The operations portion of building your salon website depends greatly on how to set it on semi-autopilot. Meaning, you do a little bit of work every so often and it does the leg work in-between. It’s almost like having your own little virtual assistant that does exactly what you want when you want it and how you it!
It just dawned on me, if you fit into this category like I and so many other salon studio owners so clearly do…we might have a slight control issue!
To hell with the preconceived idea of what that means. I’m gonna remind you of how far you have gotten in your life
Get after it however you want is what I say!
OK, let’s get to this weeks post…
Last week we talked about Why You Should Build and Operate Your Own Salon Website. In this in-depth
I am not going to sugar coat this for you though and say that building your own website is zero work. It may not be as hard as we thought before but it is a time-consuming process. Rome wasn’t built in a day!
You actually have to go out and take the pictures, pick the fonts and colors. that fit your branding, write the copy for pages on your websire, pick out a design that you like…trust this list could go on all day!
The good news
Keep in mind, most things aren’t free. Some of the tips below do comes with monthly or annual costs and require some knowledge of how to use them. I assure you I was in your exact same spot before learning the 5 Reasons Why You Should Build and Operate Your Own Salon Website.
Clueless and uninterested in spending a single dollar on something that didn’t seem important.
Every software has extensive training available. Some of them will even do a one on one conference call with you and walk you through setting everything up. Your success with the assistance of their software is what will build their software
Another thing before I get to the goods of this post, there are literally thousands of ways to set your online business on autopilot. Some are free and some are very expensive. These are the
Some links in this post may also be affiliate links. These type of links usually mean I get a small commission if you make a purchase. This comes at no additional cost to you. These funds are used to help me keep this website running so that I can bring you real life salon studio advice!
Setting your salon’s website on semi-autopilot comes down to 5 basic steps…
- Add habit into your routine
- Using Pinterest and a Scheduler
- Creating an Opt-In
- Automated Email Marketing
- Start a Blog
Now, I’m going to break down what I mean with each of these points and explain how this adds to your website being set on semi-autopilot.
Add habit into your routine
I am a firm believer that every successful person is so because of a list of habits that they do as a routine every single day. Most of the habits you do throughout your day you do without even realizing it because they are so ingrained in who you are.
You probably brush your teeth in the morning. Thats because its a habit of yours. Do you write blog posts? Post on social media every day? Send out emails to your clients regularly?
Chances are if you do any of these you don’t do them as consistently as you should or with nearly as much attention to detail as you should. I promise this will make more sense after you read the next point!
Creating a section in your calendar for yourself of a time where you will write content for your clients, website or social media AND using software that posts it for you WILL bring your online presence the consistency it needs to flourish.
By picking a schedule and adding it into your calendar you will be on your way to creating a new habit in your routine where you do all of the work or small batches of work at a time and then your softwares will be the autopilot.
Using Pinterest and a Scheduler
Pinterest is like a combination of a very successful social media platform full of women, a very intuitive search engine and a never ending rotation of posts.
It seems like pretty common knowledge now that if you post something anywhere on the internet there is a small window where a lot of people will see it and then it slowly drops off to almost nothing or you have to rank high on platforms like google which is difficult to do. With Pinterest this is not entirely the case.
Pinterests unique set up not only keeps your same post in a constant rotation because of the unique sharing capabilities (similar to facebook) but with the addition of the searching option. Yea you can search for things on other platforms like facebook and instagram but, think about it, do you?
Do you ever go onto facebook and look for a balayage? Or recipe inspiration for dinner? What about detailed reviews on a product you are thinking about purchasing?
Now like anything in life if it were totally easy everyone would be doing it!
This is true. Pinterest is like tuning a fine instrument. It may take some time to figure it out but once you do you can unlock an unlimited amount of views to your website. To learn the basics read my post, How to use Pinterest to Drive Traffic to your Salon Studio’s Website.
The most difficult part in my opinion is HOW MUCH YOU HAVE TO POST!
On most social media platforms you need to post maybe 1-2 times a day or week. With Pinterest, you should be posting 20-30 times a day AND it should be a mixture of your content and others content AND it needs to be relevant but not limited to your unique niche. Ugh….that made me tired just typing it!
That is A LOT of intentional posting which is why you need a software that will do this for you. That software in my opinion is Tailwind!
With Tailwind, you get an in-depth look into your Pinterest accounts analytics so you know exactly what performs the best so you can keep creating the kind of content your audience likes and not waste time making something unnecessary!
Oh yea, Tailwind isn’t even about that, that’s just what I geek out on because I’m a numbers nerd!
Tailwind is actually a post scheduler. Not only will Tailwind tell you what posts are the best and what boards you should post onto most, it actually will post for you as often as you want it to down to the minute. This software can also help you join Tailwind Tribes which is created specifically to help you build your audience when you have almost none.
(Some of the links in this post are affiliate links. This means I get a small commission from your purchase that is no additional cost to you. This helps fund this website so I can bring you quality content like this.)
Creating an Opt-In and Automated Email Marketing
This is a two part tip because it really is two separate tasks and although one cannot work properly without the other in building your online reputation, they actually can each be completed and not be working together….Does that make sense? Let me try and explain, just know these next 2 go hand in hand!
An opt-in is something you will show your client while they are reading your article that will convince them
This usually give your website a boost in traffic and google loves consistent traffic to your website!
When you are doing something that google likes it is safe to say any other platform your website may be listed on will like it to. You want to make the platforms like you so they feature you higher in their searches!
With the software
The absolute MOST important part of the trust funnel is TRUST. The more times your new potential client has contact with your content the more trust is building. To learn more about what Convertkit can do for you, check out their website where they have a ton of content to help you learn about their product!
Start a Blog
Positioning yourself as a specialist in your niche takes more then a title these days. With social media influencers taking over salon education these days more and more people are skeptical about paying for education and clients aren’t as quick to spend money just because of a pretty instagram account!
Good hairdressers are plentiful these days because great education is at our fingertips. If you want to be an expert in a certain part of the beauty industry, you need to spend a little more effort showing what you know before someone will pull out their credit card. If you are trying to run a beauty business of any kind at all, having a blog where you give your absolute best beauty advice is crucial!
Keep an eye out over the next few weeks for a more detailed post on starting a beauty blog but if you don’t already have one, I urge you to start taking action!