Salon Website Design

Domain Names

Mick Say — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 09:00:29 +0000

Professional Email

Over the past few weeks I have been asked a series of questions regarding email addresses, domain names and web hosting, so I decided to write this blog to answer those questions.

What is a domain name?

Typically a domain name is your website (and email) address,EG:

www.fullcolumn.co.uk = Website domain name.

mick@fullcolumn.co.uk = Email address on the same “domain”

There are mainly two types of domain name;

Personal
Business

If it’s personal then it is going to be something like, micksay123@googlemail.com – most of the world has a freebie email address provided by Yahoo, or Google, MSN etc, nothing wrong with that. However, how much more meaningful would a real personal email address be, and how much more pride you would take in an email address like, yourname@yourfamilyname.com

Let’s say your family name is Sterling; you could have the following email addresses.

janet@sterling.co.uk
mark@sterling.co.uk
alan@sterling.co.uk
Victoria@sterling.co.uk

My personal email address is mick@micksay.com – I also own mick@micksay.co.uk

You get the picture, your whole family tree on one family domain, how cool would that be!

Four questions I am generally asked at this stage:

1.   How do I get a domain name?
2.   What if my family name is already taken by someone else?
3.   How and where do I host my domain, email etc?
4.   What does hosting mean?

HOW DO I GET A DOMAIN NAME?
Basically you apply to a broker, who will check to see if your desired domain name is already taken by someone, if it’s free you register it and it’s yours for an annual fee, starting at around £7.00 per year for a .co.uk or .com once it’s yours you can have unlimited email addresses on your domain name.

You can check here to see if your domain name choice is free and see how much it would cost to buy it:
WebHosting UK, a Full Column Ltd Partner

WHAT IF MY FAMILY NAME IS ALREADY TAKEN?
If your family domain name is already taken, and it probably is, don’t worry too much there are some great alternatives that we could organise for you. I am trying to keep this short so if you have any questions please feel free to email me, mick@fullcolumn.co.uk
(you will see a free domain name for life offer if you are quick!)

ONCE I HAVE A DOMAIN NAME HOW DO I USE IT & WHAT IS HOSTING?
An email host, or web host, is a company that owns a server on which your domain name will “live”, and this host server will service requests to send or receive emails, typically managed from your personal computer or laptop using applications like Microsoft outlook, or outlook express.

Remember, I am keeping this simple and jargon free, I am deliberately not complicating this subject because there is no need, however if you have any questions feel free to email me. mick@fullcolumn.co.uk

If at some stage in the future you want a website, then this website would sit on the domain name server that you already own (rent)!

2. PROFESSIONAL BUSINESS EMAIL

It is not acceptable today to send business emails from an address such as:
sterlinghairdressing@ googlemail.com, What does that say about your business?

You need:

Sales@your choice of domain name.co.uk (.com)
customerservice@ businessname.co.uk
feedback@ businessname.co.uk
admin@ businessname.co.uk
dave@ businessname.co.uk

You might be a single owner operator of your business but if in your sales literature you list the above email addresses your customers and prospects will see you as being very professional. And all of the above email addresses are fed into your single email client inbox and you can even send emails from each of those addresses, how professional is that?

If your business had 1000 employees they could all have their own unique email address with their name@ yourbussiness.co.uk of course the bigger you get, the more storage space and bandwidth you need and then it becomes more expensive. You could even set up email addresses for each stylist or therapist, it’s really easy.

Ok so I used a bit of jargon, bandwidth, if you only want a personal family tree of email addresses this is nothing to worry about, if you want email for business then you very defiantly need to understand bandwidth before purchasing domains or hosting.

IMPORTANT CONSIDERATIONS FOR BUSINESS USERS.

If you are in business and you don’t own your own domain name then you should, and you will need to get one fast as it is essential for the visibility and marketing of your business.

You will also need a website as a portal for your business.

Now, for business the selection of your domain name is crucial!

If your business name is Sterling Hairdressing Ltd and you own a salon in Bristol called “Sterling Hair and Beauty” you should NOT try to get the domain name www. Sterling.co.uk, you should try to get the domain name : www.bristolhairdressing.co.uk (or .com)

This is important because when a consumer in Bristol is seeking a hairdressing salon in bristol, they are going to type Bristol Hairdressing Salons into Google not Sterling!

Or if you own a really cool hairdressing salon that specialises in say, “Natural hairdressing”. You should have the domain name www.naturalhairdressing.co.uk because only those people who know you would search for www.susans-salon.co.uk, – any way you get the picture.

If you have any more questions please feel free to email me mick@fullcolumn.co.uk and if you would like to research your own domain name or buy very high quality and very affordable web hosting starting at £2.99 per month check out: WebHosting UK, a Full Column Ltd Partner

Salon Marketing

Mick Say — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 14:31:04 +0000

Impactive Salon Marketing

Impactive Salon Marketing
Salon Marketing takes three forms: Traditional print marketing, website and online marketing and permission based Salon Email Marketing. All three need to be utilised if a salon is to grow and prosper more than that of the local competition.

Traditional paper based marketing still has its place but is being overtaken by online and email marketing, I estimate that over 90% of viable salon clients now have an email address and check their emails at least once per day.

That knowledge is powerful and profitable in skillful hands.

Salon Website Marketing Mistakes

The majority of Salon Websites are NOT designed to be “Salon Marketing Machines” because they have unfortunately been designed and developed by vendors who want to make a quick-buck and have no interest in your ongoing success or worse, made by well meaning salon owners who do not have the necessary experience but have taken advantage of a DIY website package.

The “cheap” or “DIY” Salon Website cannot provide a meaningful long-lasting, future proof Salon Website Marketing Platform capable of winning new salon business and communication effectively with clients and prospects. To labour under this false pretense is harmful to the salon reputation and is a false economy in time, money and effort which repulses more website visitors than it attracts.

A Salon Website designed on-the-cheap will generate negative brand equity and will chase countless salon clients and prospects away from the business and will also have a reverse-effect on existing client retention.

Meaningful Salon Website Marketing

Conversley a well made salon website will attract new clients and will generate increased income from existing clients and build salon brand equity and trust. Over the years the structured Salon Website will generate countless thousands in new clients and new revenue. An investment in this kind of website can be spread over the many years that it will serve you and your bank balance.

Salon Email Marketing

Salon Email Marketing is now an essential Salon Business Development tool and it would be remiss of any salon owner not to have a regular method for communicating salon promotional messages to their clients and prospects.

Our Salon websites are designed with salon visitor email address collection incentives in order to build an email marketing list, when you add your existing clients email addresses to this list and then begin sending permission based email marketing messages to them you steadily and consistently win more new clients, get clients to visit the salon more frequently, increase the average clients spend and improve client retention. And as a bonus you will be able to DECREASE your normal marketing budget.

Salon Online Marketing

You can read more about Salon Online Marketing and Salon Email Marketing at the Salon Managers Academy.

Thank You

Mick Say — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 14:49:28 +0000

Thank You for Signing up to Salon Website Design