Ecommerce has been the spa industry’s hot topic ever since last spring when the pandemic forced spas across the globe to close, however, ecommerce is nothing new. 

Now, that begs the question: have you already missed the boat on starting your own ecommerce store? 

Well, slight spoiler, but the answer is “NO!” 

And my guest on this week’s episode of Spa Marketing Made Easy, Matt Edmundson, shares why (among a plethora of other tips and takeaways you can’t miss). 

A quick intro of Matt — he is a real-world eCommerce entrepreneur as well as a coach who shows newbie and seasoned entrepreneurs alike how to leverage the power of ecommerce. 

As the CEO of the Jersey Company, a group of health, wellness and beauty companies that deliver products and services to over 120,000 loyal customers and has achieved global sales of $75 million, it’s fair to say that Matt is a true ecommerce expert. 

But beyond the monetary success metrics, he’s walked the journey of ecommerce entrepreneurship since 2006, an era where online shopping was still a bit of the Wild, Wild West and you could get away with the “if you build it, they will come” philosophy. 

In this interview, Matt shares not only his story, which illuminates just how much of an opportunity there currently is in the ecommerce beauty space, but he also provides a wealth of tangible tips and takeaways that will be helpful whether you’re in the considering-jumping-into-ecommerce phase or looking to scale what you started last year.

In this episode, you’ll learn: 

• How ecommerce has shifted in the last decade (and how it hasn’t), and why now is one of the best times to jump into building this arm of your business
• Where ecommerce can fit under your existing brand as an extension or how it can become an entirely new business altogether 
• Matt’s top tips for those considering embarking on their ecommerce journey and how to set yourself up for future success
• The triangle of business and which two qualities will be most vital for your brand and growth
• Matt’s key metrics that he advises every ecommerce business keep their eye on and the top digital marketing strategies he would deploy if he was just starting today 

References Mentioned in Episode #234: Excelling with Ecommerce in the Beauty Space 

• Connect with Matt through his ecommerce consulting and education business and tune into his podcast, The eCommerce Podcast 
• Visit Matt’s ecommerce beauty store, Jersey Beauty Company 
• Connect with Matt and Jersey Beauty Company on LinkedIn, Instagram, and YouTube
• Read TechCrunch’s article, “COVID-19 pandemic accelerated shift to e-commerce by 5 years”
• Learn more about website platforms that offer ecommerce solutions such as Shopify

• To keep the conversation going, ask questions, and connect with other like-minded aestheticians building thriving careers, click here to join the free Spa Marketing Made Easy Podcast community. 

As a thank you for being a loyal listener to the Spa Marketing Made Easy podcast and for helping us to reach more aestheticians working on growing their businesses and creating a life they love, we have created a free resource portal just for you! 

It’s totally free to join, and for every 25 reviews we get on iTunes, we’ll add a new training video, PDF, tracker, or other high-value resource to help you grow your aesthetic business!

If you have yet to leave a review, click here to leave one on iTunes, and click here to access the free resources already unlocked! 

Episode Transcript

00:00

You’re listening to the Spa Marketing Made Easy Podcast where we share simple proven strategies just for spa industry professionals to help you get more clients in the door so that you can create a life you love. I’m your host, Daniela Woerner licensed aesthetician and spa marketing strategist. 

00:22

Hello, my dears, Daniela here and welcome to another episode of the Spa Marketing Made Easy Podcast. Hey, were you hanging out with us for the Spa Business Bootcamp? Well, if you were on day five, when we were talking about the scale phase, I was telling a story about a gentleman who started an ecommerce store and had done 75 million in sales to date $75 million in skincare sales from his ecommerce site. Incredible. That gentleman’s name, that man’s name is Matt Edmundson, and he is the guest on our podcast today. Now, Matt shares some interesting marketing ideas and strategies on how to promote your store and simultaneously help people solve their skincare problems. I love that bit. He was also really honest, and saying that whatever time you think it’ll take to grow your ecom store, which is essentially starting an entirely new business, right, you should actually double that. We always think, oh, if we, I want to start an ecom store, and I want to start a private label winer or I want to become a spell coach or whatever those things are. It is essentially starting a whole new business. And there’s so many more things that go into it. That, you know, you don’t know what you don’t know. So I was I love that he was just really honest and saying, you know, you should actually double that. If you’re wanting to have, you know, the wide reach that that he was and I know so many of you are. So let me just do a quick read of his bio and then we can jump into all the good stuff. 

