October 8, 2024 • 31 mins
Join us as we sit down with Ameet Kallarackal, the visionary CEO and co-founder of Glammatic, who reveals the secrets to dominating your digital presence. Ameet shares compelling insights showing that a whopping 72% of potential clients search for salons and spas on Google first, making it imperative to rank high in search results. He unpacks the pitfalls of relying solely on platforms like Facebook and Instagram and underscores the necessity of maintaining a robust and credible online image.
In this episode, Ameet walks us through practical strategies for setting your salon/spa apart through strong branding and team visibility. Ameet also dives into the tools and tips for maintaining an active and engaging online presence, ensuring your brand remains top of mind for both loyal and new customers.
Learn more about Glammatic: www.glammatic.com
Conversation highlights:
1:51 Why it's important for your business to have a strong online presence
4:34 Where most businesses go wrong with their online presence
6:30 The mystery of Google's algorithm
9:05 Matching your online presence to your in-person client experience
10:40 Where to start with optimizing your online presence
14:24 How to simplify and automate your online marketing
17:03 How to stand out in people's email inbox
18:50 The time investment for maintaining your online presence
21:37 The ROI of a great online presence
23:20 The social media platforms you HAVE to be on as a beauty business
26:13 How Glammatic helps beauty businesses build their online presence
29:00 An exclusive offer from Glammatic for the Strategies Community
Watch the video version of this episode: https://youtu.be/ZOSFJPBm8CE
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The Beauty Business Strategies Podcast is designed to give salon, spa, medspa, barbershop, and lash studio owners, just like you, quick tips to make more money, inspire your team, and create world-class client experiences.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the Beauty Business Strategies Podcast.
Again, I'm your host, michaelYost, and, as always, we always
have a great guest, somethingyou've come to expect at this
point in time, and today is nodifferent.
And today we're joined by AmitKalarakal from Glamatic.
And so, amit, thanks forjoining us, thank you for having
(00:20):
me.
Awesome, awesome.
So what we always love to startstart is why don't you give
yourself just an introductionfor those not familiar with you
or your company, just a bitabout who you are, what you do?
Speaker 2 (00:31):
and set the table for us, Absolutely.
So yeah, my name is Amit.
I'm the CEO and co-founder of acompany called Glomatic.
We do online marketingspecifically for the beauty
industry, so we're exclusive tosalons and spas and other
businesses that areindependently operated within
the industry, and we supportthem with things like websites
and social media brandingessentially end-to-end anything
(00:53):
that is interfacing between asalon and their customers online
and we try to make it as easyas possible because we know
folks are really busy notnecessarily the most tech savvy
so our team of experts has beendoing this for years.
We've worked with thousands ofbusinesses and we try to make it
as easy as possible for peopleto succeed online Awesome, I
love it.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
I love the fact, too, that you mentioned just being
exclusive within the beautyindustry.
I love that because, again, myexperience is is you're looking
out there and there's so manydifferent companies right, but
not that there's anything wrong,but when you can get something
that is specific to who we areas an industry, there's always
those nuances that are justthose little, that one or two
(01:33):
degrees difference, thatsometimes one or two degrees
makes all the difference in theworld.
So I love the fact you'reexclusive that way.
So, with that, I guess thefirst question really to kind of
put out there based upon that,is there is a lot of online
noise out there, right, there'sa lot of online noise out there,
so, but I guess the question toask is why does a really strong
(01:55):
presence still matter?
Like, how do you not get lost?
But why does a strong onlinepresence matter?
Speaker 2 (02:00):
Yeah, it's a really good point.
I mean, we even as an onlinemarketing company ourselves.
Every day I'm getting hit withemails from companies that are
offering SEO and ran first onGoogle and build you a new
website.
You have issues with this, youhave issues with that, and we
obviously specialize in this andwe spend a lot of time focused
on it, and so there's a ton ofnoise.
You don't know what's actuallygoing to help you, what's not.
(02:22):
To some extent, maybe you havea sense that you need some
support, you need some help, buthow do you know what to trust?
And then, is it even importantat all?
To your point?
And the reality is it isextremely important to operate
effectively online, becausetoday, times have changed.
It's different.
Now the majority of people arestarting online.
It's not the same as it used tobe, where foot traffic and word
(02:46):
of mouth were sufficient tobuild a book of business.
The stat we've recently seen isabout 72% of people start on
Google to make a decision aboutwhich salon they want to go to,
and that is the majority ofpeople right, and of those
people, it's about 70% thatdon't go past the first five
results on Google.
So you're searching forsomething like salon near me or
(03:08):
it could be balayage near me andyou look at those first few
results on Google.
You check their reviews, youcheck their website, maybe you
check their social and you makeyour decision and about 90%
don't go past the first page.
So that means if you're notvisible on Google and you're not
ranking as high as you possiblycan on Google, you're going to
be missing out on the majorityof potential new customers.
(03:30):
So word of mouth is essentialto have.
Foot traffic is, of course,really important.
There's so many marketingthings that you have to do, but
the majority of people arestarting online and making their
decisions online.
So if you don't have aneffective online presence to
drive people in and then convertpeople with something that's
credible online, there is a lotof business that you're missing
out on.
So that's ultimately why wethink it's so important to do
(03:50):
this, but it's also important todo it right, right?
Speaker 1 (03:53):
Well, that's, I mean, it's a great point we talk,
I've said for years in classes,especially now, is you know, as
just life continues to evolveand we become more and more
online and all of that.
You know, I've always said,like I said, there's nothing
like word of mouth is still ourbest friend.
You know you cannot beat theword of mouth of me talking to
(04:13):
me about something and thatmakes that connection.
But I've always said thatonline is your digital word of
mouth.
Yes, and you know it's thatsame one, like you just said.
What was it?
72%, 72%.
It's crazy, but we always thinkabout that.
Let me ask this question becauseit just hit my brain as you
were talking is so, where domost businesses go wrong when it
(04:37):
comes to that area?
Because, again, everyone's.
Actually, I wouldn't surpriseit.
I'm still surprised at how manypeople really don't have a good
web presence or they thinkFacebook or something is a web
presence.
But maybe I'm answering part ofthe question.
Possibly is, but where dopeople go wrong when it comes to
this online and the webpresence?
Speaker 2 (04:56):
No, it's a great question and there really are a
lot of different places wherethings can go wrong.
But to start out, I meanespecially pre-COVID, we were
seeing about 50% of businessesdidn't even have a website small
businesses and so that'schanged a bit.
Now a lot of people are onlineto some capacity and that might
look like just having a Facebookpage or an Instagram page, and
those are also very importantthings to have, but ultimately
(05:19):
we have to ask ourselves whereare the majority of people
coming in?
And the majority of people whenthey're looking for a business,
they are going to ask theirfriends and they're going to
search on Google.
So the real question, if you'regoing to prioritize your
efforts for online, is how doyou interact with Google
effectively?
And it can be this scary sort ofintimidating question, because
Google is a massive company.
There are millions of websitesonline.
(05:41):
How do you get yours to show up?
And we kind of think of it assort of trying to understand
Google's love language a littlebit, because Google is just this
offer company.
At the end of the day, theyjust care about the people who
are searching online having agood experience online.
And what does a good experiencelook like.
If I'm a consumer, I'msearching on Google for salon
near me.
I want to see salons that arein my neighborhood, that are
(06:02):
credible, that people also seemto like and that are likely to
fit my tastes effectively, right, and so you, as a salon, you
want to be that salon for asmany people as possible and you
probably spend a lot of effortand money in person creating
that experience.
But this is where most peopleare starting and it is your
digital storefront to your point, and so you know.
(06:22):
First thing you need to do ismake sure that you're playing by
Google's rules, and they dohave rules.
They have this algorithm.
Speaker 1 (06:27):
It's sort of a black box on determining Does this
then change a lot, because Ihear people talking and they're
like it's always changing andevolving.
