Phorest FM Episode 111: Kati Whitledge On Creating Digital Sales Funnels To Drive New Clients To Your Salon

Killian Vigna: Welcome to the Phorest FM podcast, episode 111. I’m Killian Vigna.

Zoe Belisle-Springer: And I’m Zoe Belisle-Springer. Companies outside the beauty industry are spending millions on digital sales funnel processes, to capture new leads and turn them into lifelong clients. But who is doing this for the beauty industry? This week on the show, we’re joined by Kati Whitledge; entrepreneur, speaker, author and podcaster, to discuss the topic.

Killian Vigna: So grab yourself a cup of coffee, sit back, relax and join us weekly for all your salon’s business and marketing needs. Good morning, Zoe.

Zoe Belisle-Springer: Good morning, Killian. How are things?

Killian Vigna: Good now. So week two of this exciting campaign.

Zoe Belisle-Springer: Yes, #30Days2Grow, and two weeks out of the Salon Owners Summit Roadshow.

Killian Vigna: There’s just so much going on, yeah!

Zoe Belisle-Springer: I know, yeah. I’m feeling the learning mindset here. I think we should rebrand April as the learning month, or something.

Killian Vigna: The more you know, the more you grow! That’s what we always say in education.

Zoe Belisle-Springer: Yeah, well listen. Speaking of that, what’s the last book you finished? I know we haven’t chatted about this in a few episodes so that it might lead us into this episode quite nicely.

Killian Vigna: It’s probably good timing too, because the first time we started talking about what books we’re reading… I’ve just finished that one book. I’m a slow learner. It takes me a while to get through books, but I was reading “Shoe Dog,” which is the autobiography of Nike’s founder, Phil Knight, so I suppose one of those icons where no one ever really knew anything about, he finally released a book there a couple of years ago.

I know our Head of Marketing had read it and recommended it. Two years later, I decided to give it a bash myself, but a very good book. Now I’m moving on to doing… I’m putting the books aside, parking them for a bit, and I’m going to do some online courses around e-learning development, and just structuring training, and things like those.

Zoe Belisle-Springer: Yeah, well it ties into your role in Phorest, yeah. On my side, what have I been reading? “Blink” by Malcolm Gladwell. A lot of people know him for “The Tipping Point” or “Outliers.” He’s a really, really great storyteller. He’s been writing for the New York Times for quite a bit, and Blink is all about the power of thinking without thinking – so how instincts work, why you should trust it more, how sometimes trying to analyse our instinctive thoughts and reactions is actually counter-effective, and would negatively impact the results that we actually have.

So yeah, what made the book so interesting for me is the amount of research that was put into it. It’s not necessarily something you should build your business on, you know, instinct, but what he says at the end is “we’re drowning in knowledge and information, but we desperately lack in understanding ,” which I think is very true.

Introducing Kati Whitledge [02:44]

Zoe Belisle-Springer: But yeah, so I suppose if we refocus on today, we’re up for a lot of learning too here and joining us on the show we have Kati Whitledge, here to share with us how to create digital sales funnels for a salon without adding to our marketing budget.

Killian Vigna: Welcome to the show, Kati.

Kati Whitledge: Well, thank you. It’s so great to be here with both of you.

Zoe Belisle-Springer: Delighted to have you on! Absolutely.

Killian Vigna: Yeah. Just before we kick off the show, only because we’ve shared our books Kati, any learning you’ve got going on? I suppose it would be rude not to ask Kati, wouldn’t it?

Kati Whitledge: Hey. Readers are leaders, right? So there are about four books that I read at a time, but I really would recommend “Never Split the Difference,” and it’s about negotiating as if your life depended on it, and it’s by Chris Voss, and it’s been mind-blowing for me, in regard to your ability to negotiate, whether it’s negotiating with your child to go to bed when they’re supposed to, or a massive lease deal for a new salon location, so I would highly recommend that book. “Never Split the Difference.”

Killian Vigna: It’s interesting you say that, because someone just linked that book last week in working in our Slack channel, and I’ve added it straight to my Audible, so I haven’t known anyone that read it, so good to know that it’s one worth checking out.

Kati Whitledge: Oh, yeah! He’s so good.

Killian Vigna: So what about your other books then? Four books at the same time?

Kati Whitledge: Yeah, so “Leaders Eat Last” by Simon Sinek.

