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Salons are everywhere, and in an over-saturated market, it is doubly important to understand how to differentiate your salon to attract new clients. Here are the top 15 salon marketing ideas to build a solid clientele and a solid business future.
Want to boost sales and increase productivity by more than 40%? Utilize online booking to automatically distribute your open appointments to post to social media and book appointments from Facebook, and send custom email and text marketing messages.
Tip: I like to recommend Phorest as I have had clients rave about it.
When dealing with something as intimate as appearance, clients are going to do their research. They are going to want to know exactly who they’re dealing with, and more importantly, they want to be able to trust them.
What better way to accomplish that than by introducing your salon with a video? Showcasing a short, professionally produced video on your website gives you the opportunity to connect with prospective clients before they even walk through your doors.
Video allows you to tell your story, demonstrate your technique, and explain your services by highlighting your employees and explaining your motivation for doing what you do. Most importantly, it’s the closest you can come to a face-to-face meeting online, which establishes trust and entices prospects to turn into clients. Learn how to create a pro-quality video with just your mobile phone, or hire someone to do it for you.
Instagram will ALWAYS be one of your best friends when it comes to marketing your salon. Women account for 57.9 percent of users on Instagram, and with nearly all salons using it, you can’t afford to fall behind!
Tip: Put all of your relevant hashtags, figure out the best time to post, and experiment with captions that work best.
Most of your potential clients are already on Facebook every day. That built-in audience makes Facebook one of the best ways to reach new customers. You can use Facebook’s marketing parameters to target users in a specific demographic, such as age, gender, or location, and get better results than if your ads are broadcasting to a more general audience.
Pinterest has grown rapidly in recent years, and its millions of daily users are quick to “pin” anything that catches their attention. Use this to your advantage by posting eye-catching photos of your establishment, showcasing elements that will increase traffic and grow your business. As a very visual platform, Pinterest is the perfect place to show up in your potential client’s feed.
Create a presence by creating “Boards” with categories that align with your salon fundamentals. I suggest you start with 5 boards and start pinning. Don’t forget that it’s part of the strategy to “pin” and share User-Generated Content (UGC) that can help you target your demographic ie: hairstyle tutorials, styling tips, and feature product usage of retail brands on your boards (Wella, Davines, Oribe, or whatever brands you carry/stock.)
Make your salon advertising budget go even further with some help from professionals that specialize in supporting beauty businesses. BeautyMark Marketing offers social media management, Facebook & Instagram paid ads testing, and monitoring.
Have a selfie station – everybody is all about social media and great hair, so why not have a small area set up in front of your company logo or stylist station and have the clients snap photos and share them all over social media.
If you’re looking for some faster traction when promoting your salon, why not try a monthly promotion? Entice repeat clients with a value-added service. Are most of your clients coming in for hair coloring or styling, while you also offer many other services? After their first visit, offer them a discount for an additional service for the next time they book an appointment.
Add value instead of discounting. Small extras are, more often than not, perceived as little luxuries. The aim is for your clients to love the results so much that they will pay for the same treatment on their next visit.
Mix up your promotions based on each season or upcoming holiday. Don’t discount, instead create full-priced promotions to bring awareness to exciting services that go well beyond your cut and color. Promote services such as wedding hair and makeup, hair smoothing, facials, nail services, and waxing.
Tip: Run specials during the holiday season.
Special events, holiday parties, and family reunions are just some of the reasons consumers need salon and spa services. Promotions during this crucial fourth-quarter period drive the herd of heavy spenders your way.
Having an email campaign is a great way to reduce no-shows and increase client retention. When a customer signs up to receive email communications you have created a direct line to loyal clients. You now can offer them specials, loyalty programs, referral programs, team introductions or “favorite products”, and new product announcements or “product of the month” from Aveda, R + Co, and Oribe – email is a great cross-promotion tool.
Why not give your customers a little bonus for doing your advertising for free and sending new clients your way? Be generous with friend referral marketing incentives. Tempt and reward current clients to spread the word of 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.
A simple card referral system works excellently, it gives your clients something tangible to “pass on” to their friends and return to your salon. Create a Referral Card with the verbiage “Thanks for referring us to your friend! We’re so pleased you thought of us, that we want you to know we’re thinking of you, too. Here is $15 off your next visit.”
Customers in loyalty programs return twice as often. Be generous with your marketing incentives. 10% off is hardly going to tempt someone to try your services.
As a salon, we suggest you utilize your network of clients to help with the personal aspect of your salon or spa marketing. Carefully select your own “influencers” who:
1) Have jobs that connect them with a lot of people in the community
2) the perfect billboard head of hair that you would want to represent your salon work (ie Sorority House Member)
While mobile apps were once something only accessible to big businesses with even bigger marketing budgets, it’s now possible for small businesses like salons to create their own app without having to learn how to code. Some of the benefits of an app for a hair salon include in-app booking, push notifications, and loyalty programs. You can even create a geofence (a virtual geographic boundary) around your salon premises and send special offers in the form of push notifications straight to people’s phones that are in your area.
Put together a monthly giveaway that all clients that rebook are automatically entered to win. Announce the winner at the end of the month on social media. A win/win. Increase rebooking and pre-booking rates, increase social media engagement, and create client loyalty.
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