I mean, is that true?
But is there that whole thing?
Is it a little bit of a mysterythat honestly, you like people
keep up with like, I'm sure,like yourselves gotta keep up
with that kind of thing?
But I mean, is it constantlyevolving it really?
Speaker 2 (06:48):
is, and I mean, if you think about it, right,
because consumer trends forsearch are changing.
There's AI now, right, right,and so that has a huge impact on
how people are searching andwhat kind of content even exists
online.
So Google has to update itsalgorithm to make sure that all
this AI-generated content thatmay or may not be real doesn't
be content that isn't, or thatcontent that's more accurate is
(07:09):
beating out older content.
Another example is mobileoptimization.
There's been this shift overthe last 5, 10 years, where now
the majority of people aresearching on Google from their
phones, and so, because Googlecares about a good user
experience, if your websitedoesn't look good on a mobile
phone, that means the personsearching on Google is going to
have a worse experience on yourwebsite than they would if they
(07:29):
were landing on a website thatdid look good on mobile.
So Google is going to dock youpoints because your website
doesn't look good on mobile,because it's going to create a
worse user experience for theirusers.
So it's a good example.
Now, two-thirds of web trafficcomes through mobile devices.
Google's algorithm has to shiftto keep that into it.
Speaker 1 (07:45):
So you could literally, if I'm at home on my
laptop or on a desktop or thingslike that in my office and I'm
searching you know, I'msearching myself to see where I
appear you might appear high onthe page.
You might appear on, like yousaid, critical to be on that
first page.
You might appear on the firstpage, maybe that way, but could
you?
If I did the same exact thingfrom my mobile phone, could I
(08:06):
literally come up different?
Speaker 2 (08:08):
It's very possible, absolutely.
Not just that, but what you'researching makes a big difference
too.
Okay, right.
So a lot of people think, oh no, I rank number one, number two
on Google.
But what are you ranking numberone or number two on Google for
?
Is it salon near me or is itthe name of your business?
For Is it salon near me or isit the name of your business?
Are you adding the city name inthere?
(08:29):
There's a lot of different typesof queries that people make on
Google, so it's not just onesearch.
The real goal is to figure outwhat are most people in my area
searching for when they'relooking for the type of services
that I offer, and for how manyof those searches am I ranking
as high as possible.
So it's a complicated game andin fact, that's the reason why
so many people can takeadvantage of it and can oversell
and can slip through the cracks, because it's confusing, it's
changing all the time and it's alot of technical jargon as well
(08:51):
, so it's really easy for peopleto take advantage of that
situation offer their services,charge a lot more than they need
to, and then people will nothave a good experience with it
and then just think it's notworth it Right.
Speaker 1 (09:08):
As you said, client experience.
We talk so much about clientexperience, the customer
experience and what they getwhen they hit your door, but
this really is their firstexperience with you at this
stage of the game.
Yes, and, as you were sayingthat, it got me thinking about
exactly that.
As I'm going out and I'mlooking for whether it's a new
restaurant or a new, whatever itis I'm doing that same thing
(09:30):
that we're talking about rightnow Going out, searching and
going.
If I don't like that firstexperience, I'm not going to
take another step forward.
And they might be the, theymight have the most fantastic
food in the area or fantasticservice and whatever, but if, if
I don't like my firstexperience that way, I'm not
taking another step it's so.
Speaker 2 (09:49):
I mean, especially in an aesthetic right, the number
of salons I walk into.
After I've looked at theirmaybe pre-bad website, I'm
astounded by how beautiful thestorefront is and how beautiful
the interior is.
They've spent so much effortbuilding this incredible space
and I would never have known bylooking at their website or even
their social media.
And especially in an aestheticindustry.
(10:10):
I'm trying to trust somebodywith my look, and if my first
impression of this business issomething that does not look
good, how can I trust that whenI walk into the store or that
business it's going to be anydifferent?
So I think it's particularlyimportant in a visual industry
to make sure every impression ishigh.
Speaker 1 (10:28):
So, as you begin working with companies that
utilize your services and things, what are some of the first
things then that we're talkingabout this client experience and
that first impression and theword of mouth and all of that
right and appearing where weneed to appear.
What are some of the firstthings that you really start to
focus on as you work withsomeone that says, hey, listen,
I want to help you, you know,really gain the traction and
(10:49):
foothold that you need in thisarea?
Speaker 2 (10:51):
Yeah, I mean, I think the first thing is about
branding, and brandingencapsulates a lot of things.
I think you talk a lot in thispodcast about the culture of a
business, and culture of abusiness should be encapsulated
to some extent in the brand aswell, and that brand sets the
tone for everything else.
Since a lot of salons do havesomewhat overlapping services,
you have to figure out how todifferentiate yourselves, and
(11:14):
that comes with your brand,which is your logo, your fonts,
your colors and also your team,and so I think emphasizing both
of those things throughout youronline presence is really
essential.
So having sort of a brand guidewhere this is my logo and it's
professionally done, it's reallyuseful.
It's a one-time thing to go geta brand, a logo really
professionally done thatrepresents what your business
(11:36):
offers, and then getting fontsand colors that really represent
that brand as well, applying itacross your website, across any
marketing material that you'reusing, so you have this
professional look.
I think that goes a long way.
It helps separate a businessthat is just using some fonts
that are given to them in theiryou know, their dashboard of
whatever web platform they'reusing, from you know a business
that really takes itselfseriously.
(11:57):
And then the team is the otheraspect.
I think you know we see a lotof websites where you don't even
have the pictures of the teamon there and in a website.
I think equally important forpeople, for new customers, as it
is to hire new staff.
If you're a stylist that'slooking for a new job, that's
the first thing you're going todo, as well as search online and
look at some of the localbusinesses in your area, and if
you don't see who your potentialcoworkers are, you know, see
(12:19):
the personality of this businessyou're likely to go to that
next one.
And there's still so fewbusinesses that are investing in
this stuff that the ones thatdo the rich get richer.
So I think brand andemphasizing information about
the team are a great place tostart.
Speaker 1 (12:33):
I love that you just said what you did, because,
without knowing it to me, youwould have validated me in such
a powerful way, and I'm so happyabout that, because it's the
one thing that just drives menuts as a consumer.
But it drives me nuts as I tryand work with businesses, just
(12:55):
even in looking at, you know, aswe work and with coaching and
things like that.
You're just looking in, youknow.
I love to see everyone'swebsite to see, all right, what
are you putting out there?
And I, the first thing I alwaysdo is, especially as I'm
working as uh or in contact withany kind of new business, it's
new to me is I love to go to thewebsite to see who am I going
to be talking to, what do theylook like, what does their
(13:17):
business look like?
And in most cases it's so hardto find and get an idea.
I always thought that peopleare just like listen, website,
what's the main thing?
They just want to see who youare, and I think sometimes we
depend on social media to dothat lifting and yes, that's
their for part of that.
But your website is where theystart and if it's just all stock
(13:41):
photography, right and cannedthings.
It.
Yeah, I am thank you forvalidating.
So that's just a personal likethank you.
I appreciate that.
Um, with technology, you know,uh, and and the more and you
mentioned ai and all thesethings as we continue to advance
in all these areas um, we knowbusiness owners out there, uh,
(14:05):
that are listening to this likeI am busy and there's a lot to
do, and, yes, and they'reprobably nodding, go.
Yeah, I need to do that.
I need to do Amit's talking tome.
I hear what he's saying.
I've never I've not taken thetime or I need to get better in
these areas, but where do I findthe time?
You know, talk to us about.
You know what are what's outthere that can make lighter
(14:27):
lifting, like whether it'sautomations or things like that.
What can make it lighterlifting that we can introduce to
someone listening that mightnot realize that can really help
out?
