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Arguably the biggest challenge in the beauty industry is finding new clients. It’s a constant effort to keep your appointment books full and the business flowing. To be successful in the hair and beauty industry, you need to learn how to attract a steady stream of new clients to your salon.
While you likely already have some loyal clients who regularly book with you, (because you make them look oh so ahh-may-zing) you may have noticed over time your client list slowly dwindles. People move away, disappear, or their styles change and they suddenly stop booking your services. Even the most loyal client in the world can all of a sudden ghost on you.
This seems to be the natural cycle of being in the industry. According to industry studies, most hair and beauty businesses lose 10-25% of their clients each year. In other words, around half of your clients will disappear over the course of three years. Yikes!
What makes a loyal client willing to recommend your salon to their inner circle sanctum? Make them feel good. Clients might forget what you said, forget what you did, but they will never forget how you made them feel. Ask yourself, how do your clients feel when they visit your salon? Do they look and feel fabulous as they leave?
The desired outcome of every woman visiting a salon is to feel beautiful. Focus on the guest experience and watch your referral rates soar – a great experience creates trust.
Trust is key to getting salon recommendations. Make sure your clients feel confident that if they recommend your salon their friends will have that same great amazing experience.
Friend referrals are one of the best tools to attract new clients – in fact, 74% of women felt a recommendation was the most important factor when choosing a hair salon or beauty service business. Moreover, clients who come via recommendation tend to be more loyal than those attracted by discounts or other promotions.
Tip: Ask Via Card Referral System.
A simple card referral system works excellently, it gives your clients something tangible to “pass on” to their friends and return to your salon.
“Marketing is simply sharing your message so it can find, and attract,
the right audience.” – Candice Coppola
The beauty industry is highly competitive; there are a lot of hair salons and beauty business entrepreneurs out there. How will you attract your dream clients? Photography.
A successful social media presence that attracts your ideal clients doesn’t happen from a bunch of hair photos. That is just a portfolio. To truly attract your dream clients you need to inspire them, educate them, entertain them, and tell your brand story.
Telling your brand story through photography helps create a connection. People want to be connected to great things. A connection can happen by simply viewing a beautypreneur (or salon teams) in action perfecting their craft and living the dream. Photographing your beauty services in progress in a documentary, lifestyle setting helps your client “be there”.
Give your audience a reason to follow you on social media. Give them beautiful photography and a visual feed to look at, and give them something that makes them feel “that’s me” or that’s my tribe.
Be generous with friend referral marketing incentives. Tempt and reward current clients to spread the word about your fabulous services to their friends and family. Calculate the dollar value a new salon guest is worth to your salon over the period of a year and mark your incentives accordingly.
Prominently display and promote your salon friend referral on your website homepage and via regular salon email campaigns.
Regularly use your eWOM (electronic word of mouth) to spread your Friend Referral to all of your followers.
Measure the results of your salon referral system by tracking the number of new salon guests per month. Continuing to fine-tune your system over time can add to the bottom line. One of the top goals of a successful salon is to increase referral rates.
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