketing it intrigued me and I phoned Chris to find out more.  The first thing I felt when I spoke to Chris was that I wasn’t being sold to, I was just being told the facts and I could also see how genuine and enthusiastic Chris was about the whole thing. I asked Chris to give me some people to ring who are already members which he did and everyone gave rave reviews so I asked him if he could ring me in 2 months, when I felt I would be ready and I would give it a go, I really didn’t have anything to lose as there is the free trial period and I told Chris that if it didn’t work for me within that time I wouldn’t continue, but he was very confident that that would not be the case and that I would love it, and he was right!

I have implemented lots of new ideas but also things like new client letters which I knew I needed to do before I joined but didn’t know where to start. Well not anymore, with all the templates and ideas that are in the manuals I finally feel like I am taking control of my business! So far I have done New client letters 1,2 and 3, birthday letters, raise the dead letters, Queen of referrals, Valentines day specials, newsletters (mail and email), changed my messages, implemented the Happy form and testimonial form, cross over promotions, top client rewards, about to send out a school holiday special, ordered a new A frame for the sidewalk, increased my prices and am now using the Staff finder service to look for a new therapist so we have more spaces to fill so I can do some more marketing.

The Best success I have had so far is with the Mini Memberships. I did like the Manual said (why try and fight it) and offered $350 worth of treatments for $200 I had 20 up for grabs and they had a 6 month expiry. .I sent out 672 texts @ 22 cents each = $147.84 and 252 emails @ 5 cents = $12.60 total cost $160.44 all to my existing clients. The response from the texts was amazing within 24 hours of sending the message we had sold all 20 and had many more on a waiting list for next time.  So all up it cost me $160.44 to market and I had a Membershiop campaign that created a STORM! Oh what a feeling!

What was interesting about the whole thing is that it actually has encouraged the mini members to try different treatments that they have been thinking about trying, already I have 2 clients starting a course of IPL (which of course will end up costing them more than $350) another client is going to use hers towards microdermabrasion course (again more than $350) and 3 of the members have only visited us a few times so after they have used up there credit I am sure they will be addicted! The rest of the members I am going to test and measure at the end of the 6 months and see how many different treatments they have tried and how much extra retail they have purchased.

So if you are nervous about trying mini memberships don’t be they work!! You can always try selling 10 and then when you see how well it works give it another go. Oh and by the way the clients love it and love you for it. It creates such a buzz and good energy which I feel is so important for true success.

Thanks so much Chris, I look forward to our next meeting and getting started on more great ideas!”

As you can see from what Terra has written she is a HUGELY motivated person that takes massive action.  The memberships are just one of many strategies, systems and promotions that she has implemented since joining the Inner Circle program in January.  Great results Terra, well done and I am so happy for you!

FOR INNER CIRCLE PREMIUM MEMBERS ONLY: log in here to get the exact words Terra used in her winning text message

If you want to get hold of the same membership strategies as Terra then you need to join the Inner Circle program TODAY and get your own copy of the Essential Salon Owner’s Marketing Toolkit®. Go here to see if you qualify for a 30 Day Money Back Guaranteed Test Drive of the entire system – completely risk free.)

Far too frequently I hear salon owners say,

“Why would I offer this special package to my existing clients when they are already going to come in to the salon anyway and spend more than the package…”

It’s quite simple really…

If you don’t reward your existing LOYAL clients, they will eventually leave and go somewhere that does reward them!!!

Tracy Power - Woman Day Spa, Nelson NZ

So it was music to my ears today when I spoke with long term Inner Circle member Tracy Power of Woman Day Spa in Nelson, New Zealand.   Last week Tracy emailed her clients a Christmas promotion she found in the Members Only ‘sealed section’ and followed the same format used by Michael Curtis of Blush Day Spa in Perth.

The phone immediately began to go crazy.

