Building an Optimized Website w/ Kimber Chapman

Let me guess. You are a hustling, bustling hairstylist behind the chair, working so hard to build a beautiful career for yourself, one that gives you time, freedom, and energy to spend with yourself, your family, and your friends. But you feel like you're always working in your business even when you're not behind the chair. My name is Hunter Donia, and I help you automate your systems and implement really beautiful strategies so you can grow your business without the overwhelm.

And this is the Modern Hairstylist podcast. Hello, friend. Welcome back to the Modern Hairstylist podcast. I, oh, am so excited for this episode because I got one, one of my bestie boos on this gig, and I'm so excited about it.

But we're gonna be talking about, um, an extremely essential part of you having a successful business and making sure that you are showing up as a professional business, right, especially in your marketing and in the way that you get new potential clients to actually book and get into your chair as a business owner. And this freaking person that I have to join me in this conversation has created some insanely needed and beautiful resources, and she's super knowledgeable and I trust her very much so, um, with her, uh, opinion on this subject, and that's why I'm really excited to have her here. I have Miss Kimber Chapman. What's going on, Kimby?

How are you? Hey. I am doing so good. It's Monday.

Monday's actually always my favorite day of the week. Um, it's like a fresh start. Some people hate Mondays. Mondays are my favorite, so I'm excited to be here.

Well, I think 'cause, like, we're hairstylists. I feel like- Yes. we, like, still innately love Mondays. I love Mondays because it's normally the time that I get to connect with, like, my students and my programs and it's just like, it, like, lights me up and it inspires me, so I'm on the same page as you.

Um, but I am really, really excited to dive deep into websites, because you have been creating some resources and, and just m- like, knowledge and all of these things about websites. And you, from the very get-go when I first met you way back when on Clubhouse, I mean, everybody loves your website. Like, everybody has loved your website- ... for, for your salon, uh, w- whenever you have one for your education.

Like, you do such a great job with design, user, user, uh, interface, and accessibility and all of those good things. And I think that, yes, you have a beautiful website, but you have an effective website, right? Thank you. And I think that people get really caught up with, like, making their website really pretty and it's like, well, yes, we want it to be pretty and we want it to be branded, but it also has to have, like, the right factors and, and the things that are really going to make sure that if a potential new client lands on it, that, um, you know, it really converts them into actually getting into your chair.

So we're gonna be diving deep into all the things today. We're keeping it caz, you guys. Like, we're just gonna keep the c- conversation flowing 'cause that's how me and Kimby- Super fun. roll every now and then, um, but it's gonna be great.

So, Kimber, first, though, I want to ask you just a short introduction of yourself, who you are, what you do, who you serve, where you're at. Like, what's the tea? Tell me all the tea. For those who don't know me, I'm Kimber Chapman.

I am a stylist and salon owner in the, like, suburbs of Indianapolis, kind of like rural suburbs. Um, I have been a stylist since 2012. I've been an independent stylist since 2018, and I became a salon owner in 2020, um, for my salon, Tone Color Studio. I didn't really know anything about marketing, websites, client experience, anything before I went out on my own, um, and in 2018 I created my first website.

In that first year, I redid my website probably like five times because I think in the beginning I was super focused on the look, the aesthetic, the branding, which like, everybody thinks that brand is just the pretty parts of everything, and to me, and this is what I, I think that we've developed a good friendship and professional relationship based around this, is the experience is most important. So if you don't have a good experience, you're going to not be able to deliver a good product for your clients, which in our case is the services we do behind the chair. So I started on my own and I went strictly into balayage services in 2018, and not a lot of people at that time still in this area really truly understood what balayage was. So I had to create a user experience through my online booking and through how I created my menu that let people be okay with not knowing, um, that let them trust me to pick what was best for them and they just picked what looked like the end result they were looking for.

That developed the Session Services Lab which I created, and then eventually it created my, uh, Squarespace template shop, Tone Creative. So Tone Creative was kinda named after my salon tone 'cause I'm all about setting the tone. So that's all about me. That's awesome.

I love that you brought up experience, and, um, I think that when we build these, like, marketing assets in our business, or whenever we're posting on social, whatever it may be, when we're building a website, we often forget about the user who's actually gonna be using the, the website or the- Yes. or be seeing the so-... Like, it's, for whatever reason, we, I think that we just get into our own heads and we just want things to, like, look pretty and be great and be up there, but we s- all too often don't actually put ourselves in the potential new client's shoes. I just got off a massive marketing workshop with my, with my membership and we were talking, like, all throughout, like, you need to map out what that journey looks like for your client when they get onto, you know, your social and then they go to your website and then they go through your application.

