Redirect lockdown anxiety to power your marketing can help you feel a little more in control.

Marketing experts believe we are sitting in a rare opportunity. We have time to review our business, our marketing approach and brand assets and arguably most important, the customer experience.

Here’s our tips to help;

OK Google. As the biggest referral platform in the globe, ensuring that your listing on Google is accurate, is a top priority. Click here to review the world of Google My Business, then check your listing on every mobile device and get your friend’s to do so too. Ensure your map location is exact, your phone number on your listing is clickable and your opening hours are correct, especially during lockdown. Get advice from an expert in SEO marketing on ways to ensure your website content is compelling and answers search queries fast. Then, test what happens when you use Voice Activation to search your business and make any necessary changes to make you more Google friendly and publicly visible.

Review me please! Reading reviews is a critical part of a new customer’s decision making. Ask your loyal customers to write reviews on your Google My Business listing and ask them to rate you five-stars. You can promote these reviews on your website and socials too! Make sure you thank them and offer them a free O&M mini product in the post. Amplify review posting traffic by following up an appointment with a text or Facebook message to prompt people to place reviews, or share their experience or new hair pics on their #socials.

Your home pages & Instagram grid also work as your shopfronts. Review these. What three words come to mind? Do they tell a consistent story about your offering and your products? Are all your images, text and clickable links up to date? Use Google Analytics to assess your website performance; what’s the average time spent browsing, what is clicked the most? How can you customers to stay longer? Invest time to set up e-commerce so customers can buy products swiftly from your social platforms?

Embrace your customer’s experience. Consider your customer’s experience both online and offline. How did they get from their home, to your chair? What would stand out the most? How can you add some value to those moments they interact with you? This includes the content you create on your socials, your phone manner and your post care. Initiatives like “bring a friend for a free blow dry day,” or a personalised thank-you note with the products used will go a long way.

Your brand... Is it time for a refresh of your brand assets and collateral? As a stockist of O&M, you’re already a health-conscious salon who is striving for cleaner alternatives in haircare. But, does your brand communicate this to your customers? Does your brand tell your story through your imagery, your social media, even your logo and brand palette? Ask yourself what you represent and who your ideal customer is and tweak your collateral to suit.

 Read the room. Five months on and we’re all over it, with many Australians becoming fearful, anxious and overwhelmed. “We are all in this together”, so conveying this supportive message to your customers can be beneficial for yours and their mental health.

Lastly ask your team to call some of your loyal customers. See how they are and enjoy a good complaint and compassion session together and form strong bonds. Offer some life advice or lockdown hair advice, and send them some product samples!