Salon Marketing Strategies for 2023

Whether you’re on the verge of opening your new salon or you’re trying to draw in new clients, salon marketing strategies are essential. A solid strategy will help take your business from quiet to busy, if you do it right.

But what’s the right way to do it?

While many client relationships are nurtured in your spa or salon, effective salon marketing ideas will expose your business to a whole new market. From a consistent social media strategy to loyalty programs and search engine optimization, a marketing strategy for salon services will keep existing clients coming back and pique the interest of a new client or two.

Not sure where to start? Keep reading.

Jump To The Section You Like

1. Why Have A Salon Marketing Strategy?
2. When To Start Your Salon Advertising
3. Why Is A Salon Marketing Plan Important?
4. Get More Customer Referrals
5. Build Trust Through Customer Reviews
6. Salon Promotions That Work
7. Grow Your Salon Email Marketing List
8. Post Regularly On Salon Media
9. Can A Salon Marketing Agency Help?
10. 15 Salon Marketing Strategy Ideas
11. Conclusion

Why Have A Salon Marketing Strategy?

If you want your salon to stand out from the crowd, you need to plan out some effective marketing strategies. A good marketing strategy for hair salon will be tailored to your business and your potential target client.

These days, it’s pretty impossible for a salon to survive on walk-in clients alone. A successful salon will have recognisable branding and consistent messaging.

It might seem like a good idea to just throw out some occasional Facebook ads and have a website built, but really, marketing strategies should be planned out. There should be a focus and measurable goals. When you measure your results, you won’t waste time and money on an ineffective strategy. Planning ahead and setting goals will help your business grow.

When To Start Your Salon Advertising

One of the most important things a new salon owner or manager should do is arrange and plan a high quality marketing campaign. Before your salon doors have even opened, your logo and branding should be recognisable to the local community.

Rather than over-staff and overspend, when you advertise and market your business before your doors have opened, you’ll know exactly how many clients are booked in. This is a great way to schedule the amount of retail stock you order and the amount of staff you put to work on any specific day. You’ll get a clear idea of your customer base and you’ll set a great financial precedence for the future. Why would you spend money on staff or stock you don’t need?

Why Is A Salon Marketing Plan Important?

Hair stylists often spend their entire career focussed on the services they offer and the quality of your treatments. While you don’t want to stop doing that (a good service will always make someone come back), it’s time to take a more business-minded approach.

We’re not suggesting you offer a lower service, you should just consider some marketing to run alongside it. People love consistency and to offer that, you need a strategy in place.

Christmas is the busiest time of year for hairstylists and technicians, so start your planning for the following year in November. Planning tools such as Trello or ClickUp will help you build the content you want to publish, whether it be an email newsletter or a loyalty program. This kind of salon marketing template will help you stay on track, even if your day-to-day salon work is keeping you busy.

A hair salon social media strategy is also a great idea. If you find the thought of that overwhelming, online tools like Hootsuite of Sendible will help you schedule Instagram and Facebook posts with ease.

Get More Customer Referrals

Even in today’s busy digital word, word of mouth is still the no.1 most effective marketing strategy. People tend to be very loyal towards their hair salon or stylist. This loyalty should translate into a great local customer base that raves about your service with their friends. A client referral scheme will help you capitalize on their love for you.

Use client referral software to incentivize existing clients into encouraging potential clients through your doors. Run campaigns that offer existing clients a discount when a friend of theirs visits the salon for the first time. Make it so both clients save money. This will keep your existing client list interested in your offering and introduce new clients to your business.

A loyalty program or rewards system works best when it’s made personal. If you offer your visitors a treatment that they've never been interested in before, it’s going to make it seem like a cheesy sales pitch. Offer loyal visitors who refer clients to you something of value to them. This will increase and deepen their loyalty towards you — so much so they might refer more friends!

Build Trust Through Customer Reviews

If there’s one thing that’s going to draw attention to your business it’s customer reviews. Whether they come from the comment section of Facebook and Instagram or from Google My Business, if someone shares negative feedback about you, your salon’s schedule could be negatively impacted.

One way that you can combat this is by dedicating time specifically to Google My Business. The service allows business owners to create a business page where clients post reviews and you can manage them.

Having a presence on Google is essential to the success of your business. More impactful than other review sites like Tripadvisor, or Yelp, the most recent consumer reviews state that 63% of people will check the reviews on Google before visiting a salon or spa.

The reviews that are posted can help you build trust between new and existing customers. You can also share the reviews on your social media pages and salon website. Always react to a poor review positively. Don’t berate or write something negative to the review poster and take their (hopefully) constructive criticism on-board. This will help you develop repeat business and establish an open and honest customer service approach.

Always encourage your visitors to leave reviews on Google to up your ranking and increase the impact of your presence.

Salon Promotions That Work

If you’re going to run a promotion for your business, it’s important that you consider what it is you need it to achieve. A salon promotion should drive revenue and not just to draw customers in. Offering a discount won’t actually create brand loyalty, instead, it could actually degrade your brand if you do it too often.

If you want to encourage new clients to keep coming back to your salon, a well-thought-out promotion will drive acquisition, drive awareness and flip new clients into loyal ones.

When running a promotion, set a budget and define a target you want to hit. Promote something that people actually want and develop the promo on social media and via word of mouth. Always ensure the promotion you’re running is legally compliant and work out a way to track your efforts.

Stuck for promotional ideas? Here’s five to get you started:

• 1. Happy Hour

  Does your salon experience regular quiet times? If you do, then why not turn this into Happy Hour! Clients get a discounted treatment and you get more people walking through your salons doors.

