Finally, Salon Marketing Ideas To Get New Clients Without Relying On Referrals
So I meet a lot of really talented hairdressers, nail techs, and barbers, who are awesome at what they do.
They’re the best at their craft, but they’re still struggling to grow their salon business at the pace that they would like.
And when I talk to them… This often comes down to not having a salon marketing strategy.
They don’t have the right side of marketing strategies in place and to attract new customers and grow their existing customers.
It’s because it’s not enough anymore to just rely on the tradition that word-of-mouth type of marketing that has been working for so many years.
You can no longer rely on referrals to get your products and services out there.
Today, people’s attention is on their phones. People are online.
So today, I’m going to share the BEST 7 salon marketing ideas to get new clients FAST. These are the absolute best methods that are killing it in 2021.
All of the companies that are taking advantage of the trends listed in this article are on a straight trajectory for success.
They no longer have to rely on offering discounts for their services, referral programs, chasing salon customers, or posting in Facebook groups.
They become profitable salons who build a powerful community and have their ideal client chase them for appointments.
If these are the results that you are looking for today, then keep reading.
Because, in this blog, we’re going to cover everything you need to know to successfully get new clients in your chairs, FAST!
Important Steps To Get New Clients In Your Chairs As A Salon Owner Or Beauty Brand
- Ensure Your Salon Shows Up In Search Results
- Stay Top Of Mind With Email Marketing That Works
- Every Client Is A Potential Micro-Influencer For Your Salon
- Kill Doubt By Automating Hundreds Of Customer Reviews
- Optimize Your Website For Online Booking
- Run Strategic Giveaways That Fill Your Calendars
- Facebook Ads That Completely Disrupt Your City
- Are You Ready To Get New Salon Clients?
Salon Marketing Ideas To Get New Clients: Showing Up In Search
Starting with SEO. That stands for search engine optimization and if you’re not familiar with that term, you better get familiar with that term.
Because what that means is essentially how well you’re showing up in search engines when people are looking for your type of salon or the type of service that you’re offering in your area.
It’s SO crucial to be present there. Because that’s how people find out about businesses today when they want to find a particular hair service or hairdresser in New York (or whatever city you’re reading from).
They go on their phone and they search for a particular service or solution and there’s a number of things you can do to make sure that you show up higher in those results.
Probably the most simple and straightforward that you can do right now is just to make sure that you have a Google My Business profile set up.
It’s free and it doesn’t take very long. You just need to register, you’ll receive a letter sent to your address where you will confirm your business is located.
You can add your address details, you can add photos and you can add more details about yourself just by doing that.
That will already help you rank, show up on Google Maps and you will show up better in search results as well.
There are also other places where you should register in the same way.
One is Apple Maps, which is probably the second most important place to show up. This will make sure you also show up on iPhones when people search on the map for hair salons near me.
The next step in search engine optimization is to make sure that your salons website is optimized for search.
The core of this is really making sure that you have a lot of content on your website that talks about what you’re offering in the salon.
And so, if you’re offering a specific service, make sure that you have that service on the website and that you create a LOT of content about that service. Really go into depth about the pain points customers may face without that service, who the service is perfect for, what the service will make the customer feel, and why your solution is better than everyone else’s.
That significantly increases the chances that you will show up when someone is searching for that service in the area.
Because the thing with Google is, they really want to give the searcher the best result. They want to give the best answer to the question that a person is coming with.
And if your salons’ website is giving that answer, then they will show you higher.
And so just making sure you have all that information on your website and that you’ve registered with the Google My Business–that’s the first step to make sure that you will start showing up better on search.
And the beauty of this is that’s a piece of work that you do once and that will then serve you for years to follow.
It helps you show up and it will help bring in new clients for your salon without you having to be there and to update all the time.
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Salon Marketing Ideas To Get New Clients: Staying Top Of Mind
Number two is to make sure you have email marketing in place for yourself.
If you don’t have an email marketing strategy in place or somehow sending emails to your clients, you’re leaving a big opportunity on the table.
So we need to fix this and it’s not that difficult.
No, I’m not talking about spamming your salon clients with your latest discounts and cats flying through space on a slice of pizza.
There’s a lot of email providers out there.
Maybe you have a booking software that you’re using that has built-in support for sending emails.