You need to map that journey out and really think about, like, what are they seeing, what are they thinking, as they are going through those hoops that you have, right, and those- Mm-hmm. assets that you have. And that is how you make decisions and make sure that your website, assets, whatever it may be, are-... um, giving a great experience, because you're not the- Of course.

you're not the one who your website matters for. It's your clients. It's the customers. The customer.

It's the- it's- it's them at the end of the day. And so, I love that you talked about... Um, first off, let's talk about this, because I think that it is something, I mean, you really are the one who helped me with my service menu, first off, um, and really, really opening my eyes to, like, how a service menu is something that is really confusing for people sometimes. Yes.

And I cannot tell you how many people have come to my suite a- after going on my website and seeing my simplified menu and saying, "I chose you because your website and your menu was the only one that made sense to me." Yeah. So, let's talk about that first, because I know that you're- you're so down for simplifying the menu, and it's a really essential part of a website in my opinion. And so- Definitely.

I think that it- they kind of, like, weave between each other. So first, let's talk about, like you said, you know, you've- your client feels like they don't really know, like, all these, like, hair terms. They don't really know- Yeah. what they need.

They don't know, like, what the tea is 'cause they're not hairdressers. They didn't go to beauty school. So, how do we make our website and what we're showing them in their experience a- a- a non-intimidating one and one that makes sense for them? Yeah, so I developed my session menu kind of around the concept, like, when I...

I'm a person... I'm, like, slightly introverted, and when I don't know something, I'm always afraid to ask questions, because this is just my personality coming out, but I hate looking like I don't know. I feel like people feel like they can be scammed easily when they don't know something. So, when I'm thinking of sessions, I'm thinking of basically my- I was thinking of my user experience first.

As a consumer, when I visit a business for the first time, it is intimidating when you don't really know what to ask for. Um, and we are the ones that went to hair school, right? And it's kinda like, a photographer will take your photos, and edit your photos, and deliver a gallery for you, and not tell you at all one time in the process what they're actually doing to create this package for you. They are just doing it.

So, I was like, "How can I basically deliver the same thing as a service provider?" In 2018, it was extremely new. It still- I feel like it's coming around, um, and I'm so happy for that, because I feel like it really does change the way that we deliver what we offer in our industry. But in 2018, I got the same exact thing.

People were coming in saying they were coming to see me because I didn't make them feel stupid. I didn't make them feel like they were doing the wrong thing. I didn't- 'cause nobody wants to book the wrong thing. Like, I think we have this misperception that, um, our clients are purposefully booking for the wrong services to either fit into our schedule or get a cheaper service.

That might happen, like, w- one out of 20 times, but that's not common. Um, so when I'm designing a service page around sessions and around the mentality that somebody doesn't really know what they're looking at, I think about the solutions first. The menu is always built around the solution for the client. The client chooses the solution.

They don't choose the technique. They choose the end result, and then whatever happens in that time block that they're allowed, that's what happens. So, that's the basis of it, um, is that we work on results, not necessarily how we get to the results. I love that.

And so then, how do you relay that and bring that to your website, right? So, like, you have maybe a more simplified menu, so now how do we- h- so you say you focus on, like, the s- like, the s- the results and the solutions, right? Yes. So then, how do we actually do that on our websites?

Yeah, so on your services page, it's really important, like I said, this is still a fairly new concept to consumers in our industry. So, our guests, our potential guests, they still don't necessarily know what sessions are. They may have booked a session with a different service provider, a tattoo artist, a photographer, uh, an aesthetician who does, you know, those sorts of services. But when it comes to hair, they still think, like, "Oh, I need to make sure I'm booking all of the things."

So, I think the very first thing that you need to be clear about when you are creating your service page is just a quick, little two-sentence description on what sessions mean to you. So, on my website, I say it's like MapQuest for hair. They basically will choose their result, and then that's the time allotted, and we'll do what we can with that time. It's all about the way that you position yourself as the expert.

It's all about how you position yourself as the guide. So, when- I break it down into- into its steps. We've got our quick description on what services are. Then, we list our actual sessions.

When somebody is looking for a result, most consumers, again, don't know techniques. They're gonna be looking at photos. So, I think it's super imperative to have photos of the actual, like, what the session would create on your website. It doesn't have to be, like, a full portfolio.

