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Are you a beauty business owner looking for salon marketing ideas to take your business to the next level? If you are doing some sort of marketing or promotional activities for your salon but aren...
Are you a beauty business owner looking for salon marketing ideas to take your business to the next level?
If you are doing some sort of marketing or promotional activities for your salon but aren’t seeing the results from your efforts, it’s time to change your approach.
The hair and beauty industry has some fierce competition, and whilst you may be amazing at what you do, you may struggle to build up your clientele and make your salon profitable without a marketing strategy in place.
Word of mouth can be a great free source of marketing and both important and effective in the beauty industry, however, you cannot be solely reliant on this. People need to know your salon exists and that it’s worth visiting.
Proven salon marketing ideas, promotions and strategies can ensure your salon gets found and heard by a wider target audience.
In this article, we’ll discuss some both simple and more complex salon promotions that work.
Setting up a Google My Business page is a great place to start when it comes to marketing your business.
Many individuals turn to Google Search to get answers to their questions, including “salons near me” or “salons in X”.
If you don’t have a presence on Google, you’ve missed out on an opportunity to tell future prospective customers that your salon exists!
One way to get your salon visible on Google is to create a Google My Business account.
Google My Business is completely free so you needn’t worry about incurring any additional costs when using this Google service.
You’ll need to add your business to Google before you can begin to optimise it and drive footfall to your salon!
A Google My Business listing details essential facts about a business including the address and contact details, reviews, opening hours, images and social media profiles.
You’ll want to keep these details consistent to avoid confusion for customers, but also for search engines too. It also enables customers to find your details quickly and make enquiries.
To get started, follow these instructions to set up your Google My Business account.
Before clients visit your salon, your website is your shop window. It’s often the first impression for new customers so it’s important to leave a good first impression.
If your website is looking tired, out of date and unprofessional, these thoughts and feelings may translate as the thoughts and feelings of your business as a whole.
You can use either a marketing agency or create a website yourself depending on your budget.
There are plenty of easy-to-use, cost-effective website builders that can help you achieve a professional and trustworthy looking website.
In addition to your Google My Business profile, having a website offers you another opportunity to increase your online presence and increase your salon’s profile.
Once you’ve got your website setup and you’re pleased with the overall look and feel, consider optimising your website for organic search.
Using Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) best practices, you can improve your chances of being visible for keywords and phrases your target audience uses.
By creating dedicated service pages targeting relevant keywords and producing great content, this will significantly increase the chances of your website being in front of the right people on Google search.
Email marketing is a great tool to build and maintain relationships with existing customers.
It can also help you to capture data from new prospective clients and nurture them through a journey to becoming a loyal customer of yours.
To create an email marketing strategy, you’ll want to:
Social media is a great way to reach your target audience, especially in the hair and beauty industry.
Many individuals turn to the likes of Instagram, Tik Tok and Facebook for inspiration on the latest hair and beauty trends, but, also to find local businesses that can help them achieve their inspiration.
You’ll want to create a social media strategy in the first instance to ensure you’re maximising your efforts on the right channel.
Instagram is a great way to demonstrate your expertise as a salon owner. You can use this platform to show off your work to existing and potential clients. Think of your instagram account as your portfolio of work which can be used to entice new clients into your salon.
Don’t forget to utilise stories, hashtags and links from your social media accounts to your website.
Facebook can be used in a similar way to Instagram - to showcase your work and attract customers to your salon.
However, Facebook can also be used to run Facebook Ads to find new customers that fit your target audience.
Facebooks Ads are paid messages which target a particular demographic (set by you) as specific or broad as you like.
You can target your ads on almost any demographic: age, gender, marital status, career, interests and location.
When using Facebook Ads:
As well as organic search and social media, you can attract new customers using Google Ads.
Google Ads enables you to create online ads to reach people exactly when they are interested in your products or services.
Google Ads operates under a pay-per-click (PPC) model which means you can target a specific keyword and make bids for that keyword.
Google takes your bid amount and pairs it with a Quality Score of your ad which looks at the quality of your ads, keywords and landing pages. The higher your score the greater the chances of your ad ranking and the less you spend converting.
When setting up your Google Ads you’ll want to be as specific as you can. When a user sees and clicks on the ad, you’ll pay a fee for that click. That’s why it’s important to get your targeting right, so you are only targeting genuinely qualified traffic that is likely to result in a sale.
Seasonal promotions are a good way to promote your services.
For example, you may want to run offers and discounts on these seasonal times of the year:
A clever way to increase spend and generate revenue is to offer add-on “express” services. This will help to increase the amount each client spends during their salon visit.
Add-on “express” services should only require little or no additional time to perform. Similarly, your “express” service should be lost cost in terms of product users to maximise your chances of increasing profit.
Add-on express services may include:
Upselling and cross-selling is an extremely effective way to increase your salon profit.
Loyalty schemes or “new friend” discounts are a great way to generate revenue from both your existing clients and new clients.
Be aware, it always costs less to retain existing clients than it does to attract new clients.
An easy way to retain your existing clients is by providing them with incentives to keep coming back for their treatments. For example, most commonly used loyalty schemes are a discount or a free service after X amount of treatments.
“new friend” discounts are also a good way to attract new clients. Your existing client will also receive some sort of discount for referring their friend so it’s a win win for everyone involved.
As we first mentioned, word of mouth is a huge marketing tool in the hair and beauty industry.
If you have a good amount of reviews for your salon on Google and Facebook, this helps to build your brand image and instil a sense of trust and confidence in your work.
There is no shame in asking your customers to leave reviews at the end of their appointment, or you could utilise your email marketing platform to send customers a friendly reminder to leave a review.
Gift cards are a great way to generate income during seasonal promotions and attract new customers.
Particularly around Christmas time, many will look at thoughtful ways to gift, one of which may be with gift cards for a pampering session.
Working with other local businesses in the area will help to build relationships that can have a beneficial impact on your business.
For example, you may find local businesses will help to promote your business through word of mouth, distributing your marketing materials or helping you in other ways.
Personalisation can go a long way when building relationships with your customers. Ensure your records are up to date including name, birthday, email address, phone number and marketing preferences.
For example, sending a discount offer or a promotion to a client around the time of their birthday can help to develop the relationship and increase your profits at the same time.
Another element of personalisation to consider is during consultations. Clients want to feel like you’re taking the time to get to know and understand their wants and needs. Make sure this is reflected in your body language and the recommendations you provide your customers with.
Lastly, look at ways in which you can offer retail products that your clients can take home with them. This is a great form of upselling.
A lot of clients will be looking to achieve the same look and feel at home as they receive in the salon. One way this can be done is via the products used during their service.
If you can stock anything from shampoo and conditioner to straightening serums and heat protectors , this could go a long way in helping you to generate more revenue.
At Professional Beauty, we offer beauty therapist insurance, nail technician insurance and hairdressers insurance for salon owners and self-employed individuals. If you would like advice and guidance when it comes to insurance, please do not hesitate to contact us on 0345 605 8670 or email us on info@professionalbeautydirect.co.uk.