The Beginnings of a Website for Kelli

A couple of weeks ago I stopped by Kelli's Salon, Studio Deja Do and although she wasn't there, she luckily had a stack of business cards on a small shelf outside her door (BONUS POINTS! Put your business card where people can get your info even when you are not there!) I checked out her card and saw that she had a website listed on there, so of course, when I went to my car I looked up the site on my iphone.

Crickets. Nothing.

No site! Although a site was listed on her card, she did not have a site for potential clients to find her. That not only tells people she is not findable online, but she thought about it and hadn't taken the steps to create a site. I immediately emailed her and suggested we chat about getting a site up and running so this doesn't happen to any more potential clients!

We set up a Google+ Hangout and did an online consultation where we determined her goals for her website and we started turning the wheels. I created this simple visual board for the direction I wanted to take her website and brand and I set up the Bare Bones version of a site that we can add in information and images in the near future. We set up a styled shoot to get some portfolio images, and I added in some Professional Headshots that I had taken of her last year and now she has something to show anyone that wants to find her online.

Lost to Launch

It's LIVE- the emails have been sent out and Lost to Launch is officially open

For a limited time only (registration ends this Sunday, april 2nd for the introductory pricing of $350) FIVE lucky stylists will be able to get a beautiful, clean new website for their businesses.

BANG FOR YOUR BUCK

When you register for Lost to Launch, you will get a consultation with questionnaire, installation of selected Wordpress theme, and customization of your theme. During our consultation, I'll walk you step by step through registering your domain and purchasing a year wordpress hosting with godaddy.

New Class Syllabus for Social Animal

After much deliberation, we've decided to change up the next Social Animal Class a bit and focus more on One On One with the students and their devices. We'll also be focusing on the most popular social media platforms, and save the strategies for other platforms for Social Animal 2, a more in depth course on Social Media. There are still some seats available for the April 28th course, so call T & G Concepts today if you'd like to reserve your space. 

Increasing Your Value | 4 ways to enhance your client experience

I'm planning an amazing upcoming class, and I wanted to talk about some ways to enhance your client experience. Many of you may think your clients are leaving your salon feeling amazing but are you giving them a reason to choose you over anyone else?

1// Consultations
A lot of times, stylists get so used to seeing the same clients every six weeks for years, that you may not have sat the client down and asked them about their lifestyle in a while. People change constantly- job changes, having babies, getting divorced, working out more, moving, health changes, etc. All those things can effect how a person looks and feels. If you make sure to carve out times for your clients to really listen to their needs and wants and prepare yourself before they show up to the appointment, it's going to show them that you value them and are not just herding in cattle. It can be as simple as a text message the day before asking what they were thinking they want for a color, or any style ideas they may have. Even if you don't go with their original idea, just the fact that you were thinking about them ahead of time can show you are valuing them.

2// Educating your clients
There are numerous times people walk out of a salon with the best hair of their lives only to not know what the hell to do with it the next time they wash it. SHOW your clients how to best style their hair. Give them product suggestions and WHY they should be using that specific shampoo, conditioner, styling product, tool, etc. We did not go to cosmetology school. We may not know how to best use a wand. All we know is that we want our hair to look like that Victoria's Secret Model. Tell us how to get that look on our own.

Also don't shy away from educating clients about how much you charge. Even if you have a pricelist prominently displayed, be sure to talk about the services you will be providing to them and how much they will be spending with you that day. No one likes to be surprised AFTER the services have already been done.

3// Going above an beyond
There are all kinds of ways to do this. Give a head/neck massage. Have drinks/treats for your clients. Get an ipad that your clients can watch movies, browse the web, read magazines on. Pluck/wax eyebrows. Do makeup touch ups. Do a fun unexpected style (like a quick little braid tucked into their blowout). Something that will set you apart from the stylist in the chair next to you.


4// Saying thank you
This is the one thing that most service based professionals drop the ball on. This is not a one night stand people! You are marrying your clients! Show them you are so grateful they chose you! Get a client info form for everyone to fill out and send them thank you cards in the mail after their appointment. Post before & after photos on social media and tag your client. Put them on an email campaign list and send them emails with styling tips once a week. Send them off with a nail polish with a thank you tag after their appointment (you could save this for celebration marketing campaigns). Send them something fun on their birthdays.

If you choose even ONE of these suggestions to do for your clients, they will all have a better experience with you than they are having now!

Branding Case Study | Leah Fitts Beauty Design

Evolve was born from a need for stylists to reinvent their business and take it to the next level. After working with Leah for a year and a half in my portrait business and having her makeover my clients AND also sending a TON of referrals her way (and vice versa- some of my best clients have come from her!) she was ready to launch her very own beauty website, Leah Fitts Beauty Design.