01:58

Okay, so Matt is a real world ecommerce entrepreneur and coach, His goal is to show aspiring entrepreneurs, sure and simple steps in getting a digital business off the ground and seasoned entrepreneurs on how to take their business to the next level. Matt is also the CEO of Jersey company, a group of health, wellness and beauty companies that deliver products and services to over 120,000 loyal customers. The group includes the e commerce business jersey beauty company, which went online in 2006. And since then, has achieved global sales of $75 million. That’s over 7 million products shipped. Matt also has a podcast where he chats with experts in the field of ecommerce on how to grow and develop online businesses. Alright, there it is, you guys, this is a good one. Without further ado, let’s go ahead and play that interview. 

02:53

All right, Matt, welcome to the Spa Marketing Made Easy Podcast I’m so excited to have you on because ecom has just been it’s been exploding, I read, I read an article that ecom grow advanced five years, just in the pandemic of the technology. And, and I know in our community in the spa world, there’s so many people that are wanting to add this additional stream of revenue to really not have all their eggs in one basket. Right. And we’ve seen a lot of success. But I think that your experience your background, you know, we briefly did your bio and the intro, but you run a beauty ecom site, it’s done over 75 million in sales you’ve been in from the beginning from you know 2006 even before that you’ve got a love for spa like what what are your thoughts on what has happened in the past year, like what has been going through your mind as it goes to ecom you know, like seeing all of these people and seeing everybody trying to jump into this, this business model?

04:04

Yeah, it’s an interesting one, isn’t it? I think you’re right, the the amount of people that have decided to ecommerce businesses over the last 12 months has has shot up at some incredible rate of knots. And of course, the amount of people wanting to buy online has also shot up. And so I have not read that stat that is accelerated five years in the last year. But it wouldn’t surprise me if that was actually the case. Because I mean, you’ve seen it yourself. You’ve done it yourself. How much more stuff do you now buy online? This, you know, compared to this time last year?

04:37

Yeah, I think Shopify did an article about it. Well, we’ll put the link below this episode. But yeah, I can send it to you as well. But it was a really interesting article that Shopify did about just the advancements in ecom and how comfortable people are and you know, now we’re seeing grandmas on Zoom. And, you know, before it was one of those things, that’s like, ah, So what do you think is the biggest difference between the ecom world in 2006? versus the ecom world today?

05:08

Oh, geez. So very good question. I would say everything has changed, but nothing has changed. And it’s a really, I appreciate that sounds like a bit of a strange statement to make. But everything has changed in terms of the way you do marketing, for example, has changed, but the principles haven’t changed. The way you run your ecommerce website has changed, but the principles behind it haven’t. And this is this is one of those things that I think people find hard to understand the basic principles, the fundamental principles of business, give a great product, give a great service, be kind to your customers, gentlemen, give good value. those principles are still true in e commerce are true in 2006. They true in 2021. Okay, so those things still the same, the way we fulfill that the way that we do that has probably changed a lot since 2006. The classic example for me would be Google AdWords, you know, when we first started, Jersey, Jersey beauty company in 2006. Honestly, it was back then a case of if you build it, they will come. Because that’s what happened. We we literally set the site live on evening in August. And I had not told Google I you know, we there was no such thing really as Facebook marketing back then. We just literally set the site live. And then the next day, we come in and find out people have sort of somehow found it an ordered product offers. And we were amazed that that doesn’t happen anymore. You know, I mean, very, very rarely. I mean, we were very lucky with our timing. But yeah, so I’d say the principles are still the same. The outworking of it has changed quite a bit.

06:47

So being lucky with the timing, do you feel like this is a good time? or a challenging time to get into ecom?

06:59

Oh, good question. Yeah, I would say both. It’s good, because there has never been such a demand for online as there is right now. Nor has there ever been such an acceptance of online as there is right now people have gotten used to buying online. And not just, you know, beauty products and buying literally everything you know, the local restaurant has is now doing takeout, you know, you can order online, whereas before you had to go in the restaurant and sit down. But I think people have gotten used to this idea that actually online is much more accessible. So you’ve got a much bigger, much bigger market, I would say it’s challenging, because actually, it’s like I said before, you know, we had this, if you build it, they will come. It’s not like that anymore. I mean, we were talking about that before you started recording. But the It’s not like that, you have to when you build your ecommerce website, when you build your ecommerce business, you have to approach it as a business, which is more than just throwing up a website and hoping it works, right, you’ve got to be much more strategic, you’ve got to have a plan, you’ve got to have an understanding of what you’re doing. Because there are 1000 other people now doing the same thing, you know, all getting trained for that consumers attention. 

08:16

Really understanding the competitive advantage. And like building an ecom site is essentially starting a completely separate business. And if you’re a spa, right, if you’re a brick and mortar spa, it can be an extension of your brand. But your ideal client, you know, you may be worth your brick and mortar, you may be marketing to those in a 10 mile radius of your spa. With econ, you could be marketing to the entire country. Right? 

