Looking to generate more business for your salon? You are in the right place. We polled top salon owners and marketing experts and asked the for their #1 salon marketing idea. Below we give you their responses, separated into four categories:
1. Embrace Technology to Boost Sales
2. Referrals & Building a Client Base
3. Social Media Marketing Tips
4. Even More Marketing Ideas
Read on and let the ideas roll!
Embrace Technology to Boost Sales
1. Get More Clients in Your Chair Using Booker
Want to boost sales and increase productivity by more than 40%? Learn how to use Booker to automatically distribute your open appointments on sites like Yelp, post to social media and book appointments from Facebook, send custom email and text marketing messages, create and track gift certificates on the fly, get a custom ecommerce store for your products and services, and more!
2. Tanning Salon Text Messaging Campaign Generates $196,000 in First 30 Days
By Derek Johnson. Have you ever considered texting? According to Derek, after Seattle Sun launched their text messaging campaign, they generated close to $200,000 in new revenue within a month. Although you’re not running a tanning salon, this example is closely related to any type of spa.
3. Use Mailchimp for Email Marketing
In this guide, Chris Carter explains how a salon can use Mailchimp for email marketing: “There’s no question that a well run email campaign will help grow your salon. Email campaigns bring in new customers and help rebook your current ones as well.” He discusses the tools you get from Mailchimp’s free service, as well as the upgrades you may want to opt for.
4. Use Email Marketing To Generate Off-Season Traffic
Christine Copertino of Allegeria Spa explains “There’s a lot of seasonality to our business, so we’re talking to members who live locally and people who may have visited us during the ski season but don’t live nearby. We also have people on our list who have signed up for different services or may be interested in specific promotions.”
5. Start Accepting Online Bookings
How much will adding online and mobile bookings improve your number of monthly appointments? As 35% of appointments are booked during non-business hours, adding online booking can have dramatic impact.
Referrals & Building a Client Base
6. How One Stylist Got 650 New Clients in 6 Months
Stylist Kat Park has booked almost 650 new clients through the use of online booking system, StyleSeat. StyleSeat promotes your salon to new clients, all you need to do is sign up. This article links to the story of one stylist who books 99% of her clients through StyleSeat.
7. How To Attract New Salon Clients
By Alice Kirby. Looking for new salon clients? Alice Kirby shares her simple 4 step process to help you win more clients. Attracting new hair & beauty clients can seem an almost impossible marketing challenge at times. Learn easy-to-implement tips to grow your salon business.
8. Increase Sales Using Memberships and Gift Certificates
Everybody knows that loyalty programs can drive business. But how do you work out all the nitty-gritty details? In this Fit Small Business guide, we give you expert tips from Drybar, a rapidly expanding blow dry bar. We also show you how to use software to set this up yourself.
9. How to Get 500 Clients in One Afternoon
Sound preposterous? Most great ideas do! This one is from the Hairdressing World forum and it’s an oldie but a goodie. If you time it right, you’ll definitely get some buzz, and hopefully new clients!
10. Loyalty Programs and Email Marketing For Salon Businesses
By Anthony Presotto. Marketing doesn’t stop when you get clients in the chair. Marketing is even more important after the first visit, as we saw in the resource above. Learn how to leverage loyalty programs to create repeat visits.
11. Your Bible to Running an Extraordinarily Successful Salon Loyalty Program
By Barry Quinn. Barry offers amazing advice about creating a loyalty program that will knock your client’s socks off. One of my favorite suggestions from this article is the key tag idea. Use the same method that grocery and drug stores use– offer your clients a loyalty card that they can attach to their keychain. This also helps to keep your salon as top of the mind.
12. The Easiest Way to Get Those New Clients Coming Back to Your Salon
For the average salon, 50% of new clients never return. No, there didn’t enter the Bermuda Triangle– they were simply never given the welcome back. You may think it’s implied, but often times, taking the extra step to woo a customer after their initial visit can mean a happy return.
