Lou the Five Foot High Salon Solutions Guru - whatabeauty@mail.com

How I got $$$$ of free publicity

2010-04-23T03:44:00.000-07:00

"I used this card to get attention to my potential client. Amazing results. If your interested in how this can work for you email me on whatabeauty@mail.com and I can send you one" visit www.superchargeyoursalon.com for more creative and fun ways to market your salon

2009-09-22T21:49:00.000-07:00

180 Day Action Plan for your salon

1. Calculate your customer lifetime value and stop running unprofitable adds
2. Increase your price by 10-15% (yes you can do that very easily!)
3. Start collecting all customer names and address and emails
4. Contact inactive customers and give them an irresistible offer
5. Implement some critical non-essentials and systemize
6. Survey your clients and systemize obtaining feedback
7. Up sell at the point of purchase
8. Obtain ideas from your team
9. Make an irresistible offer to your current clients
10. Review some marketing ideas from outside of your industry
11. Develop a USD
12. Obtain Testimonials from your good clients
13. Do a Joint venture with another business who has your target market
14. Use a multi-step direct mail
15. Develop a web site to get your clients details and a reason why they should leave their details.

2009-09-20T23:42:00.000-07:00

The majority in the beauty profession are wrong about the most- if not all- of their beliefs about how to be successful in salons.

That’s a difficult truth to wrap your head around, but this fact doesn’t lie – 95%of them earn a great deal less than 5%do. Only about 1% become rich through their salons- compared with at least 20% , 40% to 50% who barely eke out a living or fail. Overall, these stats never change- recessions or booms, new technology breakthroughs or not. A lot of salon owner still wants “get their name out there” or I call it “Looking good going nowhere” and literally throwing money down the drain.

Don’t despair; because I have been there, in fact I’m sure I have made every mistake in the book. I’ve learn’t it the hard way.. With many years of owning and running spas and salons I had to test and measure everything! I couldn’t afford not to. So here are 5 super tips I want to give salon owners to start doing today.

1. Collect testimonials from their clients.

2. Find out who hasn’t been your salon in the last 3 months and contact them again with a compelling offer they can’t refuse. (Because it’s cheaper to market to your current clients then to find new ones)

3. If they don’t respond to that offer send out another mail out and repeat it twice. (most salons give up on the first mail out) Make sure your envelope doesn’t look like a bill or junk mail and make it personal.

4. Give something away! A bonus offer, a free gift, something! FREE is one of the sexiest words in marketing. I know salon owners say “I hate free things” Remember: you are not your client and just think who loves the word FREE . Fat loves free, thin loves FREE, kids love FREE, men love FREE, Women Love FREE.

5. Up sell and cross sell at every opportunity!

Free E-seminar visit http://www.superchargeyoursalon.com/

2009-09-20T23:37:00.000-07:00

Salon Marketing Savvy Department

How to compete in an overcrowded market place.

What makes your salon different? Your success or failure may come down to your message! Your USP (unique sales position) A tiny passionate piece may be just enough to make you rich! The quickest way to do that is to create a compelling USP that elevates and differentiates you over any of your competitors.

Here’s my Big lesson- What you should be looking for is the “market gap” a point of difference not covered by your competitors – is your guarantee? Is it your bonus offers? You may be a salon that does exactly the same services as down the road but your distinct difference is that you tell your clients exactly what you do.

I have many competitors in the salon marketing industry – my biggest point of difference is that “I put money in your pocket” I have a guarantee and I have been a salon owner myself, I know what salon owners go through with staff and clients. I know what your clients want and I know what salon owners want.

My marketing is very narrow as I don’t market to all salons, the salons that I work with is 1-7 employees. There are a few short cuts I have taken to get major success.
To find out visit my FREE E-Seminar on http://www.superchargeyoursalon.com/

2009-09-20T23:34:00.000-07:00

The Most powerful Selling Weapon You will Ever Have –
Proof of what you say is true!