Zoe Belisle-Springer: Oh, I love Simon, yeah. He’s really good.

Kati Whitledge: So good. Have you heard of “Atomic Habits”?

Zoe Belisle-Springer: I have not, no.

Killian Vigna: No, no.

Kati Whitledge: By James Clear. I love it because it kind of takes the compound effect one step further, of how to be consistent in anything you want to achieve on an ongoing basis. How to really make habits stick, and then always, always, not sure if everybody’s onboard for this, but always open the bible, and start the day seeking God first, so that’s my fourth, and actually the first one of the day.

Killian Vigna: I’d say that’s a book you can go back to regularly, as well, so it’s one that’s always there for you, is it?

Kati Whitledge: Yeah.

Zoe Belisle-Springer: Well listen, Kati, most would already be quite familiar with at least your very own podcast, Beyond The Technique, or know about Meet Your Stylist, the marketing tool. You’re also a salon owner. You opened your salon in 2010, and you’ve gone through three expansions in eight years, which is no small feat.

Before we dive into today’s topic, what’s one thing that people might not know about you?

Kati Whitledge: What they might not know about me is I’ve actually always had another job on the side. I actually work one day a week teaching a power-up class at a local yoga studio. It’s like – why don’t I take up one more thing just so I could have five jobs? But it’s always just been a super fun thing I’ve done since college, and people might know that about me, but it combines my love for music and fitness, and why not do something that I can lead, and helps keep me accountable to my health and wellness?

Killian Vigna: Do you have something we don’t know about where you get more hours in the day, or you have more days in the week? Because we’ve already just listed off a load of things that you do, and then you’ve got the yoga on top!

Kati Whitledge: One class a week, and it’s one of those things that at this point, I don’t have to really do much besides show up. I prepare a little playlist, but that’s fun because it’s music, so to me, it’s not work. It’s actually more of a hobby. I just happen to get paid to do it one time a week, you know? So yeah.

What are digital sales funnels? [06:15]

Killian Vigna: Cool. So in this episode, we’re focusing on creating a digital sales funnel to drive new clients. Kati, what exactly do we mean by creating a sales funnel here?

Kati Whitledge: So I want everybody to imagine an actual funnel, okay, and at the top of the funnel is awareness. People have to know that your brand exists. Maybe they don’t even know that “Oh man, this salon’s located on this street. I hadn’t even heard of that salon before.” And it’s astonishing to me, after almost nine years, that people still haven’t heard of our salon, so awareness is that top of the funnel. People have to know you exist.

The next part of the funnel, and really what a funnel is, is taking people through this path of knowing about you, and then becoming a client, and a repeat client. So it starts with knowing about you, then you have to create interest. People have to become interested in your brand. Then they’ll decide, “Do I feel like they value what I value?” You make the decision on whether you’re going to take action, become a first time client. That’s the next piece of the funnel.

Then it’s action, so this is the actual sale. They come in, they do business with you, and then part of the funnel that a lot of people forget is repeat business. So we take them through our funnel, we get them to become a customer, but we can’t forget their repeat buy, and so this is what a sales funnel is. It goes from awareness to ultimately becoming a long-term client.

The cost of using digital sales funnels for your salon or spa [07:45]

Zoe Belisle-Springer: And if you’re working on attracting new clients, a lot of times people think new clients means a lot of budget put into that, and research actually shows that it is actually cost-effective to focus on client retentions, and on that repeat, you were saying… with these funnels, you’re still saying that you can always work within… without digging too much into your marketing budget. How is that?

Kati Whitledge: So you’re going to take what you’re already doing with your marketing budget, and be super intentional with it. So there are things that we already do, and that we’re not aware is a funnel. An example of this non-digitally is, let’s say you show up to an expo in your area. You have a trade show that you’re a part of, maybe a women’s expo, or maybe a bridal expo, and at your booth people become aware of your brand, you try to engage with them so that there’s an interest for them to consider buying from you, and you do that by maybe bringing them into your booth, and offering them a chance to sign up to win their bridal services at your salon.

So of course, they’re entering their information, and now you’re able to reach out to them and start building a relationship with them, and maybe they are the winner, maybe they didn’t with the package that you’re offering at that booth, but they win a complimentary trial, then they have to decide, “Yeah, I want to try to experience that.”

