Marketing Skills to Help Your Beauty Business Break Through Bottlenecks

Marketing Skills to Help Your Beauty Business Break Through Bottlenecks

Your PMU business will experience many changes as it grows. You may be striding along at an excellent speed and suddenly reach a point where you need a larger salon, another artist, or more booked clients to continue growing. These natural slow-downs are bottlenecks. You can’t move forward without solving these problems.

Believe it or not, this is a good situation to have. It means you have reached a benchmark, or a goal. Your next steps are to consider what you’ve done well, what can be improved and what your new goals or benchmarks should be.

More Marketing for More Clients

An additional marketing strategy is often necessary to drive more business to your website and door. Your marketing efforts should include more than one digital channel (social media outlet) to reach more people in today’s technological age.

While you don’t have to become an expert on digital marketing (more on that later), it will help you to know the basics and what it takes to get your name out there. Marketing any business requires knowledge of certain practices, calculations and technologies. These are called hard skills and PMU marketing experts excel at them. It’s also helpful to have those softer “people skills,” like effective communication, leadership and inclusion.

We’ll discuss some hard and soft skills needed to up your marketing game. Hopefully, you take away two things from it: 1) a better understanding of your marketing strategy and 2) confidence in your beauty digital marketing agency to provide you with what you need to grow in today’s fast-paced digital world.

Search Engine Rankings

SEO might be a word you often hear as you increase your marketing efforts. It stands for “Search Engine Optimization” and refers to your business’s placement on a search engine page, like Google. Posting content consistently and using the right keywords matter to your SEO ranking.

People perform 3.5 million searches a day on Google. In fact, 93% of online activities begin with a search. If your business appears on the first page of results, it’s seen by thousands of people.

And, if your business appears within the top three listed companies, you’re even more likely to drive traffic to your website and convert lookers into booked clients. SEO is very valuable to your success because you improve how many people see you and book your services.

Boosting your SEO takes time–time to explore and research, time to experiment and time to execute. Not to mention, search engine and social media rules frequently change, making SEO keywords even more critical for your audience to find you. Most businesses hire a specialized SEO partner to help do the technical research and analyze the results.

Data Analytics

It may sound complicated, but in simple terms, data analytics is collecting and sorting information about potential clients to decide the best way to market your artistry.

You will need to collect data on your target audience (the potential clients you are hoping to book), as well as the progress and results of your current marketing. The information you gather will help you find, understand and relate to your audience in a meaningful way.

You’ll gather a lot of data from your interactions with your audience. Some examples include:

  • What they are searching for
  • The kind of content they’re watching and engaging with
  • Their purchasing preferences

Knowing what data is important, what to ignore and how to tell the difference is a big part of marketing and data analytics.

Content

Content refers to anything you create and share online, such as your social media posts, blogs or videos. While content doesn’t directly advertise your brand, it is meant to get people interested in your PMU services.

Making content that appeals to your audience and posting consistently are essential. In addition, create content that stands the test of time so that someone coming across your post, blog or video days or years from now will still find it relevant and meaningful.

Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

Marketing is more than research and advertising. People skills like communication, inclusion, leadership, connection and relationship building are just as necessary. Your marketing strategy should help your business better relate to your potential clients.

These skills are referred to as “soft” because they aren’t typically learned from a book or in a classroom. A great marketer must stay aware of and understand the changing needs of their audience. It takes time and practice to learn, but you can become a master at connecting with your clients.

Communication

Effective communication is necessary for establishing trust and building relationships with potential clients. With millions of products and services competing for their attention, you have to stand out as someone they can trust and relate to.

Marketing experts have discovered that today’s audiences prefer short and entertaining communications. As a result, visual content, like videos, is quickly becoming the most preferred way audiences want businesses to communicate.

Visual communication can improve your SEO, engagement and booking rates. Video editing software can help you create more interesting visual content for your website or social media platforms.

You Don’t Have to Know it All to be it All

You can better understand and play a role in your business’s marketing strategy when you know some key digital marketing terms. But the best part is…to be successful, you don’t need a marketing degree or an additional 40 hours a week you don’t have.

Your beauty digital marketing agency at Highstoke is your one-stop PMU marketing partner. We have the skills and results you need to stay focused on your art and stop worrying about how to promote your business and get more clients. You don’t have to do it all yourself. Join our team to start thriving!