Within 2 hours of emailing the promotion Tracy had sold 50 vouchers making $6000.  In fact the promotion went so well that they ran out of gift vouchers and had to call the printer urgently to have more made!

“I couldn’t believe it, the phone was going so crazy I actually didn’t know what to do!!!  Within 2 hours we had sold all our vouchers and yesterday we sold another $2000 worth.

We have told our clients that we will be releasing another 50 next week and I have already had one client request 20 x $50 vouchers.

Before I sent the email I was a bit worried that I would be giving away too many free vouchers, but when some of my clients came in to pick up their vouchers they were thanking me so much for the wonderful gift…they were just so happy and it made me realise that I need to reward them more often!

And of course some of the clients will give these vouchers to their friends for Christmas so I will get lots of new clients in January too!”

So far Tracy has made $8000 in early bird xmas voucher sales, from an email that cost her ZERO, ZILCH, NADA….Now that’s not a bad return on investment!

But more importantly, Tracy has made her existing clients feel incredibly special with this offer and she will reap the rewards from this in the months and years to come.

Well done Tracy for being our Salon Superstar of the week – You really deserve it!

So if YOU want the kind of results Tracy and our other members are achieving, you need to be a Member of the Inner Circle program, complete with your own edition of the Essential Salon Owner’s Marketing Toolkit®. Go here to see if you qualify for a 30 Day Money Back Guaranteed Test Drive of the entire system – completely risk free.)

Long term IC member and Toolkit owner Michelle Weston of Northmead Beauty Therapy in New South Wales - "massive action gets massive results"

Every time I hear ‘oh, your kind of marketing doesn’t work for my business/my town/my clients’, and tell one of our veteran Members about it, they literally laugh out loud. Members like Michelle Weston of Northmead Beauty Therapy in New South Wales, who’s enjoying year-on-year growth of 35% thanks to doing it my way.

She writes:

“Did you know that we have now been dealing with each other for over 4 years now?

Despite having the Toolkit I never really took EVERYTHING you said on board until I closed one of my salons and was able to focus on one. I de-cluttered, re-evaluated in July 2007 and have not looked back. I now have a full time receptionist and still we simply cannot keep up with everything I have in place.

Here’s a sample of the kind of marketing I do all the time:

• I use New Client Letter series 1, 2 & 3, sent every Monday

• Birthday letters

• The ‘Rupert the Dog’ letters to get ‘lost’ clients  back in (although we never use Letter #2 of this series as we get such a good result with the 1st letter)

• Monthly newsletter (sent with everything)

• SMS only very occasionally,

• Email, always using the idea of 1, 2 & 3 of repeating the promos in emails

• Every email goes as the home page on my website and is also in the monthly newsletter

• 4 visit voucher

• Mini membership

• Gold, Silver Bronze Membership (only available once a year about now!!)

• I use every monthly promo you offer (Advance Notice Marketing Triggers emailed to all Members); xmas, valentines- mothers day etc etc

Our main focus of our website is to attract clients into our store or to at least make contact with our store, not to sell to them. It is then up to my therapists to follow (the system in the Selling Like Crazy component of the Toolkit)

Not everything works for every salon thoug. Surprisingly, the Queen of Referrals has never worked with our older clients – they like to keep that they come and visit us a secret!

If anything is not done we do notice a decline in revenue. I find how busy the salon is depends on how much marketing I am doing. Obviously with all this to be done I do not work in my salon as a therapist.

Action is exactly what is required.  Lately with so many ideas in my head I simply need to stop marketing sometimes in order for my salon to be able to cope with the influx of clients. At the end of the day we are a neighbourhood shopping centre and we need to give 100% service every time.

Results: Our last quarter to September 09 shows a 35.2% increase in turnover on last year!  September 08 was a 36% increase on the year before that! I cannot give you a specific number against those times when we have not used a multi-step style system as we are very strict with how we implement our marketing and I have done so since February 2008. But I can assure you it took me a while to ‘get’ the multi-step mailing system but once I did, I have definitely seen a constant increase in revenue. Before that I was making money now I am making more money!!