Um, you can just have, you know, three photos of three different guests that offer three different things and create sessions around that. Um, but good descriptions, good photos. It's basically like, if somebody were flipping through, back in the day, we don't do this anymore, but if someone were flipping through a newspaper and they're trying to figure out, like, what movie to go see at the movie theater, they're going to see the movie poster first, a short description, a rating from somebody, so that would be, like, your client review, and then they're gonna decide, "Oh, that's the movie I wanna go see." So, we kinda base everything off that, just quick, 30-second, 'cause you have 30 seconds on a service page before somebody gets bored, to deliver what we offer, quickly.

Absolutely. I love that. I love what you brought up earlier with like, we b- we'll, like, blame things on the client- .We'll blame things on the, like, "Oh, like they just wanna book this to get in, like, at a certain time."

Or, like- Yeah. And like you said, like, sure, that might happen every now and then. And also it's like, okay, what conversation are you gonna have with that person? Like, what kind of- Right.

what kind of clients are you attracting? Like, what kind of core values do you have? Right. Like, how are you communica- Right?

It's like, looking back at ourselves as- Mm-hmm. businesses, and it's like, okay, if, if we're seeing behavior that maybe we don't like or that's not working w- to further us in our goals, then maybe we should look at what we need to do as a business to make it better and make, make it so that way we can guide our clients in the right direction. And so asking for feedback and, and making sure that we're using our client's language, right, and we are creating things that are really simple. I love that breakdown of the service page.

Thank you so much. I think that's gonna be really helpful for people. Let me ask you this. This is a hard question.

Are you ready? I'm ready. So like, if somebody didn't want to do sessions Mm-hmm. do you think it's possible to still have a, a services page that's effective?

Now, here's what I'll say. In my program, I, I teach to having a website where the service page is extremely simple and it is packaged, right- Mm-hmm. for new clients, but when they're, when they actually come, then they can start to maybe pay whatever else, whatever your pricing structure is, like a la carte or whatever. Right.

But 90% of the time, people start to realize, like, how awesome a s- a session pricing menu is and how much simpler it makes everything, right? But anyways, i- let's say somebody's like, "Nope, that's not gonna work for me. I'm an a la carte girl till I die." What's the tea?

How can we make a service menu? Can we make- Good. a service menu simplified and good? Love this question, because I definitely don't think that, like, I will never treat session services like the one and only way to structure your pricing.

But I will coach to it as a way to structure your menu. So I think you kinda touched on it already. When you are on your service, you don't have to offer session pricing. I think that it's imperative to offer packages for new clients when they're going to your website.

I think that you can structure your pricing however you want to. I have, I've done sessions since I went out on my own, so I, I would consider myself an expert in coaching the sessions. But I also d- I know because I, I'm a one-on-one coach for stylists who are walking all sorts of paths in this industry that it's not the only way. Um, but I do think that no matter what your structure is, you can still set up your service page to create not m- neces- even necessarily sessions, but what are some things that would pair together that create an experience for your new guests?

Even if you don't include a toner with every color service, even if you don't include a haircut with every single appointment. Like may- maybe you wanna make sure that you offer a treatment with everybody. That's still part of a session. So, even if it's not priced that way, I think you can still present it in your menu that way.

Absolutely. I- it's just about simplifying. Yes. Like, it's literally just about figuring out how can you make this a simple process that makes sense for your potential new guests who are visiting your website for the first time.

So I, I love that you said that. That's amazing. Speaking of that, you and I believe very much so, right, that when you can create spaces that are speaking to specific people and specific things and specific situations, that you can have much more effective marketing, right? And it's just becomes simpler and easier and it just makes more sense.

Mm-hmm. So, I think that one thing that we, we probably agree on for sure is that when you're talking about your front-facing website, right, so your service page, your home page, your new guest page, about me, whatever it may be, that we are really more focusing on the new potential clients' experience versus the existing clients' experiences, right? Would you agree with me and would you mind expanding on that? Absolutely.

Here's how I see it. So, let's... To me, your website is a digital storefront. I think that as technology is expanding and as this idea of a metaverse is coming to fruition, we really do have to think of our digital presence as something that is more tangible than we realize.

So when I think of a website, I think of it as basically a digital storefront. Now, when you go to, like, a club or a really swanky restaurant, there is the normal line of new people who have never been that have made their first reservation, and then there is always either a table reserved or a room or somewhere where people who know what the tea is are going to go. So, that's how I see basically your, your website is that digital storefront. When somebody is googling, just like if they're looking up a swanky restaurant on whatever, Yelp or whatever, when somebody is googling a new salon, they're going to see yours and a list of whatever, and assuming you've got that really great traffic, you're bumped up in your search results anyway.

So a client is visiting your website, that's where they see all this new information, right? So they see what you're about. They see what you do. They see what the pricing is.