08:46

Absolutely.

08:47

How you’re communicating with them how you’re going to stand out from the other spas, what types of services are you offering? How are you going to stand out from other e commerce sites? These are all things that need to be thought about. And and I think, I don’t know, I’m curious about your thoughts on this. But anytime someone starts something new in their company, I always say give yourself at least 20% more time than you think you’re going to need. Because there’s always something additional that comes up. There’s always something that you’re like, Oh, I didn’t think about that. Or I didn’t you know, it just always takes longer and more resources than you had originally imagined.

09:27

Yeah, it’s very, very true. I would say actually, you’re being very generous with the 20%. We always say to clients double it, you know? Yeah, whatever time you think it’s gonna be double it, because that’s probably a slightly more realistic, especially if you’ve never done it before. Because there’s so much you’re learning you’ve got to do to sort of figure out your way through Does that make sense? And so that always takes a lot longer than you expect it’s going to it’s unfortunately not a case of watching a YouTube video in your master right? It just doesn’t work like that.

10:02

Part of what you do on the consulting side of your company is you help brands with their econ. Right? You’re helping them with that. So, with your clients that you are helping with econ, what do you feel like are their biggest challenges when they’re launching their brands?

10:21

The biggest challenge anybody ever faces when they’re launched an ecommerce business, and this is especially true for people in the spa world, in the beauty world in that coffee is if your aim is to sell product, you know, like a beauty products, it is incredibly competitive, and is probably the most competitive industry online, or certainly one of them. And so, the where I see most people fail 99% of the time, is the way they approach ecommerce, it’s like, they’ve not thought about the product. Fundamentally, ecommerce is an online shop where people buy a product, or a service or a digital product or a download or something, they’re buying something. And you’ve really got to think about that product that people are going to buy. Okay? If you don’t think that through and take the time necessary to get that right. You’ve got no chance. And this is where I think a lot of people fail. And this is where I think a lot of people are going to struggle in the pandemic, they’ve just literally thrown anything online to try and generate some cash, which I totally understand, but it’s the wrong approach.

11:35

So when you say they’ve got to think about the product, how are we clearly communicating? Are we having reviews up there? Are we having multiple images? Like that type of thing? Or like how you’re positioning like positioning?

11:49

Yeah, think think about all of it. Okay, so let’s take a typical product that someone’s going to sell in a spa, what would that be? 

11:57

A moisturizer,.

11:58

A moisturizer, okay? So if you take a moisturizer, and is that moisturizer, a branded moisturizer? Or is it a moisturizer that is either created or white labeled by the spa? 

12:10

Yeah, let’s say a white label a private label. 

12:13

So we’ve got a white labeled product in the moisturizer space, okay. Now I run an online beauty business. I know. I mean, I know how complicated it is to try and get somebody to switch their moisturizer from one that they’re currently using, especially if the one that they’ve got is working. Okay. So if they’re buying a moisturizer already, and that’s working well for them, getting them to switch to your moisturizer, that is gonna take a lot of thinking. So you have got to position that product. So so well. And you’ve got to think about how do I get them to switch? What is it that’s going to take them to switch? What’s the language that I use? When I’m talking to somebody in the spa? How do I get them switch? Normally, my experience here is they have a sample of that product, and they try it and they go, yeah, this is great for my skin, the price is a good price for what it is that I get. I like the therapist that selling it to me, there’s a relationship there. How do I do that on my website. And so that, when I say that needs it, when you think about, you’ve got to think about the product, that’s what you’ve got to do, you’ve got to get yourself in the head of a consumer. So if you’re, if you’re putting your ecommerce website up, and you’re selling to your existing customers, awesome, that’s going to be really straightforward. But if you’re wanting to build that business out, and you’re wanting to sell to someone on the opposite side of the country, how do you do that? That’s a really fascinating question,

13:45

I think as aestheticians and beauty therapists, as you guys call them in the UK, and I think that we do have the advantage of building relationship on a different level. And we’re seeing a lot of these complimentary virtual consult. Let’s hop on Zoom, let’s look at your skin, let’s do a custom home care regimen. And it’s by someone who’s trained in this space. And so I think that for spa owners, how do you position that to be to create as much of an experience as it’s like going in the spa, but create that in your ecom site? where they can look at things they can ask questions, they can feel like they’re getting something customized to them. I think that that is really the powerful piece and and having a very, very dialed in brand. And who are you targeting? Right? are you targeting 40 year old moms that drive a minivan or are you targeting a single 30 something that lives in a city that you know what I mean? Like just the more niche you can go, the better because I believe the brand that does everything is the brand that does nothing.

