Who knew that selling semi-permanent eyelashes could take one 26-year-old EO member to the top?

Matt Daoudi and his mother, Jo Mousselli, started Xtreme Lashes – an eyelash extension company – out of their garage in Houston, Texas, USA. Once Jo had perfected the concept of applying the product that eliminated the need for mascara, they developed a curriculum to teach beauty professionals how to apply the perfect set of lashes. What started as a part-time operation soon took over their schedules, their home and their lives.

Luckily, Matt knew a thing or two about internet marketing. He followed the basic principle that websites should be designed to drive sales.

"Launching a website without marketing it is like paying for a billboard and placing it in your own backyard," said Matt.

Through search engine optimization techniques and a strategic pay-per-click campaign, Matt’s company started dominating the market. Xtreme Lashes grew to 25 global franchises in two years and secured the top three slots for "eyelash extension" searches in Google. The brand is offered in high-end salons and spas, and the company participates in major celebrity events, including the Oscars. Celebrity clients include Darryl Hannah, Angela Bassett and Ivana Trump.

To ensure the long-term health of his company, Matt and his mother made a conscious decision to limit sales solely to professionals, unlike their competitors. This meant fewer sales and lower short-term profits, but their gamble paid off.

By combining a novel idea with hard work and perseverance, Matt and his family built the life they always wanted— one eyelash at a time.

Quick Tips: Effective Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Advertising

One of the methods Matt used to effectively promote Xtreme Lashes was pay-per-click advertising. Here are some tips you can use to promote your company online:

• Choose relevant key words. Make sure the product or service is interesting to someone searching for that term. Include misspellings, typos and plurals to cover all your bases.
• Attach adjectives and locations to keywords. Instead of just saying "widgets," say "blue widgets in London." Also use natural language like, "where to find blue widgets in London."
• Make sure your copy closely ties with the search term. Include your search term in the copy at least once. Also, use phrases like, "free" and "xx% savings." Refresh your content and play with words to see what works best.
• Send the customer to a more specific web page that is relevant to the term they just searched. For example, if they searched for "Women’s jeans," link customers to a page about women’s jeans, not just a general page on jeans.
• Getting prospects to a landing page is just the beginning. It’s also important to lead them all the way to the registration page or shopping cart. Do that with landing page copy that expands on the promise of the search engine listing and motivates customers to take the next step.
• Make sure everything is relevant. If you ignore relevancy, you’ll be frustrated with low click-through rates and no profit.
  When you can’t create your own PPC advertising campaign, call on the experts. It’s better to spend the money and get it right the first time.

*Photo courtesy of Xtreme Lashes.