Speaker 2 (14:38):
Yeah, it's a great question, because this does
sound intimidating, you know,and it doesn't have to be.
There's some simple things youcan do that will make a world of
difference, especially because,like I said before, not a lot
of people are really investingin this stuff.
So if you do even the bareminimum, it will help quite
dramatically.
And there are a few things thatI would recommend.
One on the social media sidewhat we hear all the time is
(15:00):
it's hard for folks to stayconsistent with social posting,
and you can see it.
There's a big difference.
Instagram and other socialmedia platforms.
They want to prioritize thoseaccounts that are actively using
their platform, so it does helpto post more frequently, and
they want those posts to be ofvalue, so they also care about
how much engagement are yougetting on those posts.
But consistency matters, andconsistency is the hardest thing
(15:22):
, because this is not the firstpriority for most business
owners.
They don't think it is rightand they don't have the time for
it, or they don't necessarilylike using social media
themselves, so it's extra effortand necessarily like using
social media themselves, so it'sextra effort.
And so one of the things wealways recommend is using both
templates and a socialscheduling tool.
So there's a lot of tools outthere.
If you just look for Instagramscheduling tool, where you can
(15:43):
pre-create your posts and youcan schedule them out on a
calendar.
So on top of that you canalways create more authentic
content, real time as you want,but at least you have some sense
of consistency for your posts.
And then with that you can alsocreate with Canva.
Canva is a free tool where youcan actually build in your own
templates with your branding.
We talked about branding.
You have your logos, your fonts, your colors.
(16:04):
You can insert that into Canvaand create some templates for
anytime you have a new stylistthat's showing in your team.
Anytime you have a new reviewthat's joining your team.
Anytime you have a new reviewthat you want to feature.
Anytime you have a before andafter.
You can have these as presettemplates and just add in the
photos or the content.
When you're ready, schedulethose out, and that'll make your
life a lot easier.
Then, once a week, you're doinga lot more work, maybe an hour
of work to create everything forthat week or that month, rather
(16:27):
than having to find the timeevery day to post something.
And so that's one area.
There's obviously more that youcan do.
Another is making sure thatyou're using some sort of tool,
like an email marketing tool, tostay engaged with your
customers on a regular basis.
It's really easy to forget toengage with your customers, but
people have less attention spansthan ever before, and staying
(16:48):
top of mind is a reallyimportant thing to do.
Speaker 1 (16:51):
So you bring up email and all I know is I open up my
inbox in the morning and I'vegot like 30 emails all from you
know what I mean, all from every, all walks of life, as we all
do.
Any tips on, you know, and Iagree with you you need to keep
a presence out there from anemail standpoint, about what
(17:11):
could create a little bit more,what's going to create that just
that moment of stop engagementinstead of just being a like,
delete, delete, delete delete,delete type of thing.
Speaker 2 (17:24):
It's a good question.
First of all, I will say thatemail openers have gone down,
but they're still much higherthan people think.
They still the majority ofpeople if you, if, if,
especially with your customersor prospects, it's still more
people than not are openingthese emails.
So people have been emails dead.
It's not dead.
It's dying slowly, but it's notdead yet.
It is true that text is the wayto go.
If you can do text marketingeven better, 98% open rate is
(17:45):
way higher than 50, 60% or lower.
However, within emails, thatsubject line is so critical
because that is the first thingpeople are seeing and trying to
make it somewhat personalized orclear that it's coming from you
, your voice, not just somestock content, but mentioning
something that's unique to yourbusiness, or even mentioning the
name of a stylist.
(18:06):
And this is one of the coolthings that you can do with your
website or social is you cantrack who are people actually
booking appointments with orwhat pages are people landing on
, where are they spending theirtime, what do they like to hear
from you, and then, based onthat data, you can make informed
decisions about what content tosend out in an email if it's a
newsletter or a social post, andthen try to prioritize that
(18:27):
type of language in a subject.
Speaker 1 (18:28):
Okay.
So if, again, coming from thevantage point of as I'm trying
to think about uh, someonelistening in that might be the
business owner, or not even theowner, but maybe it's someone
that's listening to this podcastit's like they're highly
involved in this aspect of theirbusiness, whether it's social
media web, you know, online, allof that realistically, what do
(18:51):
you think the time investmentneeds to be to really keep up
with this and to do this, reallytry and maintain the right
presence, do this the right way?
I mean, what type of time doyou really think that, once you
get your pieces in place, what'sit take to really just kind of
keep this machine going?
Speaker 2 (19:11):
It's a good question and it does depend on the goals
of the business.
How ambitious are they, wheredo they want to place and what
does the competition look likein their local area?
A lot of that matters, I'd sayit's for sure a lot of sort of
setup and fixed cost time.
For example, I think a Googlebusiness profile.
To optimize that Googlebusiness profile is an essential
(19:31):
piece of marketing and there'sa very it takes maybe 20 minutes
to do and you can sit down andyou can make sure that you've
got some photos in there, thatyou're responding to your
reviews, that you have all ofthe different you know labels,
that you can include informationfilled out.
So that's a great place tostart.
That's Google's way of hostingyour business content.
So of course, they care a lotabout that.
Your website making sure thatyour website looks really good
(19:54):
and is compelling and isfollowing the best practices,
like mobile optimization, forexample, and having good imagery
throughout it.
That's some fixed cost time.
It does take time to put allthat content together maybe a
couple of months.
And then social media samething building those templates
upfront, making sure you'reoptimizing your profile, adding
some emojis in there, makingsure you're using highlights,
(20:16):
there's a few specific ways youcan do to do upfront and then on
an ongoing basis.
There is still work to beeffective, but it's a lot less
than that setup time, I'd say.
On Google business, it's usefulto update your photos regularly
and continue to respond toreviews that you're getting.
That takes a little bit of time, but that can be done by the
person at your front desk.
It can be done by a stylistright.
That can be delegated a littlebit because there's best
(20:37):
practices on how to do thatexact same thing.
So you can build a guide.
You can outsource that tosomeone within your team or a
third party.
On the website front, it'smaking sure your team
information is up to date andthat you're ideally adding some
content on a regular basis totell Google that your website is
actively maintained.
That is a big differentiatorbetween the vast 90% of websites
(20:58):
out there and Google caresabout that.
And then same for social, ofcourse, just posting on a
regular basis.
So there's some time commitmenton a regular basis and a lot of
it can be done internally withthe right training, but it does
require a few hours, I'd say permonth.
Speaker 1 (21:12):
Okay, all right.
So again, when you say a fewhours per month, that gets a lot
more digestible for my brain,because I think most people
probably are thinking likemyself.
It's like, man, this is goingto take.
I've got to spend a day a weekdoing this.
Eight, nine hours doing thisand, like I said, for certain
things, yeah, getting certainthings set up takes that time
(21:33):
and investment, but once you getit done, you're in a good space
.
Can I add?
Speaker 2 (21:36):
one more thing.
Yeah, absolutely One thingpeople don't realize is the
actual ROI of this work.
Right, we talk about a fewhours per month, but what's the
return, right?
Well, we see consistently, forwebsites that are well-built,
it's about a 5% conversion fromwebsite visitors to people who
are booking an appointmentonline.
And this is new people, so notexisting clients that are
(21:58):
returning and they're going tobook an appointment no matter
what right.
This is net new customers permonth from website traffic.
So what that means is, if youhave 100 website visitors, five
of them are going to become newcustomers.
If everything's looking goodand if the average customer is
spending $100, that's $500 newper month.
And if you're doing a great job, delivering a great experience
(22:19):
to those folks, they're going tobecome returning customers.
So that's $500 new that can becoming into your business each
month by investing a few hoursper month.
And to me, that's what peopledon't realize, especially when
you're talking about themajority of potential customers
starting online.
It can make a huge differenceover time.
It can compound really quickly,right.
