Shotgun Marketing - Blasting Holes in Your Bank Balance

What I am about to say will upset some salon owners....get ready for it......contrary to common belief, not all advertising is good advertising! 

When times are tough, and let's face it, they are pretty tough right now,
it is vital to make your advertising dollars work harder for you than ever before.

Gimme all your money!

Shotgun marketing, as the name implies, relies on shooting out many many pellets of advertising material as you can afford to to try and reach as many people as possible.  This approach might be useful for a start-up business that needs to make its local market aware of its existence but after that, it is just too scattered to make the kind of impact that is needed to build an existing business.

Here's somthing you really need to know and embrace....not everyone wants to be your client.  Savvy salon owners appreciate this and spend their precious advertising dollars only in ways that will reach the kind of people who are likely to come in and spend.  In most cases, that is to their own database or to people who are very much like the ones who are already purchasing from you.
 

Do you know who these people are and more importantly, are you making them the target of your marketing efforts?

Next time you are approached by people asking you to advertise in their magazine, newsletter, internet listing etc and so on, ask yourself some important questions first before you sign on the dotted line.

• Am I getting this message to my target market (my clients or those people just like them) or am I spending a lot of money advertising to people who just aren't interested in what I am selling?
• Is the money I am about to spend going to be a good investment and achieve the desired outcome?  Am I going to see a substantial return on my investment and how can I measure the results?
• How could I refine my marketing, spend less money and reach the people who are most likely to buy my product?

Perhaps it's time to re-focus your approach to marketing in 2011 to ensure that every dollar you spend from this point forward creates maximum impact with your target market.

Wishing you prosperity and success
Pam

Photo by Boaz Yiftach

Are You ReferringTo Me?

Are you great at what you do?

If you know you are, do you ever wonder why you are not getting more clients who refer their friends and family to you?

Well...are you?

The answer is quite simple really.

People are L.A.Z.Y.  Yes, it's true.  Why should your clients bother to refer you to anyone?  They pay you well for doing what you do so what gives you the right to expect any more?

The truth of the matter is, most people walk around day after day, asking themselves the same question.  That question is "What's in it for me?".

It goes like this,"What's in it for me if I go to work today?...oh, I'll get paid and won't lose my job", or "what's in it for me if I do something nice for the boss?...oh, she might do something nice for me down the track", and of course "what's in it for me if I tell all my friends about my fabulous new salon? oh....nothing"

Are you starting to get my drift?  How is your client going to benefit from giving you a referral?  What is in it for them?

This is a good question to ask yourself .  What can you give to your clients to make it worth their while to refer you to friends and family.

You tell me!


Wishing you prosperity and success
Pam

Photo by Michele Meiklejohn

Go away....Leave me Alone!

Stop annoying your clients!

This morning I was reviewing a discussion in a writing group at Linkedin that I joined a while back.

As I was scrolling down the messages that various people had left, I came across one from a gentleman who had had enough.  He was angry, frustrated and lashing out.  Why?  Because he was sick of being bombarded with useless information....too much spam and unwanted content sneaking into his life in the guise of helpful communication.  He was angry and he was letting the world (and the spammer) know about it.

This got me thinking about the kind of content you may be sending to your clients and what impact it may be having on your relationship with them.

Is it content that is meaningful to you or meaningful to your clients?

Now, don't get me wrong, I believe in quality communication with your client base and I believe it should be on a regular basis.  But.....it has to be content that is valuable to your clients.

Bombarding your clients with annoying sales pitches that will only benefit your bottom line will no doubt have them racing to click on their unsubscribe button, but worse still could irreparably damage the relationship you have worked so hard to develop

So what should you send to your clients?  That is pretty easy to figure out.  It's the same stuff you like to get.

Special offers and great tips that your clients can use to make their lives better and easier in some way.

So stop bombarding your clients with pushy, salesy newsletters and emails.  Start communicating in a way that will help to further build your relationship and keep your clients wanting more and looking forward to your next fabulous newsletter and special offer....just for them!

Wishing you prosperity and success
Pam

Resurrecting "Dead" Clients

I am having a great day today!

Yesterday afternoon I received a phone call asking me if I would like to take up the offer of a FREE massage from a local business that I had visited several times many months back.  Well, I can tell you right now that after traipsing around Canada for 5 weeks I could think of nothing more appealing.  As it turned out, I did have to put up my health care card so that they could receive a rebate, but to me, it still felt free.

Apparently while I had been absent this business had sent me a letter inviting me to "Come in and enjoy a very special offer".  Inadvertantly I had thrown this very important letter into the round filing cabinet under my desk along with a million and a half other pieces of marketing material I had received while I was off communing with the Alaskan bears.

Well this business was not prepared to let my business just slide on by without a bit more action which is why I received their phone call asking me if I would like to take up their special offer.  I was impressed!  Not only did they make me an offer that I simply couldn't refuse but when they didn't hear back from me, they followed it up with a phone call.  Now as a business coach, I was already admiring their business savvy.  They obviously know the benefit of retaining a client.

The funny thing was that they hadn't done anything to lose my business but I had become so caught up in other things going on in my life, I just didn't get back to them.


Anyway, the happy ending was that they had reactivated me as a client and I have rebooked for another full price massage next week.  This is a fantastic example of not giving up on a lost client so easily and stands as a shining example to other businesses out there who are struggling to retain or reactivate clients.

Wishing you prosperity and peace of mind
Pam

3 1/2 Secrets to Salon Success

Finally, after much writing, editing, rewriting and more editing, my new book, 3 1/2 Secrets to Salon Success has been released.

The book enjoyed a very successful "soft" opening at the APAA's Educational Convention held at the Palazzo Versace in June of this year.

3 1/2 Secrets came about as a way of reaching more salon and spa owners to help them to become more profitable in their businesses and to educate them in ways to improve their business performance in 3 key areas.

If you are interested in purchasing a copy of my new book, please simply cut and paste the link into your browser and you can purchase then purchase the book through the paypal system.

http://www.pamstellema.com.au/ProductsYouCanPurchase.php

Wishing you prosperity and peace of mind!
Pam