Social Media Marketing Tips
13. The Importance of Social Marketing for Hair Salons
Do you know which social media platform you should use to energize your clientele? This article from Salon Nerds breaks it down. Here’s a hint: Facebook is definite yes. Facebook increases your exposure and aids in developing relationships with your clients.
14. 5 Common Social Media Mistakes Beauty Salons Make and How to Avoid Them
It’s no doubt that social media is huge for marketing your salon, but what if you’re making a mistake and your message isn’t getting through? Are you excited about your salon? Are you responding to your client queries? It’s important that you check out these common mistakes and make sure to avoid them.
15. Social Media Spring Cleaning For Your Spa or Salon
By Nina Balan. When is the last time that you paid close attention to your social media efforts? The years go on and we lose sight of some of the housekeeping that should be done to keep our spa social media brand updated. Let’s face it, social media is fun and easily accessible, but it takes work, time and money. Spring is the perfect time to drill down in your social media and cast off what’s not working and grow what is.
16. Get Professional Facebook Advertising Help for just $5
Want to target Females who are less than 40 and live within 5 miles of your salon? Facebook advertising makes this easy. Hire a pro on Fiverr to just $5 to show you how it’s done.
17. How to Use Social Media in Your Hair & Beauty Salon
This YouTube video from Salon Opinion offers you a perspective on how to view social media. Social media is more social than push advertising. Unfortunately, a lot of businesses forget to market on Facebook. It’s about engagement, but it’s also about getting people to know what your sell.
18. Social Media Marketing for Salons: 21 Tips and Strategies
By Claire Grayson. Did you know that a picture is 100% more persuasive than a post without one? Most people are visual creatures, and this is especially true when assessing whether you’re the perfect stylist for them. Show them what they’re getting with clear photos of hair-dos done right. And that’s just one tip! Check out the 20 more.
19. Make Your Clients Insta-Famous
By Holly Schippers. There are all kinds of sites that can create social media “frames” that can be used to put hashtags and information in every photo. For example, I had a frame made for class attendees if they would like to use it to create fun photos at events we meet at. The frame has my Instagram name and includes some of my common hashtags.
Even More Marketing Ideas
20. 10 Marketing Ideas and Promotions for Booth Renters
By Kerri Lee. Who says you need to own a salon to market it? If you’re a solo stylist who rents a booth, you know how critical it is to always stay booked. But that’s easier said than done– or is it? Use these killer marketing ideas to be the belle of the booth.
21. Getting Down the Basics: Referrals, Pre-Booking & a Strong Front Desk
Fit Small Business’s own guide on Salon Marketing is packed with lots of actionable information about jumpstarting your marketing. In particular, we cover the topics of boosting referrals, building your front desk and pre-booking to encourage repeat customers.
22. 2016 Trend Colors and Color of the Year for Salon Marketing
By Elizabeth Kraus. Runway trends don’t lie. This year’s trend colors for spring are subtler than the bright colors which have dominated fashion color trends in years past, but they’re still capable of making a strong statement. Here are some other ways you can use trend colors to boost sales of retail products or influence the client experience in your salon.
23. Customer Facing Loyalty Programs
By Jenny Beightol, Director of Words and Reputations. A customer-facing loyalty program like Belly can boost both customer acquisition and retention. Create a suite of rewards that will entice new customers to sign up and prompt existing customers to spend more on services outside their usual. Get more from your current customer base without losing money on acquisition costs.
24. 5 Successful Salon Marketing Ideas for Organic Salons
Building a niche for an organic salon? Here’s five tips for marketing your organic salon. Promotions are a great way to market your salon. My favorite is number three that suggests you print up bookmarks with your salon details, and then visit your local library. Strategically place the bookmarks inside of books related to organic living, such as recipes, environment, holistic health, etc. It’s free, and easy, and worth a try.
25. Six Big Mistakes Beauty Salon Owners Make
By Craig Killick. Are you measuring your marketing? If not you could be wasting money needlessly. Be careful to know where your marketing money is going, and why. Not every salon will get traction from traditional print, and that’s okay, but you’ll never know if it’s working or not unless you put up a testing device.