In this article we’ll look at some tips for our salon consultancy team on how best to maximise your salon marketing potential. Whether it’s building an attractive website or revamping the outside of your salon, there are a lot of things you can do to market yourself to the wider public.

It is important, however, to spend your marketing budget wisely.

Here we take a closer look at some marketing ideas that can be easily implemented and should make a difference to footfall at your hairstylists.

  1. Find Your Influencers

Word of mouth is still the most powerful marketing tool on the planet. Influencers are people who like your hair salon and are willing to promote it for you, either to their friends and family or their social media following. They can also be people you pay to advertise your business.

Identifying these individuals and engaging with them can supercharge your marketing activity and get your brand in front of more people in a very short time.

  1. Social Media Advertising

Social media platforms like Instagram and Facebook allow you to place ads to attract new customers. You can decide how much you want to spend and define who you want to see your ads.

Done well, social media advertising can produce immediate results, especially useful if you have a promotion running. It does take some effort to get the hang of, however, and find the right approach for your business.

  1. Use an App for Your Hair Salon

More and more businesses are opting to develop their own apps. This has become a lot cheaper in recent years and has several advantages.

We all carry smartphones around with us nowadays and an app is easy to access. You can use yours to highlight services and to accept bookings, making it quicker for customers to engage with your business.

  1. Use Hashtags

People often search on social media using hashtags. Find out which words and phrases are being used in your industry and you can increase the number of people who can see your posts. Experiment with different hashtags to see which works best for your business.

  1. Increase Local Visibility

There are a variety of ways you can improve the visibility of your hair salon. Signing up for local listings like Yelp and ‘Google My Business’ can help your salon appear on the first page of search results. That means people are more likely to book an appointment.

Another relatively low cost but more traditional way to improve visibility is to create a leaflet which you can put through people’s doors.

  1. Encourage People to Leave Reviews

Reviews and testimonials are important, especially online. Most listings allow people to leave a short message highlighting their experience along with a star rating. Encourage customers to leave positive reviews about your business either on ‘GoogleMyBusiness’ or your social media feed and it will boost your reputation.

  1. Invest in Video

You might also want to start investing in video. Why? It’s the most consumed media online nowadays and can create a powerful and engaging connection to your customers.

Your videos don’t have to be long or professionally produced, you can simply use your smartphone to create a message, show what’s going on in your salon and encourage people to book an appointment.

  1. Create an Email List

Finally, email is still a powerful tool when it comes to marketing and has a good return on investment. If you can collect existing customers’ email addresses and send them a monthly newsletter it keeps them connected to your business and means they are more likely to book with you rather than a competitor nearby.