They see what the process is of booking an appointment with you. They basically get an intro to the experience. But because we're living in a digital world, we still have to offer something to existing clients so that when they leave you, they don't have to contact you personally again to be able to get to where they need to go, and that's that what I call, like, I don't like to call it, like, the back door, but it's basically like a separate space for your existing clients to go on your website that nobody else ever sees. It doesn't have search engine optimization.

It doesn't have any of that. It's just a landing page and that's it. And it doesn't have to necessarily even be a landing page. It could be just a little blurb.

But it's a separate space for your existing clients because the search engine optimization, the marketing, all that, that's for the front of the building, where for existing clients, putting them in a VIP room in the back. Yeah, dude, and that, that just does so... It th- I mean, I could go off about this. Like, this is like...

There's so many ways that I can go about... But like-... it makes it so that the new potential client doesn't have to surf through a bunch of BS that's for your existing clients. Yup.

It's like there is one mission here for the new potential client, and that is to nurture them on the website, and help them make the decision, and get them to book the buy-in, the- Mm-hmm. to press the buy-in, right? Mm-hmm. That's the mission, and when you can c- create that really clear mission for that specific person, I think that's way more effective than if you have, like, okay, existing stuff is here and the new- Yeah.

client stuff is here, and it's like... And it also just makes, it makes, like, y- what you're doing, like, so much easier and less overwhelming, in my opinion. Yes. And th- the other great thing that it does is it makes your existing clients feel really special, in my opinion.

Absolutely. When you have a separate space for them, it nurtures them better, you're able... Same thing, you're not bogging them down with this new client information. You're giving them what's relevant to them.

Um... Yes. A lot of what I'm s- like, s- reading in, like, like, articles and stuff, and business articles and stuff, like, with consumer behavior in 2022 is people are looking for a very, like, specific experience for them, and just that separation of, like, this is... Like, this storefront website that's, like, you know, front-facing situation, this is specifically for the new client.

So, like- Yes. everything that they're reading makes sense for them. Everything for the existing client, you're, y- everything that they're reading makes sense for them. It just creates a better experience, right?

It all comes- Yes. back to the experience, and so even for the new client and the existing client. Right. When we think about, uh, how, h- we sh- we're never fake when we're meeting new clients for the first time, but we're definitely holding hands differently with a new client than we are an existing client.

An existing client already kinda knows what you're about, so they're able to find things without that handholding a little bit easier than new clients. And I basically think of every new client as somebody who doesn't know anything about hair. They've asked of moms' group on Facebook or they search Google for, like, the best balayage or extensions in the Indianapolis area, and they just have happened to come across me. They think that this is something they need, but they don't know why.

I am there to hold their hands, and we all are there to hold our new clients's hands and explain to them why they need what we offer. We don't have to explain that to existing clients because they already got the sauce. They already have tasted it. They're already like, "I'm, I'm in."

But retention is something that is not... Especially in 2022 and beyond, retention is not something that just comes organically. Excuse me. Retention is not something that comes automatically.

You do have to create something special for existing clients in order for retention to really be at that, you know, 80, 90% where we want it to be, and I think that offering those two separate experiences definitely plays a role in that. Yeah, and it just makes it easier, and I, uh, uh, for everybody at the end of the day. Yes. Like, literally, easier for you and for the client as well.

Love that. Love it all. What else? What...

Do we have, like, some, like, essentials for a website? Like, what kind of pages do you think are, like, the absolute essentials? And, like, do we have to write, like, paragraphs of a bio about us? Like...

Yup. what's the tea? Like, tell me the tea with that. So, I love this question because it's, it's going to be a little bit different depending on who you are talking to.

There are people who are looking for an expert, and they don't need to know any other information. If that's who you are attracting, you get a one-page website with a couple of quick blurbs about you, a couple, a couple of quick blurbs about what you offer, and an easy-to-find booking link or whatever takes you through your booking process. There are people who need a story. There are people who need a little fluff.

There are people who need an experience. For those people, we are, we are the stylists who create pages like the About page, the Services page, the New Guests page, all of that. Do I think that all of those are 100% necessary to have an effective website? No.

I implore people to look back on what their mission is and see who they are speaking to before they decide what elements actually go into their website. The necessities for everyone, whether it's short, long, multi-page, one page, are going to be an intro to your vision, 'cause I think that... Basically, how I operate is we have vision, the vision part of our branding, the value part of our branding, the vocal part of our branding, and the visual part of our branding, if I didn't already say that. I might've already said that.

