The most successful hair and nail salons are constantly marketing themselves to build and maintain strong brand identities within their communities. They stand out from the crowd and connect with their customers in ways that their competitors don’t. They reach their target audience more efficiently and pull them in more effectively. If you want more business for your salon, consider using these in your salon marketing strategy:
Digital Marketing
Optimize Your Website
A modern, high-functioning website is an absolute necessity. Some of the key features you should definitely have:
Responsive Design
The majority of Google searches for local businesses happen on mobile devices, so if your website isn’t optimized for mobile viewing, you’re missing out on a huge portion of your potential customers.
SEO Strategy
Your website’s content needs to be optimized for search engines in order to be found by potential customers. If your website doesn’t show up in the top results for localized searches like “salon near me,” there is work to be done.
Online Appointment Booking
Offering online appointment booking will significantly increase your website’s conversion rate. You wouldn’t think it’d be a deciding factor, but when given convenience options, consumers are much more likely to buy.
Encourage Yelp/Google Reviews
Online reviews are still on the rise. People read reviews and live by them. Having a lot of positive reviews on Yelp and on your Google business listing will not only make your salon look worthy to potential customers, it also helps your SEO ranking. Encourage rewards like discounts for customers who submit a review.
Build & Use Your Email List
Email marketing is a great way to stay in your customers minds and give them reasons to keep coming back in. A great way to build your email list is to hold a raffle. Have people give their email addresses to enter the raffle. Advertise your raffle in-store, on your website, and on social media. With a strong email list, you can increase business significantly by alerting customers about new products and sending offers like birthday discounts and holiday specials.
Social Media Marketing
Create a Selfie-Station
Social sharing is a salon’s best friend. People want to flaunt their hair and nails on social media, and this can be a great free marketing tool for you if you encourage it properly. One way to do this is to set up a selfie-station in your salon where customers are encouraged to take a picture. Make sure to put a sticker on the mirror with your social account names or hashtag so that they can tag you.
Advertise On Facebook
Facebook’s advertising tool is an effective way for salons to reach new customers. You can target your ads to be seen by women of your specified age range, in your specified geographical area. Facebook ads can be good for creating brand awareness, but if you really want the best return on your investment, advertise a discount offer for a specific service.
Share On Instagram
Instagram has a useful advertising tool as well, but it’s best use is for creating a brand identity and connecting with customers. By regularly sharing photos of your salon, your employees, your customers, and your most impressive work, your customers will grow attached to your brand, and customer loyalty is about as important as it gets for salons.
Check out our blog post on Salon Social Media ideas for 5 engaging ideas to get your salon started!
Traditional Marketing
Create a Rewards Program
This is an age-old marketing strategy that increases customer retention for salons. There are options for digital rewards programs if you’re looking to go the technical route, but people still love the classic hole-punch card (and if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it). Give first time customers a business card and punch a hole in it every time they come in for a haircut. For every 10 haircuts, give them the 11th for free, or for every 5 haircuts, give them the 6th for a discount. You can also offer an extra hole-punch or two if they refer a friend to you. People talk about their hairdressers anyway, but if there’s an incentive, they’ll quickly refer their friends.
Push Gift-Cards
If you aren’t already offering gift-cards, you should make that a priority. Pushing gift-cards, especially around the holiday season, is a great way to get new customers in the door and get secured revenue. Whether the recipient redeems the gift-card or not, you get paid.
Try Value Add-Ons
If you have customers that come in regularly for just one of your services, you can cross-sell them by offering value add-ons. For example, if someone has gotten their haircut at your salon several times, but has never gotten their nails done, offer them a discounted manicure for their next visit. Keep record and pay attention to what services a customer hasn’t tried yet, so that you can encourage them to use your salon as a one-stop-shop for all their beauty needs, not just one.
A Complete Salon Marketing Strategy
You can use some of these ideas to get started, but if your salon’s goal is major growth, you may need professional marketing assistance. Plum Direct Marketing offers comprehensive, results-focused marketing services from website design to online advertising, to social media. If you’re interested in learning about how we can help your salon draw new customers and increase brand loyalty, check out our salon & spa marketing services.
