The Complete Salon Digital Marketing Guide for Hair, Beauty, and Nail Salons
You only have 8 seconds to grab someone’s attention online. How would you use those 8 seconds?
For many businesses, that’s where the sales pitch starts. But what should you really be doing during those 8 seconds? The answer isn’t that easy.
In fact, modern digital marketing requires more than a formulaic approach—it requires a deep understanding of your industry, its customers, what they expect when they engage with a business like yours, and mastery over the channels they want to engage with you on.
It’s no secret most salons know they need digital marketing today. The real challenge is where to start.
In this guide, we’re going to walk you through what it takes to make the most out of those first 8 seconds, so you can build awareness, inform customers, and turn more leads into conversions for your business.
Getting Started: Find an Industry-Focused Marketing Partner
Finding an experienced marketing agency isn’t challenging. The real challenge is finding an agency that understands salon digital marketing. After all, do you really trust the brand you’ve worked to build to an unknown freelancer on Fiverr? And even if you do find an experienced professional, how much do you expect to pay?
And, if you try to do it all yourself, do you really know what kind of content to create for your Facebook or Instagram posts? How do you grab the attention of those in need of a new hairdo and distinguish yourself from the other spa across town? Plus, do you have the time it requires to create, promote, and engage with your customers?
To drum up more buzz for your barbershop or hair dresser, we need to talk about social media marketing in the context of salons. Sure, you already have a website, a Google My Business profile, and a Facebook page. But do you really know how to optimize them? Good news: you don’t have to be a professional at online marketing now to succeed. Read on to find out more.
Why Digital Marketing Is Important for Beauty Salons?
Today, the average consumer searches for a business online. In fact, when it comes to social media, there are over 3.78 billion people, or almost half of the worldwide population, registered on sites like Facebook and Instagram.
What does that mean if you’re running a hair salon, barber shop, or any other related business? It means there are thousands of potential customers near you, and it’d be insane to miss out on such a large opportunity.
Successfully marketing a business today means leveraging omnichannel digital marketing strategies to reach your customers wherever they are, whether that’s on Facebook, popular marketplaces, or through your website. You need to use all social channels available to you to boost your online visibility among search engines and consequently your target audience.
Digital Marketing Services For Hair, Nail, and Beauty Salons
Take a look at your phone right now and look at how many social media apps you have installed. If you’re like most people, you have multiple sites and apps you visit daily. Likewise, you need to focus on multiple aspects of digital marketing beyond just Facebook, for example. Building brand awareness for your salon is all about covering various fields like:
- Your website
- Social media accounts
- Local SEO
- Reputation management
- Paid advertising
Read on to learn more about how each of these channels affects your business, as well as useful tips and best practices to follow.
Website
What would you put in a street-facing display window for your physical business? Probably some examples of hair care products, pictures of popular hairstyles, and various other things that grab the attention of passers-by.
In a similar vein, the website is your digital storefront for describing your services, posting engaging content and videos, and generally encouraging site traffic to interact with your business.
New clients will ultimately get their first impressions from the website, so it’s key to showcase your services in an accessible and easily navigable way. Include information like:
- The exact types of services you offer and the prices: Having this information up on your site publicly will cut down on the number of calls you receive from inquiring customers, saving your staff time to work on the actual hairdressing services.
- An online shop of the hair care products you offer: If there’s anything we’ve learned from the quarantine, it’s that having more than one stream of revenue is never a bad thing. Hair salons should look into selling home kits for self-care.
- A blog containing useful beauty tips and hairdressing advice: Some businesses include blogs to share photos and value-added content to potential clients. A blog also shows your audience and the search engine that your salon business is still lively and active.
- Important contact information like an address and phone number: You also want to update your in-store hours and even have an appointment system in place. Nothing is more frustrating than driving all the way to the salon only for it to be closed unexpectedly.
As we’ll talk about later, a website is also a perfect place to begin your search engine optimization efforts. Take advantage of local Google search traffic this way. Whenever someone nearby searches for spas or hairdressers in your area, you will be near the top of the list!
Social Media
People want to go to a salon with personality and passion. Use social media posts to show off the quality and attention you put into your work. Post pictures on a regular basis since they’re especially important in the beauty industry. For example:
- Spontaneous photos from your stylists during a fun day at the salon
- Reposts of photos taken by customers (with permission, of course)
- Creative ads with a casual, non-corporate tone
- Interactive content that shows your brand’s personality
Remember, potential customers approach your business from all different stages of the buyer’s journey, whether they are just learning about you, looking for service-specific information, or ready to convert. It’s important to take advantage of social media marketing to give them the information they need. Attract visitors and turn them into customers through various platforms like Facebook and Instagram this way.
Local SEO
Small businesses have a lot to gain from advertising locally. Wouldn’t you be more comfortable visiting a local service that belongs to your very community? Local-based marketing and search engine optimization encourages nearby customers to find your salon, and it can happen in a few ways:
- By using local keywords, such as the name of your city or region, as part of your Facebook posts and Tweets.
- Starting a hashtag with a descriptive location. #ChicagoSalons might be worth adding to your next Instagram post, for example.