What I am about to reveal to you is the most powerful selling weapon that exists.

Oh, I know that is a big statement… and I wholeheartedly believe it! In fact, if my life depended up one single strategy, this would be it.

Proof – Proof that what I say is true! If you prove what your treatments actually work then do it! If you don’t believe they work then don’t do it! But I’m not going to argue with you because you wouldn’t be doing the treatment if you didn’t believed it worked. (hopefully not!!)

So how do you do this in your salon?

1. Testimonials
2. Facts
3. Demonstration Events
4. Guarantees
5. Pictures
6. References and referrals

This seems to be money left on the table when I speak to salon owners and how they don’t get testimonials. There is a way of getting testimonials without hype or waffle!
When someone says how good you are it’s much more powerful then coming from you. Have them in a book at your front of your waiting area. Include a questionnaire with your product or service. The questionnaire should ask what you got right, what you got wrong and how you can improve your product or service. This is a very powerful strategy and also allows you to customize your product or service to your customer needs.
Here are some more tips to get testimonials for your salon marketing

1. If you get a testimonial, make sure you use them. Number one barrier to business is lack of trust.

2. The best testimonials are the ones that are meaningful and specific not vague and general

3. Ask to be able to use their full name and suburb – Need to be cautious in the hair and beauty industry as its personal so I will use Initials – it’s better than nothing. But a full name dramatically improves believability in the mind of the prospect.
Don’t forget to get written permission to sue in the testimonials you get and make sure you use them liberally and strategically. If you don’t like testimonials it doesn’t matter, because it’s about your client … not you… You are not your customer

2009-09-20T16:14:00.000-07:00

Six Super Ways to Give your Salon a Lift

2009-09-20T05:18:00.000-07:00

6 Super Ways to Give your Salon a Lift

(with little outlay)

Some may argue that the salons with the nicer décor and image can charge higher prices. If you would like to beautify your premises but do not wish to spend extra money, find a local up and coming artist to display paintings in your salon. If you happen to sell a painting, you can even earn some extra income by receiving a percentage of the sale. You can also approach local galleries to promote their new artists. Fresh flowers and plants always bring so much more life and vitality to a salon. You can make arrangements with a florist in your neighborhood to provide flowers and rental plants. A local florist will certainly wish to partner up with you as you service clientele whom will have bridal showers, weddings, birthday parties, and they will want to have access to this client base. Other ways to uplift or change the look of your premises at a very low or no cost:

1. New uniforms for staff

2. Rotate weekly colored t-shirts

3. Paint your walls a different colour

4. Barter services with a muralist

5. Framed photos of your salon history - any publications you should laminate them and put them in the waiting area - helps your salon look like a celebrity salon

6. Change the color of your dressing gowns/update your towels

Be creative and realize it is a myth that you have to “spend money to make money”? Think out of the box and you can easily beautify and give a make-over to your salon without spending very much money at all.
We offer a for your salon. You will receive new, easy to implement and most importantly, at very low or now cost ideas to increase your business. visit www.superchargeyoursalon.com for FREE gifts valued at $197 and a FREE E-Seminar

Results on OUTRAGEOUS salon marketing

2009-09-19T06:22:00.000-07:00

Jenni Dyson from Femme Total Tweed Heads

Thanks for being such a great woman to work with!

2009-09-19T03:58:00.000-07:00

8 Sure Ways to Increase Profits in the next 60 days

1. Add an Upsell.

Your clients might be in buying mood - Sell more to them!

2. . Raise your prices.

I’ve done this for more than a decade and I still find pricing to be mysterious at times. I’ve had experiences where I doubled the price of a product and instantly more sales were generated. Other times an increase in prices decreased sales.

2. . Run an event. Invite your clients to a night to remember - have packages to sell on the day and your appointment book ready for bookings!

