Running a beauty salon is not easy. Most hair and nail salons are small businesses with all of the responsibilities and problems that affect every small business. But in addition to that, beauty salons have to personalize all of their beauty treatments for each customer, work with a range of stylists, and find unique ways to drive new business through their front doors. Traditionally, hair and nail salons find most of their new clients through referrals, and periodic ads on television, radio, or in the print media.
However, the development of sophisticated internet technology has placed beauty salons in a category of local businesses that are uniquely poised for digital marketing success. In fact, your customer-focused beauty salon can find new clients on a continual basis with minimal effort through local beauty industry digital marketing.
Finding New Clients for Your Beauty Salon
Finding new clients and encouraging repeat business are essential when running a salon. This isn’t always easy to do. However, digital marketing for the beauty industry is a more cost-effective way to find new clientele than traditional marketing.
One of the problems with traditional marketing is that you can place an ad, but you can’t track how many people act because they’ve seen your ad. With digital marketing, you can track who clicks on your ad, where they find it, and what happens after they click on it.
Local Digital Marketing for the Beauty Industry
How do most people look for a new hair or nail salon these days? They whip out their mobile phone and Google it. While people are using mobile devices for all kinds of searches, “46% of all Google searches are looking for local information” (Source: Google Secrets of Local Search Conference), and
Nearly a third of online consumers in the US use the internet to search for a local business daily; 60% of consumers do so at least once a week.
In fact, if your salon is not using beauty industry digital marketing to drive new business, you are losing potential clients to your competitors.
Searches for Hair and Nail Salons “Near Me”
While restaurants are usually the top category for local searches, people look for beauty salons “near me” quite often. According to Google,
Searches for “local” + “business(es)” have grown by more than 80% year over year, including searches like “local businesses near me” and “support local businesses.”
Mobile search was already growing before the pandemic. Now, that growth has accelerated rapidly as people have been forced to find new ways to shop from home.
What is Beauty Industry Digital Marketing?
Beauty industry digital marketing is a catch-all term that encompasses all forms of marketing online for your salon, including email marketing, search engine marketing, and having a website.
Where to Get Started
Since most salon owners are already performing a balancing act to meet their busy schedules, the beauty industry digital marketing is the most effective way to get started.
You probably already have at least a rudimentary website. But, how does that website help your business?
1. Search Engine Optimization
Your website is like a business card for your salon. It should at minimum list your salon name, address, phone number, salon services, pricing, and email address (or have a contact form). This information is what searchers are interested in, and it will often come up in local search.
Using keywords in names and descriptions of your services will add to your search engine optimization (SEO) for your website. SEO helps match your website content with searchers’ queries. For instance, if someone searches for “gel nail salon near me” and you offer those services, your salon will come up in the results.
2. Consistent Brand Marketing
Marketing your brand online should be an extension of your brand marketing offline. If your website content matches the style and expertise that clients experience in the salon, it adds credibility to your authority in your field. Existing clients will recognize your website because they already know your brick-and-mortar salon. Consistent branding online and offline builds trust with your clientele.
3. Content Marketing
As you add new content on your website or create unique landing pages to drive traffic to your website, you can offer more in-depth content about your hair and nail salon. This can start with a “frequently asked questions” page, and also include images and videos displaying your work. For salons, before-and after-images can draw a lot of interest. Other content marketing ideas can be:
- How-to videos
- Stylist bios
- Benefits of various services
- User-generated content like reviews
- Blog posts
- Event listings
4. Social Media Marketing
Social media websites are a great way to market your salon because they are interactive. If you post an image of your latest haircut (with the customer’s permission), you can get feedback and other comments from followers on that site. You can post short videos of your stylists at work to drive engagement with existing clients and clients-to-be. Salons can offer a lot of interesting and fun image and video posts which your followers will love, comment, and share. This is a terrific way to get referrals and new business.
While you do want to keep your salon’s social media accounts professional, you can still have fun with it. Post seasonal videos or funny things that happen at work to get people interested in learning more about your salon. Spend your time on social media sites where you can find your ideal customers. You can ask your current customers where they spend their time online, and start with one of those sites, including:
- TikTok
- YouTube
- Any social site that is popular with clients
Make sure the website allows links to your website, and to upload videos. Videos are extremely popular with people of all ages as long as they are short.
5. Email Marketing
In the old days, if a beauty salon had a promotion or discount, they would print out flyers and call their regular clients to let them know. Using email marketing, you can do the same more efficiently.
Sending out an email newsletter reminds your clients that you are there, and updates them on new services, personnel, or special sales. You can link to new products and other website content, and generate new business during slow times. But you don’t want clients to get annoyed by your emails, so send them out at reasonable periods of time, like monthly or quarterly, or when you have a special sale.
Also read: Search Engine Optimization for Beginners – What do You Need to Know?
