Salon Marketing: Create Effective Strategy for Your Business

How to get more customers is probably one of the most recurrently asked questions by small business owners. Once you know how to open a salon, the next step is brainstorming salon marketing ideas. Marketing is creating awareness about your services and urging your target audience to purchase them. This includes consumer research, designing services for your specific clientele, and delivering value to satisfy your target audience's needs. Here, we will explore ways you can create a salon marketing plan that is unique to your needs.

Key Points:

• Have a clear idea of your specialty: Your specialty will be your strongest selling point, so make sure you know it and be sure to lead any business conversation or marketing campaign with that.
• Do your research: Not all salons are created equal. Think of the location and the kind of services you provide to figure out who your target audience is and what is the most effective way to reach them.
• Position yourself as an expert: When you’ve picked your niche, make sure to position yourself as an expert in that niche. People gravitate to specific businesses because of trust. If your clients feel like you know what you’re doing, they will keep returning and help spread the word about your business.

Why Do You Need Marketing for Your Salon?

Regardless of how fantastic your salon is, if people are unaware that it even exists, you won't attract the customers you need to be successful. Being unique and providing a memorable experience that stands out among the other salons in your area is the most crucial thing you can do to attract more customers.

When Should a Salon Start Marketing?

Once you know your target audience, have paying customers, and have reached a point in which you can comfortably allocate a marketing budget, it's time to start marketing your salon. When doing so, make sure what makes you stand out from the competition and pick a strategy that's tailored to your specific needs.

How Long Does Salon Marketing Take to Work?

Starting to see noticeable results might take anywhere between four and nine months. Remember that the solution for your business can be entirely different from other hair salons. Depending on the amount of work you put into planning, production, and promotion, you can see the ROI from content marketing more rapidly.

25 Salon Marketing Ideas to Boost Your Business

More important than just providing quality service, is people must be aware that your salon even exists. Your potential customers must see that what you provide is a premium service that will help them meet their needs.

• Provide Incentives for Referrals: Get new consumers to check out your salon by rewarding current customers for sharing. Clients that suggest other customers come in for your services are given incentives, such as significant discounts, a free service, or a free product.
• Start a Loyalty Program: Give each customer a loyalty card bearing your brand to use each time they get one of your beauty salon's services. After the card is full, you may present them with a tempting discount or a free gift.
• Set Up a Salon Selfie Station: People enjoy posting selfies of their new look on socials. Your customers can help spread the word about the fantastic work your beauty salon does and perhaps draw in new clients by creating a visually stunning selfie station. Don't forget to urge people to post their photos with your hashtag and tag your account in them.
• Share Your Expertise Online: Show, don’t tell clients about your experience. People really enjoy watching beauty how-to videos or learning more about the science related to your services in blog posts. By sharing your experience, you can position yourself as an expert and grow your potential customer base. 
• Offer Unique Promotions: Nurses appreciation, buy one get one free, group discounts, anything that you think is on brand can help you increase your revenue and spread the word about your salon. 
• Host Special Events: Whether it’s happy hour, birthday appointments, back to school, offering these kinds of discounts to customers is a terrific approach to draw them in and incentivize repeat business during certain times of day or the year.
• Run Ads on Social Media: Advertising on social media is effective because it has an impact on users' decisions to make purchases.
• Invest in Google Pay-Per-Click Ads: You only pay for Google AdWords when someone clicks on your advertisement to visit your website or book an appointment.
• Hire a Local Salon Influencer: Bring local beauty influencers to your salon to increase social media brand recognition. When you do so, make sure you choose influencers that are aligned with your beauty salon's target demographic.
• Take Advantage of Seasonal Events: Create special discounts around Christmas, Halloween, Easter, and more to give your customers an excuse to come in for your services.
• Make Gift Cards Available for Purchase: Gift cards are a practical method to make extra money. They’re not only a means for your customers to buy presents for their friends, but an effective way to increase sales.
• Package Your Services: Combine a few different services that your clients frequently use together and offer it as a package deal. For instance, a facial, eyebrow threading, and manicure and pedi.
• Offer Express Add-On Services: These additional services take little to no extra time from you to complete. Even if you already have an appointment scheduled, you might be able to add the services to it. The ideal situation would be for the products you need to be inexpensive, increasing your profit by simply adding the service to the appointment.
• Hold a Sale on Hair Care Products: Have your products been sitting there for a while? A sale on hair care products could not only switch up your product stock but bring clients in. 
• Rebook Clients During Their Visit: You may increase the frequency of your clients' visits and lower the likelihood that they'll make a booking with someone else by developing the practice of constantly rebooking your clients during their appointment.
• Invite Your Local Newspaper to Visit: As they say, all press is good press. By inviting your local newspaper to do a feature on your beauty salon, you can reach new clients.
• Run a Hairstylists Competition: Competitions rally people and create buzz. By holding a hairstyling competition, you can attract people to your salon.
• Work on Shows and Events: Don’t limit yourself to your brick and mortar location. If there’s a show or big event in town, make sure to get on it as it will bring great exposure to your beauty salon.
• Hold a Contest for a Free Makeover: The miracle of makeovers not only creates a positive impact on the client who is getting it, but gets people curious about your brand.
• Attend Networking Events: Whether it’s to stay updated on the latest trends or new technology, networking is also a great way of spreading the word about your business.
• Give Away Free Promotional Items: Social media freebies may help you expand your brand quickly, gain more followers and email subscribers, and attract new customers.
• Sponsor a Community Event: Spend some time participating in events and festivals away from your salon. The community will learn more about your business if you do this.
• Teach a Class or Workshop: Provide courses to showcase the talents of your employees; they might cover everything from nail art to updos for special occasions.
• Offer Free Product Samples: These are perfect to present to your customers, so they may test the products, increasing the likelihood that they will purchase them from you on their subsequent visit.
• Advertise Locally: The Internet is vast. It's difficult to compete with the countless salons in our globe, and your voice will simply be lost in the din of daily posts from other generalized beauty salons if you aren’t specific. The good news is that you shouldn’t communicate with everyone. Concentrate on contacting people in your city, where your possible new consumers are likely to reside.