3 Allow JV Partners to Give Your Product Away Free

Offer one of your low cost products as a freebie gift to go with JV partner’s offers in your market. They’ll expose you to their audience, generating more customers for you, in exchange for the value you provide to their database

4. . Mix in more content/value into the sales process. What can you add into your treatments as a bonus offer.

5. Get more clients in your door - Effective marketing that works

6. Test Everything

What should you test first? The biggest changes I’ve seen occur in offers, headlines, photos, intro paragraphs, and guarantee. The headline is the area where I do the most testing because you’re going to see a big change from one headline to another. If you’re not testing offers and prices you’re leaving money on the table.

7. Discipline yourself.

This is hard to do at times. I find I do best when I have a routine marketing time. At such and such a time, you sit down and write. When I let myself get out of that schedule it’s so much harder to get the writing done. Pick some of the most important elements of your business and do them religiously every working day. Don’t let yourself get out of the routine.

8. Mastermind Group - with people who have been in your shoes!

It’s lonely if you try to go it alone. Some of the best ideas will come when you’re brainstorming with others in your field (or outside your field). In fact I find some of the best coaching sessions I have are when a client simply wants to bounce ideas back and forth to find the right solution for them (instead of just asking for advice). Get outside help! (and not your family)

2009-08-09T04:38:00.000-07:00

2009-08-09T04:33:00.000-07:00

Super Charge Your Salon - Launching Soon

Visit http://http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tSttNV0IJhw

Did You Know???

2009-06-25T21:51:00.001-07:00

Did you know that Micheal Jackson was one of the pioneers for cosmetic tatooing.
Cosmetic tattooing—inked-on brows, eye- and lipliner heretofore associated with sun-dried retirees and Michael Jackson.

Call the procedure what you will (and many do, dubbing it everything from “permanent makeup” to “micro-pigmentation”), going under the needle means not worrying about smudged eyeliner at a last-minute presentation—among other benefits.

Visit www.highteasalon.com for FREE Gifts valued at $97

School Holidays are just around the corner!

2009-06-25T07:47:00.000-07:00

Teachers are an excellent client to have!
This could range from schools, tafe, universities.
They are excellent because they have time for holidays in your quietest part of the year.
What could you do to get their business?
For more great ideas and a FREE Gift visit www.highteasalon.com

Beautiful Weather

2009-06-21T22:18:00.000-07:00

Last Sunday was the shortest day of the year! Now the days will only get hotter and longer... Good news for the hair and beauty industry because people tend to spend more in warmer weather.. I was attended a work shop last week and they mentioned about how weather affects peoples buying patterns. Even sporting events can change people’s buying patterns. Even though you can’t do much about changing the weather or sporting events you can sit down and analyze the busy times and the quiet times according to the weather.

Eg. Do people tend to cancel appointments in the rain, or in beautiful days because they could be at the beach?
I know last year when Geelong Cats lost their grand final AFL foot ball event Geelong was like a ghost town. Everyone was affected. In fact they were affected for a whole month. You could sit down and analyze what is happening around your environment and prepare your salon?

For more information visit www.highteasalon.com for a free gift valued at $97

Attention Salon Owners

2009-06-17T23:19:00.000-07:00

Don't Discount your services. Value Add instead!

The only time you should discount services is when you are training or trying to move old or dammaged stock off the shelf.

When you discount you are really telling your clients is that you are ripping them off
at full price services. This discredits your salon.

Great tip to move dammaged or old stock is put it into a basket on the counter and put a yellow sticker on it.You will be supprised how people pick it up (taking ownership of it) and purchase your stock.

For more ideas visit www.highteasalon.com and recieve a free $97 audio on Instant Salon Income. Super Charge your salon today!

Yours Beautifully

Louanne

How to Use Marketing to Solve All Your Advertising, Marketing and Sales Problems Once and For All!

