No one knows better than a salon owner how difficult it is to come up with fresh marketing strategies when you’re busy running a business. This challenge isn’t unique to salons, but you probably face some obstacles that other businesses don’t.
Obstacles to Effective Salon Marketing
We talk to salon owners all the time and know that your number one worry is staff retention. Sometimes it may feel like there is a revolving door of hair stylists and estheticians coming and going. Worse yet, those former employees often take valuable existing clients with them when they leave. On top of that, finding new clients can feel like an impossible quest.
Here, we’ll offer three salon marketing ideas that will help you retain your best clients and expand your client base. The good news is these strategies can be worked into your existing marketing plan implemented quickly and without huge financial investments.
1. Happy Birthday! Thanks for choosing us.
Never underestimate the power of a consistent customer loyalty program. One of our favorites is a birthday rewards program. By celebrating your clients’ birthdays with a discount or free offer, you remind them: It’s all about you.
Everyone loves to be acknowledged on their special day, and people feel more connected to businesses who send personalized messages. There’s nothing more personalized than remembering a birthday.
There are some other benefits to implementing a birthday loyalty program, too. First, the discounts or free services are spread more evenly throughout the year, so you aren’t blindsided during the busy holiday season with lots of clients wanting to cash in their incentives. Second, people are more likely to indulge in a little extra something if they’re celebrating a birthday, making this a loyalty program with the potential to actually increase your sales.
2. You Look Fabulous! Take a selfie.
You’ve seen those Instagram selfies: Feeling cute; might delete later. Your clients are definitely feeling cute. Their hair will never look better than after one of your pro-stylists works her magic. And, those brows could cut glass. We bet the lighting in your salon is pretty great, too. So, give your clients permission to take a selfie; you know they want to. That photo will be live on social media faster than you can say Hashtag Fabulous.
Here’s the trick to making this work for you. Go beyond simply encouraging your clients to take a selfie by creating a selfie station. This could be a cute frame your happy customer holds (yes, an actual frame, minus the glass and backing) or vinyl clings on a wall or mirror. Whatever creative idea you come up with, this is a valuable opportunity for your clients to do your marketing for you.
Remember, this selfie station should include your logo, official colors and any other branding you use, such as a tagline. Be sure you ask your clients to tag the salon’s social page and use your hashtag. And, of course, make sure to share those posts to your salon page.
Word of mouth is a powerful marketing tool and people love supporting local businesses. As an added bonus, these photos will show off your hair styling services when people search for your salon.
3. Don’t Blog. Vlog!
Don’t get us wrong, we think blogging is a valuable tactic to increase online organic search results/traffic and promote your business. But, we get it. There aren’t enough hours in the day to run a busy salon and sit down to write an informative and entertaining blog about the thing you’ve spent your entire day doing.
For many small business owners we know, a salon blog ends up being another thing that never ends up happening. That’s why we say vlog! In other words, post short videos regularly that show your current and potential clients your salon’s unique flair and professional expertise.
Posting short videos to YouTube or Vimeo and sharing them on your social channels can be accomplished with nothing more than the smartphone in your pocket. The best thing about vlogging is that the more authentic it is, the more your audience will love it. That means, don’t worry about a script or professional camera work. Just pick up your phone or get someone on your team to help and simply start talking about the new technique you learned at that recent conference.
Depending on the median age of your target audience, maintaining an active video log could be the most important marketing technique you have. Millennials and younger adults consume video content more often than written, and they find amateur, unpolished content more trustworthy than big-budget campaigns. That’s a win-win for you.
Have Fun Growing your Business!
We know these salon marketing tactics have worked for many business owners, but the most important tactic to attract and retain new customers is the simplest—build personal relationships! In fact, your marketing should help you do just that. These three strategies are simple tools to help you engage with clients, expand your customer base and show off your strengths. You’ll be encouraging your clients to come back again and again and attracting new ones all while building lasting customer relationships.
Insight Salon & Spa software helps make marketing your salon easy. Our platform will walk you through setting up a birthday loyalty program, sending out personalized emails, and even texts! Our customer profiles allow you to record client preferences, color profiles and other important service history notes helping you build relationships.
Sign up for a Free Trial and start boosting your business.