This is a great way to keep in touch with salon clients in between appointments because we all know running a salon is running a relationship business and it’s very important that you maintain every relationship in between appointments.
I know a lot of salons have transitioned to social media and believe that social media is replacing email and that email is something old. But it’s really not.
Email marketing is still the most effective way to reach your customers.
And here’s why.
When you share something on social media only a fraction of your followers actually see that message.
But when you send an email, you know that the content you’re sending out will land directly in their inbox. And if you’re nurturing your list properly by constantly providing value, you will be able to maintain open rates of 60% and above.
Sure, they may not choose to click on that image or offer, but it will hit the inbox and you’re 100% in control of your email list.
As opposed to social media, where it’s 100% out of your control who receives your content.
Some of us learned that the hard way with Facebook a few years ago.
They can change the algorithm and suddenly what you’re sharing is not visible to anyone.
But with email, you don’t have that problem. It’s just an email. so you’re always in control, making sure that people get your message.
You also have a lot more control over email marketing. For example, in the email, you can put links, you can put images, you can add videos about your products or reviews from loyal customers. You can do a lot of things.
Whereas on social media there’s a lot of limitations on your capabilities.
So if you don’t have email marketing in place yet, make sure you get on the boat and start collecting email addresses from every appointment.
Salon Marketing Ideas To Get New Clients: Influential Social Proof
Salon Marketing Idea number three that is killing it right now is influencer marketing.
I don’t necessarily mean big influencer marketing. You don’t have to get Kylie Jenner to agree to paid partnerships.
But it can also be challenging because today everyone is an influencer. Everyone is on social media and has a decent following.
So you need to make sure in your salon that you’re really incentivizing your clients to share that they are at your salon and that they reference you back when they’re at your salon.
I get it, you know you don’t necessarily want to ask your salon clients to share on social media. It can feel a little bit pushy.
But just by doing small things like creating a visual space in your salon-that invites for photos to be taken organically on their own.
Your salon client may even ask you to take the photo for them.
Just doing those small things to make it easier and to encourage them to share, will certainly help turn all your clients into influencers of your business.
And when you do this, you of course need to make sure that your Instagram account is polished and that you have your website linked back to your profile.
And make sure that your salon clients are aware that your account exists so that you increase the chances that they will also add mention you or reference you when they post.
If you do this consistently, that will really help build the work of your salon and awareness of your salon, which, in the long run, will drive more potential clients to book with you.
Salon Marketing Ideas To Get New Clients: Online Reviews From Current Clients
Salon owners who are absolutely killing it right now are the salons who focus on getting reviews from their clientele.
People trust other people more than they trust you.
Did you know that almost 70% of people researching your salon will read six or more reviews before deciding whether to come in for an appointment?
In fact, 86% of consumers read reviews for local businesses (including a massive 95% of people aged 18-34).
Unfortunately, so even if you write something great about your salon on your website, they will always trust other people’s opinions over yours.
This is just salon marketing basics.
There are so many platforms that allow you to leave reviews after you’ve been to an appointment in the salon.
The top one is obviously Google, so the Google My Business profile that we talked about earlier, that’s what’s where people can leave a review for you.
You can also get reviews on Facebook, on Yelp, on your booking software, there are lots of other places and local platforms to generate client reviews.
Just encouraging people to leave a review can help in a lot of ways.
First and foremost, you know making a booking in a salon (depending on what type of service you book) if you’re gonna change your hair color for example…
I mean that’s a big deal for many people and they want to make sure that where they do that, that’s a trustworthy salon and that they will get great results.
Your clientele will for sure do research before they book with you and they will read those reviews of what other people are saying about your salon.
The other thing is, if you get a lot of reviews and people rate your salon, that will also help you show up higher in search engines like Google.
So coming back to point number one that we talked about.
If you get a lot of reviews and a lot of people are talking about your salon, that will also show Google that you’re one of the top businesses that are of interest to people.
And they will start to rank you higher on Google Maps as well, so having a constant focus on getting reviews, getting ratings, getting people to talk about you is very important.
And there are a few simple ways you can do this.
Obviously, you can ask your client (if you have a good enough relationship to) can you leave us a review on my Google profile.