How to Develop a Salon Marketing Plan

Developing a marketing plan can be daunting if you don’t know where to begin. Here are a few key steps to help you create a successful beauty salon marketing strategy:

• Figure out what you want to achieve: Regardless of the kind of marketing strategy you need to develop, you must first answer the following questions in order to decide your marketing approach:
  a. What is the goal?
  b. Do I first have the necessary resources?
  c. Who is my target audience?
  d. What platforms am I going to focus on?
  e. What major deadlines do I want to meet?
• Identify important success indicators: It's time to decide what your main marketing KPIs will be now that your marketing plan has been established. Your key metrics will enable you to gauge and monitor the effectiveness of your marketing efforts. They'll also make it clearer to you how your actions relate to your main goal.
• Do some competition research: It's crucial that you take the time to observe what your competition is doing well. By understanding your competition, you might identify ways to set your business apart. However, be sure you're not imitating the actions of your competition. If you find that they have precisely implemented your idea, it could be time to start again and come up with fresh ideas for how to set yourself apart. 
• Get started: Even if you have a air-tight plan that’s perfect for your salon marketing, it won’t be worth anything if you don’t get started.

15 Salon Marketing Tips to Attract More Clients

Knowing insider tips and tricks can quickly get you ahead in the game. Here are a few of our favorites for successful beauty salon marketing:

• Have a Clearly Defined Brand: This will help you stand out and attract clients who will keep using your business, not simply ones who know about it and employ your services once. 
• Launch a Professional Website: Make it easy for people who want to learn more about your services and easily book appointments.
• Optimize Your Site for Local Searches: Being specific with your location in SEO will give you a more niche audience that’s tailored to your area and ultimately bring in the right people who will probably continue booking services with you.
• Provide an Online Portfolio: Customers want to know if your style aligns with theirs. What better way to showcase your team’s skills than by showing what they can do with an online portfolio?
• Offer Easy Online Booking: Everyone is on the go these days. Making it easy to book an appointment online will increase the number of customers that come to your business.
• Build a Presence on Social Media: This not only shows your employees’ skills but also shows you’re aware of the latest trends, and are open to communicating with repeat and new clients.
• Ask Clients for Reviews: This can quickly build up your business and customer base as it makes your business look trustworthy.
• Utilize Salon Marketing Apps: Leveraging technology can help you reach an untapped customer base.
• Maintain Your Google Business Profile: Make it easy for new and repeat customers to find your business and contact you to book and reschedule appointments.
• Keep Salon Business Cards Handy: Not only is this handy for your clients to keep around, but it reminds them to keep rebooking with you.
• Remain Up to Date on Trends: This is especially helpful when trends first start taking off. Position yourself as the expert and the trend and you’ll quickly become the go-to hair salon for that style.
• Engage in Email Marketing: Keep clients coming back with engaging news, discounts, and holiday packages. 
• Follow-Up with Clients via Text: Everyone has a lot on their plate and forgetting appointments can easily happen. Avoid last-minute cancelations by following up about an upcoming appointment via text. 
• Put Your Community First: Participate in activities and celebrations outside of your salon for a while. If you do this, the community will learn more about your business.
• Connect with Local Businesses: This can help expand your business. For example offer to put flyers for your business at a friend’s fashion boutique and in exchange they can do the same at your beauty salon.

Marketing to Men: Strategies for Attracting Male Customers to Your Salon

Beauty salons ought to extend a warm welcome to all genders. Men now feel more at ease with self-care treatments and grooming. Beauty salons that serve both men and women are likely to significantly profit financially. Here are three ways you can do this:

• Make your marketing campaign inclusive: Promote the fact that your services are not just offered to women, but also that you provide an enticing environment for your male clients. Make sure that on social media you are also showing work you’ve done with male clients.
• Design an inclusive space: The colors for interior walls should be in neural hues, as these are attractive to both men and women. Whether your store is in a large metropolis or a small village, an aura of urban sleekness draws customers with the means to pay for premium services and goods.
• Feature your services for men: A list of all the services you provide for men is an effective approach. These can include face and neck shaves, hair cuts, color treatments, and more. Keep these services apart from those provided to women. Create separate sections on your menu for men so that customers can easily scan them. They'll be grateful for it.

The Costs of Salon Marketing

An effective marketing campaign will need a budget. Here are a few key factors to keep in mind:

• Estimate expenses: Make a budget related to advertising, promotional materials, and digital marketing campaigns. Salon owners should consider developing a budget and prioritizing marketing efforts based on their potential return on investment.
• Find an approach that suits your needs: Should a salon owner hire an agency, a freelancer, or try DIY marketing campaigns? The answer to this question depends on how established your business is. If you’re just starting out you should aim for DIY marketing campaigns and as you grow as a brand you should reach out to seasoned experts that will help expand your business.
• Gauge the cost: The scope of your marketing efforts will be impacted by your, location and competition in your area. For example, if you live in New York, you’ll have more competition and have to pay a higher price in marketing than if you live in a small town. 
• Leverage social media: Social media marketing is a cost-effective way to promote a salon, think of your salon’s needs to figure out whether it can be done by one of your staff members or hiring a social media manager would be best. Social media managers often charge an average of $500-$999 per month.
• Consider traditional advertising methods: Print ads, billboards, and other traditional advertising approaches are often expensive but effective in reaching a wider audience.

Building a Loyal Customer Base: Retention Strategies for Your Beauty Salon

Retention strategies are key to keep your regulars coming back. Here are a few ways you can do it:

• Engage: Regularly engaging with customers through email newsletters or social media
• Loyalty drives sales: Implementing a loyalty program
• Hear out your clients: Collecting feedback from customers through surveys or reviews
• Hosting events: This brings your community together, creates buzz, and gets more people acquainted with your business.
• Exclusivity: Offering exclusive access to new products or services enables you to add a premium price to those products and services.

Final Word

While learning about marketing is important, getting started and taking action is what will make a true difference. Don’t get overwhelmed. Pick a single step to get started on today, and the most important part is to have fun with it.