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When it comes to marketing strategies, hair salons have taken the lead in creativity. Whether you’re a salon owner or an aspiring one, read this article for some creative ideas on how you can improve your sales and business through better marketing techniques.
With many states now permitting shops and services to reopen, now is more vital than ever to have a marketing strategy in place for your salon. There are many methods to promote to past customers while attracting new ones, regardless of your budget, including employing social media, print, email, video, an online directory, and search engine marketing.
We sought salon marketing strategies that will help you locate your target audience and persuade them to come in while also providing a good return on investment. Here are 17 marketing ideas for your hair salon on a small company budget, along with instructions on how to put them into action:
1. Make a family package available.
Many of your customers have stayed at home due to worldwide pandemic limitations and may not have had the opportunity to get a haircut. Many of them have families who are in need of a fresh cut and style as well. Offering them a discount to help them catch up might be the difference between their selecting your salon over one of your competitors.
While you may not be able to enable them to schedule all of their haircuts at the same time (to take advantage of the discount), you may still offer a family package with distinct appointment times. A website with appointment booking features is a terrific method to make it simple for your customers to schedule appointments. Parents may schedule appointments for each of their children and pay for them all at once.
For example, website builders like GoDaddy make it simple to create a website with appointment booking functionality or to add appointment booking functionality to an existing site. Customers may glance at your calendar to see when appointments are available, then book one or more for themselves or their family members. Your customers may even provide location data when booking an appointment if you provide home appointments (as some hairdressers do to comply with COVID-19 requirements).
2. Utilize Yelp for review marketing.
Reviews allow your consumers to judge the quality of your service based on what others have said about it. And, according to 85 percent of customers, they trust online reviews as much as they would a personal recommendation. It’s as easy as asking for reviews to get them. Offering the opportunity to schedule appointments with your salon via your Yelp page is one method to do so, and it also encourages frequent Yelp users to check out your service. They’re more likely to return to Yelp to submit a review and even share photos of their experience since they’re already acquainted with the site.
Claim your company profile on Yelp and update it with up-to-date information about your business, including where it is situated, what you do, and images of your work that others can share to start Yelp review marketing (and, hopefully, they will share some of their own).
Then, when customers come into the shop, gently remind them that you are on Yelp. On flyers, brochures, and style menus, for example, you may include “Find us on Yelp!” calls to action. With postings like “Find out what our delighted customers have to say about us on Yelp,” and a link to your assistance page, encourage social media audiences and email contacts to do the same. Just be in mind that asking for reviews straight from Yelp is frowned upon.
Yelp review of before and after hair design (Source)
3. Send an email to new customers to welcome them.
When new clients walk into the business or arrange an appointment online, make a point of getting their email addresses. After that, gather data such as the style they wanted, their gender, and their age range. Send them a follow-up email after their visit to welcome them to your company’s family. Send them a discount for their next visit and inform them about the internet review directories where your company is listed (so they will know to leave a review).
After that, email automation software like Constant Contact can help you arrange your contacts based on their interests, develop tailored emails for each sort of consumer, and automatically send each customer a relevant email after their first visit. For example, if your consumer is a 30-year-old woman, she may get a voucher for a hair care product or brow wax. You may send a voucher for a free shave or beard trim with a haircut to a client in his 60s.
4. Participate in social media video marketing
What woman doesn’t like a makeover? Makeover your customers and, with their consent, use video to show their transformation to your Facebook or Instagram followers. You don’t need a large team or costly equipment for your films. Transparency is desired by today’s social media users. As a result, take them “behind the scenes” to see your stylists in action. A basic iPhone is all you’ll need to make a realistic behind-the-scenes film that your fans will like.
Create a carousel ad with a brief video of your style process, along with recommendations from your stylist, once you’ve shot your makeover. After that, submit before and after photos. After you’ve built the ad, use the targeting features of your selected social media site to reach local customers that fit your target demographic and have interests like “fashion.”
Sheldeez Beauty Salon provides hair care advice in between salon sessions (Source)
5. Obtain coverage in the local press for your salon.
Create a program that benefits both your salon and the local community, then send out a press release requesting local media contacts to follow the story. For example, you might publish a press release promoting your program to provide low-income, soon-to-be, and local high-school grads with free hairstyling and photographic sessions. Include hashtags in your release that you’ll use to promote your transformation stories, and urge students to use the hashtag when they share your work with their friends.
Consider hiring a press release writing and distribution service like eReleases if you don’t enjoy writing or need some assistance producing a noteworthy press release. You may collaborate with a professional press release writer for as low as $89 to create a targeted, newsworthy press release that local media will appreciate. Use their distribution services to deliver your press release to niche-specific local influencers and media, with options beginning at $99 per release.
6. Play Around With Hashtags
Hashtags are used on social media platforms such as Twitter and Instagram to categorize information by specialty and make it more readily searchable within larger discussions around the hashtag subject. This means salons may target certain niches using hashtags and engage their material into relevant discussions about those themes to promote their stylists and services.