But you can also automate this if you’re using salon software or an appointment, scheduler of some sort.
There are some of them that support sending out an email directly to your salon clients where you can ask questions such as:
What did you think about the appointment?
Did you enjoy your appointment?
Would you recommend our services to your friends?
And the ones who say they were happy with your services, you can ask them to leave a review for you on Google.
Or include a button on the “yes” that will lead them to your Google reviews.
This is a simple, yet effective way to automate this.
You don’t need to remember to ask every time in the salon, because this just happens automatically and over time.
This will help you build a lot of Google reviews for your business, can improve conversions on a lot of salon websites, and will also improve the credibility of your salon.
As people trust you more, search engines will like you more, and you will get more traffic with more people converting from just a visitor to your website into paying salon clientele.
Salon Marketing Ideas To Get New Clients: Optimized Website For Bookings
A simple salon marketing tip that’s bringing in a lot of money for business owners right now is having a website that is optimized for converting visitors into bookings.
It’s not enough anymore to just have a digital brochure or a nice menu where people can read about your salon and your services.
You need to make sure that your website is really designed to take the visitor and get them booked in your salon.
And there are a few things that you absolutely need to have in order to convert your potential customers.
First and foremost, you need to make sure that your website is mobile-optimized, which more and more websites are today.
But still, I see some salons that haven’t properly implemented this yet even though a majority of the visitors that come to your website will be on their mobile device.
So if it doesn’t look good and doesn’t work well, they will likely bounce aka leave your website quickly.
You also need to make sure that your website is fast.
You can do a speed check on your website easily.
Google offers a free tool for this.
You can just search for “Google PageSpeed tool”, enter your domain, and see the optimization recommendations Google is making for your website.
Anything below a 50 score, NEEDS WORK!
It’s easy to find out just how fast does your website loads and if it’s starting to get quite slow, your website visitors will bounce off and they will not proceed to your booking page either.
You also need to have the right information on your website in the right place.
You want to make sure that the information that people are looking for, such as your opening hours, your contact details, your book now button are all clearly visible on the homepage.
When a potential customer lands on your website, there should always be an easy way for them to book on your site.
Did you know that over 35% of people prefer to book their appointments online?
And with that, you need to have an online appointment, scheduling software, of course.
You need to be able to drive online bookings while people are on right there on your site.
You need to make It super easy and have a booking appointment journey in mind for every visitor on your website.
Is it very easy for them to land on the website?
Do they find the information they need and the site loads fast?
Is it easy to navigate and the ability to book is very easy for your website visitors?
You don’t want to lose potential clients by having a poor navigation journey.
That can make a big difference, because your website is at the heart of all your marketing activities, and if you’re doing a lot of work on your social media, you’re doing great on email marketing, you’re working with influencers you’re doing all these things right.
You still need to have somewhere to send them that is really designed to hook those people and get them booked into an appointment.
Investing the time and money to get your website right is really crucial and there’s a lot of free tools that can help you put this together.
Even really low-cost tools or you can also hire an agency, of course.
But there’s a lot of different ways that you can go about getting your website set up.
So that’s certainly worth your attention and spending some time on and making sure that everything is up-to-date and functioning the way you wanted.
Salon Marketing Ideas To Get New Clients: Strategic Giveaways
(Client Results. $0 to $40,000+ Per Month In 30 Days)
A lot of businesses use giveaways on Facebook or Instagram, but they don’t execute them properly and they don’t use them to build loyal clients.
One of the most powerful salon marketing strategies we provide to all of our clients, regardless of the social media platforms we’re managing, is a high-value strategic giveaway.
No, this doesn’t mean giving away cupcakes in your upcoming posts.
Something that’s of high value to your potential salon clients.
Run a giveaway for a Microblading service or Balayage appointment or a sought-after hair coloring.
Every single person who enters your giveaway through your social platforms is a potential client.
They’re entering because they want that specific service you’re giving away. They need the solution to what you’re offering to the public.
Why not message every single one of those users a sales pitch and let them know about any promotions or advertisements you have running?
Let’s do some simple math really quickly. Don’t worry, you won’t have to pull out your calculator, we’ve done it all for you.
Let’s say you have 100 unique users who enter your giveaway.