Then they come in, they take action and come into your salon, and then that’s the opportunity for them to continue to buy. Maybe they go from that trial to actually booking their whole wedding party with you. We don’t realise that sales funnels have always been around, it’s just now we’re converting these models into digital platforms, and so what I’m saying with budget is that you don’t have to spend more, you have to be strategic with the spend allowance you do have, and how can we teach people to do that?

Killian Vigna: So the way you’ve just explained a sales funnel there, it doesn’t seem as complicated as it sounds. It seems quite straightforward and that we’re doing this already. What’s the initial reaction when you say to salon owners, “We’re going to create a sales funnel.” Is there a bit of a standoff, or what’s this whole new process?

Kati Whitledge: People tend to have heard of sales funnels, but they don’t really know what it means, because no one is teaching salon owners about this. That’s a huge mission on my end, is to help them, because this is happening to us all the time, and we just don’t know it.

So one of the homework assignments I’ve given to a salon that I coached recently, is I said, “I want you to screenshot every compelling post that you actually click on it. What made you click? What about that?” And then notice that you are entering into somebody’s sales funnel process, so this could be if we’re attracted to those videos of “Which bra is the best fit for my body?” It’s like, “Oh man, I want to know.”

And so what are those things that we’re attracted to, and then we’re entering our info to get into somebody’s sales funnel. So it’s happening all the time to us. It is easier than people think. I think it’s just a matter of awareness for the salon, that whoa, this could be a huge part of our strategy if we just knew where to start.

Implementing digital sales funnels: the first steps [11:12]

Zoe Belisle-Springer: Well, I suppose speaking about that, what is involved in creating one? Where do you start?

Kati Whitledge: So the first place to start is thinking about, first and foremost, are people aware that you exist? So if you feel like… and this is especially important for newer salons, because you may think you have this awesome presence on Instagram, but maybe your target market is still predominantly on Facebook, depending on the demographic, and so maybe it starts with just a post that you put a few funds behind, that just speaks about the brand, and I’ll give you an example.

When we opened our third… so we expanded three times, and it was our new location. It was not our third location, but when we opened our new location, I ran a Facebook ad promoting the fact that we are new at this location, and I did a little video of photos inside the salon, our team, the location, because even though we have a pretty good following about our brand, this is a whole new opportunity to tap into that area that we moved into.

We were less than three miles away from our old location, yet we were in a totally new market. We were about one block away from a different suburb of our area, and so it was just a really great opportunity to create awareness, and that post did so well, and as a result, that first month we had a great influx of new clients, and we typically work on different strategies of the sales funnel throughout every single month.

But starting with awareness could be the first step. Another way that you could create a sales funnel for your salon is potentially the decision aspect. So people are already aware of your salon, and yeah, there’s some general interest, because there’s a couple of things that you do that nobody else does, so we really want to market those niche services.

An example would be posting about the fact that you help with naturally curly hair. When somebody can work with your naturally curly hair, you will stick with them for life, because it’s so challenging to find someone who understands that curl pattern, the texture itself. If you create a post that helps them make a decision to come into your salon, and that could be as simple as saying, “Hey, have you struggled to find someone who works really well with naturally curly hair? We totally understand. That’s why we are…” and then you go into your solution.

And so then you are creating this interest around the fact that you have something special, and this could be the determining factor for somebody coming in. Now, the whole point of a sales funnel is to engage, attract and convert people into clients who become lifelong clients.

So as you mentioned, I am the creator and CEO of Meet Your Stylist, so I think that as far as a sales funnel of attracting people into making a decision, how can you make something all about them? So if I take that same post and say, “Hey, are you struggling to find somebody who works with naturally curly hair? We totally understand, and that’s why we have the opportunity for you to take a survey to find out which of our curly specialist stylists are the right fit for you. Click here to see your salon soulmate.”

So now I’m engaging with them. It’s something about them, they click on the link, they take the survey, and here’s the power to this. When you take the survey, you’re actually entering your information, so now the salon has captured this lead, similar to what we do on the posts that we click on. We enter, like, “Yeah, I want to get that free guide to bettering my [inaudible 00:15:08].” So I put my information in, and boom, I get something out of it.