Speaker 1 (22:37):
I was going to say, and that's not even accounting
for the fact that, like I said,if you get, let's say you get
five, 10, 15 new clients in justbecause we do this right, but
then it's that, and then theytalk to someone, and then they
talk to someone how that canexpand out of just that alone.
So that's an interesting, that'sa great statistic, just to kind
(22:57):
of keep in the back of ourminds, doing this the right way,
a 5% that adds up, that'ssignificant, absolutely Very
significantly.
I love that In the last coupleof minutes we have I would be
remiss if we didn't talk just ahint of social media in here as
well, and we've kind of alludedto it some for sure.
(23:18):
But your first questions firstis um, you know, what are the
platforms that you see now thatpeople have to be on, because I
think that landscape is alwayschanging and evolving too, like.
I still think we're still likeinstagram is the king and maybe
it is, or what, what's coming upand what's in the end?
And is Facebook really dead oris?
(23:38):
Where is that rank?
So your opinions where do yousee social media?
Speaker 2 (23:42):
Yeah, and it's changing all the time, um and
and then we have to kind of pickand choose, right, everyone has
to pick and choose.
Each of them require time.
But if we take the kind of bigthree Facebook, Instagram and
Tik TO this is my sort ofbreakdown of each.
So Instagram, I'd say, is stillthe ideal place to spend time
if you're going to today, simplybecause it is a visual platform
and this is a visual industry,so it's photo focused and we
(24:04):
care a lot about visual here.
A lot of people are looking attrends and a lot of people are
looking at what services youoffer from a visual perspective
and Instagram is a great placeto do that.
There's also a lot of localsearch that still happens on
Instagram.
Instagram builds in a lot oflocal sort of similar to SEO
search engine optimization thatGoogle does with an Instagram
search platform, so we see a lotof people searching there.
(24:26):
Also, instagram's owned by thesame company, meta, that owns
Facebook, so you can easilycross post everything you do on
Instagram to Facebook.
Facebook, from a searchperspective, is definitely
declining a lot.
Where it's useful is groups.
I'd say community-orientedgroups are a great place to be
able to, especially localcommunity groups, for salons to
(24:46):
be able to post and sharecontent.
Because there are, especiallyon the older side, of folks that
are on social media, facebookis still their go-to method.
Instagram tends to have a muchwider demographic.
Tiktok is a younger audienceand it's also a much wider
dispersion of content.
The reason we don't invest somuch on TikTok is a post that
(25:07):
goes viral on TikTok isn'tnecessarily going to get you a
lot of customers.
The people who are viewing thatcontent are going to be all
over the country, maybe even allover the world, and you don't
really care about that, right.
What matters, unless you'retrying to be a you know on a
speaking engagement or, you know, become famous to some degree.
You really care about yourlocal area, and that's why
Facebook groups that are localare great, and Instagram tends
to be more local focused.
(25:28):
That being said, we arestarting to see TikTok invest a
bit more into local specificcontent, and so that could
change the game a little bitaround this, but for now, it is
still Instagram that I would sayis the priority.
Okay, perfect.
Speaker 1 (25:43):
As we kind of wrap things up.
We talked about a lot of thingstoday.
I'd love for you because againthere's so much that was covered
I'd love for you to just kindof recap, from a glimatic
standpoint, what you guys do,you know, so that way we don't
all have to run now and Googlesearch, glimatic and things like
(26:03):
that, to find out exactly whatto do.
What are the things we talkedabout?
What are the key services thatsomeone listening going man, I
need help in this area.
What are the key services thatyou guys offer?
Speaker 2 (26:15):
Yeah, absolutely, and the reason we exist is because
there's sort of two types ofoptions.
There's the do-it-yourselftools Squarespace, wix,
wordpress.
You can build your own websiteand they're cheaper.
They give you a lot moreflexibility to do exactly what
you want if you're tech savvyand you have time to maintain it
.
And then there's agencies thatprobably charge a lot more but
they'll do a lot of the work foryou and we're sort of a hybrid
(26:38):
in between.
Right, we're not gonna buildexactly to spec every single
thing that you want, because wewanna make sure that this is
affordable and we wanna makesure that we're we are utilizing
best practices for thisindustry for as many businesses
as we can.
On the flip side, there is aplatform where you can manage
everything yourself, but it's alot easier to use because it's
focused on this industry andit's content focused, and we
(27:00):
sort of have three core pillarsof our offering today.
It's the branding.
So if they want to do brandingwith us, we can.
We don't make any money on it,we just do it if they're going
to use our other services,because it makes everything
better and we have a brandspecialist on our team that will
actually create this materialfor you, but if you have it
yourself, great, we'll take thatand we'll apply it to the
second step, which is makingsure you have an amazing website
(27:21):
that is unique to your business, that incorporates your
branding, that follows all ofGoogle's best practices to help
you rank.
And then the third thing issocial media, where we'll jump
in.
We won't take the photos foryou because it needs to be
authentic, so we require someoneon site at the salon to send us
photos, but we'll tell you whatto send us, and then we'll do
all the editing, we'll do allthe posting and we'll do the
engagement on top of it.
So it's sort of being like amarketing team for you to jump
(27:44):
in and handle all this, and thenthere's always the option to
jump in and do things yourselfif you'd like.
Speaker 1 (27:49):
I love that and I know probably 90% of all ears
per cup was like wait a second,I sent you.
I'm going to ask the questionbecause I know it needs
repeating.
So can you run that last thingby me, because even I was like
wait a second, you sent you thephotos and you will.
Speaker 2 (28:06):
Yeah, I don't want to miss.
Yeah, our team will take that.
We'll even send the ideas.
Here's the stuff that we thinkyou should take content for here
ideas.
Here's the stuff that we thinkyou should take Content for the
trends that are happening rightnow.
Here's the content to go take.
You've got to go take thephotos.
That does take some time, butwe give you best practices and
then we'll edit everything,we'll add your branding to it,
we'll schedule those out, we'llpost it on the right times and
we'll help with a little bit ofengagement afterwards.
Speaker 1 (28:28):
Awesome.
All right, that was worth theprice of admission on this
podcast.
Right there, that alone.
But no, this has been fantastic, you know, fantastic time
together.
As I always usually do withgreat guests like yourself.
I'm like man.
We got to do this again becausethere's so much more we could
tap into.
So we definitely are going to,that's for sure.
But, with that being said, aswe wrap up our time together,
(28:52):
you know, for people that arereally like tuned in and really
are like man, I want to knowwhat this is about.
How do I get involved?
What's the easiest way to findyou?
Speaker 2 (28:59):
Yeah, I would say go to Glamaticcom.
It's G-L-A-M-M-A-T-I-C, it'ssort of Glamour meets Automatic.
So, glamaticcom, there's amentioned that you are within
the strategies community.
What we'll do on that freeconsultation is do a
personalized audit of yourexisting web presence.
(29:20):
So it's completely free andwe'll basically, prior to that
call, we'll research yourexisting website, your social
media.
First half of that call we'lljust give you feedback.
We'll tell you here's thethings that you can go back and
change and update to make yourweb presence better, and then
we'll also share a bit moreabout what we offer and how we
can help.
Also, we'll make sure that allthe fees for setup are
completely waived.
So there's no setup fees.
(29:41):
It's just a month-to-month orannual commitment, 30-day
money-back guarantee.
So our goal is to really provevalue consistently, make it
really low risk or no risk toget started, especially if
you're working with strategies.
We know you're pre-vetted and,yeah, hopefully we can help your
business succeed.
And yeah, our website has oursocial media tags and everything
like that as well.
Speaker 1 (30:00):
I love it.
Amit, you make this ano-brainer.
This is like a no-brainer forevery business.
So please take up that offerbecause that is a fantastic
opportunity and, again, just forthe difference that it makes.
