You might be tempted to think that the beauty,
personal care, and wellness businesses are
"local" businesses and the Internet is more
suitable channel for marketing when you want to reach
out to a broader audience. While you may be
partly right but some recent trends actually mean that
you have to completely rethink how you market your
business:
- Local
search marketing is exploding. Or in
other words, Yellow Pages are out and Google
search is in. Both Google and Yahoo are now
offering local search, which means that one can
look for a hair or beauty salon by zip code.
- Now that always-on connections are common (~50%
of American homes have them now), the first
reaction that consumers have when they are looking
for any information is to do a search on the
Internet. Gone are the days of asking a
friend or a colleague or looking in the phone
book.
How to market on the web?
- Get a website that gives all the information
that a potential customer might need.
Include information on services offered, pricing,
skills of staff, even pictures of the
facility. In other words, sell yourself and
you are doing that without spending a penny.
So when the phone does ring, it is for an
appointment. And technology already exists
to schedule appointments online and if budget
allows, you must choose it. (Related
article: Web
design tips for beauty industry)
- Take a proactive approach to marketing yourself
by advertising on the web. Not only can you
market on other beauty related websites you can
also make sure that your listing is shown in a
local search. Both Yahoo and Google are
offering this service and based on eCreativa
research, this is the cheapest form of
advertising.
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