Coming up with fresh and impactful salon marketing ideas is hard. Between juggling your daily responsibilities as a salon owner, managing employees, servicing clients, and taking care of taxes it’s completely normal to run out of inspiration when it comes to marketing.
But if you want to attract new customers to your salon and increase the perceived value of your services, your marketing has to be top-notch. Hair and beauty industries are saturated with local businesses and everyone is fighting for customers. Because of that, the bar is high and it’s not enough to just offer a great service to customers. You need to step up and make salon marketing your imperative.
We’ve prepared salon marketing ideas that actually work to give you a headstart and help you attract customers all the time.
Salon Marketing Through Branding
Maintain Consistent Salon Branding
Maybe you think it’s a great idea to experiment with your salon branding and switch things up from time to time. But that’s a bad salon marketing idea. The branding aspect of your salon has to be consistent across all marketing channels. There should be a uniform color scheme for all your marketing platforms, making your salon business recognizable online and offline.
But branding is not all about colors and logos. Everything about your salon tells customers what your brand is about. So it’s important to know your salon’s unique story, mission, vision, and unique selling points and choose salon marketing ideas that align with your salon’s branding.
What impression would you like your salon to give? Choose a theme to represent that. You can try salon themes like edgy, calm, wacky, artistic, indie, or abstract. Don’t forget to tailor your branding to the customers you want to attract!
Consistent branding may not seem important, but, it separates you from the crowd and helps customers see how different your salon is. This adds value to your brand enabling you to charge higher prices.
When customers see your hair or beauty salon as different, they tend to tell their friends about your business. This boosts your word-of-mouth marketing. Maintaining consistent branding is one of the most important salon marketing ideas to expand your business.
Developing a unique brand identity will help you create a memorable and cohesive brand image. Once you do that, emphasize your salon’s unique selling points such as particular service, specialized techniques, or exceptional customer experience. It’s important to promote these across all channels of communication, from your own website to social media and other channels.
Salon Marketing Ideas Across Web
Add Service Pages And Keywords To Your Salon’s Website
People rely on Google when they search for things that interest them. Because of that, having a website is a key marketing tool. But they don’t just look at the top results, they also check out the reviews other people left. When you have a website and Google business profile, existing clients get to praise your salon online. When new potential customers search Google for a hair salon they are attracted by these reviews.
One of the most important salon marketing ideas is exactly that – to create a well-optimized and designed website that resonates with your audience but also satisfies Google’s search engine.
The best way to have your salon website show on Google search results is to add service pages and keywords to your salon website.
Use these service pages to describe the various services you offer. It’s important to create individual pages for each of your main salon services. Ensure the title of each page is the name of the service described on the page and incorporate keywords. To reach a broader audience link your social media accounts to your website.
Doing all this helps Google understand your salon website’s relevance. This causes Google to show your website when people search for related words. Developing an engaging website for your salon is crucial because it’s often the first point of contact with potential customers. The key things you should pay attention to are:
- Easy navigation
- Relevant information, from services, and prices to contact details
- High-quality visuals of the salon, employees, and happy customers
- Customer testimonials and reviews
Blog all about it
Designate a blog section on the salon’s website and publish high-quality content that will appeal to potential clients.
SEO best practices are vital in the writing process because they ensure your blog has a higher chance of ranking on Google. As potential customers read your blogs and gain interest in your hair or beauty salon, you build trust and bring them one step closer to booking an appointment. You can touch upon different topics of interest, write a blog about new trends in haircuts, birthday gift ideas, or wedding gift ideas, and also include your services.
Not only do blogs help drive traffic to your website, but they also help with lead generation and establish your authority as a beauty professional.
Here are a few salon blog ideas:
- Recommend helpful hair products and tools
- Give beauty advice
- Give makeup tutorials
- Give skin care tips
- Give hair styling ideas
Email as a salon marketing strategy
Communication is an important factor in the survival of relationships. This is also true for business relationships. So If you run a salon business it’s important to foster meaningful communication with your clients. How can you do that?
