178 What is the Ultimate Purpose of Marketing? With Antony Whitaker

Show Notes

If you stopped ten hairdressers in the street and asked them what marketing is, you would probably get ten different answers.

 I’m going to guess and say that a big percentage of them would say that marketing is advertising.  

And a big percentage of people these days would talk about marketing as being social media. 

The majority would also probably say that marketing is about getting ‘New Clients’ into the salon, and perhaps that’s where the problem starts. Because although they are not wrong, marketing is about so much more than that.

In today’s podcast, I talk about what the purpose of marketing really is.

 

For full show notes, links and resources mentioned visit: https://growmysalonbusiness.com/podcast/178

 

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What is Grow My Salon Business Podcast?

I know that being in business isn’t always easy. Along with the many highs and ‘a ha’ moments it can sometimes be soul destroying, frustrating and a very lonely place to be. Being a business owner is one of life’s greatest educations and it gives you two clear choices, either you continually learn, adapt and grow, or you resist change, stagnate and perish. We live in ever changing and sometimes challenging times, so being informed and constantly inspired is more important than ever.

Join Antony Whitaker talking to thought leaders on the business side of the hairdressing industry discussing insightful, provocative and inspiring ideas that matter. Get ready to learn, get ready to be challenged, get ready to be inspired and most importantly get ready to grow your salon business!

[00:00:00] Antony W: Welcome to the Grow My Salon Business podcast, where we focus on the business side of hairdressing. I'm your host, Antony Whitaker, and I'll be talking to thought leaders in the hairdressing industry, discussing insightful, provocative, and inspiring ideas that matter. So, get ready to learn, get ready to be challenged, get ready to be inspired, and most importantly, get ready to grow your salon business.

[00:00:27] Hello, and welcome to today's episode of the Grow My Salon Business podcast. I'm your host, Antony Whitaker, and as always, it's great to have you here with me today. Towards the end of last year, I had a message from someone asking me to talk about the subject of marketing on the podcast. So where do I start?

[00:00:48] Well, let’s start by asking what exactly is Marketing because if you stop 10 hairdressers in the street and ask them what marketing is, you would probably get 10 different answers. But I'm gonna guess and say that a big percentage of them would say that marketing is something to do with advertising. And a big percentage of people these days would talk about marketing is being social media, and the majority would probably say that the purpose of marketing is about getting new clients in. And perhaps that's a problem, let me explain what I mean. There are many definitions about what marketing is and isn't, but for me, one of the best is from Michael Gerber, the author of one of the best business books ever, the E-Myth, and he describes marketing as being about three things.

[00:01:44] First of all, he says that marketing is client generation. Secondly, it's client conversion, and third, it's about client retention. So, what does that even mean? Well, the first one, client generation simply means. Getting or generating new clients, and obviously, that's important and as an industry, I think that most hairdressers are actually relatively good at generating new clients.

[00:02:14] But the problem is that we have to be good at it because statistically, we're not good. The second step, which is client conversion. And client conversion simply means turning a new client into a regular client. And then there's the third step, which is client retention or keeping them as long as possible.

[00:02:37] And as a generalization, as an industry, we are not great at that either. Now, sure. I know that there's many hairdressers listening to this that will have clients that they've had for 10, 15, 20 years, and I've even met someone once who had clients for 58 years. But statistically, when you rarely look at the data produced by the salon software companies, most of them arrive at the conclusion that our ability. To turn new clients into regulars and to keep them long term is our weak spot. Social media

has for some hairdressers, been an incredibly effective tool in terms of generating new clients, but it doesn't stop there. The question I'm often asked is, what is the most effective form of market? It's a question that's usually asked by someone looking for the holy grail or an easy solution to make their salon busier.

[00:03:44] Now, I've been in this industry for a long time, and I've worked in multiple countries, and I've worked with thousands of salon owners, and as far as generating new clients goes, the number one thing has always been and still is today, word of mouth, meaning that someone else has recommended them. Now, whether that's a face-to-face recommendation from one person to another in the office or at the school gate or at a dinner party, doesn't really matter or whether that's a recommendation on social media.