• 2. 3 for 2 on Products

  Stocking retail products in your salon is a great way to maximize your earning potential. If one particular product is hard to sell, you could offer it as part of a 3 for 2 package. Plus, your clients will love getting something for free! Always make the lowest costing product the freebie and ensure you have enough margin to cover the stock.

• 3. Celebrate the New Semester or New Term

  This is a great strategy that works best if your salon sits near a large campus. Students love a discount and let them know that they can continue to save money if they refer a friend. This will probably book in for their next visit sooner.

• 4. 65 and Worth It

  Don’t forget about the gray market! With an ever-growing population, the elder community have more free time to book in during your quiet times. Offer them a promotion to keep them interested in your services.

• 5. Monthly Deals

  Sending out email newsletters will help you stay at the top of your community’s mind. Once a month, let subscribers know about a promotion you’re running and encourage them to book in via your salon software online.

Grow Your Salon Email Marketing List

Growing and maintaining a salon email client list, is still an important avenue for new business to explore. Collecting an email address from a client is a pretty big deal. It means you’re able to communicate with them regularly and you can keep them up-to-date with your latest offerings.

A monthly newsletter is a really great idea. It will draw people consistently back to your website and your booking online booking system. Less obviously and ‘salesy’ than ads, a newsletter can be personal and it can drive engagement.

Incentivize your salon staff to collect email addresses and use an online booking system to capture the data. Make sure you stay compliant with your local data protection laws when handling data.

Post Regularly On Salon Media

Active social media accounts will make your salon look professional and creative. They’re a great way to show off your salon, talent and offering. If you run your social accounts effectively, people will hop from there onto your website pretty quickly, which could result in more bookings. Advertising your services on social media should be a business priority.

Use Instagram Stories and feed posts to show off your work with quality images. You can also use the online sites to check out other local businesses and your competition. You’ll quickly be able to see people like and what your competitors are advertising. Social media can be a source of inspiration, so make sure you look beyond your sector. Perhaps a restaurant is handling its marketing cleverly, or maybe a yoga studio is creating a beautiful and successful Insta-feed.

While you might disregard Facebook, you’re missing a trick if you do. The network attracts a lot of older online fans, who might love to hear about your salon. Be consistent and use the networks regularly. You might want to try to use TikTok, but it currently has a wide focus, so you might have a hard time advertising locally.

Can A Salon Marketing Agency Help?

If you can barely manage to build a website, the thought of running an entire marketing campaign might feel overwhelming. If you’re just starting out, keep your offering pretty basic (social media and maybe a newsletter a month with promotions) and concentrate on building and encouraging loyalty towards your brand.

If you’re a fast-growing salon, now could be the time to invest in a specific marketing agency. You could hire someone in-house to do this for you, but if you’re super busy with the day-to-day tasks of your business, you might not have time to manage the various projects.

When hiring a marketing agency, make sure they give you regular reports that comment on their activity. Also, make it clear that you want to see ROI. Ask them to plan for your business three months ahead, so you can see where your budget is being spent. A good agency will offer a range of services and they’ll be able to provide you with more than one reference from other salons.

15 Salon Marketing Strategy Ideas

Confused about what strategy to take? Great for all salons, these ideas will get you started:

1. Create great social media content that highlights your skill and inspires people to book in with you.
2. Add your business to Google My Business and make the most of the reviews you receive by sharing them on your website and on your social channels.
3. Leave a jar on your reception desk for people to drop in their business cards. It’s a great way to collect their details and stay in touch. Just make sure you remain legally compliant.
4. Incentive staff to collect an email address from your visitors with a gift card of their choice.
5. Encourage people to your website with SEO-optimized blog posts. Keep them simple and research relevant keywords.
6. Publicize your services in the local community. Get to know the local business around you and build relationships to keep the word about your salon spreading.
7. Create a loyalty scheme that encourages repeat visits.
8. Give your visitors a free glass of wine or champagne when they visit, it’ll make them feel special.
9. Make a brand that you feel proud of. That also includes your salon name! Make sure you feel good every time you use the name.
10. Keep an eye on what other salons are doing — but don’t lower your prices to try and ‘beat’ them. It could damage your image.
11. Create a simple but slick website that is easy for visitors of all ages to navigate.
12. Take quality photos of your salon, put them on promotional cards, and post them on social media. Good photos will help you market your salon in a variety of ways.
13. Place ads on social media and target them in your local area. You could also take advantage of Google ads to attract new visitors to your business.
14. Use salon software that automatically sends out an SMS message reminding people of their appointment date and time.
15. Freshen up your salon’s interior to keep your business looking modern and inviting.

Conclusion

Remember, there’s no point in spending a lot of time and money on great marketing ideas if you aren’t going to measure your efforts. Measuring your efforts will clearly show you what works and what doesn’t. If something works — refine it and develop the idea further. If something doesn’t work, stop pouring your and your staff’s energy into it.

The more you get to know your client and your target market, the more you can tailor your marketing efforts.

Are you full of brilliant marketing ideas? What’s worked for you and what hasn’t? The Zolmi community would love to hear all about it in the comments section below. Got a question? We’d love to help, so drop that in the comments section too.

Citations

Small Business Hair Salon Owners Effective Marketing Strategies https://scholarworks.waldenu.edu/dissertations/10457/

Exploring marketing strategies in small businesseshttp://www.na-businesspress.com/JMDC/cronin_abstract.html

Marketing strategies during recession: a comparison of small and large firms https://search.proquest.com/openview/62b3b958596137bbdbc035c35f64eca8/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=49244