One of the most common things that I get asked from people throughout the industry and in other industries as well is the age old question:
“How do I get more clients into my business?”
There’s no one simple answer, but I want share with you a few tips on how I have attracted new clients and have continued to grow my business into what it is today. I will include how I started out and also how I book out new team member so quickly, and how they continue to stay booked out.
Tip 1 – Free Model Sets.
This is my top tips for kicking off your business and to start attracting clients. I did this when I started and my new team members do it too. Many people won’t do this because they believe that they should be paid. They’ve done their two day lash course or their brow course, they’ve spent money on products, they’ve got a business name and they’ve got a space set up in their home or a commercial space, whether it be in somebody else’s salon or maybe they’ve entered into a lease into their own salon and they won’t work for free; they believe they should be paid.
Like anything in life, nothing comes easy! Your business doesn’t just automatically become successful. You need to work at it. A lot of people won’t invest in themselves; they won’t invest the time. The amount of money that you would outlay on product for a couple of models would be very, very small. The main investment is going to be your time. I like to do some free model sets. And the reason that I do it for free is because you have free rein on the styling and what you want to do on that client. So if the client is not paying you anything, they really can’t ask anything of you. They can’t ask you to be done in an hour and a half. They can’t ask you to use 15 millimetres in a DD curl. All that they are giving you is their time, and they walk out with a beautiful set of lashes!
Most beautiful young girls love the idea of being a model; they love the idea of being photographed. They will happily donate their time if they’re walking away with a beautiful new set of lashes and they get to be in some promotional photos for your business. I will normally spend 3 to 3 and half hours, sometimes more, doing a set of lashes on these free models. I’ll normally then spend an hour or sometimes longer photographing them and it’s really important that you use this time when you’re photographing them to really hone in on your photography skills as well. It’s important to be able to get your lighting and all your angles correct and make sure that you’re actually taking flattering angles. Because basically, you can do the best lashes in the world, but if you can’t take photos of them and you can’t promote yourself and market yourself properly, you’re not going to be able to get your name or your business seen. So you do need to practice, and it all comes in together.
Once you’ve mastered the lashes and the photography, you’ve got content that you can be using on your social media or your website or any printed marketing. You can use that for years to come. So really the return on investment here, or ROI, is really, really high. It is definitely worth putting your time and energy into doing some free model sets. And on top of the practicing and content creation, in a lot of cases, these models will end up booking back in with you if you do a really fantastic job on their full set. This happened when I started and it also happens to my staff when they first start to work for me. Now, some of my coaching clients will do this. They will advertise on their socials for models. They say that it’s free, and that they have to be available for a minimum four to five hours. It also promotes good engagement on your Instagram and Facebook pages or whatever other social platform you might be using.
So, you’ve done the lashes, you’ve done a really great job, you’ve made your model feel really comfortable and they’re feeling good in your salon, chances are they will keep coming back.
Tip 2 – Do a professional photoshoot with a model.
The way I would do this would be running some sort of model search or competition on your social media pages. Most girls will jump at the chance to be “the face of Allure” (I am just going to use my salon as an example). I think it works amazingly well for promoting yourself and promoting your business and it just takes your branding to a whole new level. Now I know a lot of lash artists and salons will actually use stock photography. They might pay $15 for a photo to use on their website of a beautiful model with lash extensions, but I just think that it’s more authentic and it just raises the bar for your business if you can actually say “yes, all those images on my website are my own work”. You might want to have a big print of a beautiful image of a model with the lashes and brows that you did up in your salon, or you might have a digital display in your window that has a rolling slideshow of your different models. It is a small investment with big reward.
Yes, you’re going to be outlaying the cost of product and you might also hire a hair and makeup artist. Luckily enough I’m a Diploma Beauty Therapist and I can do makeup and I’m not too bad at hair either so when I’ve done this in the past I’ve actually done the hair and the makeup as well. Once you’ve advertised for a model and they’ve committed to be your model for a few hours and you’ve allowed time for some photos afterwards, I will usually book the model in for a day when the salon is closed (Sunday) and then book the photographer for the Monday, A photographer in your local area for an hour or 2 really isn’t expensive. It’s probably the most money you will outlay during this whole client attracting exercise, but its money well spent. And again, you can use these images on your website. You can use them in your social media posts. You can use them on any printed material or like I said earlier, any acrylic prints or canvas prints or digital displays within your salon to really just up level your whole brand.