Anyway, um, so when we're talking about the vision, like, our vision for our business needs to be thrown across our website somewhere, whether it be a quick, like, "This is what I can do for you," or, "This is my actual mission." I think that that's so important because that's really what's going to create a stunning connection with whoever you're speaking to. Then we have a little blurb about your services. It doesn't need to be this, like, every service includes.

It doesn't need to be, like, super lengthy. Mine is, and I love that, but I know that's not for everybody. It could just be like, "I offer three new packages. You either get the mini, the medium, or the large," basically, like a, like, when you're going to a restaurant and you're ordering, you know, whatever you want from the menu, you get these three options.

I don't think you need to explain everything that goes into it. There are some people that will have an audience that appreciates that, so I do think that it's, it's good for them. But basically, a blurb of your services, and then just a little bit of get to know you. And you don't even need an About page to do this.

You can do this basically in the vocal parts of your website through the text. How do you actually speak to a client? Um, I definitely think that we need to create an authentic voice in all of how we... And that's kinda how, that's honestly how I got into what th- what I do.

I didn't realize, and I know that it comes easy for you too, Hunter. Um, I didn't realize how not easy it is for people to vocalize their, like, authentically communicate with people and just typing words. I didn't realize how difficult that was for people, so I think that that's really imperative and a skill to really work on, and that-... can go on a one-page website or a multi-page website.

So, it doesn't necessarily need to be a certain size. It just needs to have those certain elements of getting to know you and your vision, your visuals, your vocals, and your value. I love that. Um, I think a lot of people really, when we talk about marketing, like people really struggle with, like, showing up authentic, 'cause that's what everybody's telling you you have to do nowadays.

Like, show up authentically, like be vulnerable, like be yourself. And it's like, people just don't even know how to do that. Yes. And it's not something that just comes naturally.

It's really, it's really difficult for a lot of people. Yes. And I think, like, as long as you take whatever you're sharing, you make it relevant to who you're serving, that is how you can kind of like check the box. You know what I mean?

Like, if I'm gonna tell a story about, like, how I'm sad or something like that, right, like how does that, how does that serve my guest? And how does that- Right. make that, that, that, how does that make that relationship even better, and can it possibly even, like, turn somebody off? And, you know, that's another thing you wanna consider.

Like you said, you, you have, like, all of those brand elements, right, like your vision, your mission. Like, and I'm not using your words, but like core values, like whatever it may be, right? Yes. That's also, you're vou- you're also weeding people out.

Exactly. Right? Exactly. Yeah.

So, you're weeding people out too. So, not only are you really refining who you are actually going to have come through to, with your booking process, but you're also, um, you're also, uh, really aligning with those amazing people and then making sure that the people who, like, wouldn't align with you, like they ain't, they ain't trying to get into the door. Right. And that's what I, I love, I love all the aspects of branding for that reason, because the people that we...

We have four salons on our main strip in my town. Like, we have four already, and they're like feet from each other. Like, often the DoorDash people will go to the wrong salons. We all attract and deflect different groups of people, and I'm very lucky that we're all super supportive of each other.

But, um, it, y- how you create this experience online really will not only attract people, but certainly deflect people, and that's what you want. That's a good thing. I was gonna say, like, that's a good thing. Yeah.

Like, you really... Because, because you wanna know why that's a good thing? If you are deflecting people, then you know that you're doing a good job at attracting the right people. Yes.

You know what I mean? Because like the more focused you are on the right people, the more you're gonna deflect the wrong people, and that means that you're doing the, doing a good job. Like, because the more that you focus on those ideal people, then the more successful you're gonna be, because people are looking- Absolutely. for that nowadays.

Okay, gorge, can we talk about link trees? Yes. Yes, we can. Can we, can we talk about, can we talk about links in bios, and can we talk about, like, bounce rates and stuff?

So, like, like, how do we create a link in bio? Should we use a certain platform? Mm-hmm. Um, should we make it on our websites?

Like, what's the tea with, like, like, if we have like a link in our Instagram bio or on our Facebook business page, like should, should we even use a link tree? Like, what's the tea with that? So, like, somebody finds us on our Instagram, Facebook. They wanna know more information.

Should we stop them with this link tree to make sure they go exactly where we want them to go, or should we go right to our website? There's a couple different schools of thought on this, so I'll share mine. I really hate, like, algorithm talk, because it makes people think that they have to basically live around this imaginary idea of attracting people. I think that if you keep those four Vs in mind, you don't have to worry about algorithms, and you don't have to worry about SEOing.