Going back to just the corethings, you know, seeing a
higher amount of traffic intoyour business a 5%, you know,
(30:21):
you know return with just somepeople that come to your book
appointments, everything thatwas talked about and just makes
such a difference to ourbusinesses and so necessary,
needed and, at the same time,working with someone that can
help create a great bridge for,again, a lot of the heavy
lifting.
Again, take advantage of thatopportunity.
I mean, I cannot thank youenough and if you miss any of
(30:43):
that, again, as we always do,we'll make sure all the links
are in the description, all ofthat.
We won't leave you hanging onthat.
Just check out the description.
You'll find links to everythingthat we talked about and to
Glamatic themselves and, withthat in mind, thank you so much
for your time.
We will absolutely scheduleanother because there's so much
more to talk about.
But, with that being said,thank all of you for listening
(31:06):
and viewing and we'll see you onour next podcast.
Welcome to the Beauty Business Strategies Podcast.
Again, I'm your host, michaelYost, and, as always, we always
have a great guest, somethingyou've come to expect at this
point in time, and today is nodifferent.
And today we're joined by AmitKalarakal from Glamatic.
And so, amit, thanks forjoining us, thank you for having
(00:20):
me.
Awesome, awesome.
So what we always love to startstart is why don't you give
yourself just an introductionfor those not familiar with you
or your company, just a bitabout who you are, what you do?
Speaker 2 (00:31):
and set the table for us, Absolutely.
So yeah, my name is Amit.
I'm the CEO and co-founder of acompany called Glomatic.
We do online marketingspecifically for the beauty
industry, so we're exclusive tosalons and spas and other
businesses that areindependently operated within
the industry, and we supportthem with things like websites
and social media brandingessentially end-to-end anything
(00:53):
that is interfacing between asalon and their customers online
and we try to make it as easyas possible because we know
folks are really busy notnecessarily the most tech savvy
so our team of experts has beendoing this for years.
We've worked with thousands ofbusinesses and we try to make it
as easy as possible for peopleto succeed online Awesome, I
love it.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
I love the fact, too, that you mentioned just being
exclusive within the beautyindustry.
I love that because, again, myexperience is is you're looking
out there and there's so manydifferent companies right, but
not that there's anything wrong,but when you can get something
that is specific to who we areas an industry, there's always
those nuances that are justthose little, that one or two
(01:33):
degrees difference, thatsometimes one or two degrees
makes all the difference in theworld.
So I love the fact you'reexclusive that way.
So, with that, I guess thefirst question really to kind of
put out there based upon that,is there is a lot of online
noise out there, right, there'sa lot of online noise out there,
so, but I guess the question toask is why does a really strong
(01:55):
presence still matter?
Like, how do you not get lost?
But why does a strong onlinepresence matter?
Speaker 2 (02:00):
Yeah, it's a really good point.
I mean, we even as an onlinemarketing company ourselves.
Every day I'm getting hit withemails from companies that are
offering SEO and ran first onGoogle and build you a new
website.
You have issues with this, youhave issues with that, and we
obviously specialize in this andwe spend a lot of time focused
on it, and so there's a ton ofnoise.
You don't know what's actuallygoing to help you, what's not.
(02:22):
To some extent, maybe you havea sense that you need some
support, you need some help, buthow do you know what to trust?
And then, is it even importantat all?
To your point?
And the reality is it isextremely important to operate
effectively online, becausetoday, times have changed.
It's different.
Now the majority of people arestarting online.
It's not the same as it used tobe, where foot traffic and word
(02:46):
of mouth were sufficient tobuild a book of business.
The stat we've recently seen isabout 72% of people start on
Google to make a decision aboutwhich salon they want to go to,
and that is the majority ofpeople right, and of those
people, it's about 70% thatdon't go past the first five
results on Google.
So you're searching forsomething like salon near me or
(03:08):
it could be balayage near me andyou look at those first few
results on Google.
You check their reviews, youcheck their website, maybe you
check their social and you makeyour decision and about 90%
don't go past the first page.
So that means if you're notvisible on Google and you're not
ranking as high as you possiblycan on Google, you're going to
be missing out on the majorityof potential new customers.
(03:30):
So word of mouth is essentialto have.
Foot traffic is, of course,really important.
There's so many marketingthings that you have to do, but
the majority of people arestarting online and making their
decisions online.
So if you don't have aneffective online presence to
drive people in and then convertpeople with something that's
credible online, there is a lotof business that you're missing
out on.
So that's ultimately why wethink it's so important to do
(03:50):
this, but it's also important todo it right, right?
Speaker 1 (03:53):
Well, that's, I mean, it's a great point we talk,
I've said for years in classes,especially now, is you know, as
just life continues to evolveand we become more and more
online and all of that.
You know, I've always said,like I said, there's nothing
like word of mouth is still ourbest friend.
You know you cannot beat theword of mouth of me talking to
(04:13):
me about something and thatmakes that connection.
But I've always said thatonline is your digital word of
mouth.
Yes, and you know it's thatsame one, like you just said.
What was it?
72%, 72%.
It's crazy, but we always thinkabout that.
Let me ask this question becauseit just hit my brain as you
were talking is so, where domost businesses go wrong when it
(04:37):
comes to that area?
Because, again, everyone's.
Actually, I wouldn't surpriseit.
I'm still surprised at how manypeople really don't have a good
web presence or they thinkFacebook or something is a web
presence.
But maybe I'm answering part ofthe question.
Possibly is, but where dopeople go wrong when it comes to
this online and the webpresence?
Speaker 2 (04:56):
No, it's a great question and there really are a
lot of different places wherethings can go wrong.
But to start out, I meanespecially pre-COVID, we were
seeing about 50% of businessesdidn't even have a website small
businesses and so that'schanged a bit.
Now a lot of people are onlineto some capacity and that might
look like just having a Facebookpage or an Instagram page, and
those are also very importantthings to have, but ultimately
(05:19):
we have to ask ourselves whereare the majority of people
coming in?
And the majority of people whenthey're looking for a business,
they are going to ask theirfriends and they're going to
search on Google.
So the real question, if you'regoing to prioritize your
efforts for online, is how doyou interact with Google
effectively?
And it can be this scary sort ofintimidating question, because
Google is a massive company.
There are millions of websitesonline.
(05:41):
How do you get yours to show up?
And we kind of think of it assort of trying to understand
Google's love language a littlebit, because Google is just this
offer company.
At the end of the day, theyjust care about the people who
are searching online having agood experience online.
And what does a good experiencelook like.
If I'm a consumer, I'msearching on Google for salon
near me.
I want to see salons that arein my neighborhood, that are
(06:02):
credible, that people also seemto like and that are likely to
fit my tastes effectively, right, and so you, as a salon, you
want to be that salon for asmany people as possible and you
probably spend a lot of effortand money in person creating
that experience.
But this is where most peopleare starting and it is your
digital storefront to your point, and so you know.
(06:22):
First thing you need to do ismake sure that you're playing by
Google's rules, and they dohave rules.
They have this algorithm.
Speaker 1 (06:27):
It's sort of a black box on determining Does this
then change a lot, because Ihear people talking and they're
like it's always changing andevolving.
I mean, is that true?
But is there that whole thing?
Is it a little bit of a mysterythat honestly, you like people
keep up with like, I'm sure,like yourselves gotta keep up
with that kind of thing?
But I mean, is it constantlyevolving it really?
Speaker 2 (06:48):
is, and I mean, if you think about it, right,
because consumer trends forsearch are changing.
There's AI now, right, right,and so that has a huge impact on
how people are searching andwhat kind of content even exists
online.
So Google has to update itsalgorithm to make sure that all
this AI-generated content thatmay or may not be real doesn't
be content that isn't, or thatcontent that's more accurate is
(07:09):
beating out older content.
Another example is mobileoptimization.