Generating engagement, real-life scenario: example 1 [15:13]

Kati Whitledge: And for us, it helps then create that engagement, that emotional connection, and now I’ve captured that lead, so if they’re not ready to buy today, I can market to them until they are ready to buy, and then the insurance plan of this strategy is that because they’re matched with the right stylist based on values, lifestyle, personality profiling, and of course logistics, now we are ensuring that they become a repeat client.

So for us, Meet Your Stylist is sprinkled into all of our digital sales strategies. However, you can do this in multiple different ways. You can do with this your- but I would highly recommend regardless, whatever your plan is, you have to really set yourself apart and think about what your salon’s unique selling proposition is, and market the crap out of that.

So if you visit beyondthetechnique.com right now, you can download a free guide in hiring. If then, you want to buy the actual full book, Build Your Best Team This Year, you can shop and invest $10 in that book, and that’s kind of… and I didn’t want to get too into this, but that’s where digital sales funnels, and then value adders have a marriage with one another.

So you start with this free thing that gets awareness and interest, and then you take them up your value ladder. For every step of the ladder, it costs more, but they get more value out of it. So eventually they buy the book, and then the next step is they join group masterminds investing in group mastermind meetings, and then the next step is one-on-one coaching, and then the next step up is hiring them for a keynote talk, or a salon workshop, so outside of the salon industry, that’s an example of starting with the funnel to get them in, and getting them to take action, and then growing their… I guess that repeat client, by growing their ability to do business with you, but as you increase prices, you always want to increase value.

So I don’t want to get too technical with that, but if that’s helpful, I think that’s so powerful, to think about how to combine those two elements.

Killian Vigna: Yeah, it’s a really good way of putting it, especially the way you demonstrated your own funnel that you have there with the e-books. Providing value, that is the main thing here. It’s not necessarily that you’re paying a fortune for online ads. You’re offering something free, and you’re getting someone hooked on your service, that’s going to make them want to come back to you.

Real-life scenario: example 2 [17:51]

Kati Whitledge: And another option for salons, think about this. What if you offered a free tutorial people could watch, maybe it’s your own salon, a Facebook Live page, and you promote, “Hey, join us here for free, and we’re going to showcase how to curl your hair with a flat iron. How do you create those beachy waves with a flat iron?” So everybody gets to engage with your salon for free.

Then during your live video, you say, “Hey, if you want to come in and have hands-on, one-on-one with us at our salon, we’re going to give you this flat iron that I’ve used today, totally part of you coming in. We have a one-time event; you can join. It’s just $97, and you get all of these special things that I’ve used today. You get the trial size of all of these products, you get this flat iron, and you get one-on-one with your stylist.”

Now they come in, they sign up for this class, it’s $97, and now the opportunity is, “Hey, you came in, awesome. Guess what? Today, if you schedule your colour and haircut with us, you get all of these things complementary,” or whatever it is, but that’s an example of how you can take someone through a value ladder by using the digital sales funnel with the process to begin.

And you always want to think about what matters to your client. It’s not about what you think is cool at your salon, that you wish everybody would think is cool, it’s like what do our clients actually care about? And how can we serve them, and then take them through the value ladder process of doing more and more business with us?

Killian Vigna: That’s an amazing example you gave there, because not only are you doing a live Facebook or a live webinar where you’re demonstrating hair curling, and you’re offering a product, you’ve actually just showcased your staff members’ skills, so it’s similar to what you were saying about your app, where now I’m looking at that going, “That’s the stylist that I want, because they can… well, I don’t have curls, but they could fix my hair anyway.”
Zoe Belisle-Springer: But I totally relate to that, because before I chopped off most of my hair… yeah, my hair is technically curly, and I had the hardest time finding someone, and it’s true. When you do find that one person, you tend to just stick with that person, so yeah. It’s very powerful.

Killian Vigna: It’s like window shopping. When you’re going to a new salon, you don’t know what their staff are like. You don’t know what sort of job they’re going to do. The only thing you see, if you’re lucky, is that they might have an online bio of their skills and qualifications.

I know for me walking into a barber’s, there’s nothing like that, so if I could go to their Facebook page, and see videos of them in action, that’s going to buy me. That’s going to hook me in.

Real-life scenario: example 3 [20:36]

Zoe Belisle-Springer: I’m really digging these examples. Do you have maybe one or two more examples of a salon-specific sales funnel that someone could get into, to begin with?

