It’ll be the end of the year before you know it and you’re going to be busy. It’s going to be hard to put time aside to think up some fresh marketing ideas that will bring clients through your salon door. So we’re going to give you six of our best salon marketing ideas! That means you can cut straight to the fun part and start putting them into action and be able to avoid last minute marketing panic with quiet days or weeks. Last minute marketing campaigns usually result in poorly thought-out promotions costing time and money for zero return, so we hope we can stop that happening.
While seasons and public holidays are generally at the heart of a salon marketing calendar, we’ve decided to give you ideas that could work year round. When done right, salon promotions will generate a steady flow of clients over the year, and your salon will remain “top of mind.”
Partner up with local businesses
Partnerships are good for business. Big businesses have always known this – like Nike making shoes that talk to your iPhone. Partnerships can work just as well for small businesses. Who could be a good fit with your salon? What service is a natural add on to yours? It could be as simple knowing local wedding planners and nail bars and building a joint offer for brides.
Celebrate client birthdays
Birthdays are meant to be celebrated! As a small business owner or manager, it’s important to keep your clients engaged while providing them with an incentive to visit your salon, or at the very least, have some ‘good feelings’ about your business. Here’s two ideas worth celebrating:
Using salon software it’s easy to automate the sending of birthday emails or texts to clients. Include messaging about a free gift that will get them back in the chair and let them know you care.
Setting up Facebook ads is easy, and powerful. Did you know you can run a Facebook ad that specifically targets users whose Birthday is within one week? It’s the perfect time to remind them of your birthday specials.
Follow up with lapsed clients
All is not lost. You can win people back. You’ve just got to let them know you’re still there, and what they’re missing out on. Run a report on those clients you haven’t seen in the last 6 months. Send out a one-off email campaign promoting all the great things that have changed in your salon, including new staff, styles, and specials. Make the message personal, friendly and understanding.
Start a client referral program
Referral programs work – we’ve seen some great examples. But we’ve also seen some that don’t quite hit the mark. There are a few things to keep in mind before you kick off your referral marketing program, so yours is a winning one:
It’s got to be a team effort, so make sure you explain the benefits and details. A referral program will bring in new clients who will be requesting specific staff members – it’s a great testament to their work.
Both the referrer and referee need to get something out of it. Whether it’s $15 off the next service or a free treatment, make it compelling enough for both sides to take action.
All promotional materials should be on brand – first impressions count.
Good things take time. You’re not going to see success from the get go, but you can be almost certain that the referred clients are going to want to stick around.
Reduce your revisit period
The regularity of your client visit rate has a huge impact on how busy your appointment book looks overall. Just a small improvement will make a substantial impact on the success of your business. Once you’re familiar with your average client visit rate (the average number of times per year a client returns for an appointment) you’ll start to have an idea of the ‘golden’ visit rate your salon should shoot for. Let’s say you decide you’d like your clients to see you, on average, every seven weeks. Open your appointment book to seven weeks ago from today and look at all the clients on that page. How many have come back or rebooked? Hopefully all of them! But if not, sending an email or text message reminder to your clients that haven’t come in for a while is a gentle way to stay in mind and remind them to book.
Grow retail sales
A fantastic way to boost retail sales is to throw a product party – especially if you’ve got some exciting new products in store. Invite your staff and their clients to an after hours get together at the salon, and throw a little cocktail hour and talk through some of your best retail products. Make sure there’s something in it for them too. It’s simple to put together gift bags with product samples without spending too much. Going forward your clients will be more likely to purchase the products you’ve demonstrated, increasing average spend!
