Imagine if every single time you had a spot on your calendar open up, there were people who'd sleep outside your microblading or permanent makeup salon just to to be the first walk-in appointment.
Or imagine every time you told people about your new product and put it online, it sold out in minutes.
This is the product of having a cult-like brand following. And these scenarios aren't unheard of either for some of these brands.
You hear the word "cult" and immediately negative images come to mind - & for good reason. It's worth noting that of course this isn't an endorsement to join a cult.
But it's not clickbait, either.
If you focus on achieving that kind of brand loyalty for your business, you'll start to notice that your followers end up doing a lot of the work for you - being your biggest advocates and sales staff. There's a reason why so many brands make it their top priority to develop a "cult-like" following.
But it's not just me saying this - check out Hubspots article on brands with a cult following where they go into detail naming some of the top brands who focus on this.
SO many brands have a top priority to build "a cult-like following". And what they mean by that is having a truly devoted audience who support, protect, advocate for, and are invested in a brand. From that perspective, it's pretty obvious why you'd want this type of following for your business.
For your convenience, I am including the video content to this topic below. But read on under the video as I will be including a lot more details that can help you throughout this post!
Today we're going to answer to major questions:
How do you actually build this kind of network of support?
What steps can permanent makeup artists take to make this a reality?
Here are the top 10 ways to build a strong audience that can help skyrocket your microblading or permanent makeup business:
1. Differentiate
In order to develop a following, you must have a message that is unique to you.
Here are some example of messaging that can be unique to you and be a magnetic value proposition for your business:
Microblading as a dramatic, bold message. Your business's messaging could be all about transformation.
Maybe your business is based on female empowerment. One of the things that makes Brow Envy popular to our audience is our throughout the brand, female empowerment at at the core.
Natural looking microblading could be your core message. It's powerful to want to give your clients a natural look. It's also unique in that not many are focused on that. Usually the makeup scene has a bent of beauty and luxury - that doesn't necessarily ooze "natural". And many clients in my experience prefer a beautiful aesthetic without the "work done" look.
2. Find Your Connectors
There are just those people who are your advocates. The bigger the personality and the more social this person is, the better. But I want to stress this doesn't mean social media big. They can just be people that like talking about things they are passionate about. The key here is finding ways to partner with some of your most vocal, loving clients and work with them to spread your message. The more your message comes from other people, the more genuine it's going to seem and ultimately the better it will be received.
3. Exclusivity
People want what they don't have.
Even more, people want what they can not have.
In order to build clout around your brand, it's important to focus on making your brand seem desirable to a client. And I'm not talking "fake it til you make it". Do not fake this. It's a waste of time and will hurt you in the long run. Instead, work on this fundamentally. You could do things like only make certain days available for booking for frequent customers or making the first 24 hours of your booking available only to those who are referred at least one customer. However you do it, test out setting up a structure where parts of your business are closed off.
Your main objective here is to prove to the potential client that they made the right decision. The best way to do that is to show them the amount of people who have booked or interacted or chose you. Below is an example of a newsletter sign up
4. Solidarity
Give your consumers a place they belong. There's no better place they should belong than with your brand.
A good way to enable this is to provide some sort of community whether it be through your website, your facebook, or some other means like a group webinar - but whatever you decide, the more clear your brand and message, the better you will form a group of advocates around you who can help spread your brand and grow your impact.
5. Ideology
Building off the previous point, your messaging and what you are about needs to be apparent. This is slightly different from differentiation in that ideology is specifically about how clear your message it. It should be very obvious what you stand for even to a stranger. If all they have is your website or your content, they should still be able to pick up on what it is you stand for. The stronger and more cohesive your ideology, the better your brand will spread.
6. Drop Love Bombs
Customers should feel welcome, always.
You will quickly notice when you are trying to build a following as strong as some of your favorite brands, that you end up investing a lot of time, emotion, and effort into your audience. That's a VERY good sign. You will find yourself showing appreciation more. It's a very healthy process where you will begin to appreciate more and more the ways your audience supports you. Ironically, it's this sincerity and genuine desire to help that only helps deepen your connection to your audience. So bombs away!
Speaking of love bombs, I wanted to remind you of our online training academy I made for microblading artists. This academy acts as your ongoing resource center so you can help your initial microblading training go even further. We also offer courses that will challenge seasoned microbladers who are looking to improve more of their skills. It's perfect for the serious microblader who wants information that is going to take them to the next level, and beyond. Check out the entire online course library today by clicking the banner below!
7. Define Your Competition
What I DON'T mean is you're in competition with other permanent makeup artists. There are other battles to be fought with bigger implications. The enemy to your business could be "society's pressure for women to appear perfect".
Notice how much more is at stake when you frame it like that than if you are in a battle with the neighborhood microblader.
That's not to say ignore your competition, but keep your eyes on the prize. Your mission should be greater than to beat your peer. It should be to make a difference in the lives of as many people as possible.
This sort of focus helps you to avoid being reactive as well. We can sometimes follow ideas down a rabbit hole if we see our competition doing something or maybe we get nervous about a new marketing campaign.
Stay focused on the broader mission.
8. Paradox
You are constantly in a balancing act with your brand and audience. Maintaining the group ideology while also making sure your audience still knows each one of them are uniquely special and appreciated puts you in a paradox. It's important to remember not to neglect personal connections and relationships with your audience. You can overcome this with very basic practices like making sure to make note of clients preferences or even just remembering names.
9. Contact
Your ability to grow your business and really benefit from strong brand loyalty is only as strong as your comfortability engaging with your audience. The good news is you follow the steps above, this will be taken care of organically. But a good gut check would be if you dread sending out an email to your newsletter, are worried about an Instagram live coming up, or overly concerned with the reception of your latest video. All of those things are very, very important.
Being professional and always delivering your best content in the best way should be your main goal as an artist. But if you have people who share your vision and have made what you stand for clear, people who don't share that won't support your business like your business's advocates do. Make sure to monitor yourself and your energy levels when you contact and engage with your audience. If you find it's taking too much of your emotions or making you very anxious, it's worth searching for why because that can become counterproductive and needs to be resolved.
10. LET GO
If there's one thing that running a growing microblading and beauty business has taught me, it's this:
You have to be open to new experiences.
As your audience grows, so will your source of input and inspiration to make your business even better. The great thing about having a cult-like following, and what some of your favorite household brands do very well is listen to their customers.
Your customers are your best place to turn to if you are looking to grow. They are the ones who can help you uncover ideas that will put you over the top.
Some of Brow Envy's greatest innovations came from feedback from our audience. The point is, if you are not open to listening to your customers and are stuck in what's comfortable for you or only what you think works, you are potentially shutting out your ticket to microblading business success.
Be open to ideas - adapting to change is how the best companies in the world stay on top. Just because we are all smaller than Nike doesn't mean that we should value our customers any less. in fact, I hopefully this post proves that we need to be valuing them even more!
If you have any questions feel free to reach out by email browenvycincytraining@gmail.com or call us 513-926-9424 and we'll be happy to help you. Don't forget to check out special offers and opportunities for microblading artists. You can get more information about microblading training online for artists or join our FREE Brow Envy Training Academy online artist user portal !