Don’t Make this Mistake in 2012…

Now that 2011 is coming to a close, I wanted to give you some fabulous advice that a brilliant marketer gave to me a few years back.  I truly hope that the New Year treats you well and you take a bit more time to relax and enjoy your families.  Life is truly too short.

Anyway, the advice is this. 

Businesses are never successful in the long term…when they rely on only one form of marketing.  

So, think about that.  What marketing are you doing today?  Are you relying 100% on the Internet to drive new clients into your salon?  Are you doing email marketing only?  Are you relying on the yellow pages?  Are you mailing to new residents in your town? 

Look the worst number in marketing is one…as in only one type of marketing working for your business.  And I have to admit it…it’s easy to fall into that trap.  In fact, I did it myself in 2009 and 2010 when we were using the Internet exclusively for new client lead generation. 

But this is what you have to realize… 

There are many, many ways to generate new clients.  And there are also a great many ways to “ring fence” your existing clients and get them to spend more money in your salon throughout the year.  So, don’t get caught in the trap of only using the FREE methods of marketing and advertising. 

And by that, I’m talking about only using the Internet, Facebook fanpages, and email marketing.  Which is probably what you’ve been doing over the last 2-3 years.  Yeah, I know…it’s hard to get past free…but it’s time to release the budget a bit and get some other proven ways working for you this year. 

There are entire groups of people that you’re never reaching when you ONLY rely on these forms of media, unless of course you have too many new clients coming thru the doors already (just kidding). 

Anyway, there are some really exciting things that I will be introducing (in January 2012) that I wanted to give you the heads-up on.  One being, the HairMax On-line Appointment Book.  That’s right…you’ll be able to give your clients a way to book their own appointments over the Internet.  This is very cool and it works better than any other system on the market today. 

You’ll also be able to give stylists a way to check their schedules using an iPhone or any other smart phone.  And here’s the big thing…there’s a great “cross-selling” component built into the on-line appointment book that will have the computer do most of the selling for you automatically!

It’s very cool and very ninja.  So, be on the lookout for that. 

Also, I will be introducing a brand new way to advertise using Facebook.  And I’m talking about getting NEW clients…not just using Facebook to communicate with your existing clients.  Nobody is doing this today and you’ll be one of the first to ever hear about this new dynamic advertising technique. 

Those will both be in January 2012.  Later in the year, I will be introducing a new product that is based on the service that is being touted out there these days called Demandforce.  You may have heard about it already…but if you haven’t…here is the skinny.  

Demandforce is a way to do automated email marketing and appointment confirmations.  They have a product that is pretty good.  But it’s not as good as it could be because they’re trying to serve too many masters.  In other words, they’re too generic and they can’t do what we can do for our clients because we know the HairMax database inside and out and they don’t.  

They know the basics and can provide some services…but not like we can (and will) for our clients.  So, be on the lookout for that product as well.  I’m psyched to get it out there for you. 

Lastly, I wanted to say…if you do nothing else this year…I want you to do this.  Educate yourself to the hilt!  The best thing that you can do for your business is read everything that you can and listen to as much as you can.  It’s amazing to me that people will spend $20k/year to send their kids to college and not spend $500 on themselves in terms of education.  It’s crazy. 

So, do yourself a favor, and take the 15 minutes to watch the video that I put together back in November.  It’s definitely worth your time and, in my opinion, it’s the best way to get past the trap of just using ONE method of marketing for your salon in 2012.  

<< Click the link to watch the video >>   

P.S. I’m starting up my HairMax client newsletter again in January (yup, the hard copy physical one)…so I will continue to do my part in keeping you up-to-date on what’s working and what’s not in the salon industry today.  

As always, aim high…and dream even higher… 

Steve Sampson 

HairMax Salon Software is a product designed to be the best investment your salon has ever made.  It is not only the easiest and most powerful salon software on the market.  It is from a company dedicated to becoming the ultimate VALUE source to the industry.