How to build a beauty business during the pandemic
We’re all spending a LOT of time at home and worrying about what’s happening with work.
When will things go back to normal?
When can I go back to making money?
There are so many unknowns, and we seem to have a lot of time on our hands to think and worry.
But how about turning that time into creating something for your business, an asset, that makes you more valuable? Instead of seeing this “wasted time” as something that’s hurting us: time away from clients, not behind the chair, not making money… what if we used it to work on projects and create things that build our businesses.
An asset is something your business owns that makes you more valuable, something that you own that helps make you more money, now and in the future.
And trust me, I know that it’s a hard time to get stuff done. We’re mentally tired. We’re feeling defeated and off of our game. It’s tough to find motivation right now. I get that. Last week was particularly tough for me.
But in my heart, I know that my business needs me to step up right now, even if I don’t feel like it. No one else is going to push me but me. And I KNOW that there are so many things I can be doing right now to lift up my business and help push it forward.
I also know that the only thing that makes me feel truly better right now, is getting into movement, doing things. Reminding myself that I do have control over things.
So to help inspire you and light a fire under you to take action - I want to share with you 5 things you can do for your salon or beauty business marketing right now to create assets and build crucial tools that will help you grow - both now during the shutdown and in the future when life goes back to normal.
Grow your email list and communicate with them more often
If you follow me and my blogs, you might be tired of hearing me talk about your email list and how important it is. But I won’t stop! Especially now that this shutdown is happening, having an incredible way of communicating, like email, is more crucial than ever!
Email is the number one way that I make money in my business. Whenever I need to sell something, promote something, or draw attention to something, I turn to my email list first. It’s true what they say in the online marketing circles: the money is in the list!
Your email list is where you true community gathers: clients, interested people, anyone who knows and loves your business. And your goal should be to send at least one email a month to your email list. Keep these emails updated, send fun, personal things, photos, educational tips, current promos, and links to book with you. One mistake that many business make is to only send email when they have a sale or promotion going on. But email is so much more than that. It’s one of the best ways to keep people in the loop, updated, make them feel like you’re part of your club.
More than social media, email surprisingly has a much higher open and click rate. It’s the perfect place to get people to take action. One of my students, Mel Gardner from Bare Skin Studio has sold $5,000 in gift cards and products just from emails in two weeks while her doors closed. It freaking works!
I have been to quite a few salons, and I’ve never been added to their email list - but I would LOVE to get these kinds of educational, inspiring emails. To be honest, I’m not sure why I never receive emails from these salons, but if I were to ask them they’d probably say: I don’t have the time. They know that it’s something they “should” do it but other things always come first Well now we are all blessed with this time. Let’s use it to build something! Use this time to reach out to your email list. You’ll do it once, get amazing feedback, and it’ll help turn it into a habit for you.
But if it’s been a while since you’ve emailed, and you’re feeling awkward about getting in touch with your list now, while you’re shut down, you might be wondering: What do I say?
First of all, in your email, start out by asking how they’re doing. How are they holding up and feeling right now? That’s an icebreaker especially if you share your own feeling. (Remember, emails should be personal!)
Then share 3 of your self-care tips for during quarantine. How are you taking care of yourself? What are your recommendations?
Get personal by showing a pic of what life in quarantine is like for you. Are you surrounded by kiddos and working from the living rooms couch? Share it! That kind of stuff is so relatable.
If you’re brushing up on skills or education right now, tell them!
Show a pic of gift cards or products you’re selling with info about how to buy - or just tell them some easy ways to support you.
Growing your email list and maintaining a constant connection with your clients during shutdown and afterwards is a HUGE asset for your business. This is a tool that will help you make thousands more a month if you do it right. And now’s the time to start. Send out that first email, and go from there: I promise it does turn into a habit that gets easier each time.
If you need help with what to say in your email and more ideas for email marketing, check out the 6 types of emails to send to your salon clients.
Build an online store for your salon
Buidling an eCommerce shop is something we did in the Milk & Honey club this month. An online store is something so many business owners dream of doing, but they usually stall on it because they believe it takes weeks or months to put together, not to mention to costs of doing so.
But here’s the truth: it’s never been easier to create your own online shop! It usually took our members less than one week - oftentimes just a couple days - to get their stores up and running. And some of them made $1000 or $2000 in just a few days from sales! During a time when your doors are closed, and your regular revenue has been interrupted, that kind of cash is such a blessing.
And here’s best part: When you make an online store, you’re creating an asset that starts out small and simple (for example gift cards and a few retail products your clients are asking for) but it’s something you’ll have forever. You'll improve on it, build it out, and use it as an additional source of revenue in your business in the months and years to come. I truly do believe that every beauty business should have an online shop, and now is the perfect time to work on it.
Like I mentioned, gift cards are something you can easily sell online as an extra revenue source, and think of all those clients who would love to buy products from you between appointments. Plus you can easily promote it all year long in your emails, social media, Facebook ads.
Three of my favourite places to build an eCommerce shop are Square, Squarespace, and Shopify. Square even has a free version, and that’s what most of the beauty businesses in the Milk & Honey Club are using at the moment.
Right now, you can use your shop as a place to keep serving your clients and selling to them, even while you’re shut down. But this is an asset that you can create to generate revenue for years to come, as well.
Start cultivating your personal brand with a DIY photoshoot
I’m all about becoming more personal in your business: not hiding behind your logo but being the face of your business. In 2020 and beyond, what will separate any ol’ beauty business from the ones that really make it, will be their personal brand.
