Industry Specific Workshops for Online Marketing Work Best!

The 90th Annual conference for the American Association of Cosmetology Schools was held in Phoenix in November of 2014. I was honored to be selected to present as the subject matter expert to the spa and cosmetology school owners workshop.

What made this workshop conference work was the ability to focus on best practices for a specific common interest…everyone was in the same vertical market; spas and cosmetology schools. Instead of presenting general case studies and research on semi-relevant marketing applications, we were able to roll up our sleeves and validate our research specific to the cosmetology industry with real-life successes and failures.

We when through an example of how to get the most out of a $100 advertising budget in Facebook. I presented my ideas and then the 60+ business owners in the room shared insight on their experiences and ideas to maximize the effectiveness of the $100 budget. We all learned a lot from the social sharing in the workshop and were able to capture a blueprint for success.

This is the format of what was covered in this presentation to the business owners:

1. Creating social media profiles that position you and your business as the expert/leader in Cosmetology
   • Pre-work option to bring to the conference to accelerate results
   • One-on-one interaction for sharing ideas and examples for immediate implementation post-conference
2. Top social networks to help promote your personal brand and/or business brand
3. Best Online Engagement Strategies
   • How comments and likes get the attention of prospects
   • How much time should be dedicated to social media
4. Leveraging key personnel in Cosmetology as experts for your business
5. Soliciting Reviews from Customers
   • Email marketing best practices
   • Best-in-class landing page for reviews and LEADS
6. Capturing content opportunities with industry experts, executives & customers
7. Best strategies for upgrading to a responsive design websites
8. Ongoing strategies for growing inbound opportunities with social media and content marketing
9. How to dominate locally in search, social and mobile marketing
   • Step-by-step instructions with activities for the profile setup
   • Group exercises and feedback for enhancing online visibility

A special thanks to AACS and Milady for helping to make this such a successful event and workshop!

Do you have an event in 2015 and are looking to offer a hands-on workshop for sharing best-in-class strategies for content marketing, social media, and mobile marketing?  Here is an example of the take-aways from a MINT Social workshop:

Overall Goals for Social Media and Content Marketing Workshop

• Growing your Influence, Relevance and Rank Online
• Grow Online Community to Your Buyer Personas
• Lead Generation Strategies for Growing Online Conversions and ROI
  • Increase Marketing Database
  • Increase Inbound Calls
  • Increase Online Leads