Marketing your salon or spa is an ongoing process. To both attract new people and keep current clients interested in what you and your team have to offer, you’ll want to get creative with your efforts. If you’ve run out of ideas to promote your business, try some of these easy super-easy marketing tips:
Set up a selfie station – Find a neutral wall or use a small pop-up background to create a designated selfie area in your salon or spa. You can also order a customized background that repeats your salon logo, social handle, and/or hashtag. Regardless of what you use, make the selfie station a fun place for your clients on their way out after their services. That’s when they look and feel their best and are open to sharing that joy. Also, ask customers to share their photos on their own social media channels and to tag you and your salon. Even consider offering them added points with your rewards program for making an effort.
Step up your social media efforts – Post photos of your work to your salon or spa’s Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest as much as possible. Take the time to engage with your followers and provide expert advice, quick tips, giveaways, other contests, events, etc., through your social media channels. Keep up the efforts to maintain everyone’s attention.
Cultivate online reviews – Customers tend to search online for reviews before they try a new product or service, and salons are certainly no different. Ask your most loyal clients to provide an online review through Yelp, Google Reviews, or Facebook.
Create a trend – Whether it’s on a client, friend, family member or another stylist, create new looks and shout it out as the next trend. Hair color changes and makeovers always make great content. Consider naming your trends and creating a hashtag using that name. Now, show off your new trend on your social channels, blog about it and include your work in your salon or spa newsletters. Do make it easy for your clients to identify your trend so that they know what to ask for in the salon.
Be a trend – Keep your look up to date and be willing to make changes, often. If your clients see that you and your team are making changes, they will be more likely to do so as well.
Make and post a video – Create your own how-to video that will help your clients care for and/or style their hair at home. For spas, consider demonstrating the right way to cleanse or exfoliate, or some other daily skincare regimen. Post your videos on YouTube and share on your various social channels.
Offer freebies – Make keychains, pens, coffee mugs, mousepads, or other promotional items with your salon’s brand coloring and logo and give them away freely.
Get creative with competitions – People love to win stuff! Come up with a competition and promote the contest on social media and in your newsletter. In the salon or spa, consider giving away gift sets of product, free services, a gift card, or a prize for the most referrals, etc. The sky is the limit. On social, have your clients post a review and share it, or have them invite their family and friends to like or follow your salon or spa’s page. Make it a competition so that the person with the most referrals wins a prize. Just remember that the more significant the effort for your clients, the more valuable the reward should be.
Get involved with national events – Partner with a larger charity and create your own fundraising event on their behalf. A pledge drive, walk-a-thon, or cut-a-thon are good places to start. These are also great ways to show that you care about your community while building your brand awareness.
Join networking events – Almost every city offers networking. Join your local chamber of commerce plus any other business networking groups. Attend events provided by these groups to talk up your business and hand out your business cards and promotional materials.
Step out for community involvement – Get involved in your community: do local events, charity functions, and donate your time where you can to gain exposure. Homeless and women’s shelters, work programs, career drives, fundraisers, and refurbishment programs are great places to start.
Teach a class or workshop – Either offer a class in your salon or partner with local colleges or other venues to teach any number of classes or workshops. For example: consider providing a father/daughter event to help teach dads how to care for and style their little girl’s hair or a mother/son event that helps educate younger teenage boys how to properly shave when there is not a dad in the picture. Braiding classes, easy D.I.Y. up-dos, and makeup demonstrations also make for great workshops.
Generate publicity – Get to know who your local journalists are and offer them complimentary services to get them into your chair or onto your treatment table. When you do meet with them in person, ask them to consider a story about your business. Keep in mind that you’ll need to have something beyond excellent service to get their attention. There needs to be something newsworthy for them to respond. It could be your personal story, how your team does cut-a-thons, offers new trends, or it could be advice for makeup or styling tips, prom looks, upcoming trends, you name it.
Advertise in your area – Promote your business in your local publications and advertise on their websites. For added coverage, ask to write an article for their blog – just make sure to secure a link back to your website in exchange for the post. Also, consider advertising in your local sporting and other event programs and signage. And, if you or your team specialize in weddings, look into exhibiting at upcoming bridal expos.
Blog about it – Set up a blog on your salon website and take the time to write quality content that will appeal to your readers. Offer your expert advice, styling ideas, makeup and skincare tutorials, product and tool use tips, product recommendations, etc.
Use email marketing – Set up and send thank you, happy birthday, and reminder emails, so that your clients feel special. You can use your salon management software to automate the process.
Send promotional emails – To send your salon clients occasional promotions, use a mass email program. Tell clients about new products, upcoming sales, or other exclusive deals that may be of interest to them.
Create newsletters – Send newsletters and promotional emails to your clients monthly, every other month or every quarter, depending on how much time you can manage. Offer your expert tips, trends, advice, and other news about the salon or the services you offer. Just keep the content informative versus promotional and to keep up the efforts in regular intervals.
Host a client appreciation event – Once a year host an event for your clients that demonstrates just how much they mean to you. Consider offering an open house, cocktail party, happy hour mixer, after work get-together or even a more formal gala – just make a sincere effort to give them proper thanks for their support.
Go old school – Sometimes printed material is the only way to reach some people. In that case, consider creating a brochure for your salon or services. You can also create postcards and promote your business, a recent trend, or an individual promotion. Mail when appropriate but also leave a stack at your front desk for anyone who wants one.
Use your brochures and postcards to generate interest outside of the salon or spa. Carry a stack of material with you when out of the salon and share when it’s appropriate. Also, ask other local businesses if you can leave a handful behind or post one on a public bulletin board. Most companies know that if they support you, that you’ll likely support them.
The key to successful salon and spa marketing is keeping up the effort. Get creative, think long-term, and even get help if needed – just keep at it!
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