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HOW TO
ACCESS FREE LOCAL ADVERTISING …
OR IS THEIR ANOTHER WAY USING REFERRALS
OR IS THEIR ANOTHER WAY USING REFERRALS
We asked on
our Facebook page, if anyone had a particular business question they might need
a bit of help with. The idea was to pool our collective thinking and form a
self help group of like minded people who share a common interest in
aromatherapy and related areas.
The
first case concerns a small massage business in the Midlands, which is
struggling to attract additional customers and faces the serious possibility of
closure. The proprietor sees advertising as the way forward in terms of
increasing her turnover. To date she spent about £120 in a local magazine
approximately one year ago. Her client base appears to be either friends or friends
of friends and many treatments are offered pro bono. She lacks the resources to
invest in paid advertising and is looking for free alternatives.
So here is
my take on it and hope it won’t cause any offence. Lets call her Carol.
From our
exchange of email, Carol sounds like a lovely lady who has a genuine passion in
massage therapy and an utter conviction and belief in the good it will do. But
this being allowed to overshadow the commercial needs of the business, in terms
of income generation. Helping others is always to be commended and I wish more
people were like Carol, but if the business fails, then ultimately fewer people
can be helped. So the fist point is to limit pro bono work and if possible
charge for everything. I am not saying charge money for everything, but enter
into some form of swap. You provide the massage in return for which they drop
leaflets or whatever, through letterboxes on their street. But if a free
massage is to be offered to a worthy candidate, then restrict it to certain times
that do not impact on your ability to make money and restrict the number to a
handful a week. Form a policy to say, ok, I will do three per week and always
on a Monday morning between nine and twelve, or whatever days and time work.
Make this a routine and don’t deviate.
The second
point is that if the clients are principally friends and connections, it will
be almost impossible to have a viable business, since it is enormously
difficult to charge friends a commercial rate, especially if these self same
people were the ones who helped you establish the business in the early days by
virtue of their patronage. So Carol does need new blood in her business , and
needs to formalise her charging structure by publishing a price list which
isn’t discounted.
So how does
Carol get new customers and will advertising in a free local mag help her?
As with all
things you have to start by defining the scope of the problem. How much
additional revenue does she need to create as a minimum. Lets say £200 a week.
What does she currently sell a treatment for. Lets say £25. So the problem can
be re defined as Carol needs to sell eight new treatments per week. Now lets assume that a client has one treatment per month. Then in four weeks,
Carol needs to find 32 new clients who will then return once per month. The
numbers are wrong but you see the principle.
Will local
advertising in a free paper bring in 32 new clients. Almost certainly not. But
what do we know about Carol that works. Her clients are friends or friends of
friends , so to start with , she should use her existing clients to generate
referrals. But often this is badly done. Carol asks her clients to mention it,
they feel pressured, she gives them a leaflet but they never seam to have it to
hand when needed and it’s a mess. Worse still, it’s a mess that’s difficult to
monitor and see measurable outcomes. So lets consider a technique called
leverage referrals.
You explain
the gravity of the problem to your client saying that it is essential you get
more new clients. Logically new leads they give you will be slightly more
remote ones, as Carol will have already had their closet friends from the
outset. Remember the more remote ones are your target market, as the closer
ones will always have a price issue in the background. You ask for three
names and mobile telephone numbers you can call to introduce your business. If
possible you ask when their birthday is. You ask if you can use your clients
name in the introduction. Finally you ask your client which she thinks would
possibly be the best one for you , and which the worst. Thus you have ranked
the referrals in order of probability.
Next is the
easy part. You simply call them, explain what you do and what you are hoping
they will do. You explain a one off offer for friends of your friend
whereby they get a free treatment with everything they book, if booked before a
certain date. That is your call to action. They need to book it now to benefit.
For example if they are booking a back massage, give them a free 15 minute head
massage. Never discount the price, as you will seldom manage to increase it
again and you reduce the perceived value of your service.. In promotions always
offer something with high perceived value but which has low cost to your
business. In this case its just a further 15 minutes your time. Then ask
them if they would like to make a booking now. Be prepared for them to say no,
as you have caught them cold. Take away any pressure by offering to call them
back after they have had a chance to think about it if they don’t say yes
immediately and offer to send them some information via email. Jot down their
email address.
Next set
them up as a contact in outlook, especially denoting their birthday and
make any notes, Schedule a call back in three or four days to follow up and
schedule a reminder to contact them two weeks before their birthday. Lastly
send them an email straight away thanking them for their time and how much you
are looking forward to catching up in a few days.
On the
appointed day, give them a quick call to see if they want to book. Expect a
high drop out rate. If they book, do the referral thing again with them when
they visit and ask them for three referrals. But if they don’t book, it isn’t a
wasted call. They may feel terrible for not having booked so it’s a great tie
to ask them for three referrals and the whole process starts again. Your lead bank
is topped up and as long as you dedicated thirty minutes a day, your bookings
will increase in no time. But lead generation must be continuous, organized,
disciplined and resourceful.
Send a
monthly email to all prospects who have not as yet booked a treatment. It
doesn’t have to be a sales one. It can be sharing a piece of local information
or anything they may be interested in hearing. The key is never to forget a
customer ( or prospective customer) and never let them forget you.
And if all
else fails………….two weeks before the prospects birthday, you should be alerted
by the outlook reminder you created. Send them an E Card in advance ( even
though they will get it early ) offering them a similar promotion to the one
above, as a birthday treat. Do exactly the same for existing customers as
it’s a great way of rewarding them for their patronage and makes you stand out
form the crowd.
On next
weeks Blog, I will provide an alternative idea for Carol on how to win new
clients using massage demonstrations. I will eventually get to the advertising
question, its just that I am not 100% convinced at this point it is the most
expedient solution for her, nor the quickest. I imagine Carol may not feel too
comfortable with this method but difficult times demand difficult measures.
Have any of
you tried this method ? Did it work for you? Do you think its too high
pressured?
Let me have your views.
Let me have your views.
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