Measuring the Success of Your Social Media Campaign

Social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter are excellent places to build a community, develop business leads and attract new clients. As a business owner, you want to set clear goals for yourself on your social media channels so that you make the most of your time and efforts there. You’ll also need to know how to measure your progress towards meeting those goals so that you can focus on what is working best for your business.

Setting and measuring goals keeps you organized, is the most budget-friendly way to work and gives you valuable feedback about your clients. If you haven’t been setting measurable goals and tracking the results of your social media efforts, now is the perfect time to start.

Success Is More Than Appointments and Money

A goal with a very clear beginning and end is often called a “campaign.” Social media marketing campaigns are carefully planned to help a business owner achieve their business goals through social media platforms. Different campaigns focus on different goals, which are as unique as your PMU business.

Not all campaigns are designed to drive immediate sales, though. Perhaps, you’re just starting out and your first steps need to be getting your name out there or building your reputation. If you’re not so new, your goal might be growing your following instead, knowing that a greater following will lead to more appointments.

Whatever your goal may be, it’s important to choose an accurate way to measure your progress towards the finish line. The number of bookings or your take-home pay may not tell the whole story.

Here’s how to get started.

Define Your Mission

No doubt you want to become a leading artist. But, achieving your dream can be a lot to take on at once. Instead, break it down into smaller, achievable goals that you can work on one step at a time.

When it comes to what you can achieve through social media, think of one goal you want to reach through your platforms, and use that to guide you in choosing what to focus on and how to measure it. For example, you might decide to focus on driving website traffic. Or, maybe you want to increase your engagement with your followers (who could turn into clients one day).

Because those two goals are different, you will need to measure your progress differently as well. You and your PMU marketing agency should clearly define goals that will help you grow your business.

Develop Ways for Measuring Your Goals

Goal-setting for social media advertising is the first step in a carefully planned social media campaign. The next step is to regularly measure the success of your efforts so that you know whether to keep doing what you’re doing or try something else.

To measure your campaign’s success, you and your PMU marketing agency will look at different metrics. Metrics refer to the “how” of measuring your goals. For example, how will you know when you’ve reached your goal to double the number of followers you have on social media? You’ll look at your followers today and compare it to the number of followers last week or last month. As with this example, you’ll have a metric, or measurement, for every goal.

Assess Your Success

Once you know the metrics you need for your goal, the next step is to find the right tools to help you measure (like choosing a ruler to help you measure length).

Some social media channels and third-party services like Google Analytics and Hootsuite provide that service or allow you to customize your own.

You have many options, so research carefully. If you need help understanding or deciding what would work best for you, consult a social media expert (like your beauty digital marketing agency).

Planning ahead and setting up your measuring tools before your campaign starts is ideal. Take the time to become familiar with how it works and what types of information it can provide you. Starting early also gives you more data to compare to from before your campaign.

Check Your Progress

Regularly check on your progress, even in the very beginning. Early data will help you see how far you’ve come and what to change in the future. Make this step a routine, whether you do it daily or weekly.

Make Improvements

Reconsider your goals and metrics every once in a while. Think about ways to improve your goal, speed up your progress or measure your growth.

Continue Learning

It’s important to keep in mind that regardless of the results of your campaign, it is still a win for you because it gives you and your beauty marketing agency insight and data about the habits and values of your audience.

As the famous inventor, Thomas Edison once wrote, “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” With your goals set, you’re always working on laying the groundwork for bigger accomplishments in the future. Set those goals. Measure the successes of your efforts. Make changes. Repeat.

What to Publish on Your Beauty Brand Social Media Account

For entrepreneurs, social media is more than a way to pass the time and be entertained. It’s an opportunity for you to reach your business goals.

Social media marketing for permanent makeup artists is about developing relationships, engaging with your audience in interesting conversations and showcasing your craft to build brand awareness and grow your business.

These days, businesses want to make their mark on social media platforms. How can your brand stand apart from the competition if everyone is doing it? Any beauty brand agency can agree that creating the right content for your followers is the key to standing out from the crowd.

Posting Content Regularly is Your Strategy

Content is the base of any business strategy these days. It’s the number-one way to promote your microblading business or showcase your PMU artistry. Consistently posting content that your target audience finds meaningful is how you connect, communicate and make yourself memorable to them.

The Five Most Useful Types of Content

With so many social networks, platforms and ways to engage with your audience, where does a PMU artist begin? To answer that question, let’s look at what professional marketers suggest to their clients most often.