Tip 3 – Referral Cards.
I know a lot of people talk about referral cards, but they don’t really use them. They forget that they’ve got them and they don’t really promote them. Referral cards are something you could be talking to your clients about just as much as you would be talking to them about washing their lashes or lash growth serums or different services that you’re trying to promote within your business or different products.
A referral card is given to clients when they’ve had their lashes done and they are super happy with them. I will let them know that we’ve got a referral program happening, I’ll hand them five business card sized referral cards. The client writes their name on the cards and when anyone compliments them on their lashes or their brows or whatever they had done at the salon, they can say, “Oh, I just had them done at Allure. Actually, I’ve got a card. If you use it, you get $20 off”. So when that new client comes in they get $20 off their service and the referrer gets a $20 credit off their next service. I have some clients, particularly a lot of hairdressers (hairdressers talk to a lot of people) that pay half price for their lashes and some don’t pay anything because they rack up all these credits because they hand out so many cards to people. So it’s a really, really fantastic way to get your name out there. People will be happy to tell other people about you if they know that there’s a little bit of an incentive there. And also when someone receives a little card with a $20 voucher on it, they’re way more likely to booking with you than somebody else.
Tip 4 – Follow-up Emails.
I have done this pretty much since I started my business and it works really, really well. It’s something that you can automate easily if you have a web based booking system and a MailChimp account or some sort of SMS promotion software. Or you might have SMS promotions built into your booking system. I have a rule set up in MailChimp that makes sure that an email is sent to every new client that comes to my salon for the first time, about 10 days after their first appointment. MailChimp connects to my booking system, which is Timely. Both are great and very simple to use programs. The email says something like “Thank you so much for visiting Allure Lash & Beauty Bar. We’re so grateful to have you in the salon and we can’t wait to see you again. Here is a $15 voucher. You’ve got 30 days to use it. Here is our online booking link”. It makes it very easy for the client to book back in and prompts them to take action when they see that email because they’ve got a voucher there that they can use and they know that there’s a time limit and that it’s going to expire. It’s just that little bit more of an incentive to book back in with you. And it’s all automated; you don’t have to think about it. You could do this via SMS as well. I know that a lot of booking systems out there connect with computerised SMS systems. You could do some sort of follow up text to your new clients so that they receive something similar.
Tip 5 – My final tip – It’s another credit voucher.
I sell aftercare kits in my salon, so anyone that has a new set of lashes will probably walk out the door with some aftercare products. And we actually sneak a little sneaky $20 Voucher into that aftercare kit; something very cheap to do. I just had business card sized cards printed on Vistaprint, which probably cost $20 for 500 or 1000 cards.
Our aftercare kits are $50. They’ve got a cleansing brush, a couple of lash spoolies, some foaming cleanser, some aftercare instructions, and we pop the a $20 off your next refill card in there too. So basically when the client asks how much the aftercare kit is we say, “its $49.95 but you get a $20 off your next refill in there”. So it’s so worthwhile for the client to purchase. And it’s highly likely that they will actually book in for that refill appointment right there, knowing they will get $20 off.
We all know that lashes are addictive. Some people get them on for an occasion or a once off function; maybe they were in someone’s wedding or it was their wedding or they’re going on holidays and then all of a sudden they’re coming back for a refill! And then next minute they’ve been coming for five years! This is fantastic for us, because that’s what we want!! That’s the bread and butter of a lash business – those repeat clients. We don’t want to have to be advertising flat out, trying to get new people in all the time. It’s so much easier to keep our regulars coming back.
So we’ve got a new client, they got a full set. They buy the aftercare kit and they’ve got their $20 voucher in there and then they also get that follow up email with another voucher. You just need to put in your terms and conditions that only one voucher is to be used per appointment (except the referral cards). So if they’re getting their first couple of refills at a discounted price, you know, by then, they’re addicted and they’re coming back!
