How to Create Your 2018 Hair Business Digital Marketing Plan

Do you Have a Plan?

Marketing is a term that is used so loosely these days.

It does not surprise me when someone starts to indicate that their social media platforms are their marketing plans. Let me save you some time, social media cannot be and never will be a marketing plan. It is a tool.

Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way let’s talk digital marketing plans. A digital marketing plan is a series of actions that you take to help you reach your marketing goal. These actions are all done using the internet and mobile technology to reach your consumer.

Keep reading for the seven steps you need to create a digital marketing plan for your hair business.

Step 1: Know What You Want

While your website is a part of your business, you should realize that focusing on creating a great site will not get you the customers.

Keep that in mind because the website itself cannot be the only thing you focus on. It is essential to know what you want for your business as a whole. Take your mission statement and nail down what and where you want to be as a company in the next five years.

Then turn to your digital marketing strategy and create its objective based on where you want to be in 12 months. This 12-month plan will contribute to your five-year plan but give you actionable steps to complete in a realistic time frame.

Your objective should be something like this:

I want my brand to be the go-to online retailer for 3D Mink Lash Strips in Memphis, Tennessee.

Be specific and concise. This is what will help you to flesh out the rest of your plan.

Key Performance Indicators

Now that your objective is set it’s time to measure your Key Performance Indicators or KPIs.

KPI is a measurable value that shows how a company is meeting performance objectives. You want to measure them after you have set your digital marketing goals so that you have a baseline.

After you have measured your KPIs look at the different resources, you have available to help you measure your them going forward.

For example:

• Instagram Insights can help you to measure engagement.
• Google Analytics can help your measure website conversion.
• Podtrac can help you to measure podcast analytics.

There are a ton of other free analytics tools that can help you to get all of the information you need to measure your brand’s reach and start your digital marketing plan.

You want to start off measuring the below metrics:

Traffic

the number of visitors to your site.

Contacts

visitors who have filled out an information form giving you their contact information.

Customers

contacts who have purchased from your site

Referrals

the customers who are most likely to tell other potential customers about your hair and beauty products. Use this number to identify who would be less likely to refer customers because they may need an extra incentive before becoming your street team!

After obtaining your baseline here’s a simple KPI template for you to steal to help you formally write your digital marketing plan objective.: (Insert goal, e.g. ‘Increase traffic’) by (insert figure)% in (insert number of months).

Step 2: Get the Right Offer to Your Best Customers

Be specific when it comes to thinking about your customer(s). As a business, you cannot serve everyone.

The easiest way to be successful is to put each type of customer you may attract into separate groups. Then, analyze each group individually and determine which group is most likely to be your best customer. The word “best” makes this process subjective.

Think about whether you want customers who come to you once a year with huge orders of hair, edge control, and lashes or customers four times a year with smaller orders of 3 to 6 bundles and two pairs of lashes.

Remember, the customer making smaller orders has the potential to come back more frequently! So, depending on the order size, one of these two customers may be spending more in your store. And it may not be the first customer that comes to mind! Study these customer types when you are creating your offers to ensure that you are catering to the customer type that gives you the most profit.

Three Ways to Divide your Customer Base

1. Segments:

Customer segmentation is best if you consider dividing your customers by age, geographic location, or what brought them to your site.

If your customers are funneling in because you posted an advertisement specifying a three bundle deal, then you need to know that. You are probably asking why, if the ad works, it works, right? WRONG! The customer who buys typically five sets of lashes may not have clicked on the add and belongs in a different group.

Remember you are making these groups to serve the same type of people better.

2. Personas:

Creating a customer persona enables you to get to know your ideal customer a little better.

They are fictional profiles of people that represent your target segments. You could use your segments to create this person. Think of it as breaking downs your segments into a more detailed group.

Give your personas them a name, age, gender, psychological traits, and characteristics. Write down how they act, what they spend their money on, their profession, goals, skills, attitudes, and environment. Be sure to note whether they keep up with the latest beauty trends, or if they do the bare minimum to look presentable because things this will matter when it comes time to consider how much money you want to funnel into recruiting these types of personas as customers.

Do not skimp on their living circumstances and their workplace. Details create a fictional picture of your target customer that feels real.

Personas help you to get to know your customer and create a digital marketing plan that will penetrate their everyday life.

3. Lifecycle stages:

Keep track of when you first meet your customers.