15:03

And so exactly right. And it’s much harder to advertise the products and let’s be real, you’re going to have to do some kind of paid media to grow this 100%. So yeah, you, the more you can niche your audience down, the more you can niche your product to a specific audience, the better your advertising is going to be. Because you can then gear your landing page all around that product for that person with the right imagery, the right language, the right copy, you know, the right price, all of those things. You’re right, the more you can niche that down, the more likelihood you’re going to get in that sale.

15:40

So I want to hear a little backstory of Jersey Beauty Company. So you said you know, timing you got right. What else did you get? Right?

15:52

We, we built a business. It was a let me be totally fine. We were quite lucky I’m going to be I wasn’t an ecommerce expert in 2006, we were just a little bit lucky. And we thought, you know, if we could sell, we launched in August 2006. And we thought by the end of 2006, if we could sell 10 grands worth of product, we would be stoked, we would be super happy German, we would be on target. And so by the end of December 2006, we didn’t reach a 10,000 pound target, we’d sold 400,000 pounds worth of product, right? That’s about what 700,000 US dollars worth of product in four months. It was crazy. It just absolutely blew up overnight.

16:40

Are you doing paid advertising right from the beginning? Or not? I mean, I know day one, you said like people found you. But once people started finding it, when did you start doing the paid?

16:52

We did, we did Google AdWords, which looked very different back then. And that’s how we started to reach an audience. And the other thing that we tapped into, again, quite by accident was the forums. And so there’s a forum in the UK called mums net. And one or two of our customers posted things on Mumsnet. And that’s when it took off. Everybody from that forum saw these posts, and then they started coming to us in the thousands. And just buying the products, which was fantastic.

17:24

So logistic,

17:26

Like, I know, I know, you’re saying okay, luck, but you don’t sell $75 million of product with like, there has to be some business acumen behind it. Right? Like, yes, you knew what to do, like, logistically, when you go from zero to 700,000. There’s a lot and fulfillment and distribution in all of that, like, were you just really flying by the seat of your pants and making decisions every single day?

18:00

Yeah, I wish I could say, you know, is different. But no, we were totally flying by the seat of our pants. And every day was a challenge every day was and don’t get me wrong, it was a beautiful problem to solve. You know, it was it was it was a much better problem to have to solve. How do I do this today? How do I solve this logistic problem? How do I get the shipping cost down? How do I get the product quicker? How do I inform the customer better. And one of the things that we realize what happened between 2006 and 2010, and the company grew, right. And it grew really, really quickly.

18:36

 2010, we had a major step change in our business. And this was when I, I pretty much took over the running of the company at this point. And we we wanted to change the business model. And this was I think, really, really pivotal for us as a business. A friend of mine drew on, on a napkin, a triangle, so you can kind of picture this in your head, you may have seen it before he drew a triangle. And in one corner, he wrote the word price. And another corner, he wrote the word service. And in another word, another corner, he wrote the word quality, so price service and quality. And he said to me, You can only pick two because you can’t do all three. In other words, you can’t offer a quality product at a low price and still deliver good quality customer service. Okay. You can’t offer you know, your customer high customer service and a high price but then deliver really poor quality product. Do you see what I mean? You’ve got to you’ve got to pick, pick which ones and we were at that time, I would say we were a price quality model. We had a quality product which we delivered very cheaply. And that’s part of the reason why we grew. But our customer service wasn’t great. And so in 2010 we switched our business model and we said what we’re going to do is we’re going to become a quality service business. In other words, our prices are going to go way up. But we are going to invest an awful lot more into delivering customer service. And so if you track our sales from 2010, so to 2011, we made this decision sales for slightly, I was very nervous at this point, I’m not gonna lie, because sales are different. But 2012, we had the best year we’d ever had, it took about a year for that, that model to change and for customers to understand what was going on. And 2012 was our best year at that point. I mean, it just totally exploded.

20:36

Do you think that is because focusing on that high level of customer service, you’re retaining more customers and getting them to repurchase from you?

20:46

That’s exactly right. Yeah, and that’s exactly right. We, we understood, we got to the point of thinking where we’re like, we looked at how much business was coming from repeat customers. And we thought man alive, it’s so much easier to sell to a repeat customer if we could invest in our customer service. So now over, I think over half of our income comes from repeat customers. So you know, it’s, it’s, it’s a massive part of our business right now.

21:14

I’m such a believer in client retention and keeping your existing clients feeling like VIPs. And so often in the spa world, and I think in businesses in general, it’s how do I get new clients? How do I get new clients constantly on that hamster wheel, but there’s so many studies out there that will show like, it’s so much easier to sell to an existing client you’ve built that know, like, and trust factor. And yet, we are just constantly on this, like, new client special or, you know, like, first time client thing, and it’s really just missing the boat on like, how do you go deep, instead of going wide?

