The Importance of Email Just Became Crystal Clear

For the first time in many years, the importance of email marketing became crystal clear when Facebook and it’s counterparts experienced an extended outage a few weeks ago. Add in the fact that accounts are getting hacked left and right and the importance of having an alternative means to communicate with your clients. This same scenario presented itself a few years back.

So, what can you do? My best advice to every business owner is to invest in platforms you own and control. Wondering what I mean by that? Let’s dig in.

Social Media Should Be A PIECE of Your Marketing Pie

Facebook and other social media platforms should only be a piece of your marketing pie.  I highly recommend you have multiple ways to be found and communicate with your clients.. If you really want to make sure your message is heard, you should be communicating often and consistently across multiple platforms so you aren’t forced to rely on social media for communicating.

Invest In Your Website

Your website should be the first online investment you make in your business. Not social media. A lot of beauty service providers think being active on social and having an online booking system is enough. It’s not. Your online booking system can not take the place of a well built website. It isn’t meant to. It’s meant to work with your website so that when people visit your site, they can easily click through and book an appointment.

If social media goes down and people turn to Google or other search engines to find businesses they need, the only you’re going to be found is if you have a well built website. So before you spend hours posting on social, make sure your website is up and optimized!

Create an Email List AND USE IT

You should be collecting contact information for every client you see. (If you’re not, please start!) So, once your website is done, shift your focus to building an email list. Use the contact info you’re already collecting to your advantage, and add all the emails you’ve collected to a mailing list. Send regular communications. Start with once a month and bump it up if you have something special going.

Email is one of the most cost-effective ways to communicate with clients!  If you’ve worked with me you know I’m all about creating and growing a segmented email list that allows you to talk to your clients any time you want by making your way to their inbox.   The beauty of having a good email list is that you OWN IT! 

With social media, you don’t own the platform.  And, you have ZERO control over when and how your message gets heard.  Once you put up a post, it’s up to the social media Gods (aka the algorithm) to decide who sees that post.With email, you can send communications when ever you need to and know who they are going to.  This allows you to tailor your messaging, check to see who’s read it and who hasn’t then resend it if need be.  Email gives you far more control over your message then social.

Now, you’ve got two pieces to your pie started, so you can add in social media and continue building your systems. With all you do, I recommend having a plan.

Have a Plan

Whether you are running a promotion, launching a new service or doing anything that you want to make sure gets in front of your clients, create a plan to communicate it.  Don’t expect to do one social post and have your book filled.  It’s not going to happen and if social is down, or vanishes tomorrow, this strategy will get you in big trouble!  Getting clients to take action requires multiple communications across multiple channels. When there is something important you want to promote, plan to communicate via:

• Email

• Social Media

• In-Studio Signage

• Text Alerts

• Your Website

• Your Team

• Digital Advertising

• Snail Mail (if it’s a really big thing!)

Plan Communications Over a Period of Time

Again, don’t plan to do a post on social and expect big things to happen.  Instead, plan to communicate your message multiple times across multiple channels over a period of time.  Doing this will give you an opportunity to get your message in front of your clients several times.

I’m Not Hating on Social

I’m not hating on social media.  It’s very important to small businesses and social media management is one of the largest services I offer.  It can also be a great tool.  All I’m saying is, don’t put all your eggs in one basket, especially when you don’t own or control said basket. If you’re relying too heavily on social, let’s talk about how I can help you fix that!