Email marketing is a great way to keep in touch with your customers. Once you build your email list, it’s always yours, while social media accounts belong to the platform.
The best salon marketing idea for an email newsletter is to send personalized emails to inform customers of deals and other offers. The main benefit of email marketing is that clients tend to re-book more often, increasing customer retention.
Here are a few examples of salon email marketing:
- Sending a thank you to a new client
- Sending birthday greetings (without having to check the calendar)
- Sending reminders about hair product inventory
- Sending a reminder when a client hasn’t been in for a hair appointment in a while
Avoid sending generic or sale emails. These go directly to spam or get deleted by clients.
Personalize your emails by using content such as staff images, stories, etc. This helps your clients feel more connected to you. Make sure to include email marketing in your list of salon marketing ideas if you want to create meaningful connections with customers and increase customer loyalty.
Campaigns And Loyalty Programs
Referral Discounts
Referral and loyalty discounts are one of the greatest salon marketing ideas to boost customer retention and loyalty while attracting new customers as well.
For example: refer 1 new customer and get 20% off your next appointment.
Or consider teaming up with local businesses for referral schemes. For example: refer 1 new customer to (name of salon) and get 20% off goods at (name of local business).
A ‘refer-a-friend program’ is an inexpensive marketing tactic for a salon with a small marketing budget.
Develop targeted marketing campaigns
You can develop targeted marketing campaigns to reach specific segments of your customer base. E.g. create campaigns for special events such as weddings, proms, or holidays and offer special packages and deals. You can publish targeted campaigns on various channels including email marketing, social media advertising, your website, and local newspapers and magazines.
Loyalty programs
To keep customers, it is essential to make them feel appreciated. Show your clients that you value their loyalty to your salon through loyalty programs. For example: After 10 appointments, give customers a discount on the 11th.
Another great salon marketing idea to boost loyalty is giving long-time customers the original price when the prices of your salon services increase. Let them know this is because you value their loyalty.
Increasing customer loyalty is vital in business, and your salon can easily capitalize on this. When you reward customers, you encourage repeat business and also generate word-of-mouth referrals.
Salon SMS campaigns
Running salon SMS campaigns is a great idea if you want customers to hear what you have to say. SMS marketing makes setting up salon campaigns for each season, holiday, special event, or promotion easy. It’s also useful for making product recommendations to boost retail sales.
Have an open slot due to a cancellation? Use SMS to quickly let your customers know.
Expressing gratitude deepens relationships and encourages customers to continue spending with you. So consider using text message marketing to say, “Thank you for being a great client“ to your customers.
No other marketing tool offers the same click-through and open rate. This puts SMS marketing among the most effective ways to get your salon marketing messages to clients.
Events And Promotions
Host an event in the salon
A fun salon marketing idea that gets your name out there is to host an event in your salon. A little publicity goes a long way, and hosting events is a good way to publicize your salon. You can create digital business cards with event schedule details and contact information and share them across all channels like your website, and social media platforms.
You can try hosting pamper parties for charity, for a birthday, or bachelorette. This exposes your salon to potential customers and helps you bond with current clients.
You can also invite local businesses to borrow your salon when hosting their events. This exposes new people to your salon.
Take advantage of special days like clients’ anniversaries, birthdays, Mother’s Day, Black Friday, New Year’s, and Christmas. These are ideal times to host events in your salon or to invite local businesses to do so. For example:
- For a Mother’s Day event give a discount of 20% off for all mother’s hair spas.
- For Valentine’s and proms try offering teen clients a free manicure with every haircut. This guarantees an increase in customer traffic to your salon at these times.
- For customers’ birthdays and anniversaries try offering free blow dry or facials with their hair appointment. This will make them feel valued and special.
- For Black Friday, offer a free blow-dry with facial and hair appointments. This tends to attract women in their mid-20s.