21:56

Yeah, so important.

21:57

When you do that, what we discovered quite quickly was those customers that had great customer service, the ones that come back time and time again, not only do they spend more, not only does their lifetime value go up, they’re the ones which will share you on social media, they’re the ones which will tell their friends to come buy from you.

22:16

What are the main KPIs that you’re tracking? So you you’ve mentioned lifetime customer value? But what are the main KPIs that you’re tracking? In an ecommerce business?

22:28

Where you’re going to track the obvious ones? You’re going to track? How many people are coming to your website? How many of those people are converting into buyers? What’s my conversion rate? Is that going up? Is that going down? You’re going to come you’re going to track things like we call it on ramping. So if you for example, if you go to a product page, and you’re not ready to buy the product, what else can I do to connect with you? which is normally getting an email address out of somebody? What How can I do that. So you want to measure how successful your main call to action is, you want to measure how successful your onramp call to action is the sort of secondary one, you’re going to want to measure how long people are on your website, you’re going to want to measure things like bounce rates and other sort of standard Google Analytics stuff. I think you’re going to want to measure all of those, but you’re gonna want to measure things like how many of our customers are recommending us to other customers? How many customer service emails have we got, gentlemen? And how many? How many times… 

23:27

How long does it take us to respond to a customer service email? 

23:30

Yeah. And how many times do we get asked the same question, you know, that’s always a bit of a telltale sign, it means you’re not giving the information out properly in the first place. So you’re going to whatever works for your business, you’re going to find these little nooks these little crannies, as we like to call them and go actually, if we do well here, it really benefits. So you’re going to want to measure the main ones turnover, for example, how much are we actually doing in sales, but it’s the other ones, you’re going to want to measure? The three main ones I was always taught to measure. And I think it’s still true today. There was only three numbers you really needed to be aware of number one was how many customers have you got number two was the average order value, and number three was the average order frequency. And so if you understood those three numbers, and you could grow any one of those three things, you would grow your business. So if I increase the number of customers, if I increase their average order value, so how can I increase the spend when they come on the website? And the third one average order frequency, how can I get them to come back sooner? Rather than if my average gap between orders is six months? How do I get that down to five months? How do I get that down to four months? What can I do to increase those three things? And I think if you focus on those three things, you can build a really, really great ecommerce business.

24:48

Yeah, it sounds like digital marketing is such a huge piece in any any ecom business. It’s it’s really understanding paid advertising, understanding. funnels and email marketing and all of those pieces really, really play into it and are skills that I think would greatly benefit any business owner that’s wanting to go ecom.

25:14

I would say yes, if you’re wanting to grow quick, if you’re wanting to grow organically, it’s not as important. And the reason I say this is because when you use words, or when I’ve used not new, but when I’ve used words in the past, like funnels and digital marketing and paid advertising, it scares a lot of people off. So it’s like, I don’t want to do that. I’ve heard too many horror stories. I don’t want to, I don’t want to go down that road. A few years ago, we we set up our own beauty brand. So we had our own branded moisturizer. And we were like, right, how do we sell this? We could do the paid media routes. And that is, you know, if you know how to do paid media, definitely go down that road if you know what you’re doing. But you can be creative. So one of the things that we did, we had a girl at the time working for us, Esther, a beautiful young lady, who was part of our customer service team. And we just said to Esther, listen, I just want you to spend all day on Twitter. That’s what I want you to do. I want you to go on Twitter and see if anybody is writing on there. Oh, my skin’s feeling a bit dry today or my I’ve got a breakout…

26:22

Amazing stuff that people write on Twitter about their skin, right. And so we just hit set some alerts, which was always searching Twitter, when something popped up. We try quite quickly to respond. Hey, listen, sorry to hear about that. We’ve got some samples of a product, which I think is going to really help you with dot dot dot. Would you like me to send them out to you? If you’d like, I can send them out to totally free of charge, just head over to the website to this page, use this code. And I’ll make sure you don’t pay anything to get them and just all I ask is you just let me know how you get on. Do me know whatever works for you. And we must have got 10-20 leads a day just doing that.

27:02

Wow. Yeah, it’s kind of like the Gary Vee strategy. Have you? Do you listen to Gary Vee at all? He’s a Yeah, started his company by just listening and responding and helping on social media.