Kati Whitledge: So what’s one thing that you could possibly do, starting today, and that would be as simple as taking one of your niche services, so maybe you’re the only salon in your area that balayages… let’s say it does a sunlights balayage strategy, and what sets that apart from everybody else’s colour? Because clients don’t know unless we share those special perks, and so we create… and I love that you brought the video, if you saw a video, if you saw that happen, you would be more likely to come in because video is becoming king.
So if there’s a way you can start videotaping just the experience, and this doesn’t have to cost a ton, you can take your iPhone and create a free video of a guest’s experience, and utilise your best guest for this. So let’s say your guest is Samantha, and you say, “Hey Samantha. I know you’re coming in for balayage this Thursday. Would you be okay if we videotaped some of your experience because we want to utilise this on social media to help other people realise that this is so our jam.”

And she says, “Yeah, that would be awesome.” Okay, great. So Samantha’s on board. Not only are you going to be featuring something exceptional that you can start posting about, and I’m going to get to, then, what the next step is, but you also have somebody who’s going to become an ambassador for you, because Samantha’s going to be thrilled to share that everywhere, and she becomes a voice for your brand, so you create that content, you put it out there, but now the key component is what’s your call-to-action?

I think this is missed in a lot of posts that we do. So if everybody could write this down, what action do you want clients to take when they see this post? Regardless if it’s a balayage post, haircut, if it’s a video, if it’s just a really cool educational event your salon had, just always ask yourself what’s in it for them, and what action do you want them to take as a result of seeing this?

So if the next action they take is, “Hey, book during the month of April and receive this special purple shampoo and conditioner set. Book now, and you’ll get all these special things with that.” Now people are more compelled to say, “You know what? I really liked this brand. I haven’t decided to come in, but now that I see this video, and I see this compelling opportunity, I’m now going to take action and come in.”

Now the new client comes in as a result of this offer and this opportunity, and by the way, it’s all value-based; there are no discounts involved at all. It’s all a give a complimentary gift, so now they come in, and now with the next part of your funnel because this is typically where we forget to maintain and nurture that relationship.

“We got the buy, peace out!” Well, no, not really. “Okay great, you’re leaving with a purple shampoo, that’s great, but let’s get you on a plan to… this is my vision for your haircuts.” So we haven’t even talked about that. We got you in for colour, but now what are our other opportunities? “Let’s get you in for haircuts.” Oh, I find out you’re engaged, “Let’s talk bridal.”

“Oh my gosh, you live in a house with three other roommates, let’s get them in.”

Look for those ways to create more of a relationship with the client. Find out what matters to them, and look for the opportunities to continue doing business with them. I don’t know if that’s helpful, that was one example, but I just wanted to share that there’s so much that you can do. Hopefully, this gives you some creative ideas to start with.

Measuring the return on investment [24:30]

Killian Vigna: No, absolutely, and what I like about your ideas is while they’re very impactful, they sound like it could be done ad-hoc. “Alright, we have a client here we could just point and shoot, and we can film it, put something on offer.” For someone that wants to start monitoring and tracking these sale funnels, what’s the best way to plan this out, as opposed to just sitting around a table going, “You know what? Let’s just film someone, demonstrate our skills, and give a free product.”

Is there anything that we can put in place to make sure we can track this, and prove the ROI or the impact of these campaigns, of these sales funnels?

Kati Whitledge: Oh, absolutely, and that’s where that call-to-action comes into play. So if you say, “Mention this special opportunity when you call to book.” Then you can start tracking the people that book, or click-throughs, right? So we have those insights on our digital platform to look at, “Wow. This post,” and often, this could be organic. It doesn’t mean you always have to have a post that you put money behind.

If you do, it’ll perform better if the targets are set up properly, but just an organic post, you can see, “Okay, we had this many people see this post, and we had this many people click through.” And then you can absolutely track that when people are booking.

I think it’s easier when you do spend a little bit, because you’re going to see real results through your business. Let’s say you use Business Manager to put in your posts for Instagram and Facebook, you’re going to see the impact that’s made, and if anybody’s in there, and I know this is going to be hard to think about without visualising this, but if you get people to click-through, and it only costs you about $1 per post, or click-through, that’s a great post.

