offline help

This is worth more than what I've found in at least half of the WSO's I've read...

Great info!

You may want to get to know her business and where her current sales and profits are coming from.

There are many, many ways to help a business make more sales and profits and you really don't need the "perfect" model...in fact the perfect model won't exist.

Great marketing is about constantly testing and refining what you do to improve on the results you're getting.

What you do want is to work out a way that will not just increase the sales of this buisness but far more important increase the net profits.

With most businesses you can do that by looking at what they're doing already (who their customers are, where they come from, whether they're following up with them or offering them other services, higher priced services or a deal for using the service more frequently or all of these).


With a tanning salon she could:

# 1: Have a website that has an appealing report, video, audio etc. Visitors to the site get to see part of the report or audio and have to subscribe to get the rest.

eg. 7 Insider secrets to getting the best possible tan.

You give them the first 2 secrets then tell them to subscribe to get more.

Also be sure to tell them they'll get an email course too with another 11 secrets or some other compelling information.


# 2: Email autoresponder follow up that sells the various services of the salon and may sell existing clients on signing up for monthly or annual membership deals.

Also the emails are based around giving genuinely valuable information.


# 3: In the tanning salon staff encourage clients and prospects to join the list.

They enter names and addresses manually or give a URL to the sign up page on the website.

Physical visitors to a business are usually by far the best prospects. And obviously existing clients are the best prospects for other products and services.


# 4: You use a variety of methods to link to the website and create traffic...social bookmarking sites, YouTube, forums etc etc.


# 5: On the site consider adding more content pages to attract search engine traffic.

If you have pages with tips, video etc you can also send email subscribers to that content.

A blog has already been mentioned.


# 6: Take photos and/or video testimonials of happy clients and put those on the site along with written transcripts of the testimonials and submit the videos to video sites like YouTube.



And there's a ton of other stuff you could do....SEO, pay per click etc etc etc.

Part of this process is you working out what you can do and then designing something around that skill set or the skill set of partners you can joint venture with or outsource to.

Starting with your own skills makes the process much easier when you're starting out because you're talking about what you know.

Kindest regards,
Andrew Cavanagh

If you want to help this lady out, you have to look at her competition and what they are doing that might be different than what she is doing, like other lines of income from sales of products in addition to the tanning service.

If she doesn't already have a large customer base to get signed up to her auto responder, it' not going to do much to increase business for her.

Tanning isn't all that expensive and the prices are pretty much consistent throughout most areas.

However, most tanning salons offer more than just 15 minutes under UV lights. They sell tanning lotions, bathing suits, and other 'beauty related products.'


For the most part, it is beauty related, though tanning does have some health attributes and is recommended by doctors to help with certain medical conditions.

Finding out what those medical conditions are might open up some other areas of profit.

Once you figure out some 'additional' income lines that her business might not be exploring, either health or beauty related (or both) then you can target a much broader 'Interent search' audience and start getting her more business through sales of 'related products.'

If you can analyze her business a little, you can help her to increase profits from her website through more than an auto responder. And that is what being a 'Marketing Consultant' is all about. Knowing what type of marketing works for what type of business and helping the owner to use every workable marketing method to increase their customer base and profits.

Do that for her, and you're reputation will begin to speak for itself. Build the site free or pretty cheap............ I'm thinking $500-$650. If she's not already selling other products, get her set up with some affiliate programs that sell related products. Think, bathing suits, leisure wear, workout clothes, even fetish clothing. Costume jewlery, diet, power, energy _____ fill in the blank here, snacks, drinks, whatever.... Charge her a monthly fee for the maintenance and let her refer you out to other business owners by SHOWING them this 'whole new world you opened up for her.'

Be a 'Marketing Consultant' not a 'website designer' and you'll fare far better in dealing with local businesses.

Warmest Regards,
Marcus

John Dennis,
First, I'd like to be the first one to thank you for your very understated and elegantly diplomatic way of giving the OP some very positive reinforcement for asking the questions that he does need to ask to overcome his lack of knowledge.

OP- congratulations on taking some action and putting yourself in a position to create solutions even if you have to search for it before you can provide it. That has the makings of a professional, and I applaud your drive.

The best analogy I can give you is, don't be a 'used website salesman.' Be an 'online marketing consultant...' Hell, for that matter, be a 'Marketing Consultant.' Marketing is marketing and while there are a few subtle differences between web-marketing and traditional marketing, in neither one would I use a 'bikini car wash' to promote a funeral home.

Warmest Regards,
Marcus

You need to relax mate. Seriously