27:16

Yes, this is incredible, right? So don’t let the funnels don’t have a digital marketing, the paid media and all that sort of stuff, put you off starting because you can start very simply, you can start organically, you can say right, what I’m going to do is, is actually make sure we service our own customers super, super well online. And I’m going to reward them if they share it out to their friends, right, you’re not going to grow as quick you’re not going to grow as fast. But it will be that organic growth. whilst you’re figuring out the funnels whilst you’re figuring out the paid media. You don’t have to know everything before you hit the ground, you just have to know a few things really well. And I still think the best marketing strategy is taking care of customers.

27:54

I love that advice. Anything else you want to add for spa owners aestheticians that are wanting to jump into the world of ecommerce for you to make this episode feel complete.

28:08

Oh, there’s so much we can throw out there. I think the bottom line is, you know what do it get online, because because it makes an awful lot of sense to take this opportunity because I don’t know how often these opportunities are going to come around. But as things currently stand, setting up an e commerce business makes an awful lot of sense. And don’t let fear or anxiety put you off doing it. You can just literally go to Shopify and set up an account. You don’t have to spend lots of money or Squarespace or you know, whichever one you prefer. And you can set up an account very cheaply and very easily, you usually don’t need any coding experience to get going. You just need to be consistent and show up every day. And I think if you do that and look after your customers, well, all the other stuff, all of that you can learn to remain. But get your fundamentals right get your product, right your product images, your product, copy the positioning of it, you know, definitely do a product video talking about the product, all this stuff, which you can do in your voice that no one else can do. Just like you were talking to a you know, a client in the room in your spot, figure out a way to bring that voice to your website. And I think you’ll do super super well. I love the idea that you mentioned earlier the online consultations I think that’s great. And doing those kinds of things. If it was me, I would be doing a Facebook Live pretty much every day, especially if my client clients were in there sort of 40s if that was my main my main range, I would be like you know what I’m going to be I’m going to start getting into live streaming where I can start doing q&a as if my clients are younger. I’m probably going to do it on Instagram because I can do that. You can do that with a mobile phone. Everyone’s got a mobile phone, right and just start building your tribe. that’s fundamentally right just to attract people, they’re going to start asking you questions, build your tribe. And then the other thing that I would say is don’t limit your e commerce business, to just product. Now, what I mean by this is, if I was in the spa business, and I do know this bar industry quite well, if I was in this bar business, there would be a number of things I’d be looking to sell online. 

30:26

Number one, I would be looking to sell products, okay, I’d be looking to sell my own branded products, and I would probably go out there and get some branded products to sell on there as well just to start to build traffic and get people in. 

30:39

The second type of product I’m going to be selling, okay, is a digital product. How, how can I create a digital product that’s going to help my clients, for example, we’re working with a lady here in the UK called Joan Jewett. And she is she is a really, really fun, beautiful lady. Okay, she’s in her 60s. She won’t mind me saying that at all. She’s from the northeast of England and has a really strong accent. She is just as straight as a diamond. The way she talks you either love it or you hate her. She’s we in England we say she’s like Marmite, German, you’re either turned off or you’re turned on by. And I just love her. She’s just great Joe. And Joe is fascinating to me, because here’s a here’s a lady who is a professional makeup artist in her 60s. And when you read her client list, right, so you go down. Madonna is interesting. Bette Midler. Okay, Princess Diana, to remain especially in the modern world. Everyone’s fascinated with Harry. Well, he was Harry’s mother, she was Harry’s mom’s makeup artist. And so we build a website tried selling the products or products thing didn’t really work. But what is starting to work for Joe is her facebook or her Instagram lives, where she’s showing how to do makeup tutorials online. Okay, guess what, guess what’s being developed. Now we’ve got some digital products being done, where she is going to go in depth into doing these tutorials. And they won’t be that expensive, maybe 27 to 37 bucks to get into. But she can do those and people want them to see what I mean.

32:18

I can’t tell you how many times when I was practicing as an aesthetician and doing makeup. How do you do a smoky eye? Right? It’s like this question of and putting something up of a tutorial. That’s that low price point. I’ve known a few makeup artists that have done have done things like that and done very well. So yes, I love love that advice.

32:39

Yeah, digital products work. You have a knowledge you have a skill that people want. And if you present it in the right way people will buy it. And that’s another big learning. I think under COVID a lot of the digital ecommerce business has gone crazy. But one of the products which is outstripping every other product is digital products, the online course. And what can you do that would generate, you know, an extra income? What kind of course could you create? You know, what kind of tutorials? What kind of lessons could you create? And I think it’s a it’s a fun is a phenomenal opportunity. Right now. It really is a phenomenal opportunity. So I’d be selling products, I’d be selling digital products. And I would actually be selling services online as well. 

33:28

I’m into your spa or, or Yeah, yeah. Yeah. 100%.