Multi-step marketing?? means to me doing everything in threes -that is the key for me.

I try and use this philosophy in everything I do.

In May I had a new staff member start, and we did a “I want a $29 facial with Erin” promo using your basic idea new staff letter from the Toolkit. Price point was also very attractive. We used stock we received complementary from our suppliers to conduct the facials. Our tester stand for makeup was not being used much during this time so it sparked up some excitement there too.

The clients needed to pay up-front to make their appointment. The objective was for me was to see how many Erin could turn into rebook full facial and how well she retailed. She knew what was expected of her.

We sold 111 facials to clients, all wanting to meet Erin. That was $3219.

Plus, Erin sold $3346 worth of product!

Cost of promo absolute minimum – We did this as a home page on the website, sent email twice and had it in the monthly newsletter which sits on front desk and is given to every client as well as posted with every direct marketing letter during this time.

Erin even maintained 65% of these facials as regular clients!! That $$$ value works out to be about a potential $43,200 in additional revenue (each facial client is worth about $600 a year)

The exercise showed Erin what was expected every time a client visited the salon, our clients got to meet Erin and I got to see just how profitable Erin could be!

Every promo must go out in at least 3 ways, either via newsletter, email, web page, SMS or direct mail, newspaper. Promos are reinforced in the salon with posters in every room. Even posters must be done in a 3 theme. e.g., say in a-frame at front of store then in front area then in rooms.

At the end of they day I work extremely hard on my marketing for my salon. However, I do soooo much enjoy it and much of that comes from you, your staff and my fellow Inner Circle members. All your ideas keep me inspired.

Michelle.”

I rest my case. The time for insisting that this system doesn’t work is long gone. If you can’t make it work, it’s you, not the system.

If you’re finally fed up doing the same thing year after year, slavishly copying the ‘me-too’ kind of marketing 99% of salons and spas do because they’re too lazy/uninformed/un-motivated to do anything better… then it’s time you TOOK ACTION, joined the Inner Circle, got your own copy of the Essential Salon Owner’s Marketing Toolkit®, and finally started making the kind of money you deserve from your salon.

Go here to see if you qualify for a 30-day Test Drive of the entire system.

People seem to get all excited about email marketing, as though it’s some kind of magic wand. It ain’t. Email (and the wider web, for that matter) is nothing more and nothing less than just another media to deliver your marketing message. Thus, same ‘direct response marketing 101′ rules apply to email as with any other media – newspapers, mailbox flyers, direct mail etc –

• Compelling Headline
• Great OFFER
• Guarantee
• Testimonials (social proof)
• Call to Action

But each media has its own peculiar quirks, and email is no different. It is illegal to mass-email a list of people you don’t know in the hope that a few of them might be fooled into taking action. (That’s the penis enlargement strategy). But email can be very efficient at marketing to your existing (known) customers. They already have a relationship with you.

(Having said that, while email might be efficient (cheap), it is known to be far less effective than say, direct mail, in terms of response.)

But when you do it right, it can achieve massive results. Inner Circle member Michael Curtis of Blush Urban Spa uses email extensively to market to his list of 7,000 opt-in email addresses. According to Michael,

“We sent two emails to our list, one at the beginning of last week and a follow up email a week later. In less than 24 hrs we sold – Special offer #1 ..33 x $117 = $3,861 and Special offer #2,  27 x $157=$4239…thats $8100. Not bad in 24hrs without rebooks and extra retail sales to be added. Then we sent out a reminder ‘extended offer’ email a week later. Total result, 118 sales, for a grand total of: $15,606!”

WHERE TO GET THE EMAIL TEMPLATE: Inner Circle members log into the members only ‘sealed section’ – you’ll find it in the ‘email marketing’ category. Plus, instructions on how to send out email in template form just like Michael does.