There's been this shift overthe last 5, 10 years, where now
the majority of people aresearching on Google from their
phones, and so, because Googlecares about a good user
experience, if your websitedoesn't look good on a mobile
phone, that means the personsearching on Google is going to
have a worse experience on yourwebsite than they would if they
(07:29):
were landing on a website thatdid look good on mobile.
So Google is going to dock youpoints because your website
doesn't look good on mobile,because it's going to create a
worse user experience for theirusers.
So it's a good example.
Now, two-thirds of web trafficcomes through mobile devices.
Google's algorithm has to shiftto keep that into it.
Speaker 1 (07:45):
So you could literally, if I'm at home on my
laptop or on a desktop or thingslike that in my office and I'm
searching you know, I'msearching myself to see where I
appear you might appear high onthe page.
You might appear on, like yousaid, critical to be on that
first page.
You might appear on the firstpage, maybe that way, but could
you?
If I did the same exact thingfrom my mobile phone, could I
(08:06):
literally come up different?
Speaker 2 (08:08):
It's very possible, absolutely.
Not just that, but what you'researching makes a big difference
too.
Okay, right.
So a lot of people think, oh no, I rank number one, number two
on Google.
But what are you ranking numberone or number two on Google for
?
Is it salon near me or is itthe name of your business?
For Is it salon near me or isit the name of your business?
Are you adding the city name inthere?
(08:29):
There's a lot of different typesof queries that people make on
Google, so it's not just onesearch.
The real goal is to figure outwhat are most people in my area
searching for when they'relooking for the type of services
that I offer, and for how manyof those searches am I ranking
as high as possible.
So it's a complicated game andin fact, that's the reason why
so many people can takeadvantage of it and can oversell
and can slip through the cracks, because it's confusing, it's
changing all the time and it's alot of technical jargon as well
(08:51):
, so it's really easy for peopleto take advantage of that
situation offer their services,charge a lot more than they need
to, and then people will nothave a good experience with it
and then just think it's notworth it Right.
Speaker 1 (09:08):
As you said, client experience.
We talk so much about clientexperience, the customer
experience and what they getwhen they hit your door, but
this really is their firstexperience with you at this
stage of the game.
Yes, and, as you were sayingthat, it got me thinking about
exactly that.
As I'm going out and I'mlooking for whether it's a new
restaurant or a new, whatever itis I'm doing that same thing
(09:30):
that we're talking about rightnow Going out, searching and
going.
If I don't like that firstexperience, I'm not going to
take another step forward.
And they might be the, theymight have the most fantastic
food in the area or fantasticservice and whatever, but if, if
I don't like my firstexperience that way, I'm not
taking another step it's so.
Speaker 2 (09:49):
I mean, especially in an aesthetic right, the number
of salons I walk into.
After I've looked at theirmaybe pre-bad website, I'm
astounded by how beautiful thestorefront is and how beautiful
the interior is.
They've spent so much effortbuilding this incredible space
and I would never have known bylooking at their website or even
their social media.
And especially in an aestheticindustry.
(10:10):
I'm trying to trust somebodywith my look, and if my first
impression of this business issomething that does not look
good, how can I trust that whenI walk into the store or that
business it's going to be anydifferent?
So I think it's particularlyimportant in a visual industry
to make sure every impression ishigh.
Speaker 1 (10:28):
So, as you begin working with companies that
utilize your services and things, what are some of the first
things then that we're talkingabout this client experience and
that first impression and theword of mouth and all of that
right and appearing where weneed to appear.
What are some of the firstthings that you really start to
focus on as you work withsomeone that says, hey, listen,
I want to help you, you know,really gain the traction and
(10:49):
foothold that you need in thisarea?
Speaker 2 (10:51):
Yeah, I mean, I think the first thing is about
branding, and brandingencapsulates a lot of things.
I think you talk a lot in thispodcast about the culture of a
business, and culture of abusiness should be encapsulated
to some extent in the brand aswell, and that brand sets the
tone for everything else.
Since a lot of salons do havesomewhat overlapping services,
you have to figure out how todifferentiate yourselves, and
(11:14):
that comes with your brand,which is your logo, your fonts,
your colors and also your team,and so I think emphasizing both
of those things throughout youronline presence is really
essential.
So having sort of a brand guidewhere this is my logo and it's
professionally done, it's reallyuseful.
It's a one-time thing to go geta brand, a logo really
professionally done thatrepresents what your business
(11:36):
offers, and then getting fontsand colors that really represent
that brand as well, applying itacross your website, across any
marketing material that you'reusing, so you have this
professional look.
I think that goes a long way.
It helps separate a businessthat is just using some fonts
that are given to them in theiryou know, their dashboard of
whatever web platform they'reusing, from you know a business
that really takes itselfseriously.
(11:57):
And then the team is the otheraspect.
I think you know we see a lotof websites where you don't even
have the pictures of the teamon there and in a website.
I think equally important forpeople, for new customers, as it
is to hire new staff.
If you're a stylist that'slooking for a new job, that's
the first thing you're going todo, as well as search online and
look at some of the localbusinesses in your area, and if
you don't see who your potentialcoworkers are, you know, see
(12:19):
the personality of this businessyou're likely to go to that
next one.
And there's still so fewbusinesses that are investing in
this stuff that the ones thatdo the rich get richer.
So I think brand andemphasizing information about
the team are a great place tostart.
Speaker 1 (12:33):
I love that you just said what you did, because,
without knowing it to me, youwould have validated me in such
a powerful way, and I'm so happyabout that, because it's the
one thing that just drives menuts as a consumer.
But it drives me nuts as I tryand work with businesses, just
(12:55):
even in looking at, you know, aswe work and with coaching and
things like that.
You're just looking in, youknow.
I love to see everyone'swebsite to see, all right, what
are you putting out there?
And I, the first thing I alwaysdo is, especially as I'm
working as uh or in contact withany kind of new business, it's
new to me is I love to go to thewebsite to see who am I going
to be talking to, what do theylook like, what does their
(13:17):
business look like?
And in most cases it's so hardto find and get an idea.
I always thought that peopleare just like listen, website,
what's the main thing?
They just want to see who youare, and I think sometimes we
depend on social media to dothat lifting and yes, that's
their for part of that.
But your website is where theystart and if it's just all stock
(13:41):
photography, right and cannedthings.
It.
Yeah, I am thank you forvalidating.
So that's just a personal likethank you.
I appreciate that.
Um, with technology, you know,uh, and and the more and you
mentioned ai and all thesethings as we continue to advance
in all these areas um, we knowbusiness owners out there, uh,
(14:05):
that are listening to this likeI am busy and there's a lot to
do, and, yes, and they'reprobably nodding, go.
Yeah, I need to do that.
I need to do Amit's talking tome.
I hear what he's saying.
I've never I've not taken thetime or I need to get better in
these areas, but where do I findthe time?
You know, talk to us about.
You know what are what's outthere that can make lighter
(14:27):
lifting, like whether it'sautomations or things like that.
What can make it lighterlifting that we can introduce to
someone listening that mightnot realize that can really help
out?
Speaker 2 (14:38):
Yeah, it's a great question, because this does
sound intimidating, you know,and it doesn't have to be.
There's some simple things youcan do that will make a world of
difference, especially because,like I said before, not a lot
of people are really investingin this stuff.
So if you do even the bareminimum, it will help quite
dramatically.
And there are a few things thatI would recommend.
One on the social media sidewhat we hear all the time is
(15:00):
it's hard for folks to stayconsistent with social posting,
and you can see it.
There's a big difference.
Instagram and other socialmedia platforms.
They want to prioritize thoseaccounts that are actively using
their platform, so it does helpto post more frequently, and
they want those posts to be ofvalue, so they also care about
how much engagement are yougetting on those posts.
But consistency matters, andconsistency is the hardest thing
(15:22):
, because this is not the firstpriority for most business
owners.