33:32

Yeah, absolutely. And if you know, people like across the country, if there’s like four or five of you that can get together and it’s like, well, we’ll get we’ll get together and we’ll, we’ll form like a little group. And it’s like, Well, okay, we’ll sell, you know, massage. And you can get it here, here, here or here. You know, wherever you are in the country. Create, you know, create the nice days of people can fly in and do and you pick them up from the airport. You know, it’s why not? People are interested in that sort of thing. 

33:57

Why not?

33:59

That’s a great way, a great way to close this episode. So Matt, tell everyone where they can find you follow you stay in touch with you. Keep learning from you. where’s the best place?

34:11

Well, yeah, you can reach out to me at mattedmundson.com that’s my website or if you go to Instagram or Facebook or any of them really into search for me, you’ll find me. We have a weekly podcast called the ecommerce podcast if you want to know more about e commerce where we were a bit like you I get to interview some some phenomenal guests. And so you can you can get into that. Of course, I have a digital product. Why would I not right? But yeah, all the information is available on my website madness.com. You’ll find it all there.

34:42

Perfect. Thank you so so much. I really appreciate it. We’ll include all the links below this episode. And if you guys want to keep this conversation going, be sure to head on over to the Spa Marketing Made Easy Facebook group. We’ve got tons of additional resources and love answering questions and keeping the conversation going. Alright, I will catch you on the next episode. 

35:04

As always, if you want to keep the conversation going, I want you to head on over to the Spa marketing Made Easy Facebook group, the number one free resource out there for aestheticians focused on business building. We’ve got weekly marketing tips, a monthly goal setting and planning session monthly aesthetician business book club, plus a community of thousands of aestheticians committed to business building in the spa industry. I’ll see you there.

When you think of Pinterest, you likely think of finding easy weeknight recipes, curating an inspiration board for your kid’s birthday party, and interior design ideas, but did you know that Pinterest is quickly becoming one of the most profitable platforms for product sellers?

With the introduction of the Shop tab, Product Pins, and a Shopify integration, Pinterest has really upped the ante for ecommerce sellers, and online skincare stores are no exception. 

In this episode of Spa Marketing Made Easy, I sat down with Pinterest expert and founder of Simple Pin Media, Kate Ahl, who teaches entrepreneurs, product sellers and bloggers how to find and convert their perfect person on Pinterest. 

Settle in as we discuss this search-focused platform and how you can best leverage it to see ecommerce success for your spa.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• How Pinterest operates in the social media landscape and how you can make the leap from personal user to brand marketer on Pinterest 
• Pinterest’s increased focus on Shopping capabilities for consumers that are helping to further bolster ecommerce sales 
• Kate’s two-pronged approach for product sellers on how they can set forth with their Pinterest strategy and why having multiple entry points for your potential customer is key
• Kate’s top tips for optimizing your profile and pinning for optimal performance 

References Mentioned in Episode #223: The Power of Pinterest for Your Spa’s Ecommerce Store with Kate Ahl:

• Learn more about Kate’s company, Simple Pin Media via their website 
• Connect with Simple Pin Media on Pinterest, Facebook, and Instagram 
• Subscribe to the Simple Pin Podcast 

• To keep the conversation going, ask questions, and connect with other like-minded aestheticians building thriving careers, click here to join the free Spa Marketing Made Easy Podcast community. 

As a thank you for being a loyal listener to the Spa Marketing Made Easy podcast and for helping us to reach more aestheticians working on growing their businesses and creating a life they love, we have created a free resource portal just for you! 

It’s totally free to join, and for every 25 reviews we get on iTunes, we’ll add a new training video, PDF, tracker, or other high-value resource to help you grow your aesthetic business!

If you have yet to leave a review, click here to leave one on iTunes, and click here to access the free resources already unlocked! 

If you’re an aesthetician who has branched out into the world of going solo or opening up your own spa, whether you know it or not, you’ve got the entrepreneurial bug.


And if you haven’t experienced it already, you likely will soon, that having the entrepreneurial bug means big dreaming with endless possibilities.  

Maybe those big dreams entail growing a team or expanding to multiple locations, or if you’re like my guests in this episode of Spa Marketing Made Easy, it could mean starting your own skincare line.

Now I’m not just talking about private labeling some products, although that is a fantastic avenue to explore, especially as you’re starting out with crafting your spa’s retail strategy.

(And if you want to learn more about this, be sure to go back and listen to Episode #048 with my dear friend Nicole Di Rocco.)

In this episode, my guests Alana and Jared Mitchell are discussing their journey of building a successful e-commerce store and launching their own proprietary skincare line that has exploded all the way to crossing the 7-figure mark and continues to charge full steam ahead.