Consider the case of a salon owner who wishes to increase revenue during graduation season. A portfolio of freshly styled client photographs with styles created by the salon’s stylists may be tagged with a hashtag like #graduation2020 or #2020graduates. Local hashtags might assist attract local customers who are eager to visit a salon. You can also award grads for using a branded hashtag to share their styles with their peers. A gift card for future services might be a suitable present.
7. Provide discounts for referrals
Offering a referral discount is a terrific method to save money on advertising while also attracting high-quality prospects. Simply make referral cards for your satisfied customers. Allow your consumer to put in their name and email address on a line on the card. Consider using a print design service like ProspectPlus! to create your cards professionally, which starts at $30 for 250 cards.
Give a few to your happy customers so they may suggest more than one buddy. He or she may then distribute the cards to friends, acquaintances, or coworkers. Make it obvious on the card that once the card is used, the referrer and his or her contact will get a discount. Offer the first-visit discount to a client’s contact when they come in to redeem the recommendation. Then offer your referring consumer a discount on their next design using the name and email address on the card.
8. Provide Loyalty Programs
A loyalty program does not have to be costly or difficult to implement. A stack of punch cards put on your salon’s counter will suffice. People may take a card and get it punched every time they use your salon’s services. They then get a free or reduced style or haircut after receiving, say, 10 punches. Clients will remain loyal to your salon as a result of this. They want to return in order to rescue their blows.
Consider using a customer relationship management (CRM) program like Freshsales to reward first-time, repeat, and uber-loyal customers. It provides you with a unified picture of your clients, allowing you to manage all of your client connections from a single platform. For example, you may send email marketing discounts to first-time customers, clients on their anniversaries, and customers at certain points in their customer journey. It also enables you to reach out to clientele who haven’t visited your business in a while with an intriguing offer to get them back in.
9. Make use of Google Adwords
Google Ads are pay-per-click sponsored search engine results that display when people search for salons in your area using relevant keywords. The only difference between a regular search engine result and a Google Ad is that Google Ads include the word “Ad” in green next to your ad title. This advertising enables you to reach out to individuals who are interested in your services and are looking for them online but may not be aware of your salon. This means you may target those who are ready to purchase and only pay when they click on your advertisement.
Explain your services, what makes you different from rivals in your area, and include a link to your contact us and gallery sites in your ad.
Panca Salon in New York City is an example of a Google ad for a salon.
10. Use of Facebook’s retargeting ads.
Facebook retargeting advertisements are shown to Facebook users who have visited your website and completed certain activities, such as clicking on your “Book an Appointment” page without making a reservation or visiting a specific service page. Install the Facebook Pixel, which analyzes visitor activity on your website, to automatically target your prospective salon customers on Facebook. As a result, Facebook Ads Manager receives information about your website visitors.
Then, via Facebook Advertising Manager, you can utilize the data you gathered about your website visitors to build bespoke ads that will appear in their Facebook feeds. You may tailor your adverts to people based on their online activity and shown service interests. This means you provide your visitors with the precise message they need to return to your website and schedule an appointment with your salon.
11. Send a Newsletter through Email
An email newsletter is a terrific method to show your consumers how much you care about them and keep them loyal. Customers may get relevant information (such as style suggestions) and special deals through an email newsletter. The less salesy the newsletter is, the more respected and appreciated your consumers will feel. You also avoid being labeled as spam by omitting sales material.
Finally, a newsletter like this will assist your firm. You may demonstrate your salon’s knowledge and develop faith in your capacity to continue providing exceptional service by providing hair styling advice, honest product evaluations, and styling suggestions, for example. Simply put, you establish a level of trust with your customers that encourages them to return to your shop. While personally designing and sending an email newsletter to each of your clients may be difficult and time-consuming, several solutions can make it simple and economical, allowing you to reap the rewards without the stress.
For instance, email automation software such as Constant Contact may allow you to send out newsletters that are specifically targeted to each customer’s interests and demands. Clients may also sign up by text message. You may segment the visitors who join up and send them emails depending on their browsing history when they sign up.
12. Provide business cards to your stylists
Your stylists, if they’re like most, know how to keep themselves looking great. They also get several praises for their haircuts. Give them the ability to generate revenue for themselves by providing them with business cards. Their own self-styling skills enable them to demonstrate their expertise while also providing an ideal moment to whip out a business card and deliver it to the adoring prospective customer.
Prospect Plus! also has the tools you need to create and purchase unique cards for all of your stylists at small business-friendly pricing. You may select from 57 layouts and add features like gloss coating and even a magnetic card option for $30 for 250 cards. Clients may keep your stylist’s business card in their wallet or on their refrigerator for quick access anytime they need a haircut or style.
13. Hold birthday celebrations
If you use customer relationship management (CRM) technology to keep track of your clients, you can also monitor their birthdays and send out promos to thank them while also encouraging them to visit your salon on their special day. It’s a good idea to start your marketing a bit early for a salon. Instead of giving them a promotion for a reduced or free hairdo on their birthday, send it a week or two ahead of time so they can prepare to look amazing with a new style on their birthday.
