Mini Moment #12: Marketing Terms Every Salon Owner Needs to Know – with Brayden from YSS

 Transcript

  welcome back to the Inner Sanctum Salon, rising the podcast Many Moments brought to you by Timely. So I have Braden or Bray as he is to his friends, which we are now. Joining me again from your salon support and In this mini moment, we're going to talk marketing terminology, correct?

Correct. Cue the yarn. Yeah. Stay with me guys, because I think this is really important and we're going to look at what things are and who needs it as opposed to like our solo operators and our businesses and who really needs what, correct? Correct. So our first one that we're going to is marketing plans.

Okay. Take a breath. Yeah, take a breath. What's the marketing plan? So marketing plan is the idea of you taking the why of your business. Yes. Why it exists, what you're doing it for. And that could be financial, it could be to change the world, whatever that is. And then breaking that down into content copy, website, emails.

Social media, it all comes from the why your business exists, and that way, whatever platform you're showing up on, however you're showing up, you're saying the same thing. I

I

have a vested interest in copy. Please stay awake. So, because. As a copywriter and seeing like I highly advocate for ai, I think that everyone should be using it.

But I can also really tell when people are using it. Oh yeah. So copy guys is the words that you are using. I think that's probably a good point to get across. Mm-hmm. It's the words that you are sharing and all those different areas.

So your copy has to be, human, and conversational and authentic. Also like don't be afraid to put a little bit of flare in there. Yeah. But one of the things about chat GPT copy is that now I would probably say like 60% of people that use the internet can recognize when it's chat, GPT 100%. Right?

Because as humans we are hardwired to recognize patterns and it should, if you zoom out. Chat. GPT is just a pattern. Generators. Yeah. The way that it generates text is patterns, so it's really important that you rewrite your copy, but I digress. Yeah. Okay. So that's what we're talking about in terms of copy.

So our marketing plan is like. The first port of call. Yeah. Yeah. And this would be for everyone in any business format. So solo or team. Mm-hmm. That's the first place you need to start. Yeah. Like how are you gonna market your business? Right? Yeah. Like, how are you gonna market your brand? And whether you are a solo operator or whether you are a, you know, 15 chairs salon.

You have a brand. Yeah. And like how deep you want to go down that rabbit hole is completely up to you. But you still need a marketing plan. And your marketing plan could include, you know, every channel under the sun that you're gonna show up on. Or it could just include one, but like you knowing what that is.

Is really important. Yeah. It's just as important as a business plan because marketing is how you feed the business. And I think too, like people, I, I often hear people talking about being, you know, exhausted and fatigued by feeling like they're flogging a dead horse. Mm-hmm. And when it comes to marketing, but.

you are

are less likely to be pushing out stuff that isn't relevant, that isn't gonna get any traction. If you can really focus back to that why Yeah. And why you're actually doing it. And then the path to what you need to create in all aspects is easier. A hundred percent. Also, like don't be afraid to put terrible content out there.

Like Yeah. Honestly, I, who cares? Who cares? If I could show you some of the stuff that I have now archived from my Instagram from like two years ago, like. Oh man, the cringe is strong. Yep. But we just keep showing up. Keep showing up, like don't be afraid. So yeah, that's the first term. Okay. So first term marketing plan.

You need one Second term, I'm gonna say social media plan. Okay. Right. Most people would know what this is. Yes. 'cause most people, I think would've had one. Um, and this should be informed by your marketing plan. Yeah. But it is a. Complementary asset to it. So social is its own beast. Yep. That has its own expertise, but it shouldn't be made in a vacuum.

It should be informed by the brand's. Why. Okay. Oh, okay. You know what I mean? Yeah. That's actually, that's actually really clever. Thank you.

Thank you.

Okay. That's, thank you. Yeah, no, I like that. Okay, so social media. Marketing plan. Mm-hmm. Social media plan. Next one is EDM What? EDM. What's that? That is, email direct marketing.

