If you are looking to grow your beauty business these 3 ways will absolutely give you the boost you need. Whether you are a Makeup Artist, a Lash Technician, an Aesthetician or have your own Beauty Salon these tips can all apply.
Stand Out From The Crowd
Your customer experience will make you stand out from the rest. This will take some careful consideration and implementing a constant supply of fresh ideas will make sure you stand out from your competitors. You can draw inspiration from SO many resources. It’s your opportunity to get creative and think how you would like your customer journey to look. Customers will always pay more to have a more enriched experience. They will always make it known to others if they had a bad experience (worth thinking about!) and as a result they will generally always seek out a competitor.
So I mentioned the customer journey.
Think about what that looks like from start to finish. When we think about doing things for others we become far more creative. Look outside of your business and that of your competitors. Look at other industries, you don’t need to limit yourself. Draw on your own experience of incredible customer service and see what can be applied to your own business.
Think about it from where you first came across the business to the time you left. Think about all the things that business did that made you feel that it was high quality, that they really cared or in particular, what really made it memorable.
It’s not always an easy task to be creative when you’re busy in your business but you need to make time for it!
There are leaders within every industry. Watch very closely what they do and how they do it. You could even go as far as booking yourself in to feel the experience yourself!
It can be a real challenge to think about how to really stand out. Ultimately your main goal is to solve your customers problems and solve them well!
Optimise Your Social Media
If you’re using social media make sure you are using it effectively, correctly and to its full potential. Social media can bring in oodles of new clients if used in the right way. Life and business is super busy and at times it can feel a little overwhelming trying to be a master of all social channels. I would recommend only being a master at one!
Wherever your ideal customer hangs out, that is the one you should focus on. I’m not saying don’t use other channels at all, I believe it is a good idea to brand across several channels. However, when you work for yourself and you are doing it all yourself, just devote your time and energy to growing one following. You can then master getting clients using this channel.
It takes time and patience to grow a following on a social channel and this can be sped up by knowing how to optimise those channels. Use every opportunity on the channel to promote your brand, use all information opportunities to provide your contact details and most importantly use any chance you can to share your knowledge and value to your potential clients.
Social media for businesses works so much better and quicker when you are sharing your expertise as well as building relationships and getting to know your following. Simply sharing treatments, for example, can be a little dull and doesn’t make you stand out from the crowd.
Be creative and mix things up with stories, behind the scenes, a little lifestyle, client testimonials, exciting news bulletins, humour and anything else which represents your brand but also your personality. If you are unsure how to optimise your social media, there are literally tons of resources out there that can help you. I am a huge fan of Instagram for my business and I have a handy free guide to help you optimise your Instagram account for business which you can download here.
Start An Email List
There are SO many benefits to starting an email list. It is one of the key components in any successful marketing strategy. Email marketing is such an easy thing to implement but can sound so overwhelming! Let’s first go into the benefits. Compared to other methods of marketing, email marketing is relatively low cost. A simple email capture system is quick and easy to set up and can be run to start with for free. It’s not a complicated thing! Trust me, if I can do it, anyone can!
Email addresses can be collected from existing clients but also from potential clients! It allows you as a business owner to be able to easily reach an already engaged audience. Your clients already know, like and trust you and this is SO valuable. With your email list you can deliver targeted messages. This means that if you have a special offer running you can easi;y get the message delivered to your clients to let them know. An email list allows you to drive revenue from multiple streams! THIS is what excites a lot of business owners, especially within the beauty niche. For example, if your face to face business is closed, you can still maximise your revenue through online methods via your email list. I have seen quick thinking businesses reaching out to clients with online master classes, consultations and online make up tutorials, for example. This can be easily done as well when you have an email list.
When you have a list, you can easily measure your results. You can directly see who is responding to you by opening your messages and you can tweak and change to ensure you get maximum results. Unlike, with social media there are no algorithms that get in the way of your message being delivered. Additionally, emails are easy to share. You can encourage this in the body of your email or offer incentives to clients to share your services or to bring referrals to you.
Like any social platform email marketing allows you to reach a global audience. If you’re thinking of taking some of your business online this is a great way to do it, you are literally limitless.
I know I said it is easy to get started with an email list, but it really is! You can start as simply as asking your client for their email address and popping into a spreadsheet and then uploading to a simple free software such as Aweber or a more sophisticated system such as Kartra.
With either you get video tutorials that will help you every step of the way and a support team who can help you if you get stuck.
The one last major benefit I want to highlight to you is that with an email list YOU ACTUALLY OWN IT!
Unlike with any social media channels you can actually have your list for life! Any social media channel can be closed down tomorrow, which means that if you only have access to your clients on that channel, then you are really stuck! An email list is a very professional way to keep, connect, nurture and grow your client list and allows you to engage with your clients on a much more personal level.
I hope you found these tips useful.
Wishing you the very best in your business.