Another way, and I hate to continue to plug Meet Your Stylist; actually I don’t hate it, I love it. But that’s the power of Meet Your Stylist, in fact that, in my opinion, is the most powerful part of our sales funnel. I can’t even begin to tell you how successful this is for salons, but you need to know your conversion rate, so with having the Meet Your Stylist tool, if that becomes the call to action for absolutely almost every single post, which it could starting today. You’re going to be able to track your conversions from every single person that takes your Meet Your Stylist survey, so it really depends on your sales funnel process, but that call to action is the pivotal moment where you’re going to be able to track conversions based on if people are taking action on what you asked them to take action on. Is that helpful?

Killian Vigna: That’s spot on, and just on the sales funnels that you have crafted with other people, have you come across any industry averages that our listeners could benchmark off of with their click-throughs?

Kati Whitledge: Well industry averages, I can tell you, for Meet Your Stylist, anywhere from 25 to over 50% conversions. That’s not the click-throughs. I have multiple examples because I feel like copy plays a huge role, so part of what I help salon owners with, is if you have a post, how well is it going to do? Well, the copy has a huge part of it.

That first sentence is everything because you get about seven seconds or less to make a first impression on people who are feeling the things that you’re putting out there digitally. The first sentence has to be something that matters to them, that they care about.

And I’ll tell you, people either make decisions and purchase things based on pain or pleasure. Pleasure’s the harder sell. Think about pleasure as taking a vacation; that’s a pleasure buy. Think about pain as: “My washing machine just broke down. I’m going to buy a new one right now because I can’t live like this.”

Copywriting tips for digital sales funnels [28:18]

Kati Whitledge: So it’s that painful buy, but that’s the easier thing to sell, and so if we start off, I always say when it comes to writing copy for anything you’re putting out there for posts, that you really want this post to be a huge connecting point with people, you want to structure it like this.

You start out with the problem, and then you’re going to share the promise that you can provide to solve that problem, and then you’re going to share the process in which you do that, and then finally, the proof. So let’s say the problem is nobody can cut curly hair; you’ve never had a good haircut.

Well, the promise is you’re now going to work with one of the National Educators from the Diva Curl product line, so our process is a dry cutting method where we actually take care of the hair in its natural form, as it would lay normally. Great, and then here’s the proof. Check out this before and after, and read this testimonial from this guest who has had an unbelievable experience with us.

So this is where people become like, “Wow, I’m connected to that problem. I want to then click-through.” Click-throughs will massively depend on your ability to connect with people in your posts. We mentioned we loved Simon Sinek at the beginning of this, so if you think about the why. Start with why.

Why should they care? Why does this matter to them? And you’ll have higher, higher click-throughs. We’ve had organic posts, no money spent on them, that have had 65 clicks on it, and then we’ve had posts that we’ve put money behind where we’ve had over 1000 clicks on those, and it is doing a few things really well.

Talking about your niches, remembering that your message can be said over and over again. You may be bored with promoting the same niche over and over, year after year, but remember, people aren’t. It takes an adult 21 times to remember new information, so no matter what advertising or marketing effort you’re going to put in place, you can do the same thing, sounding like a broken record is a good thing. This is why when we hear, “Just do it,” we think of Nike because they’ve said the same message over and over for years.

And we don’t get old with that brand. It’s fresh, it’s new, and they have yet the same message. I keep going back to curly hair, but if that’s your thing, don’t get bored with it. You’ll have a transient area where people are moving in, moving out. They’ll remember, they’ll know, and it’s like, “Oh yeah. When I think of this salon, I think of sunlights balayage, or I think of Diva Curl, or I think of this stylist, this cutting method.”

There are so many things, but whatever that is for you, don’t be afraid to continue that same message, and absolutely connect through the copy that you write on all of your posts.

Zoe Belisle-Springer: It does help put a strong foundation around your brand, at the end of the day, and listen, you make it sound so easy from all these examples, I’m astonished. Thank you so much for all these insights. It’s been absolutely fantastic.

Beyond The Technique announcement [31:29]

Zoe Belisle-Springer: I suppose two things before we wrap this up. What’s your recommendations or action steps for anyone who would still like to have a bit more guidance on this, and then also, I heard through the grapevine that our own CEO and VP of Product are appearing on Beyond The Technique in a few weeks?