Video

Followers are more likely to engage with and share videos. This type of media helps your audience better understand who and what you and your brand are about. It drives traffic to your website and turns lookers into paying clients.

The popularity of Instagram Reels and TikTok videos proves that you don’t need fancy equipment or a big budget to produce catchy content. In addition, another cool benefit of posting videos is that you can save, repurpose and reuse them at a later time.

Facebook, Instagram and YouTube are the top three most popular social media sites for clients. Of these, Instagram provides many different and helpful tools for making and broadcasting videos.

While TikTok may not yet have the brand attention-grabbing factor that other platforms do, entrepreneurs can better understand their target audience by knowing about the viral trends on this social media site.

Images

Images are the second most helpful and used type of content across social media networks.

“A picture is worth a thousand words,” so the saying goes. And indeed, it is true that most people would prefer to get their information from a picture rather than read about it. This method opens the door for User Generated Content (UGC), in which your followers connect with each other and with you through images.

Instagram is at the top of the list of virtual places to share pictures. Pinterest is another great outlet for sharing photos with clients looking for inspiration. Both networks allow you to turn images into shoppable content. That means you can link an image to your booking site.

Written Posts

Even though videos and images take the top two spots for ways to offer content, the written word is still a powerful form of marketing, especially when you post regularly.

Consistent posting familiarizes your audience with your brand, voice and tone. With regular posting, your brand will stand out from the crowd.

Your clients want to learn more about you, your services and any fresh news about your business. Not only will your followers discover more about you, but posting allows you to connect with and learn about them, too. In time, you’ll be the expert at what type of content engages your audience the most.

Twitter, LinkedIn and Reddit are great platforms for keeping your audience interested. Your written posts can include questions, polls and quizzes that are fun for your audience while giving you valuable feedback. You can keep discussions going by adding to conversation threads.

Stories

Consider using Stories to rev up your community engagement and give your audience new experiences. Stories are given priority across most social media networks, making them more likely to be seen.

The timeliness and interactive nature of Stories make them very engaging to audiences. Plus, interactive features, stickers, sounds and filters make for more creative and expressive content.

Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and Snapchat are some of the best for sharing Stories. Of those, Instagram is the only one that leaves your Stories up beyond 24 hours, allowing you to turn them into Highlights on your profile.

Lives

Live videos, or “lives,” allow you to engage with your audience in real-time. Question and answer or how-to sessions are a great way to ease any nervousness your potential clients might feel before booking and prepare them for what to expect.

Do What’s Right for You

We’ve highlighted several different social media platforms in this article. Not to convince you that you need every one of them, but to highlight the unique capabilities of each one and get you thinking of how you can use what you already have.

The most effective platform will be the one that you and your potential clients will use consistently. Check with your beauty digital marketing agency if you need help getting started. They can help you identify your target audience, the platforms they use most and the content they engage with more often.

Infographic

Do you want to reach your PMU business goals? Social media offers a unique and effective opportunity to engage with your audience and showcase your craft. Aside from posting consistently, knowing what to post and where is the key to nailing your social media marketing. Find the most effective platform for you and your potential clients. Read on.

What to Publish on Your Beauty Brand Social Media Account Infographic

Video

Giveaways That’ll Have You Looking Like a PMU Marketing Genius

Giveaway for PMU Advertising

The top two goals of every beauty entrepreneur is to get more clients and ensure those clients have a great experience in your care.

Giveaways can help fill both needs in one fun freebie. Who doesn’t love free?!

You can use giveaways to promote your brand, attract new clientele and foster loyalty. Create connections with your online audience over a fun contest by giving away something physical they can use again and again.

Giveaways showcase your style and personality while keeping your name at the forefront of every potential client’s mind. You’ll increase your chances for repeat business and referrals while advertising to potential clients looking for a great PMU artist (or who didn’t know they needed one until now).

Let’s look at the Where, What and How of giveaways. This guide will give you the essential information and a few ideas to get you well on your way to promotional items to market your beauty brand while making your clients feel special and like they got a great value.

Where to Give Promotional Items

As with any good idea, you’ll need to do some planning first. Research community events or trade shows. Read online rules regarding contests and giveaways on your social media platforms to make sure you stay within user guidelines and the law.

Know who you are trying to reach. Who is most likely to benefit from your services? What types of promotional items would interest them? How can you reach them in person or online? Your beauty marketing agency can help you learn more about your target audience to boost your PMU advertising efforts through giveaways.

