Whether you’re already part of a hairstyling or a salon business or you’re an established stylist wanting to get your name out and attract customers online, you’ll find that learning about new and effective marketing strategies is an incredibly important use of your time. Re-evaluating your business’s effectiveness in its outreach and delivery of quality of experience should be a regular and integrated part of your procedures as an institution. The earlier months of the year are perfect times to do this as they are crucial in determining the profit your salon gains from regular clientele. In this article, you will find some tips on how to take full advantage of this period and how to implement marketing strategies that will benefit your salon long-term.
- Take Advantage of Promotions
On your social media platforms, users love to frequently engage with their favourite businesses. To increase visibility and customer reach, it has been suggested that making a point of providing promotional packages for your customers makes your overall products seem all the more appealing. You could offer packages such as: hair packages including free cut and blow with any colour restyle, a free manicure with every pedi, and so many more. With this in mind, however, you should seek to accommodate any potential reductions are not just positing discounts and running promotions when the profit is not worth it.
- Focus on Customer Retention
This could be as easy as providing new and regular customers with the salon’s card and/or details from their regular hairstylist so as to facilitate the scheduling of any future appointments. You could also keep in contact with these customers by providing them with a mailing list with regular newsletters or promotions as a means of ensuring customers remember you and can always contact you when needed.
Another, and increasingly effective idea, is to hire online celebrities (within your budget) as influencers of brand ambassadors. Before approaching this strategy, you should do your research about any ‘influencer’ who approaches you or that you’d like to work with, ensuring that they have ‘real’ followers and that they align with your brand’s core values and image. Then, make sure this person matches up with your ideal clientele and if they are connected with them in person and/or online. One rule of thumb is to be skeptical of influencers who promote their services to all businesses, since you want them to be genuinely enthusiastic about your brand. When you do find the right person, it’s also worth investing some money or free products in hiring them.
- Encourage Product Sales
As a considerably large and important revenue stream, you should also implement the products at your salon as a strategy to intrigue your customers with offers and descriptions of what you have to offer. People are always looking for something new, or for ways to change up their appearance, so it wouldn’t be the best idea to promote outdated colour trends as outlined in our 2018 post, for example. An effective strategy would be to advertise sales on products in combination with a service: for example, 50% off a shampoo and conditioner combo with any selected cut. Stylists can also contribute to this strategy during the cut by actually describing the product they are using to the client and encouraging its continued use, or by providing more information on a product if the client seems to express curiosity.
- Using Infographics and Updating Your Social Media
This may seem daunting to some of us who may not be familiar with designing templates or coming up with colour palettes which will look good on a social media page, but with free applications like Canva and image sourcing websites like Pixabay, it doesn’t have to be too complicated. With the huge gallery of images and inspiration at your disposal via the internet and other social media sites, there is no reason why rebranding your business online has to seem so intimidating. Thankfully, Canva offers a wide variety of templates to get you started, and you can also head over to the editor’s pick section on the website or mobile app to see what other Canva users have recreated for even further inspiration. Now more than ever has social media become an integral part of commercial and user reach interactions on an grand scale, so it’s imperative that you reach your contemporary and target audience in this way.
- Networking at Local Events
There are oftentimes many overlooked opportunities to network in your surrounding community and area. If you want your marketing development to reach beyond just advertisements and promotions, you might want to consider joining the local chamber of commerce in your town, community groups, and other networking groups. Outside of broader events, you could also research local salon events and gatherings in order to generate new ideas and perspectives through industry networking, helping to additionally expand your knowledge on your competition. All of these are incredible opportunities ot get to know people, hand out business cards, and potentially draw in regular clients who don’t need to travel too far to reap the benefits of the services you have to offer. Make it a habit to attend events and possibly even become part of a panel or committee to spread the word as much as possible – people will start to acknowledge your hard work and it will not go to waste.
- Offer Classes or Workshops
Partnering with local collages, community centres, groups or other venues to offer beauty or grooming related classes or workshops can simultaneously aid in helping entry level hairstylists hone in their skills and provide further visibility for your salon. You could start out with simple skills such as braiding or easy up-do classes for at-home styling, or provide a space for single fathers to show caretaker dads how to care for an style for their little girl’s hair. Small yet impactful acts of kindness like offering these spaces of learning and motivation for your surrounding community can really make a difference in your salon’s image.