You don't have to worry about bounce rates. But if you have just moved spaces, if you are starting a new business, then SEO really does matter just to get your name out there. So, here's the thing with SEO and bounce rates. When somebody is bouncing off of your website, which is basically they visit a page, they click an external link, and it goes to an affiliate link you have, or it goes to your Instagram or whatever, that tells Google that these people didn't wanna stay on your website.

Google doesn't know that it, you led them somewhere else. Basically, you're doing what you were supposed to do. Google is just like, "Well, people don't wanna be on that website for very long, so we're gonna shove it down in these search results." So, when it comes to a link in bio page, there's two ways to go about it.

I have people, coaching clients, website clients, all those different things, that definitely have all of their links go to different pages of their website. Like, their links in their bio are going to be, "See my services, book with me," all these other things. If they're going to places in your website, I think that creating a really good hidden landing page, and you can do this on any website platform, it doesn't necessarily have to be what I create, um, creating a good landing page helps with those four Vs, your visuals, your vocals, all of that good stuff. Um, if you have external links, which honestly the majority of us do.

We don't, we might not even realize we have them, but for a lot of people their booking link goes to Vigaro. Their, uh, affiliate link goes to Shop Interactive. They have an Amazon storefront. Um, they have, like, a link to an external blog post.

That's where bounces will happen, and that's when Google hears, "Okay, people don't wanna be here." So, what I recommend is to have a link tree, or, um, I personally use Milkshake. Like, that's the one that it's like, it's pretty. It says that it's like a website.

It's not. Do not use that as your website. But it is a really good, and it's free, where link tree's just a little less branded. You can pay for, like, more branding.

Um, there's a lot of different ones out there. But if you have even more than one or two external links, I do not recommend having like a, a landing page that you created linked in your bio. But I do think that landing pages are good to get people going to where they need to go. So, I do think that when somebody clicks on, like, more information or clicks on your link in bio on ins- on Instagram, having a set of links for them to find where they need to go is helpful.

Um, but how you go about that is different depending on what your goal is.Think you answered that question absolutely beautifully. Thank you. Um, uh, what's the purpose of a website?

Yes. So the purpose- ... of a website for me- Let's get deep. Right?

Like, this is deep. The World Wide Web was here before social media. I think that social media became an easy tool because it's so easy to take a photo, put up a little caption for it, and send it out into the universe. That is easy.

So, people started to get away from their website because social media was so much easier to create content with. However, the World Wide Web especially, and I talked about it earlier and I'll touch on it again because it is something that we really need to start thinking about, the internet is changing. The World Wide Web won't be the World Wide Web like it is today for very much longer at all. Like, in, like, I am part of the inception of the internet and it's already changed so much since '90-whatever, you know?

Um, so we have to think about the future. The future is going to basically include these digital presences for every single small business. And as we just advance more in technology, I do feel like your website is going to become more important again. The, social media will always be there.

Social media will always be easy to consume. So, let's lead people in with the social media. Let's sell to them with the website. This is like me standing outside of my salon, saying, "Hey, dream client, I'm standing over here.

You can literally see my space. You can literally see my space. You can get to know me. You can see what I offer.

I even have, like, a couple helpful tutorials to get you started." And that's, like, me standing, where social media is me handing somebody a business card and saying, "If you check this out, you'll see what I do." We are basically relying on hashtags, location tags, and shares and saves and all that stuff to say information that if somebody just types in hair in Pennsylvania, you're there. Like, you're already there.

So, let's start utilizing that more. So to me, the purpose of a website in 2022 is to create an act- like, a more tangible digital presence as, especially as we move forward in technology. Yes. Yes.

Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.

Yes. It's like you were at my workshop this morning. Sweet. Like, I was, I was talking about how it's like, you know, we rely really heavily on social, and we do so much passive marketing.

Like, we do all, we post all these posts, like, and we feel so pressured to post every single freaking day and, like, have all the right hashtags and stuff. And it's like, none of that matters. It, as long as you can get people to get onto your, onto that social channel, right? You can, you can build a little bit of trust.

They see that you have good work, right? Like, you can create a little bit of a connection. What matters, get them to click and go onto your website where they're actually gonna make the freaking decision to book with you. Yes.

That is what matters at the end of the day. So, yes. If there is something that I want people to take away from this, if they're not already doing this, in your new client processes, you should be asking how people heard about you. I can almost guarantee 90% of your new clients are not hearing about you initially from Instagram.

They're not hearing about you initially from Facebook. They are going to those places to get to know you more, but 90% of people heard about you through somebody else, and they Googled you, or they just Googled you. They're not finding you on social media. They're getting to know you there.

