Today, we’re going to be answering a question I got on Instagram which is:
“How do I advertise that I have appointments available? Without looking desperate to fill them?”
There’s really two parts to this question…the first part is “how do you advertise available appointments” and the second part is “How to not look desperate”. And what I’m going to share today is probably the complete opposite of what you think…
No Advertising Is Necessary
So part one of the question asked was: “How do I advertise that I have appointments available?” Straight answer, you don’t.
There’s no point in advertising that you have appointments available or not available.
The main reason why someone isn’t booking an appointment with you is NOT because they don’t know you have appointments available. There’s a lot of objections that someone has that would stop them from booking and until you address those and they trust you that you’re going to get them to the desired result they want – they’re not going to book. And that’s what you need to marketing to figure out.
Clients Aren’t Booking Because They Don’t Trust You
Chances are a new client’s hesitation to book with you has nothing to do with whether or not she knows you have a 2:00 pm full set appointment available on Friday. So let’s dive into some marketing chit chat!
Your marketing is to capture NEW clients – not current clients. So think about why someone is NOT booking with you . (Hint – if you jumped straight to your price point – you may not understand your target market or may be targeting the wrong market)The specific problem a client has is NOT that they don’t know when you’re available. Online booking solves that dilemma.
They don’t care that you have appointments available, what they care about is they have a pain point that they are looking to you to solve and they need to know that you can solve it.
So the question really becomes how do I get clients to trust me? How do I get clients to know that I have the solution to help them? This is where we can start to look at the journey someone goes on to go from stranger to customer.
Why Having a Website is So Important
If you don’t have online booking – you’re leaving A LOT of money on the table. I get people bitching all the time about how much online booking softwares cost – and they’re trying to nickel and dime their business – but what they don’t see is the COST of NOT having online booking. Same thing for a website.
You are LOSING customers everyday you do not have a website and you make booking with you unnecessarily complicated. If I want to book with you – I’m sorry, I don’t really want to wait 3-5 days for you to see my DM about wanting to book with you and learn more about your prices and services.
If I want to book an appointment, I don’t necessarily want to wait around to figure out if or when you’re available. We live in a very instant gratification society these days and these clients- they want an oompa loompa NOW daddy! So give the people what they want!
Do You Make It Easy For Clients to Book With You?
If a potential client doesn’t know when you’re available – chances are they haven’t been to your booking site. So look at what needs to happen in their journey right before they land on your booking site….they need to go to your website before they end up on your booking site so they know what to book when they get there.
Keep working backwards – how do they get to your website – well believe it or not – it’s not that they guess. It’s not like they do Russian Roulette with the search bar and magically just happen to type in your exact unique website url.
They are SENT to your website from somewhere. We call this a traffic or lead source. Typically traffic is sent from social media, review sites, sometimes google or paid ads, or a business card or a friend telling them about your business – to your website.
THAT is the simplified version of your marketing funnel and it’s what you must create in your business to have a predictable journey that someone goes on from being a stranger to a paying client. This is the FIRST set of trainings we teach inside of the Lashpreneur Society – my business coaching program for beauty business owners – and it’s getting your marketing funnel in place.
ITS OK TO BE DESPERATE – But Not For the Reasons You Might Think
Now on to the second part of our original question, which was how to not look “desperate” in your marketing. If you’re worried about looking desperate…your mindset is all wrong. You SHOULD be desperate.
Your audience should 100% know, believe, think, and feel that you are DESPERATE TO HELP THEM SOLVE THEIR PROBLEM. The mindset that you’re desperate to get people to book an appointment because you’re desperate for money is WHY your marketing is ineffective.
Nobody wants to pay you money just to pay you money.
What they want is to get out of their pain point. They’re desperate to stop their struggle – and they would pay to have their pain relieved. THAT is what you focus your marketing on … serving NOT selling.
So take all that desperate energy that you’re trying to pretend doesn’t exist and channel it into being DESPERATE to help just one woman feel better about herself today. Let THAT be your focus – and not “I’m desperate for people to pay me” because nobody cares you’re desperate for money – we all have our own struggles we’re preoccupied with.
So to wrap it all up, forget about advertising when you do or don’t have appointments available. Focus your marketing messaging on serving others and market yourself so that the people that have the pain point that you solve and market like hell to let them know that you’re desperate to help them.
If you want to learn more about how The Lashpreneur Society can help you learn the steps on implementing this inside of your business – send me a DM on Instagram at www.instagram.com/thelashpreneur
