Category: Professional Beauty

Communicating to your clients

On November 14, 2016

In Articles, Beauty Salon, Hair Salon, Hairdressers Journal, Professional Beauty, Salon Business, Salon Marketing

By Rina McKellar for SA Hairdressers Journal

We’re bombarded by marketing and advertising messages every day. 10 years ago, The Guardian in the UK estimated that Londoners were exposed to over 3500 ads in just one day. I remember when I lived there – my 30 min commute into the city was littered with glamorous faces on large billboards and quirky video ads in taxis and posters plucked in every conceivable corner of the tube station. They all told me about upcoming theatre events, some miracle beauty cream or the new holiday destination I should be trying. My favourite was always the one that told a little story up those L-O-N-G escalator rides. They made the smelly tube stations lightly more bearable and put a little smile on my face for about 2-3 mornings until they lost their lustre and stayed up way too long. They all wanted the commuter’s attention and were all offering me and every other poor London creature something more promising.

We have seen advertising get more clever, more entertaining and more engaging over the years. Mass advertising has its benefits and appeal and there will always be some commonalities that people share. e.g. a tropical beach scene complete with colourful cocktail, palm trees and soft white sand will for sure capture the attention of every London-living individual wanting to escape the sombre greyness of a cold English February.

Fast forward to 2016 and now we have the added luxury of super smart technology, coupled with endless personal data. Ever wondered just how Facebook knew you were in the market for a new car? Try changing your status from “in a relationship” to “single” and you’ll suddenly be bombarded by dating sites galore. I loved the story from a close friend who managed to change her age from 40 to 75 (with great difficulty might I add) – she stopped getting ads about “mature dating sites” and ads for wheel chairs popped up instead. We laughed out loud at that one!

Actually most apps these days require you to log on using either Google or Facebook or something similar and it’s actually just downright scary the amount of info that can be collected on you, your connections and links. It so often feels like big brother is watching our every move. Makes me want to sing an adapted version of Sting’s masterpiece right now: “Every breath you take, every search you make, every bond you break, every friend you take. I’ll be watching you.”
Ha – this sounds just like FB’s personal love song to each of us.

Google and FB are masters at this and run way ahead of the curve. For most businesses and products, it is still advertising old school style – good message combined with traditional means e.g. a beautiful glossy ad in a well- respected magazine and there, advertising and marketing ticked. Done and dusted. Many haven’t quite figured out how to use technology in their mix, let alone understand how to use social media to drive their business. It can be incredibly confusing and even daunting to close the massive gap in your marketing mix.

So let’s start with the mere basics and take a few steps back. There are 2 things that is required to make such specific targeting and advertising possible – data and technology. Google and Facebook have both by the bucket load. In simple non-powerhouse terms for you and me this means:As much information about an individual (the more the better)Mechanism to reach that person (hardware – cellphone/computer and software – application etc.)

Many of you are already deploying this in your everyday business practise. You may be emailing your clients useful info or you may be sending out an SMS to remind your customers of an upcoming appointment. In both cases you have data (their email and the cell number) and then using some form of technology to reach them.
The question then remains: Why are you not doing it more or taking it to the next level?

To have personal information about your customer is really a beautiful and rather rare thing. It has only recently become quite a new phenomenon that’s exploded. I don’t think this fact is truly appreciated in many industries who simply take it for granted and do nothing with it. The mind still boggles at the restaurant industry that handles this info so glibly. They go to all the trouble to ask for your details when you make a reservation and then simply throw it away at the end of the night. To hold personal information of another is a great gift. As a salon owner, I urge you not to fall into that same trap.

Just think: You can still just walk in to any grocery store, buy a litre of milk and 2 bags of apples and walk out anonymously. They have no idea how to reach you or talk to you again. That shop will not have a clue about your age, your name or your needs – no idea about your buying patterns or that you may have an apple addiction J. For years, large retailers were left with few options to attract and talk to customers – they were limited in many instances to publish big inserts in newspapers to announce of specials and promotions, then they’d hope and pray that those nameless people came in to buy. It was impersonal. Cast your minds back a few years and you were simply greeted at the checkout counter. Now, you barely get a hello, but get a snappy “do you have a ………. card” instead. Yes, this once limiting barrier has been overcome by shopper cards and loyalty programmes.