So, when somebody is finding you, that first impression is so important. So, if you're not already asking new clients, which you should be, um, ask them, "How did you actually first hear about me?" And you don't even need to have, like, I put it in my form 'cause I wanna know right away, but this is a conversation you can have with people in the chair, too, is like, "How did you, how did you hear about me?" basically.

Dude. Um, Google is gonna be number one, always. Bro, you literally were at my workshop. So, I- Cool.

Like, like, I literally just talked about all of this this morning. So actually, what we did was we sent out a survey to all of our ideal clients, and we asked them, "How did you find us?" Mm-hmm. And it was so fascinating, actually how much it actually really differed depending on who it was, but a lot of them said that, like, so, like, they asked, "How, how did y- how did you find me?"

And then a lot of them, and then we asked, "How would you go about finding a new hairstylist?" And a lot of the people said, "How would you," they said that they would go for word of mouth, like, a lot of them. And they were like, "I'm gonna ask a friend." And so I love that you said, "Ask your freaking people," because that's how you're gonna be able to know what decisions to make.

So, I, like, like, track what you have going on and take all of that into consideration when you're making these assets and, and figuring out what your customer journey actually looks like. Yep. And I think that that's the information that really matters at the end of the day, 100%. Researching your onboarding experience is key.

It is key. Retention is a whole other thing. How you keep existing clients, totally different. But that onboarding experience is, like, top tier importance to me.

Yes. And we don't analyze it enough, and I think that, I think that be- Mm-hmm. we don't analyze it enough because we have influencers and social media all telling us that we all have to do all this shit. Mm-hmm.

And it's like, you need to focus on what your mission is for your ideal client that you're serving and, like- Yes. where they're gonna show up, and analyze each step of that. So, yes. Love.

I mean- I wanna say one more thing, actually. Yes, please go ahead. So, this is the other thing. You, you kinda touched on it, and I think I need to echo it a little bit.

The goal of social media is to keep you on social media. That's the goal of social media. Whatever account you create, the goal is to keep you on social media, creating content for them to be able to send out ads to people who are digesting your content. Google doesn't have that goal.

Google does have ads, and you can definitely pay Google to get yourself bumped up and all that stuff, but your website, th- that's no one's responsibility except your own. Um, so we need to s- Well, I'm not saying we need to stop. We need to-... slow down, pull back on how much we rely on this platform, that if it disappeared tomorrow, they would not care about us, 'cause their goal is to keep us on their platform with ads, and getting people to digest our content and then give them ads.

Your website and Google and SEO, that's not the goal. The goal is to just get people who are already using the internet to look at what they specifically need to look at. That's the truth. Yep.

I completely agree. And yeah. And, and that's not to say, you know, that's not to say, like, throw out everything, right? Like stop.

Mm-hmm. Stop using your Instagram and Facebook. It's just saying, you know, like you said, like, ask your freaking clients. Yeah.

Ask e- And also, rev- like, think about the actions that you took that led that person to find you there, right? Yup. So, like, there's a reason why somebody found you on Google My Business, because in your search terms or in your b- or in the way that you listed your business, w- or because the reviews that you have, like because you got that set up in your Google My Business, that's why that person first found you on Google My Business. Yep.

If your actions are, "I was commenting and engaging on other people's Instagrams in my local geotag ev- for 15 minutes every single day," and then that's h- how they saw your name and they clicked your profile and they went to your Instagram, and that's how they found you at first, it's because of the actions that you took to get them there. So, you need to ask your clients. I love that. And if you have a new client application, right, or a free digital consultation, you're able to track that literally analytically, and be able to, like, create pie charts and, like see, like what- Yeah.

90% of them are and, like, see which ones are ideal and not and stuff. So, thinking like a real-ass business, and like a marketer, it takes- Yup. It's a lot of work. It's a lot of work.

But it can be simple if you systematize it and if you use mentors such as myself and Kimber and other people out there- Yeah. who are fighting the good fight with us. Some people find it fun, right? Like, I find marketing- Yeah.

I love that kind of research. I love marketing. Not everybody does. So, that's the other, like, out- like if you don't like it, outsource it.

If you don't like it, have somebody else do it. And we could get into scaling, but we won't, but it's- It's, it doesn't have to be. You don't have to love marketing, and if you don't love marketing, buy a website template. So, speaking of that, so tell us, Kimmy, what are you offering to the industry right now?

Like, how are you helping people with their websites right now? Yeah. So, we, we touched on this and I, I, I really appreciate all of the positive feedback since 2018 that I've gotten on websites that I've created. It led me to understand that not everybody can do, like, or has the time, right?

