Thinking of starting your salon business and don’t know where to start? Or are you looking for ways to grow your existing salon business?
You’ve landed in the right place.
Marketing can make or break your salon business’s chance of success: even if you’ve got the ideal location and the most talented hairdressers, you won’t be able to grow your business if you can’t build up the right clientele.
Yet, salon marketing is more than simply delivering a good service. You’ll need to get your brand in front of your ideal client effectively, and they need to understand that what your salon offers is worth paying for.
In this guide, we will share some of the most effective marketing strategies you can use to attract more clients to your salon and grow your business, and without further ado, let us begin.
Best Salon Marketing Strategies in 2022
Identify Your Ideal Clientele
If you don’t know your ideal client, your marketing efforts won’t be effective.
So, how can you identify the ideal clientele for your salon business? There are several approaches you can try:
Analyze your current clients:
This is a practical approach if you’ve already got a sizable number of existing clients. Take some time to analyze the demographics of this existing client like gender, age group, location, income level, etc. If possible, interview them and ask relevant questions so you can model your ideal client based on them.
Look at your competitors’ clientele:
Another practical approach is to perform competitive analysis. Identify your competitors and look at their existing clients. Chances are, they can be your ideal clients too.
Develop a buyer persona to create an ideal model of your target client, and gather as much information as possible about this ideal client. The better you understand them, the more effective your marketing efforts are.
Get Your Salon Visible on Search Engine
Nowadays, it’s no secret that people learn about local businesses (including salons) via online search, especially on Google.
Your prospective clients will use queries like “salon near me” or “salon in (city name)” when they are looking for a salon, and if you don’t show up on the search results for these queries, you don’t exist to these prospective clients.
The thing is, Google now prioritizes results from Google Maps for these kinds of queries and will put Google Map results above organic results.
So, salon businesses must make sure the business is visible on Google Maps, and in short, we’ll need to perform local SEO.
While local SEO or Google Maps SEO might seem like a daunting task at first, actually it only involves four core steps:
- Claiming and verifying your listing on Google My Business
- Optimizing your Google My Business listing, focus on providing complete and accurate information for your target clients
- Encouraging your existing clients to leave positive reviews on your Google Maps listing, as well as on relevant third-party sites
- Building local citations by listing your salon business on relevant online directories
Do these consistently, and your salon listing will climb the Google Maps ranking slowly but surely.
Have a Professional Website With Online Reservation Functionality
Your salon business needs to have a well-designed and functional website in 2022, and no, your social media profiles aren’t adequate replacements for your website.
Your salon website is often the first impression you have with new clients, and if your site is obsolete and clunky, you will miss out on these potential clients.
Nowadays, however, various platforms like Wix, Squarespace, and Weebly offer easy ways to build a website via a drag-and-drop visual builder. If you’d like more versatility, there’s always the handy WordPress.
Gone are the days of hiring expensive web developers to have your professional website, so there’s simply no reason not to have one.
Also, 35% of surveyed consumers now prefer to book their salon appointments online, and many of these bookings happen after hours.
In short, integrating 24/7 online booking functionality into your website is now a must. Fortunately, appointment scheduling platforms like Bookeo offer an easy way to integrate online booking functionality to your website easily and in an affordable way.
Make sure your website is intuitive, mobile-friendly, loads fast (in less than 3 seconds with standard 4G connections). It has all the important information, and has reliable 24/7 online booking functionality.
Creative Social Media Marketing Strategy
In 2022 when most people are active social media users. It would only make sense to promote your salon on these social media networks.
The question is, how?
It’s crucial first to define a comprehensive and creative social media strategy for your salon and execute it consistently to ensure success.
Creativity is key, and you’ll need to find the sweet spot between building your organic presence, using paid options (I.e. Instagram ads), and working with relevant influencers to help promote your salon.
Ensure Consistent Branding
Salon branding is beyond the salon logo, name, and the salon’s decor.
Everything about your salon is your brand in this digital age. So it’s crucial to establish a unique brand story for your salon and be consistent with it.
Identify your target clients, and create a brand message that resonates with them. The better your brand aligns with your clients’ needs and preferences, the more clients you’ll be able to attract.
Remember that a strong brand will help boost your word-of-mouth marketing and advocacy. Without a strong brand, growing your salon will be very challenging.
Conclusion:
It’s no secret that one of the key challenges in running a salon business is attracting new customers and retaining existing ones. Meaning marketing is very important and will make or break your salon’s chance of success.
Above, we’ve shared 5 of the most important salon marketing strategies you can try. And by practising them, you can win more clients and grow your salon business in 2022.