One of the best ways to create this brand is just be literally showing your face as a business owner in your marketing: including photos of you on your website, Instagram, and in all your ads and promotions.
But showing up all the time can be difficult: it means you constantly have to be taking pictures of yourself, which is time consuming and often times we just don’t feel like doing it. Maybe you feel tired and haggard after being on your feet all day, you didn’t do your makeup… lots of reasons.
One thing has been a saving grace for me has been having headshots or “personal brand” photos done. I did 3 photoshoots last year and those photos have lasted me more than a year. Having these photos makes me feel confident, more eager to show up, and they add a touch of professionalism.
And this might have been one of those things you thought of doing, but didn’t have the time to do it. Now is the time!
Although you can’t hire a photographer during the quarantine, you do have a phone, and if you have someone to help you, that’s all you need. Grab your husband, partner, or anyone you live with and get into your salon or home studio. Or if you can’t, just do it at home. It’s time to set up a DIY photoshoot!
I got my boyfriend’s help to do this one time and the photos ended up surprisingly well. We rented an Airbnb, I handed him my iPhone, and said: take as many photos of me as you can in 3 hours. And this coming from someone who knows nothing about photography! Here’s an example of one of the many beautiful shots we got:
Take photos of you in your salon if possible, of you standing against the wall, with different poses, mixing up color, holding some of your tools of the trade… there are so many options. Just make sure to get in lots of photos (we took more than 300 during our DIY shoot!)
One tip I have is to change outfits a few times during your photoshoot so you can reuse these photos for months down the road, without anyone knowing that they were all taken on the same day.
Once your photoshoot has wrapped up, go through your phone, pick your favourite 20-50 photos, and edit them to brighten them up and make them look even more colourful. I use Snapseed or Adobe Lightroom Mobile.
You can use these photos while you’re closed to keep your marketing fresh and keep clients interested, but these photos can last you months!
Create a solid piece of educational content about your services and expertise
Another thing I’m teaching inside the Milk & Honey club this month is how to teach online classes. I know most of us don’t see ourselves as educators, but we know so much! And our clients truly do care about what we have to say, and want to learn from us.
You don’t have to go and teach classes, but you can get started with teaching about your area of expertise with a piece of cornerstone educational content.
What does that mean? That could be a Guide, a Tutorial, or a “How-to” that’s in a pdf format, that teaches something central to what you do:
How certain products or ingredients work (“Your guide to CBD in facial treatments”)
How to braid your own hair
How to make face masks at home
Does this make you irrelevant and make clients feel like they don’t need you? Absolutely not! If fact, you’re giving them something that helps them, interests them, and gets them excited, so you’re already creating a bond with the gift you’re giving them.
On top of that, you’re growing your email list: you can easily set this up with a landing page on Mailchimp so people have to put their email address in to get it. Now you know how important email collection is, this is a great way of building up your list!
And finally, one of the really important reasons to create a piece of educational content is this: it gives new people who don’t know you yet a taste of what an expert you are. An expert who wants to share her knowledge!
Work on this guide now, send it out it your email list and share it on social, then put it front and centre on your website. It’s something you’ve created that’s going to help your business now and going forward.
And if you need a step by step guide to creating your pdf content and turning into an email builder, check out my blog post here.
Put together a Facebook ad for when you open back up
I teach Facebook advertising to beauty business owners: I’ve launched my course, The Facebook Formula For Salons three times and have had hundreds of salon owners go through it. The reason I’ve built my business around Facebook ads is because I believe they’re the number one thing beauty business owners can do to grow their clientele.
But what about now, when your doors are closed and you’ve got other things to worry about than attracting new clients?
Well my friend, my guess is that your doors will be back open in the next couple of months, so let’s make a plan for when you are.
I want to challenge you to put together a video advertisement for your business that you can use as soon as you’re back open, that will also be super useful to have months or even a year from now, to introduce new people to your business.
When you’re ready to go back to work, you’ll turn this 1 minute video into a Facebook ad, and spend a little bit of money on it to promote what you do to new people in your city.
This video might take a bit of time to put together, so use this time to work on it!
So what should be in this video?
Introduce yourself! Chat with the camera (or camera phone) for a bit and just say hi, welcoming new clients into your business
Give a tour around your salon. Show them some of the different stations or areas you have. Focus on some of the unique designs or fun details you have.
Show a bit of what you do. Either record you working on a client (most likely a family member you’re isolated with) or include some older before and after photos from months past.
Tell them what makes you special! Spend 20 second talking about what sets your business apart, and what your clients love about you.
I highly recommend spending a day working on this 1 minute video advertisement for your business. Once you’ve gotten a bunch of clips recorded, use an editing app like Quik to turn it into a polished production.
And remember, this video is not just for a Facebook ad, you can use and re-use it for your business on Google, on your website, Yelp page, and so much more. It’s another piece of extremely valuable content that you’ve made that’s going to help your business.
If you want to learn more about setting up Facebook ad for your beauty business, grab The Ultimate Facebook Ads Starter Kit here.
In conclusion
These times are scary, but I promise that there are unlimited things we can do right now to keep moving our business forward, even though we feel frozen.
We can take advantage of time that we might be tempted to label as “wasted” and instead using it to create assets for our business, and in doing so we’re helping to grow now and in the future as well.
Through all the stress and difficulties that you’re facing, I hope you find some time to work on some business-building activities as well. Even if your heart doesn’t feel into it at the beginning, I do find that the momentum catches up with you. And before you know it, you’re feeling so much better about the present, and even starting to get excited for the future.
I’m cheering for you!
