Marketing 101 for Hairstylists – [5 SIMPLE SALON MARKETING TIPS FOR HAIRSTYLISTS AND YOUR BEAUTY BIZ]
In my last episode, I talked about 5 easy ways to elevate your beauty biz but in this episode, I’m going to dive into one of the topics I covered: marketing! Specifically, salon marketing tips for hairstylists.
So what is marketing anyway?
Marketing is what you say and how you say it when you want to explain how awesome your service or product is and WHY people should get a service from you or buy something from your business.
Marketing can come in many forms like an ad, brochure, press release, Facebook page, or Instagram post. But I’m going to be diving in a little deeper than just flyers and an Instagram post.
Learning how to market your salon and building your hair clientele can seem like a daunting task. If you are new to marketing, I find that most people don’t understand the difference between branding and marketing.
So what is the definition of marketing and branding anyway?
I found this awesome image on the internet that spells out what marketing vs branding is.
Marketing a salon or your small beauty business is all about getting the word out, and with some smart salon marketing tips and business strategies, you can turn the process into something that just naturally happens and something that doesn’t cut into the day-to-day of your salon. Not to mention that the strategies I’m going to share with you today won’t burn a hole in your pocket.
Here are straightforward salon marketing tips for hairstylists:
that includes everything you need to get started driving new clients to your salon‚ without costing you a pretty penny.
1. Know Your Salon Target Market
Knowing your customer is key! Your target market are the people who are most likely to be interested in your products, or services. They are likely united by some common characteristics, like demographics and behaviors. You can find out who your target market by doing a little research with your current business and businesses who are your direct competitors.
This is important because these are the people who are going to recommend you to their friends and word of mouth is always the best form of marketing.
Start with Looking at your current customer base, Check out your competition, and Analyze your product & services you offer. You can even create a customer persona which is an imaginary representation of a brand’s ideal customer. Think pinterest here. Pinterest knows exactly who you are, so create a persona on there. You’ll know exactly who your customer is.
You want to include as many details about your ideal client like their name, age, gender, income, location, just get as detailed as possible. Building a customer persona helps you visualize your potential customers and how to market to them. When you get the idea about what your client wants and likes, you can start marketing and create content for your beauty biz.
2. Know What Salon or Biz Culture You are Trying to Create
This is your mission statement, the first impression of your beauty business, and it is the core of what your business is. Not to be confused with branding because your mission statement is what you are telling your potential client. In your mission statement, you want to identify 3 things: your target audience, your product or service, and what makes the product or service unique, or basically, why should a client buy from you.
Now if you have a mission statement already, I suggest taking a peak at it again. Businesses change all the time and sometimes your service offers change or maybe your target audience starts to shift. Take your mission statement seriously because anytime you start to feel stuck on how to market your beauty biz, you can always go back to your core values for inspiration when needing to focus on your salon marketing.
Which brings me to one of the most important salon marketing tips for hairstylists:
3. Claim Google My Business for Your Salon
There are so many reasons why you need a GMB or google my business profile and honestly I could probably make a whole podcast episode on it but here are a few reasons why you need it!
Start by creating a gmail account and then you will need to verify with Google that you are the rightful owner. Once you do this, you will be amazed at how many features you can use all for free, and keep in mind Google is the largest web browser and the go to place for potential clients.
In a nutshell, Google my business showcases your businesses best features and makes it easy for clients to discover you, learn about your services, and how to contact your business. There is even an option for clients to rate your business and google loves businesses that love to use google. Ahem, bumping you up to the top, past your competition.
4. Encourage Honest Salon Reviews!
The best salon marketing tips for hairstylists is get your clients talking! Sure, word of of mouth is best but get them to write a review to reach the people they don’t know.
You may be wondering if reviews even help your business… YES! Reviews help your business grow and most of the time you need to ask for them. It’s really rare that you did some bomb ass hair and that client is laying on the couch thinking to herself, “I should go on yelp or google right now and write a review.” Believe me, it rarely happens.
So try this: Ask your client as she is getting her hair done to write a review. She is already staring at her phone, probably surfing instagram or tiktok, so she is pretty much not doing anything important. Kindly tell your client that you are trying to grow your business and online presence. An easy way for her to support your business is by leaving a review. This is also an opportune time to inform them about a referral program you may offer like “refer a new client to me and get a free deep conditioning treatment.”
5. Create a Website for Your Hair Biz
I know I mentioned this in the last episode but here I say it again. You need a website.
This is the perfect place for you to tell the world who you are, what you do, and who you it to. And guess what? Google likes websites too! Make sure you have an easy to use site that displays your mission statement, location, services, pricing, salon policies, hair gallery, and information on how they can contact you. Once you get a site started you can learn about SEO or search engine optimization to bump your site up higher on google. And if you don’t have a site just yet, make sure you utilize social channels like yelp, instagram, and facebook to gain visibility.
Listen to the full episode on Marketing 101 for Hairstylists – [5 SIMPLE SALON MARKETING TIPS FOR HAIRSTYLISTS AND YOUR BEAUTY BIZ]
I hope you found my podcast helpful! I also have lots of FREE education here on my website as well as YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok. You will also find education specific to your niche and tools you can use for your business.
Support the Show
Support the HairB&B Podcast and help me continue to grow. Your contribution will allow me to create more content for YOU 🌸
Make sure to subscribe to the show in iTunes, or Stitcher and other streaming platforms. If you found value in this show I’d appreciate a rating on iTunes or simply tell a friend about the show to listen in! See what I did there, I asked you for a review. So go do it right now!
Be ready to simplify your hair, beauty, and business goals on HairB&B. Cheers!
Check out the first episode on YouTube!