You message all 100 users that you’d love to get them in for an appointment and offer them 10% off if they book with you today.
Average conversion rates are about 20%, but let’s just say you’re new to this so you are HALF of the average conversion rates.
That’s still 10 NEW appointments for your salon that you hadn’t had the day before.
There are strategic tactics you can use to optimize the response rate and close more clients. Let us know in the comments if you’d like us to publish some Instagram Marketing Sales Scripts For Salons.
Once your giveaway is over, it’s important that you’re transparent with picking the prize, showcasing your winner, and getting the winner to post on their socials tagging your brand.
You want everyone who entered to see that your beauty business is legit and will follow through on your promises.
Plus, this will add great social proof and social trust for your business.
Salon Marketing Ideas To Get New Clients: Facebook Ads That Convert
One common problem I see that salon owners face in their marketing strategy is that a lot of them do not know how to execute Facebook ads properly which leads them to think Facebook ads do not work for their business at all.
However, when it comes to advertising, you could not be more wrong.
When creating Facebook Ads to promote your hair services or other salon services, it’s important to understand what you are advertising on Facebook and what causes users to actually click and convert.
If all your competitors are simply posting about their service offers and free add-on services, or worse, discounted services…
It can begin to feel like a fast race to the bottom on price.
So how do you create compelling ads that convert without having to lower your price?
It’s simple.
You need to really dig deep into your customers’ minds and figure out their number one hair-on-fire problem that they’re looking to solve.
What is keeping them up at night?
Let’s use microblading services as an example in this situation.
Now, your business can create posts that say “Microblading services, 10% off if you book an appointment this weekend! Professional microblading in your area. Fast, easy, great results guaranteed”.
But this is exactly what all of your competitors’ posts look like.
It also doesn’t address nor solve their problem.
In fact, what is the problem associated with Microblading?
Ideally, your customers are coming to you for your microblading services because they’ve felt insecure about their patchy or balding brows, they disliked having to apply makeup each and every morning, they have alopecia or other hair loss causes that result in them lacking a bold and even brow.
When your ads address the problems people face, the steps to take to solve that problem, and how your solution will solve their problem with results lasting 12 months+, meaning they won’t have to feel insecure over their brow line, they’ll regain confidence, and fall in love with their brows…
Well, then your Facebook ads are going to completely dominate and outperform all of your competitors without you having to sacrifice your price.
It’s truly understanding the core issues that your clientele is having and understanding how your service will provide the solution to those issues, and creating content that is able to tell a story while being able to translate your solution as the ONLY solution.
This also can be applied to Google ads, Yelp ads, and ads that promote your offers on any other advertising platform as well.
Use these tactics to build your lists, launch Google PPC campaigns, or simply get new messages to your salon.
Are You Ready To Get New Salon Clients With Marketing That Works?
So in this post, we’ve covered the seven salon marketing ideas that are absolutely killing it right now.
We’ve talked about SEO search engine optimization, which is the process of making sure that your website and your salon are visible when people are looking for your type of salon in your area or the type of service that you offer.
We covered email marketing and the best way to keep in touch with your clients and build relationships. Nurturing your lists and presenting offers that build customer loyalty.
We also discussed influencer marketing and how everyone is really a potential influencer today, so make sure that you have the right incentives to encourage people to share pictures from your salon and to post from your salon while promoting you in the process.
Ratings and Google reviews to make sure that you have people talking about you, leaving a review about their appointment, and ensuring they’re giving you a rating which will help build trust.
That you need a website that is designed to convert visitors into customers and that you have a book now button or an online appointment system connected to it.
Making sure all your salon marketing efforts that you’re doing when you drive people back to your website allows you to really get the most out of it by converting more salon appointments.
Running strategic giveaways on Facebook or Instagram and following up with interested followers letting them know you’d love to get them in for an appointment.
And how to create a core offer when you’re advertising so that when you launch Facebook Ads, you’re actually able to convert appointments without having to drive your prices down and offer discounts.
So I’m really curious to hear which of these salon marketing ideas do you feel that you can be doing more of and leave a comment below this post with which one you feel like you should be doing more of.
I respond to every comment that I get and that’s good for me as well to know what I should be focusing on in future posts and to share more details about.
Thanks a lot for reading and staying around with me to the end.