We talked about what she was looking for in her business, and I created her website and she styled a shoot to showcase her incredible hair & makeup skills!

Here is a little peek into the creative process how we came up with her brand identity.

Q: What changes are you looking to make in your business?

A: I want to showcase more styling and makeup, and I want to streamline my price list. I have a lot of clients that have been with me from the beginning that are all different price points, so in order to raise my sales average I want to put everyone on the same current pricing. 

Q: How do you currently market your business?

A: I get most of my business from word of mouth referrals. I think it would be helpful for potential new clients to be able to view all my information on my website. 

Q: If you could use three words to describe your brand, what would they be?

A: Dreamy, glam, and fun!

Q: What colors best define you?

A: Oooh, a peach, teal, and pink palette I think!

Come back next week for more of Leah's branding process and visit her new site at Leah-Fitts.com

Celebration Marketing | Mother's Day

In my first class, Evolve | Visual Marketing for Beauty Business, we spoke about Celebration Marketing. Celebration Marketing is one of my favorite way to begin a marketing plan, because those dates are already set in stone so all you need to do is plan around those dates.

You can find ways to market around any holiday or set event, but some ideas for stylists could be:

- New Years
- Valentines
- Mother's Day
- Father's Day
- Halloween
- Christmas
- Fashion Week
- Summer Resort Getaway
- Spring Break
- Beauty Gift Week
- Birthdays (yours or your clients)

As a women's glamour portrait photographer, Mother's Day is one of my biggest holidays I target in my celebration marketing. There are dozens of reasons to celebrate mothers, and one of the best gifts a person could give their mother is a portrait session experience with her and her loved ones.

Here is a peek into my own Mother's Day Campaign plan

Going through my campaign, I am donating two gift certificates with a gift with purchase to a local charity function. These are three streams of marketing (gift certificates, gifts with purchase, and charity events) all tied around one celebration marketing event. A stylist could replicate this easily by donating a gift certificate and a styling product to a local charity event.

I am also holding a destination mini-session event in Sedona, AZ where clients can purchase a mini package of time with me and receive three digital images. I can fill my event with multiple shoots and offer a pared down service for a promotional fee for one day. In order to promote this event,  I can use business to business marketing and pair up with salons in Sedona that can share with clients. I also have a referral system in place for the mini sessions, which encourages clients to share with their friends in order to earn additional images from the shoot. A stylist could replicate this by offering pared-down services for children, men or specialty services such as blow-outs one day a month for a promotional rate.

I created two promotional packages for my Mother's Day shoots that are different from the standard sessions offered on a daily basis in my studio. The Luxe sessions can include a large number of people and a gift with purchase, and the Lite sessions include small groups of people and a mini gift with purchase. There is also a list of new promotional products only available during the Mother's Day Sessions. A stylist could replicate this by offering special products only during your Mother's Day campaign or bundling of services for special rates. Make sure you state that these special items are available for a limited time only to cause action in your clients.

My final item is a Mother's Day magazine that I will be putting together with images from all my clients shoots from now until Mother's Day. I am reaching out to women I know and past clients to be "models" for my magazine, and in turn I give them a gift certificate for three digital images from the shoot plus $100 off their order. Even if those clients order nothing from me, I have received marketing images for my magazine, plus gave them an amazing experience that they will share with everyone in life and social media. I will have learned their stories and told them in the magazine, which could earn me new clients in the future; and makes them more likely to book me for future shoots. A stylist could join in on this effort by doing hair and/or makeup for the magazine shoots, and referring their own clients to be models in the magazine. If you are a stylist who is interested in this business to business project, email me at info@evolve-beauty.com

Class Announcement | Social Animal 1.2

I'm THRILLED to announce another Social Animal class in April! We will be going through what we learned in my previous Social Animal Class, but tweaked per the student surveys I collected after the last class. Every time I teach this class, I polish it up and make it better- so even if you've taken the class before; there is much to learn and review if you attend it again!

After the Class | Action Plan Worksheets

In our last Social Animal class, we were getting so down to the nitty gritty issues that our stylists were having, I wasn't able to spend a whole lot of time going over our action plan worksheets that were included in the class.

The worksheets were designed to organize your goals, objectives, strategies, and tactics in one easy to follow place.