Birthdays are also an excellent opportunity to reach out to people of your target audience who have yet to experience your services. We’ve already discussed how to advertise your salon on Facebook. These ad kinds may also be used to promote birthdays. You may, for example, target individuals inside your target audience (by age, demographics, and hobbies) and also specify that your ad should display in the news feeds of Facebook users who have a birthday coming up. Then, run a salon ad with a first-visit discount and something like “Enjoy a day of pampering on your birthday!”
14. Use influencer marketing
A local influencer is someone who has a few thousand followers and offers niche-specific information or promotes a niche-specific product or service. An excellent salon influencer, for example, maybe someone who provides hair care, style, or product reviews. Local influencers are often micro-influencers, with a following of 10,000 or fewer people. However, just because their audiences are limited does not imply they do not provide a high return on investment for businesses.
Micro-influencer marketing charges are cheaper than national or global influencers due to their smaller audiences (expect to spend roughly $25 per 1,000 followers your selected influencer may achieve with a campaign). Nonetheless, their engagement rates are greater. In fact, a survey of 10,000 influencers by Influencer Marketing Hub discovered that, whereas micro-influencers had a 4 percent average engagement rate, those with over 100,000 followers have a 1.7 percent average engagement rate.
Micro-influencers have higher engagement rates than celebrities, according to Influencer Marketing Hub (Source)
Followerwonk is a fantastic free tool for finding niche influencers who are also lovers of your company. You may search for your Twitter handle using the free Followerwonk “Analyze” tool, then pick “analyze their followers” from the drop-down option.
Analyzing followers using Followerwonk
A section named “Follower counts of [brand name] followers” will appear in the resultant report, allowing you to discover how many of your followers have 10,000 or more followers. To get a list of micro-influencers that follow your business, click on the number of followers you wish your influencer to have. Examine their profiles to see which one most closely resembles your brand and would be a good influencer for it.
15. Promote the holidays
Many of us want to look our best over the holidays since we are attending annual family gatherings or spending time with cherished friends. Many individuals use salons to get ready for the big day at this period. It is your responsibility to ensure that they choose your salon. Consider sending a holiday promotional email within a couple of weeks of state or national holidays to keep your salon front of mind and offer it a competitive advantage.
Constant Contact, an email automation platform, makes this simple. You may segment your email subscribers based on their age and demographics, and then send seasonal promotional offers according to their preferences. For example, at the start of November, you could send a promotional coupon for a free hair highlight or root touch-up with the purchase of a haircut to women aged 20 to 65, and a free shave, beard, or mustache trim with the purchase of a haircut to men aged 20 to 65, assisting your clients in preparing for family Thanksgiving get-togethers.
16. Promote Gift Cards
Gift cards are an excellent way to entice existing clients to return, as well as to encourage them to bring their friends. Promote your gift cards around periods when people are seeking fantastic presents for the important people in their life, such as during the winter holiday season, prom and graduation season, and Valentine’s Day, to make an appealing offer for your customers.
Offer a little gift card for a certain amount spent on gift cards to attract new clients and encourage old ones to return. For example, for every $50 spent on gift cards, you might give out a free $15 gift card.
There are several tools available to help you create and sell gift cards both online and in-store. For example, Plastic Resource lets you design and sell plastic gift cards in-store, while Square lets you sell gift cards both online and in-store.
A gift card to a hairdresser, for example (Source)
17. Distribute local coupons
Nearby shoppers may use online directories like Google My Company to search for a certain business category (such as “hair salon”) and learn about all local companies that provide the goods or services they want. You may even post coupons on certain of them. When company owners or marketers put coupons on their directory business page, they get a pricing advantage over rivals who may not provide such discounts.
To publish coupons on Google My Business, first, create and authenticate your Google My Business profile. Fill up the blanks with images, company information, and customer testimonials. Once your page is up and running, keep it fresh with new material and promotions. You may do so by starting a new thread.
Partner with local businesses as an added bonus.
Partnering with local companies may help you build mutually advantageous partnerships that will increase loyalty among your current consumers while also bringing in new customers for both firms. If you run a hair salon, for example, you might team up with a local massage parlor to provide discounted hairstyling and massages on Valentine’s Day. The two corporations may then collaborate to develop a campaign aimed at young guys seeking the ideal present for their sweethearts.
Conclusion
If you operate a salon and need marketing ideas that you can apply quickly, you have a lot of alternatives. Free possibilities include experimenting with social media hashtags and earning Yelp reviews, as well as economical yet cost-effective solutions such as giving referral discounts and participating in local influencer marketing. We hope that our list of salon marketing ideas and methods will provide you with everything you need to get started advertising your business.
Frequently Asked Questions
How can I promote my hair salon?
You should be sure to create a good website and have plenty of positive reviews on social media. If you’re unsure what type of business model your salon will be, it’s also important to research the different options available so that you can decide which one is best for your particular needs.