This has really changed the marketing and shopper landscape. Suddenly retailers not only knew the names and locations of their customers, but they also knew how regularly they were coming in and what they were buying. They began to see patterns and links and correlations and the science of buyer behaviour went to new levels. It could dictate trends, showed learnings and even influenced business processes like the lay- out of shelves and the placement of products. Data become information became powerful knowledge. Business Intelligence became a household term and industry boomed all round.

It also meant targeted advertising and speaking a specific message people wanted to hear. It wasn’t just blanket advertising – one message to the masses. The pendulum however has swung and now the problem is we have far too many cards and schemes from far too many retailers and they are impossible for a consumer to keep in a standard wallet. The loyalty market has become yet another bandwagon for companies to hop and sadly some have no clear strategy as to how their data should be effectively mined and used to radically enhance their business as it did in the grocery business.

Again, this is an example of large scale industry change – but what about in a small business? The good news is, is that most of you are already holding the keys that is needed and the rest is quite close by. Even if you do not have data about your clients and your business – you still have the basic information, perhaps not the best information (yet) – but at the very least you have names and numbers and it is a start. This means you can at a very nominal cost communicate with your clients on a regular basis. A simple example is an SMS telling them of a special or offering a discount can be at your complete control and discretion. You can choose to send to your top 50 clients or 500 clients. It’s your choice of message and quantity. You can monitor uptake and see the ROI. It really is a no- brainer and while rather old technology, it still works. Your software provider can help with this. In fact, what I am saying is not that new, Chris Parker, MD of ESP Salon Software, has made mention of this in several of his previous articles and can be found on their website for ease of reference. They have a module aimed to do just this and use it effectively and often for many clients.

You can construct your campaigns based on what info you have. It may well be an incentive for you to collect more RELEVANT information – take your lead from the big grocery stores out there. How often does your customer come in? What treatment do they normally have? Do they have a time or day preference? We all like to be offered something – but it has to be RELEVANT. When we get offered something totally irrelevant and we have no interest – it’s SPAM. We all get highly annoyed with SPAM.

The do’s and don’tsUse your data and business intelligence to drive your campaignCommunicate with relevanceCommunicate at regular intervals (one hit wonders are not cool)Get familiar with POPI (The Protection of Personal Information Act)Ask their permission if you can send them infoDon’t SPAMDon’t communicate too oftenDon’t only send blanket messages – show that you know your customer

The permeations of groups and messages are endless. You can target new clients or send birthday messages with a discount. You could send out an incentive to your top clients. You could send to clients you haven’t seen for months. Let your business mind flow – I am just going to encourage you to try and do something a bit more with the precious personal information you have. Let it help you increase your presence and awareness and generate even more business for you. All the best!

Guidelines for effective email campaigns

By Karl

On October 11, 2016

In Articles, Beauty Salon, Business, Business Intelligence, Hair Salon, Hairdressers Journal, Les Nouvelles Esthetiques, Professional Beauty, Salon Business, Spa, Wellness

Email was first introduced in the 70’s and by the 90’s it revolutionized the way we communicated with one another, it opened doors that postal mail could never have accomplished in reaching the masses instantly. Then the SMS appeared, this enabled us to send shorter messages to each other via mobile phones, this made email seem a bit archaic coupled with the explosion of social media to our everyday life. Approximately 40 odd years later, however, email has been given new life and has prevailed as the best way to communicate effectively with intended recipients.

Email’s resurgence continues to revolutionize the way we communicate with each other in a smarter and more effective ways; it is mobile friendly (stats show that around 65% of all mails are first opened on a mobile device), it delivers rich content with the likes of graphics, icons, buttons and very importantly it can track the engagement of readers tell us how many people have received, opened and clicked on the emails and even what they have clicked within the emails. All of these factors combined is why in 2016 email is noted as the most effective marketing tool available.

Have you adapted?

Now, considering that email is a far cry from what it used to be it begs the question, have you adapted to capitalise on the new way of managing email campaigns or are you still emailing in the same way as you have always done?

Here are some pointers to take into account when sending out emails to your clients:

1. Create mobile friendly emails (responsive)

Before you start ensure that your emails are built using a mobile friendly platform. The majority of readers are now reading email on their mobile phones and therefore your emails need to be easy to read on a phone. Responsive emails simply means that the size of the email will automatically be altered to the device the email is being viewed on – small and readable if opened on a mobile device, normal size if opened on a computer, also. Creating one big image as your mailer with all the text within the image is a bad idea as you will have to zoom in and scroll around the page to view the entire message. The more “html” the better.