Alana and Jared started as day spa owners and quickly saw the opportunity for potential growth that existed in the online and e-commerce space, so they put their entrepreneurial skills to work and began building their empire.

Tune in to hear about their journey to branching out beyond the treatment room and into the digital realm and how you can take your big dreams and scale them to wherever you set your sights.

In this episode you’ll learn:

• How Alana and Jared started as day spa owners and saw an opportunity for growth in the area of e-commerce and internet selling
• Their journey of starting their initial website and how it evolved into Alana’s own skincare brand
• What Alana and Jared spent the majority of their time on to build their businesses to 7-figures and beyond plus how they manage to balance their relationship, family, and home life with their entrepreneurial dreams and goals
• The most powerful activities Alana and Jared contribute to their exponential growth and motivation for achieving any dream you set your sights on

References Mentioned in Episode #078: The Journey of Growing an E-Commerce Empire with Alana and Jared Mitchell

• Learn more about Alana and Jared’s companies at Alana Mitchell and Skincare by Alana
• Connect with them on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube
• Join the Skincare by Alana Facebook group for skincare and product tips from Alana
• See Alana and Jared speak at the Skin Inc. Face & Body Expo in San Jose in August 2019

To keep the conversation going, ask questions, and connect with other like-minded aestheticians building thriving careers, click here to join the free Spa Marketing Made Easy Podcast community.

When we talk about private labeling in spa, usually we’re focused on the skincare side of retail, but have you ever thought about creating a branded line of non-skincare retail? Whether it’s robes, slippers, cosmetic bags, towels…the options are plentiful, and they hold a ton of opportunity for boosting your profits.

On today’s episode, I’m chatting with my good friend Nicole Di Rocco who is the founder and creative mastermind behind Nicolita Swimwear, the go-to brand for curve-flattering no-pinch fit swimwear. In addition to her fashion line, Nicole is also the founder of Launch Your Line, where she helps her students confidently develop, produce and sell their next fashion product. And in this episode, she’s sharing her top secrets for how spa professionals can get started creating their own retail products.

In this episode you’ll learn:

• The story of how Nicole got into the fashion industry and how she works with businesses through wholesale and private labeling relationships
• What factors to assess when first deciding to bring non-skincare retail products into your spa
• The process of getting started with private labeling and what elements you need to get started working with an apparel brand to create a sample
• The benefits of private labeling as an additional division of revenue and creative ideas for how to use your fashion retail to improve your brand experience and increase your units per transaction

References Mentioned in Episode #048: Ramping Up Your Retail With Private Labeling with Nicole Di Rocco

• Connect with Nicole on her website, and on Instagram and Facebook. 
• Listen to Nicole’s podcast, Fast Track Your Fashion Brand. 
• Shop Nicole’s full fashion line and Bikini Bags at Nicolita Swimwear. 

Mentioned Apparel Resources: SanMar, American Apparel

Click here to join the free Spa Marketing Made Easy Podcast community where you can keep the conversation going, ask questions, and connect with other like-minded aestheticians building thriving careers.

No matter what industry you’re in, the name of the game in business is all about convenience.

Today’s consumers are busier than ever, and if you don’t make it easy for them to do business with you, you can bet they’ll find another spa or esthetician elsewhere.

Not to mention, researchers have found that the average human attention span can now be compared to that of a goldfish (thanks, technology), which is why it’s crucial to capture your potential client when they’re in the process of deciding “yes.” Because if you don’t, they’re gone in a single click, tap or swipe.

However, when you utilize the power of online booking software in your business, you can make that “yes!” just as simple of a process.

And if you’re wondering just how important online booking is, I will stand confidently in my declaration that online booking is more important than any marketing or networking effort you do. That’s right; online booking is spa marketing strategy number one.  

If you’re reading and already have online booking set up, stick around and tune in because I’ve got tons of tips for you, too…

In this episode of Spa Marketing Made Easy, I’m giving you the full crash course in online booking software 101 from what you’ll want to consider when choosing a platform to how to set it up so you’re leveraging all of its capabilities, as well as how to set up your new client onboarding process to ensure a fantastic client experience from the first click.

In this episode you’ll learn:

• Why having online booking capabilities through your website is non-negotiable for your business
• My top tips for simplifying and streamlining your online booking software so it works like a 24/7 salesperson
• Your online booking software set-up checklist
• How to design your new client onboarding process step by step

References Mentioned in Episode #038: Online Booking Made Easy

• Tools including Google Analytics and Zapier
• Scheduling platforms including Booker, MindBody, Vagaro, StyleSeat
• Search “booking software” in the Aestheticians Connect Facebook group