Oh, okay. Wait, that's right. That's the thing I said I promised I'm gonna do. Okay. And this is important because, so this, when I've been saying about sending emails, this is, this is how you send emails.

That's, that's medium dm, that's what we refer to it as. Um, and so this is important because it makes your clients. Keep you top of mind. It makes you, uh, update them with what's happening in the salon. It may makes you update them with maybe a promotion that you've got going on.

I would consider this like typically a selling activity. So like you want to sell in your, in your edms, you don't ever really want to sell on social media. Oh, that's clever. Yeah. Because we think about the type of audience that are in your email list. They're warm, right? Like, yeah, I've just come onto your Instagram and I have just gone onto your website and I've signed up to emails.

Like that's a high intent action, right? So that would make me a warm lead. Yeah, maybe I'm not ready to make a booking yet. You sent me an email with, you know, what's going on this week in the salon? I'm like, oh my God, there's like four little sausage dogs in the salon. Yes. I'm gonna book this place is my vibe.

Right? Like that's, and so are we able to repurpose content across different formats? 100%. Yes. Yeah, a hundred percent repurpose a way. In fact, I do it all the time. Like, I'll just usually make like one asset and use it like four different ways. Yeah. At the same time. Uh, well, it depends like, but yeah, like within one or two days of each other.

Yeah. Okay. And I also use it like multiple times again and again as well. Yeah. Okay. Like don't be afraid to reuse content when we shoot a campaign. Like I'll, you can guarantee I'll be using that campaign content for like six months. Yeah, for sure. Okay, so we've got EDM, so we've got marketing plan, yes.

Social media plan and an EDM and an EDM is. Email direct marketing. Okay, next term. So next term, website. Now you all know about this one. Yeah. Your website

is

used. People do look at your website. Yeah. You can't have a one page website, by the way. You have to have a multi-page website. That's because Google actually categorizes pages by information.

So your homepage is important for people that don't know you to explore, but then you wanna have an about page. You wanna have a meet the team page. These are all important touch points for someone that's thinking about coming to see you, to then like break that, uh, like maybe a little bit of fear of going somewhere new.

You know what I mean? Two things are going on in my head right now. One is I'm rewriting my website. Richard's gonna be so happy when I get off this. Don't chat. GPTI hope. No, no, no, no, no, no. Like I'm just relaying out all the pages in my head. But the second is, is this important for solo operators as well?

Yes. Yeah. I'm so glad you agree. 'cause I asked the question first before I launch into what we, we very much believe that it is. I think we've gotta get away from the solo operator not being considered a business in themselves. Yep. And it's that social proof that you are a legitimate business, even if it's just you to have a website.

Understand. I would, no offense, I would never go to a provider that doesn't have a digital presence. I, I just simply would not, also like how do you expect me to hear about you if you don't have like a website? Yeah. Like, you know, a lot of our clients that we work with and like one of them even recently was like, uh, she said to me, I fully believed that word of mouth was just how we got business until now.

And I'm like, yes. Like now you have a website. Now we've done a IO for you. Now we've done, we run Google Ads for you. And she's like, yeah, I get it. Right. Yeah. Because I think too, and we spoke about this in our break between recording, is that what we have to remember, we as business providers is that we are not necessarily our target audience.

And that just because we like to get information from social media doesn't mean that everybody does. And we need to be getting. Every touch point to potentially get different people across the line who like to consume things differently. 'cause not everybody is like us. A hundred percent. Yep. Yeah. So that's very true.

Um, so the, the next one, next one I'm gonna say this is a new one that I don't think anybody's really heard of yet. A IO Okay. So this is artificial intelligence optimization. Yep. Okay. Have you heard of SEO? Yes. Yeah, I think SEO is something a lot of people have heard, maybe don't know fully what it is.

So I'll just start by explaining quickly what that is. SEO stands for search Engine optimization. And that is what I just said before. It's the art of putting information on your website by pages and then Google categorizing it. And the goal is that you wanna show up on page one. Yeah. For, for those searches.