2009-06-13T15:28:00.001-07:00

Good News! This is not rocket science and involves a lot of good old fashion common sense. To keep it all together and organized, I have found this marketing triangle from my marketing coach that I would like to share with you.

Most salon owners start with media, often under pressure - an urgent need to stimulate business or a media salesman is calling and giving you a deadline. A lot of bad adverting decisions and a lot of bad advertising happens this way. So let's approach this a bit differently and start by thinking about what you have to say (that's interesting) before we worry about how you will say it. Don't just look like a business card, this lacks reason to respond NOW. You don't want be "vanilla" which is plain and boring! The best reason is having something exciting, bold, interesting, DIFFERENT to say.
For creative ideas and templates already done for you that has been tested and tried in many of my (and my clients) salons. All the hard work has been done for you. All you need to do is put your own details in and print.

****Exciting NEWS****** We will be launching our membership site - coming soon - available to hair and beauty salons.

email me on www.whatabeauty@mail.com for a FREE audio - Instant Salon Income.
valued at $97

People don't buy what they need. They buy what they want!

2009-06-12T20:16:00.000-07:00

This morning I was reading the daily telegraph and the headline and article caught my attention. So I though I would share it with you.

"Vanity makes for a fun mum"

New survey has found 22% of NSW mothers would choose access to beautician over a financial adviser or nutritionist. Mums are also more likely to sacrifice a night out with their husbands or partner to buy things their child needs, with 74% of mums surveyed using cosmetics at the least two years old. "If your feeling good about yourself that really translates to how happy you are as a parent as well" "You have to take the time out to spend time on yourself in order to be happy with the other things in your life, including parenting" - daily telegraph

I think that's why they call a beauty therapist a therapist, it's not just about getting the beauty services done, and looking younger but its about the therapy as well. Marketing is now officially about wants, not needs. Especially in these time of recession (if that's what you call it)

I was in a call yesterday, Maree from Beauty works on ormond, and she was telling me "we are up by $1500 this month already, it's a recession, it's winter, it's cold and it's only the first 10 days in the month. I can't believe it. My staff love it, they sell it because it's fun and easy. Thank you Louanne.

I believe salon owners need to learn not just about branding or just about marketing - they need to know about Emotional marketing - especially in times of hardship. You need to learn how to tap into peoples emotions.

Yours Beautifully

Louanne

PS If you want to learn how to emotionally tap into your clients wants. visit www.highteasalon.com or email me on whatabeauty@mail.com

My First Blogg

2009-06-12T06:55:00.000-07:00

I Am Really Excited!

I am creating this online diary about what I learning and putting it to action and then teach salon owners on the things that work for me. I believe you need to live what you preach. This is my very first baby step blog. Watch this baby walk! Then Run and then sprint. Directing fast traffic to hair and beauty salons web pages without spending a bomb on programmes.

I am so excited about learning new things all the time, in fact I can't stand still. You could call me a change junkie. If the world around me isn't changing, I get bored and become inefficient. In the beauty industry it has been really exciting, because over the last 20 years (yes I have been in it for that long, now a veteran) the industry has changed so much and so much to learn. If you are a salon owner and you don't move quickly with new services you could be dead. While your opposition takes control of the market. So with the marketing especially online.

Salon owners really need to embrace new technology and learn, or hire someone who can help (like a surly teenager) them to get online With so many salons I help, I am constantly surprised how many salon owners don't want or can't embrace the Internet. I believe it can be just a small mind set change. I spoke to a salon owner today and she "refuses" to use the computer, because it so much easier to use the appointment book. Her mindset was stopping her to grow and embrace technology. "Computers crash" she said to me. Yes they do crash, but in all the years I have used computers in my salons I have only experienced it to crash only twice, and that was through electrical storms. Luckily I do back up. I am sure appointment books get damaged as well.

I will soon be launching an online membership programme to supercharge salons. Because content will be delivered via emails this will keep the price down. I will give you updates as soon as they arrive.