5 Reasons Why a Salons Blog Sucks
Just because you heard that blogging is the latest craze doesn’t mean you should just jump right in. Although blogging the right way can substantially help your search engine results and generate new business; doing it the wrong way leads to a waste of time and lots of frustration. If you’re going to do something half-assed or improperly, you might as well focus your time and energy on something that’ll increase your income; like booking more appointments.
Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, let me cover my 4 reasons for why a salon owners should avoid blogging;
1. You’re a Terrible Writer
Not much else I need to say there. If you’re blogging to cram a bunch of keywords for your hair salon or spa onto your website and hope to get ranked… well you’re doing it wrong. Also realize that sarcasm does not convey very well through blogging so as a general rule stay away from it. If you were terrible at writing essays in High School and College; then your best bet is to leave the blogging to someone else. Odds are you have someone working for you that actually has this hidden skillset. Use them instead. But please avoid littering the Internet with more terrible writing. The only press you’ll get is bad press.
2. Inconsistency and Lack of Time
Let’s face it; you own a salon and you’re an extremely busy person. Putting content together to write out isn’t exactly a piece of cake. There’s some thought that needs to go into this kinda stuff. The worst thing you can do is put out content inconsistently and in an untimely fashion. Anyone that has perused through the Internet has seen a website with a blog, only to click on it and see the last article was written 2 years ago. Don’t Be That Person! It’s like going to Macy’s and seeing designs from 2 years ago still on the shelf (at full price mind you).
Which brings me to my next point;
3. You’re Content… It Sucks
Time after time in different industries we see people “write content” which has no appeal to the customers they’re writing to. Always remember who your audience is and every once in a while maybe, just maybe it would be a good idea for you to talk to your customers and see what kind of stuff they’d like to read.
Your audience is probably interested in the latest local hair trends, your insight on specific products (not the ones the distributor gave you) and generally funny stories are always a home run. If you have no idea where to start; an easy place would be current events in and out of your salon. Is there a big holiday coming up? Did you just hire a new team member? Are you taking out your team to celebrate? Take pictures. Lots of pictures. People love those digital images. Throw in a caption or two and you’re on your way to success.
4. You’re Selling Too Hard
One of the easiest pitfalls to fall into is spending time writing about how amazing you and the people at your salon are, and how great the prices are in comparison to the competitor, and how the guy down the street uses the cheap hair coloring kit but you don’t. Stay away from it. Stay away from overdoing it. People aren’t coming to your blog to get a sales pitch. They’re coming in to be entertained. The first time someone determines whether they like a blog or not will also determine if they’re ever coming back. You can get away with a dull post every once in a while, but crappy posts will end your blogging career. Your business is relationship oriented. The best sales technique you can use is building a connection with your customers.
5. It’s a Tough Tough World Out There
For all the bad blogs I’ve seen salons put up (or should I say; litter the Internet with), I’ve seen some good ones as well. The challenge is that depending on your area, and the general population around you, your consumers may not be blog readers at all. Not that they aren’t interested in reading about the beauty industry, but more so that there’s a lot of high level content already out there. The beauty industry is highly competitive, and there’s a lot of money to be made. You have large corporations and organizations coming out with all kinds of content to draw in these customers. One of the best advantages you have is your connection with your customers. Realistically speaking, unless you have a phenomenal writer available; the area you can make the most impact in today’s world is Social Media. I’ll have to type an entire post about the how’s and what’s of social media when it comes to the salon industry. It’s definitely the most effective way to stay in front of your customers and a much easier way of getting tons of new client referrals.
In the mean time, don’t forget us for your salon website and marketing needs! Until next time my friends!
By Ali Mirdamadi