Social Animal Worksheets

The first page asks you to outline your Vision and Mission for your business. This will be the driving force behind all your marketing efforts. Anytime a marketing opportunity comes along, you can ask yourself if it aligns with your Vision and Mission, and it will help you weed out the best opportunities for your business. The first page also includes your short and long term goals for your business. The second page includes the objectives you must reach to achieve your goals, and the strategies in which you will complete your objectives. The third page includes the tactics, or tools, you will be using in order to carry out your strategies. An example of this "workflow" could be you will use HootSuite (tactic) to schedule daily Facebook updates that pertain to hair extensions (strategy) in order to build a strong online platform over the next three months (objective) in order to show your existing clientele that you are an expert in Hair Extensions and encourage them in interact with you on Facebook (goal) The last page includes a place to schedule out your social media efforts, and a sample schedule that you can follow. If you have any questions on these worksheets, feel free to send me an email to info@evolve-beauty.com!

After the Class | What's Next After Social Animal

I'm starting this new series, After The Class, to help the stylists that attended the Social Animal Class move forward and grow from here and implement the ideas we talked about in the class.

One of the main points I wanted to stress at the class is Research & Development. Researching your current clients and the clients you want to attract and finding out where they spend their time online is so important BEFORE trying to develop a social media strategy. You do not want to spend all this time working on your Pinterest marketing strategy just to find out that none of your clients are on Pinterest. Total waste of time and money. Find out WHAT platforms they are using, WHEN they are usually on social media, and HOW they use social media (on phones, desktops, tablets, etc) so you can know if you need to focus on creating mobile friendly content.

One way we talked about finding out this information is through a simple paper and pen "technology"- a Client Info Form. Every client that walks through your door should regularly be filling out this information, as email addresses change and social media favorites change. Just print out the form below and you're ready to start RESEARCHING so you can the DEVELOP your plan.

Client Information Form by Rosemary Watson

Announcing a New Professional Headshot Mini Session Date!

Here are the details for the shoot:

The $100 Session Fee books you a time slot for the mini sessions, which will take an hour from check in to shoot completion. Ten images will be loaded into an event Client Gallery, three of which you will select as your downloadable digital collection. If you would like to purchase additional images, they will be priced at $50 per image. You are welcome to bring additional wardrobe changes to diversify your image collection.

The Mini Sessions will be held at T & G Concepts | 1933 E University Dr, Mesa, AZ 85203 on Saturday, February 22nd, 2014.

**EXTRA CREDIT! Receive an additional image for every friend you refer that books a session!

NOTE: Men are encouraged to book at the 1:00 pm time slot as they require minimal prep prior to photoshoot.

Winner of the Rhonna Designs App Giveaway

At the Social Animal class last week, I offered two app store codes to two students who filled out my class survey!

Congrats to Leah & Stormy! Thanks for giving your feedback- I'll be posting about some of the questions you had from the class this week!

Social Animal 1.1 Class Survey

For those of you from the Social Animal class yesterday that missed the survey email, you can fill it out here!

5 Favorite Marketing Suites for Beauty Businesses

I have found a plethora of Marketing Suites available that are designed for photography or other creative businesses, that can EASILY be customized to fit a beauty business. Again, I can connect anyone to a great designer that can customize any templates you may choose to purchase- just shoot me an email to info@evolve-beauty.com

1// Couture Brand in a Box by Miss Modern
2// Maggie James Brand in a Box by Miss Modern
3// Photography Marketing Set on Etsy
4// Chamomile All In One Bundle on creativemarket
5// Marketing Mini Kit Vera Vining on Etsy

Goal Setting for your Best Year Yet on creativeLIVE

Another motivating class from creativeLIVE perfect for absolutely ANYONE, especially business owners. Learn more about this online class here, and about The Best Year Yet program here.

 

Tools + Tips | Pic Tap Go App

Pic Tap Go is my favorite photo editing app. I use the lights on filter and the +contrast filter on every single photo I take with my phone. Makes any iPhone photo looks 100x better, and simple to use.

 Step-by-step directions how to use the app are found here

Powerful Business Planning on creativeLIVE

This is a fantastic follow up to Barbara Findlay Schenck's Fearless Marketing Course. Watch the intro videos and purchase the course at creativeLIVE.

Tools + Tips | A Beautiful Mess App

Another great photo editing app that allows you to add text & designs on top of your images. Fun & funky for those hipster vibe salons.

Tools + Tips | Mint.com

Finance is not my strong suit, so I decided this year I would commit to putting more effort to managing my finances. The best thing I ever did was to sign up for Mint.com. All my accounts and credit cards are in one place that I can access at any time from my phone or computer, and they send me alerts when a bill is coming due or an account balance is low. It's like your own personal CFO!