2. Have a very clear purpose

Establishing the purpose and objectives of the email campaign you are about to embark on will keep you focussed on what is important as you create content for your mailer and sure that it flows logically in a top down manner.

As part of this process try and stick to just one clear message per email campaign. Just because you now have a very powerful way to share content with your readers doesn’t mean you should do it all in one email. In this process think about what you want to say to your clients and what you want them to do in response. This way of working also makes it easier to measure the success of your campaign.

3. Use catchy subject lines

Your subject line will determine whether or not the reader continues reading. It must be catchy yet also have great integrity, ie if the reader does open the email then the content of the email must directly relate to the subject line (it must deliver on its promise). This will further re-enforce the message you are trying to get across as well as increase the chances of the reader opening emails from you in the future.

For catchy subject lines try using the headline approach as our Newspapers and Magazines have taught us (relevant, short & catchy), it’s been capturing readers since the beginning of time – so make it short and catchy – “Summer is Here – Time for a Change”.
Or, try using a question – as recent studies show that subject lines phrased as a question perform better than using statements in the subject line – “Need a Beauty Boost?”
Or, if your email campaign is targeting by a specific location – incorporating the location reference into the subject line could also add a touch of relevance – “Special Offers at our Sandton Spa.”

4. Keep your message as concise as possible

Stats also show that readers generally only spend 15 seconds scanning an email – therefore we have to catch their attention from the get go. Capturing our audience will determine the success rate of the campaign. A good combination for this is a good image that tells your story, then a brief write up that further elaborates on the image – all of which must be consistent with your subject line. The less you can say to get your message across the better.

Put the most important information first as people have stopped reading longwinded text therefore let the content expand or flow from the subject line. Also note that you can add more value by providing access to exclusive content. Remember that email marketing success is to get credibility from the first email so readers look forward to the next email campaign, rather than delete upon receipt because we didn’t get it right the first time.

If you do have a lot to say on a particular matter then add this to the blog page on your website and put a link for the reader to “read more” on your web site. This allows the reader to easily scan your mail for topics that interest them and then focus in on that particular part of the email. It also helps drive traffic through to your website, which gives you further opportunities to engage with them.

5. Include a clear call to action

A call to action is an instruction to the reader to provoke an immediate response by clicking a button and engaging in whatever the required action is. Preferably only use one call to action per email and make it easy to see. Examples of Call to Action buttons are – Book Now; Contact Us; Find Out More; Click here to Enter.

Provide incentives for readers to respond to the call to action. Readers love getting offers, discounts etc. Competitions is another sure way to entice the reader to participate using the call to action button and thereby assist in increasing your email open rate.

6. Identify yourself clearly

This may seem very obvious, however, it is surprising how overlooked this very simple requirement is. This is a simple matter of making sure the from address and reply address are correct as well as your business name being used. This will help the reader to trust the mail before they open it. Ensure that you have your own domain name rather than using free email accounts like Google for your business. The domain name is what you get when you set up your web site address, ie www.yourdomain.com. You will then be able to use “yourdomain” for your emails.

7. Segment your recipient list

When sending emails you want to try and reach the people who are most likely to open the mails as well as respond to your call to action. Sending emails to your entire database is not always the best way to do that. In many instances it is better to target segments of your database based on things like gender, purchase history, loyalty status etc. This will also help connect the content to the reader more effectively and be more meaningful for them.

8. Analyse reader engagement

Not only is Email Campaign the No.1 digital marketing channel, it is also the top source of data for analytics as the data generated from the tracking stats enables us to get results quickly to determine the success rate of our campaign as well as the relevant stats to assist us in other marketing outlets.

Data from stats include – how many of your mails are opened on a mobile device, total number of emails sent, total number of emails delivered, the breakdown on opened mail on Mobile, Desktop & Web, what the click rate from and more.

Its not enough to just have the stats though. Each time you do an email campaign you should be smarter than the last time. In order to do so you actually need to learn from the analytics and change your behaviour accordingly.

Conclusion

Email has changed and so must you if you wish to remain competitive. Therefore create mobile friendly emails, have a clear objective for each campaign, create subject lines that grab the reader’s attention, have clear concise messages consistent with your subject line and objective, store bulky content on your website with links to read more, segment your database in order to target specific recipients and finally have a clear call to action. Most importantly be ready to respond. It would be a shame to run a successful email campaign only to drop the ball when readers respond.