[00:04:16] Word of mouth is the number one way of getting new clients. Now obviously as well as word of mouth, there are all the other marketing mediums and initiatives that will bring new clients into, whether that's advertising or editorial or your website or your front window, and even the location of the salon. All of that is marketing and all of them will contribute to bringing new clients in and they all have a place in stage one of a salon's marketing strategy, which is to bring new clients in and that's where most salons focus their time, their energy, and their financial resources. But when a client walks through the door of the salon, that’s when I like to say the baton is passed from the role of client generation to the role of client conversion, meaning turning the new client into a regular client and making that transition from new client into a regular client doesn't happen as often as it should.

[00:05:25] In fact, in some research by Salon Software Company, millennium, they state that statistically if you get 10 new clients a day for their first visit, only four return for a second visit, in other words, you lose 60% of them straight away. And out of the four that returned for the second visit, only two return for the third. And after six visits out of the 10 new clients, only one client remains. That's a 10% retention rate, and I believe that that's probably the single biggest problem the salons everywhere face. Imagine as the salon owner, you spend all this money on advertising, on salon design, on the rent you pay, on the locations you have the fancy website, the staff training, the social media marketing that you.

[00:06:21] And ultimately the reason that you do all that is to attract new clients, and it does, but it's a big investment. But the return on the investment is that a new client walks into the salon for the first time. Well, at that point, it's no longer about location or decor or the advertisement or the website. All that has done, it's job. The job of client generation. Now it's about client conversion. Now it's about the experience that the client has in the salon. Now it's about the quality of work. Now it's about the relationship that the client has with the individual who does their hair. And if you get the experience right, if you get the client experience right and you deliver the quality

of work that the client expects, and if the individuals who work there engage and build a professional relationship, then you are on your way to turning a new client into a regular client, and that is client conversion.

[00:07:31] So let's just back up a minute and ask a question. It's an important question, and that is, what is it that determines a regular client? In other words, how many times does a client need to come back before they're classed as a regular? Well, perhaps there isn't an exact number, but my answer would be a minimum of three visits, but probably it's more like five or six visits that a client really starts to fill committed to you. And at that point, again, the baton has passed from marketing being about client conversion to then becoming all about client retention, and that's the real key to long- term sustainable growth. That's the point where you have clients that will stay with you for 5, 10, 20, 30 years and more.

[00:08:23] That’s what client retention is. I heard marketing described as making a promise and then delivering on the promise. I really like that marketing is making a promise and then delivering on the promise. So, the website, the branding, the location, the price point and the name above the door are all visual things and are all a representation of the promise that you are making to draw new clients in. The client generation part is in effect making a promise. The client conversion and the client retention part is about delivering on the promise. I think there's a great opportunity to take what I've been talking about here and to sit down with your team and with a flip chart and to make a list of all the things that you currently do to generate new clients. And another list of things that potentially you could do. And then when you've done that, make a list of all the things that you do to turn those new clients into regulars. And another list of the things that you potentially could do. And finally make a list of all the things that you do to keep those clients as long as possible.

[00:09:46] And another list of the things that you potentially could do. I think when you look at what you end up with on the flip chart, that you'll see that an awful lot of it is not about money. That an awful lot of it is about giving clients a fantastic experience. It's about delivering on the promise. So, before I start to wrap up, I want to leave you with another great quote about what marketing is. It's from Walt Disney who apparently said that marketing is clean bathrooms. I love that one too. I take that as meaning that marketing is everything and everything is marketing. So, every haircut or colour you do is marketing. Every consultation you do is marketing. Every time you answer the phone, it's marketing. Every complaint you handle is marketing. Your own appearance is marketing. And yes, clean bathrooms is marketing.

[00:10:49] I wrote a book about marketing. It's called Grow 4 Marketing. You can order it from grow my salon business.com. I'll also put that link in the show notes for today's podcast because it's full of practical things that apply to salons everywhere that will help with marketing your business more effectively. So, join me next week when I bring

you another guest on the Grow My Salon Business podcast. Until then, you can find us on all the social platforms at Grow My Salon Business or visit our website, grow my salon business.com to explore the range of courses and services that we offer. So don't forget to subscribe and leave us a rating and review on the Apple Podcast app because that too is marketing. So, until then, bye for now.

[00:11:42] Antony W.: Thank you for listening to today's podcast. If you'd like to connect with us, you'll find us at grow my salon business.com, or on Facebook and Instagram at Grow My Salon Business. And if you enjoyed tuning into our podcast, make sure that you subscribe, like, and share it with your friends. Until next time, this is Antony Whitaker wishing you continued success.