They don't have the time to build a website from scratch, to do the research on client experience, to design actual webpages and all that stuff. N- no one has the time or they just, uh, they might have the time and they don't love it. It's, doesn't bring them joy. And I say, "If it doesn't bring you joy, outsource it."

So, I wanted to create the same user experience that has really brought me tons of success in this industry, and make it easy for people to literally just plug and play. So, um, Tone Creative is a SquareSpace-only template shop for the beauty industry specifically, where somebody can purchase a template. Within a couple of hours, it's delivered to them looking exactly like the demo site that they looked at when they purchased the template. All you have to do, really, is go in, change out elements that you need to customize to make it your own, photos, fonts, colors, things like that.

Um, the layout is designed to help convert your community into your clientele. You don't have to do extra work. You totally can. You don't have to.

And I basically wanted to create a resource that made it way easier for people to have a site, have that digital presence, really think technologically about their future within hours, not weeks, not months. Like, I know people who have been working on their website for six months and it's still not done. So, that's what I wanted to just create a quick resource for. Yeah, dude.

That's freaking awesome, and I think that it's well needed. Um, but I, what I really like about what you're doing is that not only are you getting a lot of the hard work done, but you're also empowering people to be able to do it, like edit them, edit it themselves. Yes. So that way, you know, they don't have to go hire somebody and wait like hours or days or weeks for the changes to be made.

They can just go in and change your template- Yeah. whenever they want to when they wanna change or add anything. So, I think it's really smart, and I think it's a really valuable resource. And a little birdy told me that to my PVP people, my people in my pre-visit pathway, um, uh, that you might be sharing, like, a little bit of, like, an exclusive situation for us.

I think- Yes. so, possibly. I, again, like to... It's the same with behind the chair clients, right?

I like to reward, not necessarily reward, but offer resources to people who need them who are investing in themselves. So, when I was creating templates, I immediately thought of your program and thought about how in line it was with what I am trying to do for the beauty industry, and I said, "Let's create a little exclusive template specifically for PVP students that follows the PVP f- uh, formation, if that makes sense, and make it so when they get to a website module, all they really do have to do is say, 'You know what? This is worth the investment to me because I am, I'm changing my business. It's a lot of energy exerted, and this will make my life a little bit easier.'

" So, that's why I created the PVP Hunty template. So. I love it. I'm so excited about it.

Thank you so much for spending the time and effort to do that. Um, I'm really excited to roll it out to my students. And the cool thing is, it's, it's, you know, because you're, you're creating a, a very specific pre-visit, um, experience, you have to have a specific way that you have your website, and so this done-for-you template is just gonna be badass. And all of your other templates are 100% still worth checking out.

Yes. So, everybody, please make sure to go do that. Where is the websites? Where is the links?

Where is the Instagram handles, all the things, Kimmy?Yes, so if you go to kimberchapmanedu.com, you will see all of my resources. You will s- have access, if you need, one-on-one support for whatever system you're trying to run in your business.

There's links to my courses, like the Session Services Lab, and there's a link to the template shop for TONE Creative. Kimberchapmanedu.com is where you go for all of that, and then on Instagram, I'm @kimberchapman_. I like to have fun with social media.

That's my goal for social media in 2022. So, I don't like to sell too much stuff to you there. It's mainly to have fun with each other and just kind of, like, get through this thing called life. I love that.

That's awesome. And, uh, we're gonna have to have you come back on, and we're gonna have to das- dive so much deeper into all the things because we just have too much fun together. That's ... This was good 101.

This was nice 101. We- Yeah. Your, literally, your web presence is infinite, so we could talk about it all day. We could ramble and rant.

Yeah, and, like, simplifying your menu and, like, all the things that we love to- Yes. rant about. So, dude, I really appreciate you. I know that all the listeners appreciate you.

What you're doing and what you serve to the industry is really beautiful, and, um, thank you so much for spending some time with us and sharing with the, with the people, and- Thank you for having me. You're beautiful and amazing. So, if you enjoyed this episode, my friend, I wanna make sure that you go and check Kimby out. Uh, we'll make sure to leave her links and the Instagram handles and all the good things in the show notes, so make sure to check her out.

If you also enjoyed this episode, then you can, uh, leave a five-star testimonial wherever you're listening to this. We would very much appreciate it so that way we can share this podcast with more and more and more people, and we can really start to modernize, um, the industry together, right? Yep. Because it takes us.

Let's help each other. Let's do it. So, uh, I hope that you enjoyed this. Kimby, thank you so much again.

I appreciate you. Peace out, girl scout. Peace out. Thank you.

Bye. Bye.

End of transcript. © 2022 Hunter Donia LLC.