Realize that your digital marketing plan has to impact people who are not only just finding out about your hair business, but also the people who have known about your business or been shopping with you since you have started.

You will not reach these people in the same ways so separate them.

Step 3: Make Sure YOUR Ideal Customer Can Find You

The whole purpose of a digital marketing plan is to convert the visitor to your website into a repeat customer or at the very least a profitable customer.

Your website is the converter. Nevertheless, before you can convert anything you need to have traffic going to your page. Your advertising is what increase is the traffic to your converter.

Traditional advertising is just not cutting it anymore. To be effective, you need to pop up in the world of your consumer organically. The best way to achieve this is to participate in paid advertising.

Some of the best advertising tactics include:

Retargeting:

show ads to visitors who have left your site and have not been converted to a customer yet.

Social Media/Social Advertising:

curate content from other people in the hair industry like wig makers or famous hairstylists on your IG feed to attract more visitors. Create on facebook add to get more clicks to your site.

Influencer Marketing:

Provide a guest post to a blog that is in the fashion and beauty realm! Use their influence to give your brand another platform to live on.

Email Marketing:

Build an email list and share information like a new product or sale with these customers directly in their inbox!

Step 4: Create a Simple Website

Did you know that a conversion rate from 2% to 3% is a 50% increase in sales? Yes, 1%. 1% is very attainable, but a lot of people forfeit that 1% when they create a website that is too complicated or flooded with unusual design elements.

I'm sorry to tell you, but all the money that you spend on your website results in a customer interaction of maybe two or three seconds. After that small amount of time, the customer decides whether or not they're going to purchase from you. Meaning, you need to ensure that the copy on your website is simple and enticing!

For instance, a phrase like "Real Virgin Hair Extensions Starting at $45 !" will let the customer many things. From that one sentence, they will: know that the hair they're purchasing after clicking on that link is authentic, they can color it, and it's relatively inexpensive. You said all of that in 7 words. It's when you start using flying headers and too many pop-ups along with various images that your customer gets confused.

That confusion will cause them to turn away from your site to buy from a competitor with a cleaner aesthetic.

Step 5: Use The Right Technology

The technology that you use to help implement your digital marketing plan is going to vary.

The amount of money you invest in your tools will depend on how much money you want to spend on marketing as a whole and where your business is at in regards to human resources.

As a small hair business, you may want to stick with tools like Squarespace for your website. Google Analytics is a fantastic option to help track traffic, and MailChimp should be the go-to help you send out email blasts and create campaign newsletters.

All of these tools are reasonably priced with different packages to accommodate you as you grow your business.

Step 6: Set SMART Goals

Most people are aware of the SMART goal setting model.

Specific –

Get Specific with your numbers as far as traffic, customer, and referral goals. Also, set a date to hold yourself accountable to that progress.

Measurable –

Track your goals!

Attainable –

Look at the segments you have created to make sure your customers can help you to reach your set goals.

Realistic –

Compare your brand's previous numbers to your goals an ensure that the digital marketing plan you have set in motion can happen. There is nothing wrong with going back and tweaking your numbers to ensure you meet your sales objective.

Time-bound –

Have regular check-ins (monthly is frequent enough) or benchmarks so you can make sure that you are on track. Take this time to evaluate and edit the parts of your marketing plan that may or may not be working!

Remember that you need to think about your full customer experience! From the introduction and the beginning of the funnel engagement to customer success, sales, and referral goals.

Step 7: Get Help

The road to making a website-visitor your brand-consumer is a long one.

All of the efforts that go into converting this one person can be very time-consuming. Even when it comes to segmenting your customer base, you might want to ask your employees or family members who are attracted to your hair or business model why they're attracted to it. These answers will help you create your personas!

Remember, it's okay to ask for help, to look for inspiration in other businesses, and get ideas from your target audience when it comes to pushing your digital marketing plan forward.

Even taking the time to meet with a couple of consultants can get you started in the right direction and help you make use of all of your time. You want to ensure that everything you are doing to put this plan together is working towards your goal of getting sales.

So, do not feel ashamed to ask for help!

Technology Runs The World

When it comes to marketing your brand to a customer is it imperative that you meet them where they are.

Because people are spending more and more time on their phones digital marketing strategies are an essential means of reaching new and existing customers. A digital marketing strategy allows you to study your potential customer, and tailor your outreach tactics so that they respond favorably.

How have you achieved more sales digitally in 2018? Comment on your progress below.