Kati Whitledge: Yes, so I had the pleasure… so Beyond The Technique, this is going to be a two-part answer, so Beyond The Technique is our podcast platform for salon owners, and also education for salon owners and their leadership teams, so we talk about business, marketing, how to level up, management, leadership, all of those amazing aspects of running a salon business, and two parts, so on the Beyond The Technique podcast, we had Ronan and Paddy, who are amazing guests, talk about marketing. If you loved today’s talk, you’re going to love them.

They are going to be episode 240, and that is on April 11th, so please check into that. They are so inspiring and the energy… we just had a ton of fun. More so behind the scenes. We pulled it together and acted professional [inaudible 00:32:29], that was awesome, and then as far as what do you even do?

If you want your marketing team, if you personally want to see visuals of this play out, then absolutely join me on Monday, April 29th at 3:00 pm Eastern time. We are going to be doing this same talk, creating digital sales funnels to get new clients, we’re going to do this as an online class.

You can sign up through beyondthetechnique.com. Just go ahead and click on events, and you’ll see this event listed, and you can register right there. We have 100 attendees available, so please go ahead and do that right away, to reserve your spot, and I look forward to the opportunity to show you more actual visuals of how this can play out for your salon.

And thank you both for reaching out, and offering me this opportunity to join you, because this is so much fun!

Killian Vigna: Kati, it’s been wonderful having you on the show, and thanks so much for joining us today.

Kati Whitledge: Thank you both.

Inside Phorest: reflections, upcoming events & final words [33:27]

Killian Vigna: So that was Kati from Beyond The Technique, on creating digital sales funnels to drive new clients to your salon. She has such a calming aura about her that I actually feel really relaxed, comfortable, and soft-spoken.

And… I suppose it’s time to move on to the second half of the show!

The first thing we’re going to talk about is the Phorest clients’ webinar. So this is to discuss the new Phorest feature, Fallback SMS, and it’s going to take place on April 15th, at 2:00 pm GMT, that’s Irish time. It’s taking place with Andrea Kane, who is our Grow Marketing Advisor, and Rachel McAdam, who is an Online Phorest Trainer here.

So what are they going to be discussing in that webinar? It’s a short 30-minute webinar exploring Phorest’s new feature, Fallback SMS. But also what they’re going to do is they’re going to focus on the new email editor, and show you how to create new email campaigns, and how Fallback SMS compliments that to help you reach all of your clients.

So again, that takes place on April 15th at 2:00 pm GMT, Irish time.

Zoe Belisle-Springer: And then following suit, as usual, we’re going to plug the Salon Mentorship Hub. So the Salon Mentorship hub, if you haven’t heard about it yet, is a place to connect. So whether you’re struggling with retail, or staff management, or customer service, or whatever it is in your salon, we’ve teamed up with coaches and consultants we trust, and we’re going to help you get unstuck, and remove the fear from asking for help.

All you have to do is head over to salonmentors.phorest.com, choose whom you’d like to connect with, and on what topic. Once that’s done, you check your emails, and you book yourself in for a date and time that suits your free 15 to 30-minute consultation, and from there, we’ll follow up with instructions on how everything works, and so will your mentor.

Currently, on the Mentorship Hub, we have Valerie Delforge, Susan Routledge, Danielle Boucher, Richard McCabe, Phil Jackson, Jennifer Swaine, Gloria Murray, David & Nicole Barnett, Stefania Rossi, Katie Lowndes and Susie K Brooks. If you’re looking for any kind of help, or at least a very initial discussion around that to get unstuck, you can head over to salonmentors.phorest.com to book your free consultation, and you do not need to be a Phorest client to avail of this.

Finally, we have the Salon Owners Summit Roadshow coming to Chicago on Monday, April 15th. The conference is from 9:30 am to 5:30 pm, followed by a drinks and networking reception. It’s taking place at the Dalcy, and speaking at this event are Scott Buchanan, Stefanie Jackson, Jay Williams, Neil Ducoff, Marlo Boyle, Heather Yurko and Ann Bray, and for any additional information, or to book your tickets, you can head over to salonownersummit.com/chicago.

And while I hope you enjoyed this episode, that’s all we’ve got for this week, so as always, if you want to share your thoughts on this episode or have any suggestions, send us an email at phorestfm@phorest.com, or leave us a review on Apple Podcasts. We genuinely love feedback and are always looking for ways to improve the show.

Otherwise, have a wonderful week, and we’ll catch you next Monday,

Killian Vigna: All the best.

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