Collaborate with local influencers
Besides partnering with local businesses, it’s also a great idea to collaborate with local influencers to boost your salon’s exposure. They can promote your salon on their social media platforms and attract new customers to check out your salon. This brings a fair deal of exposure and tells people who are not aware of your salon what you’re all about.
Teach a class or workshop
Teaching a class or workshop boosts the image of your salon and adds to the overall personality of your brand in the community.
You could host the classes or workshops in your salon, as well as partner with local colleges and community centers to offer grooming and beauty classes.
Here are a few tips for grooming classes/beauty workshops:
- Teach a braiding or easy up-do class for at-home styling
- Teach a ’Single Fathers workshop’ to help single dads learn how to style and care for their little girl’s hair
- Teach a shaving and grooming class for teenage boys
Salon Marketing Ideas for Social Media
Social reviews
Today, people tend to buy a product or service only after reading online reviews. This is especially true of salons since customers want to ensure they will get high-quality service and a great customer experience.
So ask your happiest customers to create reviews on platforms like Yelp, Google Reviews, and Facebook, to name a few.
When a client takes the time to leave you a positive review online, two things tend to happen. First, by leaving you an amazing review they’re publicly vouching for your salon which makes them feel more connected to you.
Second, the review acts as social proof for your brand thus making potential clients more likely to patronize your salon business.
Designate a selfie area in your salon
People love taking selfies and a hair and beauty salon can benefit from this trend. Set up a mini photo area within your salon and encourage your clients to post pics on their social media platforms.
A selfie area is a fun experience for your clients. But you have to keep a few things in mind to make this salon marketing idea a successful one:
- Great lighting is a must.
- Use a neutral wall or a personalized background with your salon logo and social media handle.
- Include props like a salon hashtag cutout or image in the background to promote your salon.
- Ask clients to use the same hashtag when posting so that all the posts will appear under it.
- Encourage customers to take and post a few pics before leaving the salon. After all, it’s when they feel and look their best that they’ll be willing to share.
Create engaging video content
Video is one of the most popular communication tools today. Viewers spend millions of hours of their time watching YouTube and other social media platforms. Using this salon marketing idea is sure to give you a boost in appointment bookings. Here are two types of videos to use.
A salon tour video
Your current clients know and trust you. This trust relationship is essential for a salon to be successful and it is developed through interaction and communication.
To help cultivate such a relationship with potential customers create a video that shows you, your team, and your salon. Post it on social media and embed it on your salon’s website.
An explainer video
People prefer to watch interesting shorts rather than long videos.
A short engaging video or mini-shoot during a customer’s session helps you connect with prospective clients. Be sure to get the customer’s permission before filming and uploading.
Depending on your budget you can hire a salon marketing agency to produce and edit the video for you. Otherwise, you can ask a friend to record the video with a later-model smartphone.
Upload it to social media such as Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube and on your salon’s website. This salon marketing idea is sure to impact your conversion rates of website visitors into new clients.
Create engaging social media content
Platforms like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and Pinterest are great for engaging with your audience in two-way communication and showcasing your salon’s expertise. By sharing interactive content such as Q&A, high-quality photos, employee spotlights, and educational videos, as well as user-generated content, you’ll build relationships with potential clients and convert them into actual clients.
Another great salon marketing idea is to run contests and giveaways. Organizing them on social platforms will boost your visibility, increase brand awareness, and skyrocket engagement. Offer a free makeover or any other service you provide to a lucky winner to spread the word about your salon.
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Salon Marketing Ideas for Advertising
Local advertising for salons
Although we live in a digital era, newspapers, magazines, and other print publications are still among the top marketing ideas for beauty and hair salons.
Salon owners can pay for a listing or an ad in the next issue or on their websites. Be sure to include the unique features of your salon. E.g. your selfie area or specialized techniques.
Local papers love local stories. So if you have an intriguing and relevant story there is a high chance they’ll feature you and your salon. Tell the story of how your salon started or why you offer particular types of services the competition does not.
