Your Perfect Clients Who Are Looking For What Only YOU Can Provide
Thought Process: “Get good at doing a few services well – and GREAT at marketing those services to your ideal clients.”
Let’s review what we are doing and WHY.
You are transforming yourself from having a “JOB” to owning a business. A salon business, even if right now you simply rent a chair in someone else’s dream salon. Whether you have a multi-chair or a one-chair salon, you must become REALLY GOOD at communicating the right message to the right people.
Always remember, you can SERVE anyone…
Because your resources are limited, you must spend your time and money MARKETING only to your “ideal” clients. Having a clear message that attracts the people you want most as clients is the basis of creating marketing that works.
Your marketing message must describe the problems you solve and the solutions you provide. A general message to everyone attracts no one.
What are the “wrong reasons” why you might advertise?
– Someone shows ups at your salon and sells you advertising. As the owner, you have no strategy or plan in mind. All this does is put money in the pocket of the agency that sold you the advertising. This just won’t work.
– Your salon wants or NEEDS customers. But the marketplace does not care about your wants. Successful marketing is not about you: it’s about your customers.
That’s why you need a real reason to advertise.
If your salon is for everybody, it’s for nobody. You must have a message that relates to a specific group of people who are interested in what you have to say. A great message is compelling. It answers the most important question of all: “Why should I choose YOU rather than any other option available (including choosing no one).”
Action Step: Become really good at creating marketing messages that work. Here’s how:
– Make your business ABOUT something. Look at what other salons are saying and doing, and do it differently. What problems do you solve? What dreams do you help to make possible? What can you be about in someone’s life? Go back to the previous week and spend some time answering the questions to discover what you are all about.
– Make your business FOR someone. The best way to get more clients is to understand who your “ideal clients” are. Who are the people you can serve the best? They are your “target market.”
Here’s how to work through that basic, must know question.
By your current clients: Think about a particular, favorite client. Someone you want to serve and have more of — just like him or her. This is how you can start thinking about who your “ideal clients” are.
By your location: People get personal services like hair, nails, and skin near two geographic centers – home and work. Take an afternoon and drive through the neighborhoods and business parks near your salon. Where are the areas that have the kind of people you like to serve and have the most to offer?
By demographics: Characteristics like age, male or female, type of hair, preferred services, and lifestyle are important factors for choosing your target market. Look for people who are similar to your preferred clients. Where are they likely to live, work and shop?
By who you know: What associations do you belong to? Your church? Your school? Your neighborhood? Your activities? If people in those groups live, work, or shop near you, this is another source of new clients.
To find more clients in your target market, list all your best sources of business. You can target these sources with your marketing materials – fliers, postcards, letters, and much more. We’ll talk specifically about what goes on them next week.
Before we end, let’s dig into who they are as people. What do they dream about? What do they fear? In your dealings with current clients, what makes them want to sit in your chair? When you offer them additional services or suggest products, what triggers them to buy?
If you don’t know the answers to these questions now, write them down. Have them in the back of your mind tomorrow when you are working and taking care of your clients.
What I’ve learned about their hopes, dreams, and fears:
What triggers them to buy:
I plan to gather more of this information by:
And again, so as not to be misunderstood, you can serve anyone. You spend your money and time marketing to specific, targeted groups.
Now you are ready to make your marketing materials such as fliers, postcards, your website, Facebook and anywhere else you want to use your message to bring in new business. Next week, we’ll create your “attraction magnet” – your marketing media giving the right message, to the right people.
Have a Suite Day!