Company Overview

Stephanie Metzger founded Dye-licious Hair Salon in Tempe, AZ in 2006. With 10 years of salon experience in Nevada and a loyal clientele, Metzger faced a major business challenge upon her husband’s job relocation to Tempe. Since she couldn’t take her clients with her, Stephanie had to start from scratch. Luckily, she was able to find a prime location for the salon, located on the corner of a busy shopping center.

Original Marketing Strategy

With only a few friends and family to start with, Stephanie knew that she had to focus on reaching new clients. Deciding to capitalize on the busyness of her location, Stephanie printed a large vinyl banner promoting her grand opening and new client special of 50% off the first cut or dye. This banner brought in roughly 50 new clients, and although it only cost around $100, the steep discount resulted in very little profit.

Customer Retention Campaign

Metzger had a plan in mind, however, and she knew that profits would be slim at first. “Hair is all about building a relationship,” she says, “I needed new clients to get started, of course, but I also had to keep them coming back.” With this in mind, every new client received a response card to fill out after their appointment, which asked for feedback as well as contact information. Clients were able to select how they’d prefer to be contacted by Dye-licious, be it via 1) phone calls, 2) direct mail, 3) email, or 4) text message. Using a sophisticated CRM program, Dye-licious is able to contact each customer when it’s time for their next appointment, and the system is also able to track client birthdays, anniversaries, and total money spent at the salon. For special occasions, clients are offered free products, a discount on services, etc.

Response

Just six months after opening its doors, Dye-licious had retained 72% of its clientele. New clients continue to book appointments thanks to the enticing banner outside promoting the first-time special, and the CRM software helps the Dye-licious employees keep track of their clientele. For a $5,000 investment (by purchasing the software as well as the storefront advertising), Dye-licious reached over 500 new clients, 360 of which are still booking appointments.

Business Recommendations

* Have a new customer special-it’s the best way to get the attention of potential clients as it makes the transaction somewhat guilt-free.

* Once you’ve gained a new customer, treat them like royalty. Don’t overlook the lifetime value of that customer, even if you’re just selling them a product.

* The customer that’s always looking for a discount isn’t necessarily the one you want. Recognize your customers and reward them for loyalty, but don’t cheapen your business in the process.

* CRM software and other customer retention tools can be quite helpful as your business continues to grow. Don’t spam your customers with constant contact, but at the same time keep the lines of communication open so that they understand that you value their business.

Michael Allen works as a Director of Marketing in Boston, Massachusetts. He has worked with both large companies and small local businesses for over 20 years. His vast experience in the field of marketing positions him as an expert in helping businesses expand by using marketing tactics.

Crying needs are needs that potential clients suffer intensely from and seek immediate resolution for. When your business marketing addresses these types of needs, your marketing is simplified, and your sales process is easier. Prospects know that they need a solution and don’t have to be convinced. When you’re working on developing a target market and doing your marketing writing, here are some ideas of crying needs you might address.

1. There is some sort of crisis in the family.

This could have to do with a child’s struggles, failing health of a parent, or a marital impasse. These are crying needs that disrupt any chance for family harmony. There is intense desire for resolution.

2. There is a crisis in the business.

Profits are falling, marketing is non-existent, sales are not closing, and the market has changed. Pain is intense and immediate. The business owner is full of fear and panic.

3. There is intense personal crisis.

This might be life threatening disease, job loss, financial loss, unfulfilling retirement, dislocation of moving, or aging. There is a need to reassess and realign life factors for greater relief and for greater satisfaction.

4. There are extreme needs in the living environment.

Housing is threatened, the integrity of the dwelling is damaged or destroyed, a home is lost. There’s an intense need associated with finding or repairing housing.

5. Transportation or mobility is problematic.

Access to easy mobility is denied. Circumstances make transport too costly or unrealistic. Logistics become impossible. Failing health causes problems getting around.

6. Interpersonal relations are cause intense problems.

The client lacks skills and behaves so as to cause conflict, misunderstandings, miscommunications, animosity, and isolation. Intense divisions escalate the troubled nature of interactions. Angst, hurt, and unhappiness result from fractured interrelationships.