Maybe you have an expert grasp of a particular beauty topic. Why not ask to write an article for their blog and ask for a link back to your website in exchange?
Digital advertising for salons
Run time-sensitive promotions
For promotions to be intriguing they need to be time-sensitive, exclusive, or limited in supply. For example, you can hire a B2B PR firm to run a promotion for ’one week only’ where new clients receive a gift card or discount.
No salon owner wants to lose profit by giving too many discounts. The solution is to offer more than one service as a package, only available for a limited time. Then include the discount in the package.
Be sure to make your promotion sound so attractive that people don’t want to pass it up. When they learn about the promotion they should say to themselves “Oh my gosh, this is only available until X time. I have to get this.”
Facebook ads
Some beauty salon owners have had little success with boosted posts on Facebook. However, if done right, Facebook ads are useful for salon marketing and attracting new clients.
What does one need to do to benefit from Facebook advertising?
Here are 5 points to keep in mind to get it right:
- Use friendly and personalized language
- Use short video clips instead of still pictures
- Run time-sensitive promotions and include a call to action button.
- Use Facebook Ads Manager to keep track of the metrics and analyze the numbers as frequently as possible
- Change the text copy and creatives timely. This optimizes your ad campaign and helps you get more clients.
A great feature of Facebook advertising is that it allows you to target audiences based on interest. For example, one can target an audience with an upcoming birthday via an ad that reads, “Treat Yourself!” Or try targeting persons that are engaged with an ad that reads, “Let Us Pamper You for Your Big Day!”
Salon advertising via Instagram
Instagram is great for promoting your brand. It’s not only a form of free salon promotion that shows off your business via your posts, photography style, and filters and colors you use, but also a great paid advertising platform. This is a great way to attract clients by showing off a portfolio of your work to a wider audience. Promoting your booking form in Instagram ads will give you an influx of new customers in no time!
Google Ads
A salon website that is optimized for search engines may still not appear at the top of Google’s search results. SEO takes time and it’s a long-term game. What can you, as a salon owner, do to ensure the salon’s website shows up on top?
Use Google’s ad service to run paid search campaigns. Google Ads are pay-per-click search engine results. These appear when people do a Google search for relevant keywords.
This means if someone searches for a hair salon located in your area Google will show your salon website at the top in an ad form. A normal search engine result and a Google Ad differ. A Google Ad displays the word “Ad” in green under the ad title.
This salon marketing idea enables you to target people who do not know about your salon but are looking for the services you offer. This empowers you to reach only serious clients who are ready to pay. And the best thing about it? You only pay when people click on your ad.
To reduce the number of people who click your ad without becoming customers, only show it to those likely to book you.
To do this you can set the ad to be visible only to customers within a certain distance from your hair salon. The ad can also be set up to be visible based on certain words customers use when searching for a salon.
When setting up a search campaign, be as specific as possible. Explain your services. Include what makes your beauty or hair salon different from competitors in your area, and a link to your contact and gallery web pages.
Put These Salon Marketing Ideas into Action and Get Booked 24/7
These salon marketing ideas are sure to help you retain existing customers and attract new ones. By shifting your focus to branding, web presence, campaigns, social media, local events, and advertising, you’ll enhance your salon visibility, attract new customers, and inspire customer loyalty.
It’s important to regularly analyze and tailor your marketing strategy based on salon industry trends and real-life data to stay ahead of competitors. But if you’re patient and consistent, you’ll get booked 24/7. And Trafft is here to help with that. With an easy-to-use interface and intuitive dashboard, you can analyze whether your salon marketing ideas work. You have an overview of new customers, the most popular services, repeat customers, and favorite employees to tell you everything you need to know.
But the best thing about Trafft is how easy it is for customers to schedule appointments and even get appointment reminders. Scheduling takes only a minute or two, and your booking website is 100% customizable to fit your salon branding.
Try Trafft for free and reap the benefits of this powerful salon management software.