What to Give Away

The more useful your promotional materials are, the better. You can give away branded items, like skin care products that relate to PMU or gifts that don’t relate but are useful anyway. Here are some ideas for what to give away. Some are related to PMU while others aren’t but have general mass appeal:

Branded Products

  • Skin care products like lotions and lip balms
  • Post-PMU service essentials kit (lip balm, skin salve)
  • Flash drive
  • Luggage tag
  • Water bottles
  • Pens
  • Limited-time, one-of-a-kind specialty product (shirt, lotion)

Coupons and Gift Cards

  • To your business for savings on another service or care product
  • To another business: coffee shop, Amazon, tattoo parlor, local hair salon

Experiences

  • Massages
  • Wine tasting
  • Tickets to haunted houses or other seasonal events

Money for Bills

Determine a set amount you’re willing to pay on a client’s bill. You can reimburse clients after they’ve paid (up to your limit and after seeing proof of the amount).

  • Electric bill
  • Car payment
  • Grocery store trip

How to Implement Giveaways

There are so many ways to give out freebies. This part can be as simple or creative as you want.

Commonly, PMU artists give away care bags full of skincare goodies after their client’s service. You can hand out a gift bag after a new client’s first service, around a holiday or any time you choose.

The same is true for any gift, not just skincare products related to your PMU service. You can hand out coupons, discounts or information about receiving a percent or dollar amount off on their next PMU service with a referral.

Contests are a fun way to engage your online audience and give them a really memorable experience at the same time. Depending on the contest, you can even fulfill some business needs while marketing. Take caption or logo contests as an example.

With a “Caption My Photo” contest, you can increase your online community engagement by posting a picture and asking your followers to submit clever or funny captions. You don’t even have to choose the winner. Encourage more participation by asking your followers to vote for their favorite.

A picture contest works a bit like a caption contest, except instead of your followers captioning a photo you upload, you ask them to submit their own photos showing off their permanent makeup.

If you’re looking to create or redo your logo, you can accomplish the task while creating a fun activity for your audience by asking them to submit ideas. You could choose the winner or ask for votes to decide.

Your client might love having their name entered into a raffle drawing for the chance to win a prize after booking an appointment with you. Knowing this before they book could be what converts a potential client into a booked one.

Surveys can be tied into giveaways or raffles. For completing a survey, your client could be sure to receive a gift, gift card or their name entered into a raffle drawing. They win a gift, and you win valuable feedback.

Just like Shoe Carnival has a wheel that customers can spin to win discounts, you can implement a similar game where the prizes or discounts for your clients are a fun game of chance.

Giveaways: Fun for All and Functional for You

Your giveaways and contests will have your clients and online followers feeling like superstars getting swag bags backstage at the Oscars. Not only that, but those gifts can do double-duty to market your PMU business and triple-duty if you use them to fulfill business needs like creating a new logo or bringing in more online followers. Use your imagination and the expertise of your beauty marketing agency to test out different giveaways and contests for your clients and potential clients.

Highstoke Media Network

HSM Network

 

Highstoke Media NetworkGetting ahead of the game today requires businesses to be able to adapt to a world marked by innovation and change.

Taking a step back, evaluating what has been done, and figuring out where you want to go is essential for any organization. Changes are here and we are excited to share them with you.

This year, Highstoke Media has faced a substantial growth and we have taken time to understand our role in the beauty industry and what we intend to achieve.

We have realized that the scope of our business project has far exceeded our expectations. As time went on, it became more clear to us that our mission is to walk alongside not only with Permanent Make up artists but business owners of the beauty industry and help them to make their dreams come true.

First, our mission was focused on worldwide PMU artists but now we want to help all beauty professionals to build and expand their business while they impact their community.

The Beauty Growth Network  

Since we understand that community makes all the difference, we are here to introduce you to Highstoke Media Network, an online community for beauty entrepreneurs and professionals, a place where their questions are answered and they can feel part of something bigger.

Highstoke Media is on a mission to create a community of beauty professionals where they can learn about how to take advantage of their potential and define their own definition of success.

We are here to provide valuable information and inspire action through the content we are creating. Highstoke Media is here to support entrepreneurs who are chasing their dreams. We are here to grow together.

Our goal with the Highstoke Media Network is to support beauty professionals by providing them with a safe environment that not only allows them to find new clients but also where they can feel confident and  can discover all the tools and information they need.