They don't think it is rightand they don't have the time for
it, or they don't necessarilylike using social media
themselves, so it's extra effortand necessarily like using
social media themselves, so it'sextra effort.
And so one of the things wealways recommend is using both
templates and a socialscheduling tool.
So there's a lot of tools outthere.
If you just look for Instagramscheduling tool, where you can
(15:43):
pre-create your posts and youcan schedule them out on a
calendar.
So on top of that you canalways create more authentic
content, real time as you want,but at least you have some sense
of consistency for your posts.
And then with that you can alsocreate with Canva.
Canva is a free tool where youcan actually build in your own
templates with your branding.
We talked about branding.
You have your logos, your fonts, your colors.
(16:04):
You can insert that into Canvaand create some templates for
anytime you have a new stylistthat's showing in your team.
Anytime you have a new reviewthat's joining your team.
Anytime you have a new reviewthat you want to feature.
Anytime you have a before andafter.
You can have these as presettemplates and just add in the
photos or the content.
When you're ready, schedulethose out, and that'll make your
life a lot easier.
Then, once a week, you're doinga lot more work, maybe an hour
of work to create everything forthat week or that month, rather
(16:27):
than having to find the timeevery day to post something.
And so that's one area.
There's obviously more that youcan do.
Another is making sure thatyou're using some sort of tool,
like an email marketing tool, tostay engaged with your
customers on a regular basis.
It's really easy to forget toengage with your customers, but
people have less attention spansthan ever before, and staying
(16:48):
top of mind is a reallyimportant thing to do.
Speaker 1 (16:51):
So you bring up email and all I know is I open up my
inbox in the morning and I'vegot like 30 emails all from you
know what I mean, all from every, all walks of life, as we all
do.
Any tips on, you know, and Iagree with you you need to keep
a presence out there from anemail standpoint, about what
(17:11):
could create a little bit more,what's going to create that just
that moment of stop engagementinstead of just being a like,
delete, delete, delete delete,delete type of thing.
Speaker 2 (17:24):
It's a good question.
First of all, I will say thatemail openers have gone down,
but they're still much higherthan people think.
They still the majority ofpeople if you, if, if,
especially with your customersor prospects, it's still more
people than not are openingthese emails.
So people have been emails dead.
It's not dead.
It's dying slowly, but it's notdead yet.
It is true that text is the wayto go.
If you can do text marketingeven better, 98% open rate is
(17:45):
way higher than 50, 60% or lower.
However, within emails, thatsubject line is so critical
because that is the first thingpeople are seeing and trying to
make it somewhat personalized orclear that it's coming from you
, your voice, not just somestock content, but mentioning
something that's unique to yourbusiness, or even mentioning the
name of a stylist.
(18:06):
And this is one of the coolthings that you can do with your
website or social is you cantrack who are people actually
booking appointments with orwhat pages are people landing on
, where are they spending theirtime, what do they like to hear
from you, and then, based onthat data, you can make informed
decisions about what content tosend out in an email if it's a
newsletter or a social post, andthen try to prioritize that
(18:27):
type of language in a subject.
Speaker 1 (18:28):
Okay.
So if, again, coming from thevantage point of as I'm trying
to think about uh, someonelistening in that might be the
business owner, or not even theowner, but maybe it's someone
that's listening to this podcastit's like they're highly
involved in this aspect of theirbusiness, whether it's social
media web, you know, online, allof that realistically, what do
(18:51):
you think the time investmentneeds to be to really keep up
with this and to do this, reallytry and maintain the right
presence, do this the right way?
I mean, what type of time doyou really think that, once you
get your pieces in place, what'sit take to really just kind of
keep this machine going?
Speaker 2 (19:11):
It's a good question and it does depend on the goals
of the business.
How ambitious are they, wheredo they want to place and what
does the competition look likein their local area?
A lot of that matters, I'd sayit's for sure a lot of sort of
setup and fixed cost time.
For example, I think a Googlebusiness profile.
To optimize that Googlebusiness profile is an essential
(19:31):
piece of marketing and there'sa very it takes maybe 20 minutes
to do and you can sit down andyou can make sure that you've
got some photos in there, thatyou're responding to your
reviews, that you have all ofthe different you know labels,
that you can include informationfilled out.
So that's a great place tostart.
That's Google's way of hostingyour business content.
So of course, they care a lotabout that.
Your website making sure thatyour website looks really good
(19:54):
and is compelling and isfollowing the best practices,
like mobile optimization, forexample, and having good imagery
throughout it.
That's some fixed cost time.
It does take time to put allthat content together maybe a
couple of months.
And then social media samething building those templates
upfront, making sure you'reoptimizing your profile, adding
some emojis in there, makingsure you're using highlights,
(20:16):
there's a few specific ways youcan do to do upfront and then on
an ongoing basis.
There is still work to beeffective, but it's a lot less
than that setup time, I'd say.
On Google business, it's usefulto update your photos regularly
and continue to respond toreviews that you're getting.
That takes a little bit of time, but that can be done by the
person at your front desk.
It can be done by a stylistright.
That can be delegated a littlebit because there's best
(20:37):
practices on how to do thatexact same thing.
So you can build a guide.
You can outsource that tosomeone within your team or a
third party.
On the website front, it'smaking sure your team
information is up to date andthat you're ideally adding some
content on a regular basis totell Google that your website is
actively maintained.
That is a big differentiatorbetween the vast 90% of websites
(20:58):
out there and Google caresabout that.
And then same for social, ofcourse, just posting on a
regular basis.
So there's some time commitmenton a regular basis and a lot of
it can be done internally withthe right training, but it does
require a few hours, I'd say permonth.
Speaker 1 (21:12):
Okay, all right.
So again, when you say a fewhours per month, that gets a lot
more digestible for my brain,because I think most people
probably are thinking likemyself.
It's like, man, this is goingto take.
I've got to spend a day a weekdoing this.
Eight, nine hours doing thisand, like I said, for certain
things, yeah, getting certainthings set up takes that time
(21:33):
and investment, but once you getit done, you're in a good space
.
Can I add?
Speaker 2 (21:36):
one more thing.
Yeah, absolutely One thingpeople don't realize is the
actual ROI of this work.
Right, we talk about a fewhours per month, but what's the
return, right?
Well, we see consistently, forwebsites that are well-built,
it's about a 5% conversion fromwebsite visitors to people who
are booking an appointmentonline.
And this is new people, so notexisting clients that are
(21:58):
returning and they're going tobook an appointment no matter
what right.
This is net new customers permonth from website traffic.
So what that means is, if youhave 100 website visitors, five
of them are going to become newcustomers.
If everything's looking goodand if the average customer is
spending $100, that's $500 newper month.
And if you're doing a great job, delivering a great experience
(22:19):
to those folks, they're going tobecome returning customers.
So that's $500 new that can becoming into your business each
month by investing a few hoursper month.
And to me, that's what peopledon't realize, especially when
you're talking about themajority of potential customers
starting online.
It can make a huge differenceover time.
It can compound really quickly,right.
Speaker 1 (22:37):
I was going to say, and that's not even accounting
for the fact that, like I said,if you get, let's say you get
five, 10, 15 new clients in justbecause we do this right, but
then it's that, and then theytalk to someone, and then they
talk to someone how that canexpand out of just that alone.
So that's an interesting, that'sa great statistic, just to kind
(22:57):
of keep in the back of ourminds, doing this the right way,
a 5% that adds up, that'ssignificant, absolutely Very
significantly.
I love that In the last coupleof minutes we have I would be
remiss if we didn't talk just ahint of social media in here as
well, and we've kind of alludedto it some for sure.
(23:18):
But your first questions firstis um, you know, what are the
platforms that you see now thatpeople have to be on, because I
think that landscape is alwayschanging and evolving too, like.
I still think we're still likeinstagram is the king and maybe
it is, or what, what's coming upand what's in the end?
