It’s no news that having a great website is essential for a successful business. The same holds true for a hair salon. But what isn’t common knowledge among salon owners yet, is the importance of capturing your salon’s website leads.
First, what is a website lead? I’m glad you asked! A lead is any website visitor that is interested in doing business with you or purchasing a product – or booking a hair appointment! Every lead goes through the sales cycle, which is basically the path a lead (a.k.a. a potential salon client) goes through before purchasing. For example, a potential client could hear about your salon from your advertising efforts or maybe as a recommendation from a current client. Then, that lead is going to search for your salon online (reason #1 to have a great site that comes up in Google search). Once that lead gets to your site, she will most likely click around and learn more about your salon. Chances are she will check out your stylists, services, prices, locations and social links to get a sense of your business. If the lead likes what she sees, she will either call to book an appointment, or maybe even book online if you have that option (which you definitely should). Boom, your website has now captured a lead!
But wait, there’s more! As a lead goes through this purchase journey, she gets closer to being ready to buy, making her a “hot lead.” Now, sometimes a lead can visit your website, poke around, but isn’t ready to book an appointment. This is an example of a “warm lead” – someone who’s shown interest in your business but still needs more help along the purchase path.
So, the real question is…are you doing anything to capture and nurture those warm leads?
Your answer to the last question should be yes. Capturing warm leads is just as important as hot leads because those people are interested in your salon, they just need a little more help making the decision to book!
The best way to capture and nurture warms leads is to have them complete a micro conversion. Now, a conversion is a term used when a lead takes the action needed to become a client. In this case, a conversion would be a new salon client booking an appointment for the first time.
On the other hand, a micro conversion is when you get a lead to take a smaller action that puts them further along the path to becoming a client. An example of this would be a lead filling out your Meet Your Stylist survey and including their email address.
By having a website lead complete the survey you have accomplished three things…
1) You engaged them with your salon’s business
2) You captured valuable information, such as their hair needs and email address
3) You created an opportunity to communicate with them and start a relationship, creating a stronger incentive for them to convert to a real salon client!
It’s really important to follow-up with the leads you capture using Meet Your Stylist. You have their information, all you need to do is stay in front of them. Email is an easy way to accomplish this! Send out a welcome email after they finish their survey and thank them for taking the time to complete it. Then, if they haven’t converted in a few weeks, send another email with openings for the stylists they matched with.
The lesson here is that your salon’s website is important, and if you pair it with a powerful tool like Meet Your Stylist, you are giving yourself the ability to take your salon business to the next level by capturing leads in numbers you didn’t think possible!
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