Want More Clients? Here's How! Part 2

Welcome back to the second part of my series on gaining and retaining more clients! As you recall, I left you with some homework from Part 1; your first steps were to define your target market or avatar and then“find” where your target market is both physically and digitally. I hope you had some fun with these first two steps and now you’re ready to jump into Step #3: Get Clients Excited and Step #4: Ensure Clients Return. If you missed Part 1, you can catch up here; otherwise, let’s get started!

Step #3: Get Clients Excited

After you’ve created your avatar and connected with them, nearly every potential client will visit your website before they buy anything from you. Think about your own habits—would you see a new dentist without visiting their website first? Probably not, and the same advice holds true no matter what industry you are in! Because every potential client will visit your website, it needs to be beautiful, easy to use, and offer something unique. In 2018, all your competitors have beautiful websites, so you need something that sets your business apart from the others and gets your clients excited to do business with you. For my salon business, our little something special is a survey called Meet Your Stylist.

Meet Your Stylist is a psychologically-savvy survey that lives on your salon’s website and matches potential clients with the top three stylists at your salon who are the best fit for them. After all, who doesn’t like taking a survey about yourself?! As the owner of Be Inspired Salon, I needed a way to set my salon apart from the competition, get clients excited, and start building relationships with future guests, and Meet Your Stylist does all of this! If you are a hair salon, you need to check out Meet Your Stylist! I promise it will transform your business.

I know many of you reading don’t own hair salons, but the same principles behind Meet Your Stylist apply to your business. Let me explain. I was recently on Neutrogena’s website searching for a new face wash, and found myself taking a survey to find the skincare routine right for me and had a $2.00 coupon emailed to me. Boom! They connected with me, personalized my experience, captured my email address, and got me excited to purchase from them!

Personalized surveys and recommendations are everywhere! For instance, let’s say that you own a vitamin company. Maybe your website could offer a survey that gives clients product recommendations and encourages them to book a consultation with you. The possibilities are endless; you just need to give your potential clients the right tools and information to get connected and excited!

Step #4: Ensure Clients Return

In the salon industry, new client retention rates are pretty low. In fact, the national average, new client retention rate is about 30%. That means only 3 out of every 10 new guests will return for a second time! I don’t know the statistics for your industry, but retention is something we should all focus on to grow a strong business! Once we get a client to do business with us, we need to make sure they continue to do business with us. So, how are you going to do  that?

For my salon business, retention is another problem that is solved by Meet Your Stylist! By matching clients with the right stylist the first time, I know that the guest is going to have a fabulous experience and want to come back. Let’s think about the vitamin store example from earlier. If this new client didn’t take their pre-visit survey, he would have simply walked into the store and purchased a product he thought was right for him. Then, a few days later, he started having adverse side effects, stopped taking the vitamins, and never returned to the store again because he thought the business was selling ineffective products. On the flip side, if this client purchased the right vitamins for himself the first time, I bet he would continue to come back for more! See how that works?

Beyond getting it right from the start, my salon focuses on prebooking clients for their next visit. Essentially, the stylist is helping the client make a reservation for their next visit. Instead of hoping that the customer will take time out of their busy schedule to call and make another appointment, we set it up for them to ensure they come back again. For the vitamin store, the sales rep could work with the customer to determine when their product will run out and set up a time for them to come back to the store and restock. This sounds pretty simple, but it will have a huge impact on retaining new clients!

You may have heard the Tony Robbins quote that success leaves clues. You don’t have to reinvent the wheel, just put together the pieces that I have laid out: Step #1: Define Your Target Market, Step #2: Find Your Target Market, Step #3: Get Clients Excited, and Step #4: Ensure Clients Return. I hope you take the four steps from my playbook, add your own creative twist, and achieve massive success! If you have any questions on the four steps, please connect with me! I can’t wait to chat with you!

Want More Clients? Here’s How!