- Local-targeted ads on Google search, Instagram, and other platforms. These advertisements show up to nearby customers and are surprisingly affordable.
Since new customers of salons and hairdressers need to physically visit the location, locally-focused SEO targets exactly the audience most likely to engage with you.
Reputation Management
It’s every business owner’s dream to have a lineup of customers outside the store enthusiastically cheering for the grand opening and getting the attention of passers-by. We’re not saying that you need a crowd like that, but you can get almost the digital equivalent if you promote online reviews.
Customer reviews on places like Google My Business and Yelp give you extra credibility and help boost your ability to attract new customers. Even the negative ones can actually help you out if you respond to them properly, as they’re a chance to show that you care about the well-being of your clientele.
Did you know that nearly 9 out of 10 online shoppers look to reviews as part of their decision-making? It’s clear that reviews are a large part of your online reputation, so don’t be afraid to ask your current customers to provide more reviews and feedback online as well.
Paid Advertising
Whether you’re going for Instagram ads or Facebook ads, social media advertising unlocks a world of possibilities. These posts are location-specific and often demographic-focused as well, maximizing your chance of reaching the types of people most interested in a salon makeover. Combine your ads with flash sales and discounts to maximize your chances of success.
Don’t forget that advertisements rely on the landing pages they lead to. Have the right page on your website linked when users click on an ad to give them the “VIP treatment” so to speak.
4 Digital Marketing Tips to Grow Your Beauty Business Online
All of this might sound technical, but the truth is that gaining new clients online through digital marketing isn’t too much of a challenge if you have a solid plan in mind. These tips will help you hit the ground running.
- Make a plan
- Make a schedule
- Invest time regularly
- Get help
Make a Plan
There’s a concept in corporate advertising called the marketing funnel. When you have interested visitors who might become customers, the process you go through includes:
- Making them aware of your services.
- Boosting their interest.
- Evaluating their specific needs and preferences.
- Taking action using this information to push for the sale.
Doing these steps means that you can’t just stick to Facebook only. Appeal to multiple marketing channels, social media sites, and device types to get the most out of your efforts.
Make a Schedule
Social media is all about consistent interactions with potential customers. After all, you want to show everyone that you’re an active salon willing to engage with the community. A schedule helps you maintain your momentum with your audience.
Tools like Facebook’s post scheduler and other analogous tools for sites like Instagram can help in this regard if you don’t have someone online 24/7. Try to post during the daylight hours, on weekends, or any other time your target audience is most likely to be online browsing.
Invest Time Regularly
Don’t make this a one-time effort. A hair salon, for instance, can offer loyalty programs for repeated customers, give discounts to encourage referrals from friends, promote with advertisements and online reviews, post casual pictures during a fun day at the spa on Instagram, or start hashtags for local sales.
In other words, there are so many tactics and tricks to try out. Experiment with what works and regularly invest time into digital marketing.
Get Help
Take a lesson your teachers gave you in elementary school: don’t be afraid to ask for help. Online marketing might not “click” for everybody, so that’s why digital marketing services now exist specifically to help all kinds of small businesses (including the beauty salon) to get the results they need. Remember, doing digital marketing the “right way” takes time, and that’s time you may not always have.
Get everybody excited about a new makeover, haircut, or salon treatment at your location with the help of an agency. But don’t just choose any business; later we’ll talk about the importance of choosing one for the salon industry specifically.
Salon Digital Marketing Frequently Asked Questions
How Can I Promote My Salon on Social Media?
Once you have a completed profile on Instagram, Facebook, or your platform of choice, the next step is to provide useful content to your target demographic. Offer promotions, pictures or videos of your services, and locally-targeted ads. Use a fun and casual tone to appear relatable.
How Do I Promote My Hair Salon Online?
Salons are very much local businesses. The people living closest to you are the ones most likely to come visit when they need a haircut or treatment. That’s why local SEO and regional efforts are what we recommend you focus on.
Why Should a Salon Go Digital?
It’s no secret that nearly everyone uses social media nowadays, with more people making new accounts every day. It should be a no-brainer why setting up a website and a social media account are so important to get to the clients you desire.
What Is the Best Social Media For Salons?
Facebook is an excellent starting point, considering it’s one of the most popular and active platforms available. If you target a younger demographic, Instagram might be another excellent choice. It’s also a photograph-heavy site, making it the perfect place to show off your recent haircuts and treatments online.
Ready To Boost the Online Presence of Your Salon?
That’s the gist of it! Digital marketing for salons means focusing not only on your website but also your social media accounts. Look for paid, local advertising and encourage reviews from current clients. Get everyone in your community excited about your services, and you’ll be in great shape.
Hope you don’t mind if we end on a shameless plug. We’re Social Wonder, a marketing agency focused specifically on small businesses in the beauty salon and wellness industries. Why does that matter? Since we know the specific ins and outs of the salon industry, we can give you focused service with very competitive pricing that general agencies can’t offer.
Are you looking for a marketing partner that understands the ins and outs of your business? Get in touch with Social Wonder today to get started.