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CONSULTANT'S CORNER How To Get All The New Customers You Want Quickly, Easily & Affordably One eternal truth is that we all need a steady stream of new customers to ensure the existence of our businesses. Over time, a chunk of your customers move away, choose other solutions, get bored or are wooed away by more savvy competitors. The trick, then, is replacing the ones you lose with new ones, and hopefully with even better and higher valued new customers. One of the hardest things for any business to accomplish is finding a reliable, predictable and cost effective method for getting all the quality new customers you can handle. When you finally have a large crowd of new customers begging you to take their money, you have just solved the majority of your business problems. The real trick then is, how do you find them and get them into your salon in a cost-effective manner? I spoke about this in detail during one of my training sessions at the Smart Tan Conference in November. I explained the value of having many fishing poles in the water and using multiple forms of media to reel in as many new clients as possible. The challenge is that not every salon can use all these forms of media. A single salon in Chicago probably will not be able to afford radio commercials. In my salons, I currently use seven different 89 ❘ SMART TAN MAGAZINE ❘ SmartTan.com forms of media to get new customers. Each of them is effective, but the most reliable source that casts the biggest net is using online media. And no, I'm not talking about tweeting or Facebooking all day. 4. Get their information. Why keep your potential customers anonymous when it's so easy to get to know them online? Offer incentives for joining your email list, text message marketing, or social media pages. These days, most consumers do at least some basic research online before deciding to give their money to a business. Finding their new tanning salon is no different. Here are some tips to put your salon's best foot forward on the Internet: 5. Create an irresistible offer. While you've got the screen time, make an impression that will get them in your store. 1. Check the review sites. Are your customers raving, or are they revolted? Do your best to reach out to anyone who takes the time to write a review – good or bad – and show you are committed to their satisfaction. By finally cracking the code on what really works online, my salons are now getting 10 times as many prospective new customers opting in to my website versus the old ineffective way. Every new customer walking into one of my salons on their first purchase. That does not even take into account what their annual or lifetime value is. 2. Know your rank. If you go to a search engine and type in "tanning" in combination with your city name or zip code, do you see your salon's information near the top of the results? If not, it's time to adopt some Search Engine Optimization techniques. 3. Are you on the right social networks? YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and Google Places are just a few of the social networks that can legitimize your business and create an opportunity for contact with your potential customers. Grant Miller is the owner of Sun Your Buns in Erie, Pa. and is a salon marketing expert, consultant, speaker and author. For a free report on how to turn your tanning salon into a cash churningmachine, go to www.tanningsalonmarketing.com.