Have you ever wondered how some salons build their business through daily deal online marketing programs and why others fail? Mondy Francis of Mondy’s Body Management did and now four deals later she wants to share her top tips to help you structure your next group buying marketing program and manage the influx of new customers.
Daily Deals are now a well-known marketing strategy. Each of the group buying sites have huge databases, often targeted to people living in the local area to your business. Via offering considerable discounts, they can attract significant numbers of new customers and build your business profile But, as many salon managers know, successfully managing your deal is essential to turning this sudden inflow of customers into repeat business and the current discounted sale into revenue.
Mondy Francis, owner of Mondy’s Body Management, is a veteran daily deal marketer. She has run three deals with LivingSocial promoting her fat cavitation weight loss solutions and a fourth for a beauty treatment. Each of these deals taught Mondy how to position her deals to generate revenue once she had new customers in the salon.
"I learnt that it was necessary to structure my deals so that my clients would come back for repeat visits," said Mondy. "My weight loss deals offered three fat cavitation sessions and once my clients saw their fantastic results, more than 70 percent booked for more sessions. The key to ensuring their repeat bookings was pricing subsequent visits appropriate to the original deal. That is, I offered them a second, but smaller discount to continue with their treatment plans. Across the six new sessions each client booked, I was able to recoup the discounts I had initially offered through my deal with LivingSocial. But had I not offered the small discount to encourage continuing with my treatment plans, nor treated each new client as I would any other full price paying client, daily deals would haven’t worked out for me.
"I have experienced first-hand how other business owners haven’t managed their deal as well. When the customers come, they are short-staffed which makes their customer service not as pleasant as they might normally be, and they reduce their professionalism by using lower quality products. It all adds up and the new clients you hoped for don’t return to your business. Worse still, they could be sharing their experience with friends. My advice to businesses that haven’t managed their deal previously as best as they could or to those considering running a deal for the first time, is to use the ten tips I have prepared to plan, plan, plan. With no upfront costs, a well-executed daily deal will generate both an immediate income and long-term customers."
Mondy’s top tips for planning your next daily deals marketing program:
Research expected results
- Ask your representative for the deal details of at least three similar businesses in your area. Evaluate their service offer, the price point and number of deals sold. Average these figures to gauge the expected return on your deal.
- Make sure you estimate your business’s capacity and set an appropriate cap (an upper limit) for the number of vouchers you can sell and service
- Work with the group buying company that offers access to people living in your immediate area, to improve the response to your offer. LivingSocial groups regions within cities offering hyper-local marketing which makes your offer more likely to be purchased and makes repeat visits more likely
Develop a compelling offer
- Work with your sales representative to create an offer with broad appeal. The simplest way is to offer what is typically purchased with a few low or no cost extra’s included at the lowest possible price point. The more extra’s, the more successful the deal will be, but you need to mindful of having room to upsell and cover costs
Structure your deal to cover all costs
- This includes the extra staff, product and time you need to service new customers
- Include management time and staff training in your cost planning
- Make sure a proportion of business overheads such as electricity, cleaning, towels, water, rent, etc. are factored in
Work to a redemption rate of 90 per cent
- When planning don’t assume everyone that buys the deal will actually redeem it
Plan how you will generate income from the new customers
- Structure your deal so that a customer is more likely to purchase an additional service when redeeming their offer
- Ensure the extra sessions are at a price point relative to the offer. If the total price of both services are less than you typically charge, you have a winning offer that will generate sales. For example, I offered three weight loss sessions in my LivingSocial deal and a discount on the remaining five, as a typical treatment plan is eight treatments
Educate your staff on how to upsell
- This is absolutely essential. A daily deal is designed to bring customers to a business. It is up to you and your staff to turn the increased traffic into revenue. Have staff practice upselling via roll play and scripts, if necessary
Understand your new customer
- Many people using daily deals are price conscious. While many might not be, always structure repeat offers at a price point that will motivate their return
- People using daily deals may also be trialling new services for a first time. Make sure you educate them on your business and the service they are receiving. Often this can eliminate uncommunicated issues that discourage clients from returning
Create a long-term relationship – continue to treat your new customers to special offers for repeat business
- Allocate your most competent staff to managing your new influx of clients. Ensure staff work to build rapport during their first visit and ensure each new client leaves with a tailored treatment plan at attractive price to encourage repeat business
Create a client database
- Turn your increased traffic into repeat customers by making each fill out a new client form that contains their contact details, treatment details, beauty concerns
- You can then market your own special offers to this client base via email to generate repeat business tailoring offers to suit their concerns, preferences and past treatments
Create a positive experience for each and every client
- Highly value each and every person that comes through your door and ensure this attitude guides every interaction
- Encourage your new clients to share their positive experience and generate referrals for you. A referral discount offer for both referrer and friend can help this along