.

Marketing: How It Was

Marketing used to be about creating ads and promotions and distributing them where your clients might see them – like in the media or letterboxes, and hoping they’d respond and book an appointment for your services or buy your products. This is known as Push Marketing – or Outbound Marketing.

This is no longer the case.

Marketing is now all about trust and relationships. It’s like the “old boys network” on steroids. More and more people are relying on referrals and reviews before making decisions on what restaurant or hairdresser they’ll use.

And when they do come and use you, there’s no guarantee they’ll return. What happened to loyalty?

With the constant bombardment of special deals and advertising we see everywhere – emails, online ads, social media, local magazines and newspapers and in our letterboxes, people are tempted many times a week to try your competitors.

Marketing: How It Is Now

These days the most effective way to market your business is Inbound Marketing – Or Pull Marketing and you need to give give give – and do it where people are looking.

Don’t worry – I don’t mean you need to give your profits away.

What Do You Need to Give?

I mean give lots of value. Give people what they really want – not what you think they want.

What do I mean by “give lots of value?”

Okay – let’s use an analogy to illustrate how people make choices these days.

How People Find a Business

Say you’re looking for a plumber. You don’t know the first thing about plumbing, so you don’t really know how to pick a good one from a bad one.  The first thing we do is ask our family and friends if they know of someone they can recommend.

If that doesn’t work, we search online. We put in search term like “plumbers suburb” and up comes tons of results.

We check out a few – and decide who to call – based on what? Who’s listed first, second, third? Not usually.

Most people firstly look at their reviews and testimonials – see what other people are saying about them.

If there’s no reviews – we usually click on the links and go look at their website or Google Places listing or Facebook Page. We want to find out a bit more about them – see if they seem to know what they’re doing and if they can be trusted.

How People Choose a Business

The one that has the most information and seems knowledgeable and really helpful is the one we’re usually drawn to.

This is value. In technical terms it’s called Content Marketing.

Content Marketing is all about giving customers information they find really useful. It’s not about “buy this, we’re great” sales spiels.

So the value a plumber could give would be things like:

• Tips on how to fix basic plumbing problems around the house yourself, and what you need a qualified plumber for
• Tips on how to choose a good plumber – and some of the things to watch out for with shoddy plumbers
• Before and after shots – shoddy plumbing work versus good plumbing work
• Independent product reviews – stoves, hot water systems, heaters, etc
• Their workmanship guarantee, their customer service level, etc.

Value can also be additional services/products deals that you will receive if you buy something from this plumber – eg: free garden hose with every blocked drain cleaning service.

Valuable information is what put people’s minds at ease and feel comfortable about doing business with you. Extra value on purchase is an enticer to buy now. However if they don’t trust you, then the promotional enticer won’t work.

Content Marketing for Your Salon?

Can you see how Content Marketing applies to your salon business?

• Think about the value you can give to people who don’t know you – so they choose you over your competitors.
• Think about the value you can give to your clients – so they come back again and again and don’t try anyone else.

If you want to know more about creating value and marketing your salon – subscribe to our Salon Marketing Tips Newsletter today. It’s free!

Or we can “do it for you”.

Discover How We Do Your Salon Marketing For You