19. PLEASE look at email marketing!

Hi everyone, this is the weekly Build Your Salon podcast with me, Phil Jackson. I'm here with the tools you need to generate the profits you deserve so that you can lead a fuller life. Hello again salon builders and welcome back. I hope you're well in this very chaotic world that we seem to be living in for this last couple of weeks. My question for you today, actually it's not even a question today, I'm going to get straight in with a begging. Please, can you start having a really close look at email marketing in your salon? I find it bewildering that there are so many salons that have invested really heavily in software, or really heavily in hardware for their reception systems, or really heavily in Macbooks and iPads and smartphones, and they're not using this really, really useful marketing tool in their business. So I've come up with seven ways, seven kicks up the ass, if you like, that I think will inspire you and motivate you to get on with some email marketing. First up, email marketing is really, really low cost, even free. You've already spent the money. If you've got a smartphone, or if you've got a computer system sat on reception, or if you've invested in salon software, you've already spent the money. It's time for you to get serious about your business and start sweating that asset. Every asset in your business needs to be earning its place. And email marketing is a really good way that your salon systems could be earning their place on reception. If all you're using your system for is a glorified appointment book, you are missing the point. You may as well go back to pen and paper, because the value of it is in the marketing. So I bet if you've got a salon system, there will be a marketing module sat there patiently waiting for you to get your ass in gear and start sending some emails. If not, use your iPad, use your laptop, use your smartphone. You can sign up for any number of business email sending services. I recommend MailChimp, not that it's my favourite, but if you're looking for something free, MailChimp's fantastic. You can add, I think it's 2,000 contacts, without spending a single penny with them. And in fact, it was a really useful tool in my business for years, and I never even gave them my credit card details. So take a look, get it set up, and get sending. The second really useful thing about email marketing is that nobody else is doing it, not in our industry. I know that email inboxes are getting very cluttered, as lots and lots of businesses get in the game with email marketing.

But in our industry, there's really not many doing it. I see a lot of salon owners, I do a lot of consultancy work with salon owners from all over the world. And when I talk to them about email marketing, there's very, very little going on. So it's something that does set you apart from your competition. And I think anything you can do to set apart from your competition has got to be worthwhile. You try and set up a new Facebook page or a new website in your niche, in your area, and you'll be swamped with competition. You get into email marketing, and I don't believe there's many salons in your area that are actually taking it seriously at all. Third up, it keeps you in the mind of your customer. It is not your customer's job to remember to spend money with you. It is your job as a salon owner and a salon marketer to remind them that you're here, remind them what they're good at, remind them what they enjoyed last time, and remind them to come back and spend some more money with you again. And email marketing is a really good value way of just keeping you present in the customer's mind. If you are present in a customer's mind, if they're regular customers, they tend to be slightly more frequent, which is fantastic. And I think email marketing, if you'll excuse the expression, improves the stickiness of customers. I think it extends the potential lifespan of a customer, which means increased spend over their customer lifetime, which has got to be a good thing. Next up, email marketing lets you project your brand personality. Now, I'm not a huge fan of print advertising, as you know, but I do do a lot in the way of flyers and maybe some radio stuff along the way as well. But do you know what? Trying to get your brand personality over in a small flyer is really, really hard work. Or trying to get your brand personality into a 6x4 newspaper advert is really tough. So, what you're getting through consistent email marketing is the opportunity to really project your brand personality into the mind of your customer. Next up, I want you to be a little bit honest about your team. Now, I have a wonderful team in my salon here in Newbury. It's taken me a long time to build and I'm extremely lucky because I tinker and tweak and play with little bits of my business almost on a weekly basis. And they embrace that change and they just kind of go with it, which I really, really need because I don't teach you anything that I'm not doing in my own salon. I know that there are other salons that don't have a team that's as responsive as that and they won't tolerate change in the same way. So, I know I'm lucky.

But if I can find a marketing pillar or a way of marketing to my customers that firstly doesn't need my team to do anything, I know it will get done consistently. And secondly, if it doesn't take any precious salon time, that makes me really happy as well. So, if I can schedule something to send while I'm stood behind a chair doing the bit of hairdressing that I still do, fantastic. And email marketing takes none of your precious salon time at all. It doesn't even need the cooperation of your team if you have a team that's reluctant to change. It's something that you can implement as the owner and the marketer on your own. Next, email marketing helps your existing marketing work a little bit harder. Let me give you an example. Let's say you are deciding to run a promotion in salon for existing customers and you're going to upgrade them to a deluxe version of your standard facial. So, you've got some new products in that you want to try out on these customers. They're going to come in. The facial doesn't take any extra time, but it's like a deluxe version. So, there's a slight upsell involved. So, when the customer comes in, she sees your point of sale materials. She sees maybe a poster in the window, a few flyers dotted around the salon, maybe something in your treatment room as well. And she decides whether or not she's going to be taking that upsell. Now, that's tough. Upselling is tough. It's hard work. I'm not pretending it's easy, but it will be easier if that customer also saw an email or maybe two in the week or two ahead of her visit, telling her about those deluxe products and telling her about some of the benefits of this upsold service. So, when she comes in, this isn't news to her. It's reinforcing a marketing message that you've already delivered. So, email marketing will increase the impact of your existing marketing materials. And finally, email marketing is easy to track. And you will know that I will not spend a penny on marketing unless I can see the value that that marketing is bringing back to me. And email marketing has a whole load of statistics that can tell you your open rates. It can tell you how many people clicked a link in an email. And that can then translate to how much money each email is actually generating for your salon. So, it's absolutely trackable and you can measure your success relatively easily. So, there we have it. Seven reasons that you should be doing more email marketing.

If you're serious about getting into email marketing, somewhere floating around will be a link to a free webinar that I've put together for you. 30-minute webinar on email marketing. No commitment at all. It's just a quick sign up and then book yourself on. I hope you get lots of value out of that as well. In the meantime, I will see you next week. Keep on building. Take care. Hey everyone, it's Phil again. I hope you enjoyed the episode. If you did, please subscribe and be sure to tell your friends. For more help and information on running your salon and your life, head over to buildyoursalon.com. I'll see you there.