Leave Marketing To The Professionals (Part 2)

(This is the second of a three part series from our Head of Product, Stephen Wiggins, about the struggles of beauty business marketing)

In my last post, I spoke about my online marketing conundrum and the importance of branding. When our company began marketing online, we spoke to marketing experts who said we needed a clear and cohesive message to gain any traction.  So I thought ‘well that’s easy, we sell software so my message is that ProSolutions sells software.’  Looking back, all I can do is shake my head. How naïve!

Running with the idea that we were only selling software, I figured all we needed to do was make sure that if people type “professional salon software” into Google, they would find us.  So our sales team made social media pages and listed our business on various websites throughout the years to help our SEO (search engine optimization). Sure enough, when I took over as lead marketer, I discovered that we could be found on various Google searches not once, not twice, but numerous times pointing to all different websites and social media pages.  Some of these pages and listings had old logos, or forgotten slogans, or ancient imagery… some even had old ownership information!  Further research revealed a lot of dead website links and customer messages that had never been responded to.

I didn’t even know most of these pages and listings even existed, most were forgotten about shortly after they were made and never updated.  This left a complex maze that potential clients would need to navigate to find our ‘real’ website or social media page with accurate information.  These days, the majority of people do their web searches on their phone.  If your online presence isn’t succinct and cohesive, you almost certainly have lost out on a potential customer.

Now I had a daunting task of correcting information, updating online listings and deleting social media pages so I could present our business a manner that was consistent and “on-brand.”  Of course, even if done correctly, this wouldn’t totally solve our online problem because people aren’t interested in a company that is just ‘selling software.’   That type of branding won’t even get someone to see a demonstration! We had to sell our vision.

Of course we aren’t just ‘selling software.’  We are selling ProSolutions, a company with a 15 year average clientele when the national average for small businesses is only 3 years.  We are selling decades of beauty and wellness business experience. We are selling a business partnership that drives revenue, reduces workload and create stability for salons and spas.  We are selling a professional brand built by industry experts and customers, not an equity backed ‘app’ with emojis that prioritizes style over substance.

This was our rebrand: an honest representation of our company to potential customers, clear and cohesive online. In my next and last post, I will discuss how we solved the site listing and social media page quagmire, and completed our online rebrand.