Marketing is absolutely an essential part of any business.
Your marketing strategies that you deploy can make or break your business. This is especially so in a competitive industry like the beauty and wellness industry, where there are probably thousands of salons fighting for customers on a daily basis. To ensure that you get a constant flow of customers, you need to come up with ideas and marketing plans that will make your salon stand shoulders above the rest.
As the year end festive period approaches, this is the best time for salons to get more sales, for customers will be in the mood to relax and wind down. Not to mention that the long fought out battle with the current pandemic has reduced the chances of people travelling overseas for their yearly retreat, so many will be looking to treat themselves in other ways, making it the perfect time to reach out to these groups of customers to get them to pamper themselves with luxurious treatments and spas after a year of hard work.
If you are looking for salon marketing ideas to get more sales and grow your salon this year end period, read on.
1. Work with an influencer to promote your salon
Influencer marketing has been on the rise these few years. With platforms like Instagram, Youtube and Tiktok encouraging creators to come forth, many brands have tapped into influencer marketing with great success.
With influencer marketing, you can leverage on the fame of the influencer you are working with to raise more awareness for your salon. Choosing who to work with matters a lot – you will need to choose an influencer whose image fits your brand voice, someone who would represent your brand in a great manner. For instance, for a salon business you would want to work with influencers who are into beauty, wellness as well as lifestyle, rather than an influencer who specialises in promoting sports products.
Who you work with also depends on your marketing budget, because most influencers do charge for their promotional services, mostly depending on their follower base. The cost of working with an influencer might also depend on the type of content you need them to deliver, be it an instagram post, story shoutout or a video.
2. Run A Customer Appreciation Campaign
The holidays are about giving back and showing appreciation for the people around you. This is especially so amid the pandemic, where many are constantly stressed out. It would be a good idea to use the year end period to show appreciation to your salon’s customers and followers, to thank them for their support over the past year. To do so, you can consider running a customer appreciation campaign. Here are some ways to go about doing it:
- Create user-generated content (UGC) to give customers a shout-out. You can always rope in your staff to get them to express their thanks to customers who have shown support
- Create a promotional code specially for your salon’s loyal customers and/or social media followers as a way to show appreciation for their support
- Run a giveaway on social media for followers
3. Build Your Salon’s Social Media Presence
Social media platforms are undoubtedly useful for promoting your salon. If you haven’t already, you should definitely be looking into growing your salon’s social media presence. Tap on platforms like Instagram, Facebook and Tik Tok to grow awareness for your salon and keep customers and followers in the loop about your latest offerings, promotions as well as your works. Photos and videos are a great way to showcase your team’s skills and get new clients in the door.
When it comes to social media, posting quality content frequently is key. Work with your marketing team to come up with a content calendar so that you can plan ahead as to what content you will be posting on which days.
Here are some ideas for your social media posts:
- User generated content featuring customers & staff members
- Before and after images of clients
- Testimonials by customers
- Employee of the week feature
- Current promotions that are running
- Products that you carry in your salon
- Photos of your salon interior
- Tutorial videos
4. Create And Promote A Lookbook
It is worthwhile to create a lookbook of some sort that features your work on your social media pages and websites, especially so if you run a salon that provides services like hair styling, manicure & pedicure, eyelash extensions and brow art.
Customers would be interested in knowing about the various styles that your salon offer, and the best way to showcase these styles would be via a lookbook, so that customers know exactly how the style looks like. You can think of it as creating an online portfolio for the services that you offer.
A good way to start curating your lookbook will be to take pictures of customers post service or get them to send you their photos or tag you on social media. This can help to build up social proof for your salon as well.