Highstoke Media Network

Our Program: Brow Clients on Demand Plus

Over time we are seeking to develop programs that facilitate the objectives set by the beauty professionals. That is why we are proud of our first program focused on Permanent Makeup artists. Brow Clients on Demand Plus (BOCD+) offers PMU artists a method to get more paying clients with guaranteed bookings. This program handles both the marketing (directing dream clients your way) and  sales (booking appointments, closing deals, and directing deposits in your bank account). 

This is just the beginning of all the great things we have planned for this year. Stay tuned. for more announcements.

How to make your PMU clients trust in your business?

How to make your PMU clients trust in your business

How to make your PMU clients trust in your businessNowadays, in the beauty world, the relationship of trust between the specialist and the client must be fostered and strengthened with high standards. Because when we talk about beauty, we can evoke the relationship that exists between self-image and self-esteem. 

Therefore, as a PMU artist, you must provide your client the sufficient confidence and security so that they can continue in this self-construction process.

Don’t forget that when a client is happy and satisfied with the process and results are obtained, they’ll be a recurring client. Trust is everything!

As your PMU Growth Partner, we want to give you some advice, which we gathered from our top performing artists to build trust with your clients: 

  • Communicate effectively

It is a clue to have effective communication with your clients. We suggest a simple question to gather information: What would you like to know if you were going to have the procedure yourself? 

Sharing information with your client is one way to create trust and confidence. Don’t forget to explain what you are going to do. Keep your client informed. 

  • Always be honest

The relationship that you will create as a PMU artist is professional. However, you must acknowledge your client as an individual with feelings and concerns and not just as a paycheck. 

Be very clear about your experience and education as a PMU artist, your skills, and your commitments with the client.

  • Be professional

The client needs to trust and rely on you as a PMU expert. Therefore, even though it may be uncomfortable, you should be able to clearly share your honest and professional opinion, with tact and diplomacy.. Be honest and upfront, but always kind.

How to make your PMU clients trust in your business

  • Be more human on social media

Showing your work on different social networks can help you build visibility. Don’t forget that you should engage with followers (potential clients) and show yourself as an open person. Posting images, speaking to your clients, or updating them with news and information can help create a closer relationship. 

  • Don’t forget to be available 

Make sure that your PMU business is available to your clients in some way. Provide multiple lines of contact, like an email and a phone number to communicate to clients that you’re accessible.

We hope these tips can work for you to improve the relationship with your clients and be the number one option for them. 

If you have difficulty getting clients, don’t worry, we will help you with this! You can send us an email at  hello@highstoke-media.com 

Tips to improve your Brand awareness

Brand awareness

Brand awareness refers to people’s ability to recall and recognize your business. It helps your brand to become the top-of-mind of your audience.

It also helps to become familiar, and in the end, if you work on your brand awareness, you will get clients easier. Why?  Because when clients are facing a buying decision, they are more likely to buy from you.

Brand awareness also encourages you to achieve your objectives and goals. It can expand your audience, increase website traffic, and cultivate leads. 

How to create brand awareness? Let’s talk more about how to increase your brand awareness in the PMU business. 

1. Create a custom hashtag for Instagram.

Hashtags are an important part of all social media communication. If you have your own hashtag, it will start spreading and your brand will reach more people. When you click on the hashtag, people will find all the information you have created for them. The hashtag will be representing your brand. Be careful about choosing your #. 

Brand awareness2. Participate in sponsor local events

Get attention without spending a lot: increase your visibility in the beauty community by sponsoring local organizations and events. Events will give you a chance to showcase your logo and other visual content on the event’s fliers, website, and at the event itself. This exposure can be priceless for setting that seed in the consumer’s mind.

3. Post regularly to social media

Now beauty customers are connected to social networks. Faces are stock on the screen and the best way to approach them is by creating content for them. We recommend choosing your ideal social media platform and creating a plan for a week’s worth of posts. 

Would you like to have some ideas for taking better photos and level up your social networks? Check out our post https://highstoke-media.com/how-to-take-better-brow-pictures-for-your-business/

4. Run display ads. At highstoke Media we can help you to achieve your goals. Brand awareness

With personalized ads, you can capture the attention of a customized audience in the beauty market, build brand awareness, drive traffic, and convert potential leads into clients. You can create campaigns at scale to reach more viewers. 

Have you found this information useful? Highstoke Media loves working with PMU artists.

See you in another post.