You have a great team, hopefully aligned with your own mission, vision, values and purpose for your business. Next, let’s get them pulling together to create the rhythmic acquisition of clients.
This simply means get the team to bring in new customers in a consistent, predictable, profitable and routine way.
But how?
Rhythmic acquisition of clients is always preceded by rhythmic activity.
Client acquisition is the process of winning clients for your business. It involves attracting the attention of your target prospects and convincing them to purchase from your business. Acquisition activities includes all marketing activities: newsletter & subscriptions, flyers, webinars, paid advertising, content marketing & SEO, social media & influencer marketing – everything that helps you get new clients.
Customer acquisition is essential for every business, because it is actually the fist step in the client service journey, as there is no business without customers. Therefore, the higher purpose of customer acquisition is to find a sustainable way to continuously attract new customers.
Customer acquisition can also lead to other benefits such as increased awareness about your salon brand. Even if you don’t make that initial sale, acquisition activities often form the first impression potential clients have of your business and can impact how they perceive and interact with your salon in the future.
Rhythmic acquisition of new clients requires a framework around your marketing activities, such as:
- In which sequence to plan your marketing activities and marketing mix.
- What metrics you should measure about your acquisition efforts.
- How to spend your marketing.
Typically, the goal is to attract high-value clients at reasonable costs. A rhythmic acquisition strategy should be able to grow and evolve along with your business. Ideally, your strategy should include the following five steps:
- Define your ideal customers:
While developing your salon brand, you will start to identify who your ideal clients are, so when it comes to your marketing activities, you have a very clear understanding of who you want to attract.
- Set clear goals and objectives:
Figure out exactly what you want to accomplish and within what timeframe. Specific targets are better than vague ambitions.
- Identify your acquisition channels:
Figure out where your competitive advantage lies, check where your competitors are active, how well they are doing, then choose a marketing mix of activities that will give you maximum impact, at the best cost and effort required to manage them.
- Define your approach for each marketing activity:
You will need to work out a plan of action for each marketing activity, including budget required and the return on investment you expect.
- Measure and adjust your strategy:
Once you have begun to implement your marketing strategy, keep and eye on the data. It is critical to check in regularly to see if you are hitting your expected numbers. If not, don’t continue wasting resources. Adapt your activities accordingly.
To calculate customer acquisition cost, divide the amount you spent on marketing, by the number of new customers you gained in that period of time.
Once you have mastered the rhythmic acquisition of new clients, lets work with your team to seriously maximise the return on your investment, by converting new clients to ‘longterm, lifetime clients’. It costs a lot more to acquire new clients than to retain existing clients. Is it time to have a good honest look at your salon business and ask yourself the following questions:
- Do you offer excellent service and value for money?
- Do your clients keep coming back or do you see them once and never again?
- Do you stay in touch with your clients after they have made a purchase?
- Do you reward clients for being loyal to your business?
- What is your client retention rate?
- Can your client retention rate increase?
Your team must understand the importance of winning lifelong clients requires the ability to happily buy from your salon again and again. They benefits go far beyond inspiring loyalty and repeat business – happy satisfied clients become advocates for your brand, driving referrals by sharing their experiences with friends, colleagues and social networks.
In general, acquiring a new client costs 5 – 7 times more than retaining an existing client, so to get an effective return on your time and financial investment on client acquisition, your team must be committed to delivering outstanding customer service, so every new client leaves with a plan to return and get you hot referrals, which in time will reduce the number of new clients your need.