As a salon industry business coach, one of the questions that I am asked most frequently is: how do I find more clients? As a matter of fact, most businesses have this same question, which is why I’m so excited to share my winning four-step formula for attracting more clients! Let’s jump in with Steps 1 & 2, and stay tuned for the final steps!

Step #1: Who? Finding your target market.

So, you want to find more clients for your business. While that is a great start, do you even know who you’re looking for? This is the very first step; before you can jump into marketing, products, and promotions, you need to get really, really clear about your target market. Take a moment and think about this—who is your target market? Got it? Well if you answered something like, women age 35-50, we have a lot of work to do! But, don’t get scared because I will guide you through every step!

In the business world, your target market is sometimes called your avatar. In other words, who is your dream client? To get clear on your avatar, gather some of the top influencers in your salon and start listing the characteristics that describe your ideal client. Think about a few of your customers who you absolutely adore and wish you could clone. Now, start describing everything specific about them.

Here are some questions to get started: where do they shop for groceries—Trader Joe’s, Whole Foods, the local co-op? Where do they shop for clothes—Banana Republic, Anthropologie, Asos, Nordstrom? Do they workout—hiking, running, yoga, spin? What do they do in their free time—read, hangout with friends, volunteer, cook? What is their style—conservative, edgy, trendy, classic? Where do they work—corporate, education, non-profit, small business?             

I think you see where I’m going with this. You need to get so specific that you’re even naming your avatar! That’s right! Once your team is in agreement on your avatar, you need to keep this image front and center. Your front desk team, stylists, managers, and marketing team should be thinking about your avatar every day.

For a lot of us, creating our businesses’ avatar is a fun step. But, I completely understand why it can be a scary step for many people. A lot of business owners get scared about “excluding” certain customers. By creating an avatar, you aren’t excluding or discouraging anyone from patronizing your business; instead, you are focusing on quality over quantity. Above all, focusing on a target market sets you free from having to be all things to all people; getting clear on your target market makes your job a little easier as a marketer and business owner! Who wouldn’t want that?

Step #2: Where is your target market?

Now that you have your avatar clearly defined—we know where she shops and how she spends her free time—we need to actually find her! Ask yourself where your avatar hangs out, both physically and digitally.

For instance, let’s say that your avatar is a business professional who is part of local networking groups. Guess what? You need to join a networking group and physically be where your target market is! If your target market is part of the local PTA, you need to get involved with the PTA.

Another piece of the puzzle is where your avatar is digitally. If your target market is between the ages of 18-24, you should be on Snapchat. If your avatar is between 25-30, you’re probably looking more at Instagram, and if your target is 35 and up, you need to be on Facebook. Other digital spaces that people hang out include Pinterest, YouTube, Pandora, Spotify, blogs, news sites, LinkedIn, Yelp, etc.

Your wheels should be turning as you’re thinking about where your target market is hanging out. Once you know where your avatar is, you also need to speak their language and be genuine. If you and your team are consistently going to networking events, you will start to talk this talk. Maybe you’re talking to other professionals about cross promoting or some innovative marketing topics. If you are volunteering at a local non-profit, you should read up on the various initiatives they’re working on. If your interests aren’t genuine, you will stick out like a sore thumb.

The language that you use to communicate with your target market is equally important on digital platforms. Let’s say your target market is hanging out on Snapchat, but you’ve never actually used Snapchat. It probably isn’t a good idea to just jump right in and start sending snaps! Every social media platform has a certain etiquette, and you don’t want to send your avatar running in the opposite direction. Enlist the advice of your younger staff members or hire an intern to help you get started. When it comes to your target market, you not only have to walk the walk, but you have to talk the talk!

Whew! That is a lot of information to get started, so let’s recap your homework so far. First, you need to get really clear about your target market or avatar. Once your target market is clearly defined, you need to find your avatar both physically and digitally. When you find your avatar, you need to speak their language and be genuine. Have some fun creating your avatar, contact me with any questions, and check back in a couple weeks for Steps 3 & 4!