Right. People pay a lot of money for SEO. Hair is a little bit of a tech lagger as we've talked about, and I would say that the SEO industry is probably, you know, like five years plus ahead of where the hair industry is at. Yeah. So when an expert these days is talking about, you know, being an SEO expert in the hair industry, but they're not talking about a IO.

I would argue that they're not an expert. They're behind potentially. Yeah. Uh, not in all cases, but most cases. A IO is now how a lot of people are, um, getting information. So I'll give you an example. I'll go on to CHATT and ask, Hey, Chacha, pt, I'm in Robina. Where is the cafes around here? I can go. And if your business is not showing up in that search, that is a pretty big missed opportunity.

And that is a IO, the art of getting chat, GPT, to recommend business. And it's really interesting because I have seen such a shift in this. Like it used to be that people would Google it. Mm-hmm. But very much the shift has become that they will ask chat. Yeah. And if you are. Popping up there. Mm mm What a missed opportunity.

The SEO game has changed so much, like e even like two years ago, uh, when I started the business. Like it's so different now. So if you don't have your finger on the pulse of like marketing and tech,

like

Y you're not, you, you, you're not an SEO expert, right? Like yeah. You have to, you have to be like hot on it.

And so I would say the things that worked two years ago for SEO just don't, don't work now. I agree. Right. Um, so yeah, big focus for us right now is, you know, how can we enable our clients through a IO and. Actually, one of them actually told us the other day that she had five people come in from Chad G.

Beauty recommendations. No. Yet for something niche like a a, what was it? Something to do with afr. Like a teasey Lowlight fringe or something. Yeah. It was like something super specific. And she was one of two salons that came up in the area. Wow. And I would, we had broken out all of those services by by page.

You'd have one page for each service. The thing is that it's really effective now.

Yeah. That's super clever. Mm-hmm. And everybody needs to be having that as well. Yeah. Yeah, it's easy. It's, it's really easy. A lot. If you use Squarespace or Wix, look out for a little box in the backend labeled a IO now, and then you would just follow the prompts to fill in that information there. Or you would contact someone with a really tech savvy company.

Yeah. That can do all that stuff for you. DM me, my lovely, I'll, I'll point you in the direction. Okay, so next, or do you feel like that's our core ones? No, I think, I think those, the, the main ones. I mean, we could go on, but, but, so.

are

there, is there anything that you think that maybe the solo operator needs to focus on more?

Yes. So if we were looking at all of those now, the, the last one, I, I would say really quick is loyalty. Like a loyalty program and everybody knows what that is. Now, if I was to look at what a salon needs versus what a solo operator needs, I would say a solar operator would just need one or two tops.

Right? Yeah. So, um, like your website is. Mission critical. You have to have a website. And then I would say maybe have like your email. Email, yeah. Marketing. Um, if you can go one further, like get some memberships in the door, that's recurring revenue for you. You don't need to do anything with that, but emails is, is really important, particularly if you're just establishing a business.

Right? Yeah. For salon. There would be two parts to this. There'd be a smaller salon. I would say they absolutely need a website. They absolutely need email marketing. Um, and you know, they, they also absolutely would need a loyalty program. And then they also need a social media strategy, right? Yeah. If you have a larger salon, I'm gonna say you need all of the things.

Yeah. Okay. Okay. Oh my gosh, there's so much homework. That's really, really insightful. Any questions? Obviously. We are not the experts for that, but this fine gentleman to my left is, but yeah, thank you so much for breaking that down because I think guys, that the, you know, the industry is changing. We wanna be ahead of the curve.

We don't wanna be sitting in these chats saying, I don't know where the people are, or I don't know how to keep them, and this is how we're going to do it. This is where people are finding their information. This is how we're gonna reach the people and we need to be staying ahead of the curve. So. Those are the things we need to be thinking about.

And yeah, good luck with your email marketing. Look out for mine. I'll look out for yours. Thanks so much guys.