7. Weight control, obesity, eating disorders, and fitness issues make prospects victims within their own bodies.

These body issues cause intense unhappiness for those who suffer from them. They feel like inescapable traps and drive extreme desire for relief.

8. Addiction issues in the family cause significant grief.

All semblance of normal life is impossible, so the addict or alcoholic struggles and disrupts any chance for harmony. Every family member gets swept up in the turmoil – even if only in resisting being involved.

9. New beginnings of all kinds of cause feelings of dislocation.

Some examples of dislocation scenarios are divorce, death, moves, loss of career, permanent injury, loss of income, or loss of home. The prospect has an intense and immediate need for reorientation and rehabilitation, that must be relieved.

10. Self-esteem issues are very intense and crippling.

Numerous issues can cause a human to feel and live “less than” others. Any way that you can address and resolve any aspect of this can be lucrative.

These are just a few samples of crying needs. It’s not intended to be a complete list, but rather simply a tool to get you started thinking on the topic, and to give you ideas. Expand this list for yourself.

Suzi Elton provides business writing that attracts targeted prospects to your service business and converts them into clients for you. She is a Robert Middleton Certified Action Plan Marketing Coach, as well as a professional writer. Her website offers a free series of 8 assessments you can use to analyze your own site.

Having your own business means that you’re the boss. You get to set your own schedule, make your own decisions and do exactly what you want to do.

In general it’s pretty cool but let’s be honest here, it’s not always fun.

Oftentimes it seems that there are a million deadlines looming and worse yet, you brought them on yourself. On top of the deadlines there are another million great ideas you want to pursue. Ideas that will bring you and your clients greater success and profit.

You work long hours and struggle to keep up with it all. You end up feeling desperate, overwhelmed and frustrated. You find yourself spinning in circles and procrastinating. The more you push yourself the less you want to do anything and you fall further and further behind.

In an ideal world, the demands and deadlines would come to you at a steady pace. Your ideas would come to you one at a time and they’d come when there were no other competing priorities. You’d never fall behind and your business would grow steadily.

But that’s not reality is it? When you are an entrepreneur you MUST take advantage of opportunities when they arise and you MUST meet the deadlines that you set and you MUST continue managing the business that you already have. You must push yourself because nobody else will and if you don’t push yourself, your business simply won’t grow.

Here are 5 simple steps that I encourage you to take to keep yourself and the demands you place on yourself moving forward and under control and yes, I use in my own day-to-day business and my clients do, too.

1. Gather everything in one place. When you’ve got lots of things going on it’s easy for something to fall through the cracks. Look through all the notes that you’ve got scribbled on little slips of paper or in corners of pages in your notebook. Write down all the ideas swirling around in your head. Knowing what you’re dealing with is the first step to taking control.

2. Take the time to understand what’s on your list and why it’s there. What is the scope of the project? Why do you want to do it? What are your long term business and personal goals and how far towards those goals will completing this project get you?

3. Decide if really has to get done. Okay, now it’s time for a reality check! Talk with your coach, mentor, friend, colleague or assistant. Does this really have to happen and does it need to happen now? What would happen if you didn’t do it? Can you combine two things into one? Can you delegate some of it? Can you put some of it off until another time or maybe even decide never to do it at all? The goal is to make your life easier here and take some of these things OFF of your plate.

4. Set realistic deadlines. Now that you fully understand the things left on your list, take a look at what you have and honestly assess your goal in doing them and how long these things will take you to do (by the way, it’s probably longer than you think). Now set deadlines that you feel confident that you will meet. This is important, dates you will meet, not dates that you hope to get it done by.

5. Set time aside to do the work. This is the most important one of all. Take a good look at your schedule and working with both the deadline you set for yourself and the amount of time you believe the job is going to take, decide specifically when you will do the work. Now here’s the key, when those appointments show up, you must honor your plan. You will know exactly what you need to do, do it!

So here’s what I’ve done. I gathered all my notes into one place. It’s still a long scary list but I know I’m not missing anything. I know what everything is, why I want to do it and the steps I need to take. I spoke with both my coach and assistant to check in. I have combined several of the items so I can use the same energy for two things. I have delegated several of the things on my list to my assistant. I set realistic deadlines (and made myself accountable to several people) and have carved out the time in my schedule to do it.