The two biggest needs we hear from salons all the time is that they need more staff and more clients. As a salon owner or independent stylist, you need to find creative ways to stimulate your business. Lucky, with the digital world at our fingertips, it’s easier, faster and less expensive than ever before to get new clients in your salon. As your salon digital marketing resource, we’re going to share with you some strategies and ideas to grow your salon’s clientele.
There are obviously lots of promotions you can run to try and attract new clients, and we encourage you to check out our article about the best salon retail and service promotions that actually work. In this article, we will focus on the different techniques that you should be focusing on to increase the number of new clients visiting your salon.
1. Online Reviews:
One of the best ways to get new clients is through your existing clients.
Naturally that means that lots of positive online reviews are critical. You can see our full
article about the importance of online reviews for salons and spas. Make sure that you
have a steady flow of new reviews on your Google, Facebook and Yelp pages. The best
way to do this is to automate a message that goes to every client after their visit to
thank them and to ask for a review, with a link directly to the review site you are trying
to build. This messaging feature is available as part of our popular salon loyalty app.
2. Referral Program:
Your salon should have a consistent referral program in place to
incentivize existing clients to refer their friends, family and colleagues to you. A
standard $20 coupon to the new client and a $20 credit to the existing client is the most
proven program out there.
Traditionally, salons would use referral cards/coupons, but nowadays so many referrals
are happening digitally that you need to make it easy for your clients to share the love of their hair or other beauty services online. How? Make sure you are offering your clients a photo shoot experience as part of their visit. Send your client 1 or 2 of the best photos and ask them to tag you in their social media post. Then simply tell them that if any of their social media followers come to see you as a result of seeing that post, you will give that new guest $20 off as well as your existing client who tagged you on their social media. This is a very easy incentive to get you visibility with hundreds of potential new clients in a matter of seconds! Much more effective than the old 1-to-1 referral card technique!
3. Have a new client offer:
Your salon should also have a standard new client offer. A good starting point might be 20% or 25% off your 1 st visit. You can also target it to specific services as well such as a cut & color. You can also target it to specific days of the week only and to specific service providers (more junior service providers who are trying to build their clientele). It gives you an attractive offer to use when running marketing/promotion campaigns for your salon.
4. Facebook / Instagram / Google Ads:
The fastest way to get your salon in front of new potential clients is through digital ads. You can advertise your ‘New Client Offer’. One of the best aspects of online ads is that you can be very precise with your targeting and you can measure results very easily. If you’re new to online ads for salons, you can check out our Facebook Ads Starter Guide for Salons. And especially for salons that either don’t have the time or aren’t that comfortable with how to properly set up and manage online ad campaigns, Salon S.O.S. is now offering a unique service to manage this for you and generate a consistent stream of high quality, local clients interested in your services! Contact us for details.
Most of what we are talking about here is external marketing – efforts done to attract new clients that don’t know your salon yet. It’s important to emphasize though that internal marketing is a first step that is even more important. Internal marketing means having a strong customer retention program that includes not only delivering world class customer service, but also having a rewards program in place that keeps clients loyal to you. Imagine what would happen if you didn’t have a strong internal marketing plan in place... You drive all these new clients into your salon for a 1 st time visit, but you don’t have good systems and programs in place to make sure that they keep coming back to see you. You’ve just wasted all the time, energy and money to get those new clients!! We highly encourage you to consider implementing a loyalty program in your salon. Loyalty programs are common in most industries today and it is often a consideration for consumers when choosing a new store or business to work with. So in essence, having a strong loyalty program not only helps with your existing guests, but it can be a great tool to attract new clients as well!
Check out our article about why you should launch a salon or spa loyalty program . You can also see specific details of our popular digital loyalty app that is helping hundreds of salons across North America grow their sales and increase client retention!
For more salon business tips, check out our full resource library here!