And is Facebook really dead oris?
(23:38):
Where is that rank?
So your opinions where do yousee social media?
Speaker 2 (23:42):
Yeah, and it's changing all the time, um and
and then we have to kind of pickand choose, right, everyone has
to pick and choose.
Each of them require time.
But if we take the kind of bigthree Facebook, Instagram and
Tik TO this is my sort ofbreakdown of each.
So Instagram, I'd say, is stillthe ideal place to spend time
if you're going to today, simplybecause it is a visual platform
and this is a visual industry,so it's photo focused and we
(24:04):
care a lot about visual here.
A lot of people are looking attrends and a lot of people are
looking at what services youoffer from a visual perspective
and Instagram is a great placeto do that.
There's also a lot of localsearch that still happens on
Instagram.
Instagram builds in a lot oflocal sort of similar to SEO
search engine optimization thatGoogle does with an Instagram
search platform, so we see a lotof people searching there.
(24:26):
Also, instagram's owned by thesame company, meta, that owns
Facebook, so you can easilycross post everything you do on
Instagram to Facebook.
Facebook, from a searchperspective, is definitely
declining a lot.
Where it's useful is groups.
I'd say community-orientedgroups are a great place to be
able to, especially localcommunity groups, for salons to
(24:46):
be able to post and sharecontent.
Because there are, especiallyon the older side, of folks that
are on social media, facebookis still their go-to method.
Instagram tends to have a muchwider demographic.
Tiktok is a younger audienceand it's also a much wider
dispersion of content.
The reason we don't invest somuch on TikTok is a post that
(25:07):
goes viral on TikTok isn'tnecessarily going to get you a
lot of customers.
The people who are viewing thatcontent are going to be all
over the country, maybe even allover the world, and you don't
really care about that, right.
What matters, unless you'retrying to be a you know on a
speaking engagement or, you know, become famous to some degree.
You really care about yourlocal area, and that's why
Facebook groups that are localare great, and Instagram tends
to be more local focused.
(25:28):
That being said, we arestarting to see TikTok invest a
bit more into local specificcontent, and so that could
change the game a little bitaround this, but for now, it is
still Instagram that I would sayis the priority.
Okay, perfect.
Speaker 1 (25:43):
As we kind of wrap things up.
We talked about a lot of thingstoday.
I'd love for you because againthere's so much that was covered
I'd love for you to just kindof recap, from a glimatic
standpoint, what you guys do,you know, so that way we don't
all have to run now and Googlesearch, glimatic and things like
(26:03):
that, to find out exactly whatto do.
What are the things we talkedabout?
What are the key services thatsomeone listening going man, I
need help in this area.
What are the key services thatyou guys offer?
Speaker 2 (26:15):
Yeah, absolutely, and the reason we exist is because
there's sort of two types ofoptions.
There's the do-it-yourselftools Squarespace, wix,
wordpress.
You can build your own websiteand they're cheaper.
They give you a lot moreflexibility to do exactly what
you want if you're tech savvyand you have time to maintain it
.
And then there's agencies thatprobably charge a lot more but
they'll do a lot of the work foryou and we're sort of a hybrid
(26:38):
in between.
Right, we're not gonna buildexactly to spec every single
thing that you want, because wewanna make sure that this is
affordable and we wanna makesure that we're we are utilizing
best practices for thisindustry for as many businesses
as we can.
On the flip side, there is aplatform where you can manage
everything yourself, but it's alot easier to use because it's
focused on this industry andit's content focused, and we
(27:00):
sort of have three core pillarsof our offering today.
It's the branding.
So if they want to do brandingwith us, we can.
We don't make any money on it,we just do it if they're going
to use our other services,because it makes everything
better and we have a brandspecialist on our team that will
actually create this materialfor you, but if you have it
yourself, great, we'll take thatand we'll apply it to the
second step, which is makingsure you have an amazing website
(27:21):
that is unique to your business, that incorporates your
branding, that follows all ofGoogle's best practices to help
you rank.
And then the third thing issocial media, where we'll jump
in.
We won't take the photos foryou because it needs to be
authentic, so we require someoneon site at the salon to send us
photos, but we'll tell you whatto send us, and then we'll do
all the editing, we'll do allthe posting and we'll do the
engagement on top of it.
So it's sort of being like amarketing team for you to jump
(27:44):
in and handle all this, and thenthere's always the option to
jump in and do things yourselfif you'd like.
Speaker 1 (27:49):
I love that and I know probably 90% of all ears
per cup was like wait a second,I sent you.
I'm going to ask the questionbecause I know it needs
repeating.
So can you run that last thingby me, because even I was like
wait a second, you sent you thephotos and you will.
Speaker 2 (28:06):
Yeah, I don't want to miss.
Yeah, our team will take that.
We'll even send the ideas.
Here's the stuff that we thinkyou should take content for here
ideas.
Here's the stuff that we thinkyou should take Content for the
trends that are happening rightnow.
Here's the content to go take.
You've got to go take thephotos.
That does take some time, butwe give you best practices and
then we'll edit everything,we'll add your branding to it,
we'll schedule those out, we'llpost it on the right times and
we'll help with a little bit ofengagement afterwards.
Speaker 1 (28:28):
Awesome.
All right, that was worth theprice of admission on this
podcast.
Right there, that alone.
But no, this has been fantastic, you know, fantastic time
together.
As I always usually do withgreat guests like yourself.
I'm like man.
We got to do this again becausethere's so much more we could
tap into.
So we definitely are going to,that's for sure.
But, with that being said, aswe wrap up our time together,
(28:52):
you know, for people that arereally like tuned in and really
are like man, I want to knowwhat this is about.
How do I get involved?
What's the easiest way to findyou?
Speaker 2 (28:59):
Yeah, I would say go to Glamaticcom.
It's G-L-A-M-M-A-T-I-C, it'ssort of Glamour meets Automatic.
So, glamaticcom, there's amentioned that you are within
the strategies community.
What we'll do on that freeconsultation is do a
personalized audit of yourexisting web presence.
(29:20):
So it's completely free andwe'll basically, prior to that
call, we'll research yourexisting website, your social
media.
First half of that call we'lljust give you feedback.
We'll tell you here's thethings that you can go back and
change and update to make yourweb presence better, and then
we'll also share a bit moreabout what we offer and how we
can help.
Also, we'll make sure that allthe fees for setup are
completely waived.
So there's no setup fees.
(29:41):
It's just a month-to-month orannual commitment, 30-day
money-back guarantee.
So our goal is to really provevalue consistently, make it
really low risk or no risk toget started, especially if
you're working with strategies.
We know you're pre-vetted and,yeah, hopefully we can help your
business succeed.
And yeah, our website has oursocial media tags and everything
like that as well.
Speaker 1 (30:00):
I love it.
Amit, you make this ano-brainer.
This is like a no-brainer forevery business.
So please take up that offerbecause that is a fantastic
opportunity and, again, just forthe difference that it makes.
Going back to just the corethings, you know, seeing a
higher amount of traffic intoyour business a 5%, you know,
(30:21):
you know return with just somepeople that come to your book
appointments, everything thatwas talked about and just makes
such a difference to ourbusinesses and so necessary,
needed and, at the same time,working with someone that can
help create a great bridge for,again, a lot of the heavy
lifting.
Again, take advantage of thatopportunity.
I mean, I cannot thank youenough and if you miss any of
(30:43):
that, again, as we always do,we'll make sure all the links
are in the description, all ofthat.
We won't leave you hanging onthat.
Just check out the description.
You'll find links to everythingthat we talked about and to
Glamatic themselves and, withthat in mind, thank you so much
for your time.
We will absolutely scheduleanother because there's so much
more to talk about.
But, with that being said,thank all of you for listening
(31:06):
and viewing and we'll see you onour next podcast.
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