How to brand your Instagram as a hairstylist
I just got back from a luxurious, totally indulgent vacation with my partner Guido in Antiga. We spent our days basking in the sun, lounging in our private pool, and eating amazing food. It was the perfect chance to "turn off" my overworked brain and, instead of focusing on showing up consistently for my audience, remembering to show up for myself and practice self-care.
Speaking of showing up - how's your journey with this lately? Do you feel the pressure to put out content on your socials like Instagram that makes you feel like you're forcing yourself to fit into a box you don’t want to be in? Or maybe you just hate posting on Insta altogether (like me!) because you stress about the amount of engagement you’ll get?
You're not alone!
I sat down to talk to Jodie Brown, who's an expert at teaching authentic branding to beauty pros on Instagram, but with a refreshing twist: with no worry whatsoever about tricking the algorithm into making you popular, or curating phony content that doesn't show the real you and your perfectly imperfect beauty brand.
Whether you're a waxer, spray tanner, nail artist, permanent makeup artist, or hairstylist, today's chat with Jodie will help you bust through your Insta-Anxiety and create a strong, consistent messaging on Instagram that illuminates the real you and your beauty brand.
How to do Instagram the RIGHT WAY
Jodie Brown has worn many hats, and they’ve all gotten her to where she is now: educator, hairstylist, creative director, and Instagram pro. She was a hairstylist for 15 years, and over the years she’s learned plenty of ways to market herself (and she’s tried them all!)
After the birth of her son, she moved to a new salon that didn’t get foot traffic, and because she was a new mom she couldn’t work evenings or weekends. In her words, she had to “make it make sense” and still make enough money, while battling against these factors.
Jodie decided to learn everything she could about marketing on Instagram because she saw the potential for hairstylists to show off their craft and unique personality on the platform.
She watched all the videos, took all the courses, and 12 months later, she had built up enough clientele to move to a different salon, and then go fully independent shortly after that. Without working weekends or evenings!
She noticed that when she started to show up authentically on Instagram, she attracted dream clients “almost intuitively”.
She turned all of her knowledge, training, and hands-on experience into a course, and now she teaches other hairstylists how to build authentic, irresistible brands on Instagram.
No tricks, just treats: the pillars of a solid beauty brand on Instagram
Jodie says she doesn’t teach her students how to ‘trick’ the Instagram algorithm or post highly curated, beautiful content that doesn’t actually reflect the personality and uniqueness of each beauty professional. She instead teaches how to “build the foundation” of the beauty brand and consistently post from that place, based on four “brand pillars”.
“So many times when people get frustrated or overwhelmed about Instagram, it’s because they’re not getting the results they want. They feel like they’re constantly having to reinvent the wheel. But actually, the less you spin that wheel and stick to the brand pillars, the better results you’ll have,” says Jodie.
So what are the four brand pillars, according to Jodie?
Ideal client: Jodie says that the first step is to figure out your ideal client avatar - the person you’d like most to have in your chair. What do they look like? What are their interests? What kind of job do they do? What’s their general aesthetic, or the type of environment they like most to hang out in? Write it all down. This is the person you’ll be “talking to” when you post on Instagram.
Values: This includes everything from choosing your retail location to the sustainability of your retail products and procedures in the salon. Do you want to be a high fashion brand, focused on trends? What’s important to you and what do you want to resonate with your audience?
Voice: This is the general tone of your captions; the way you portray yourself to your audience in what you write. Jodie says it’s very important to be authentic in your tone. For example, if you're not naturally funny, don't try to fake it. It’s important to remember that the end goal of all of these posts is that the person seeing your posts books an appointment to see you in person. “I feel like we forget this: if you spend all this time building a ‘know like trust’ factor with someone and they step into your salon and they’re shocked at what you’re really like [as opposed to how you’re showing up on Instagram,] that’s not gonna work for you.”
Visuals: Jodie advises to develop this pillar last because otherwise, you could end up with a confusing brand image that reduces bookings. It’s so important to make sure that your visuals work well with the values you’re exuding. “For example, say you’re focused on building a relaxing calm environment, but you’re a big fan of neons and build your visuals around that ...that does not compute,” says Jodie. She also mentioned that following visual trends when ‘everyone else is doing it’ comes across as inauthentic (like when boho was huge and everyone went crazy for it!)
Jodie says that when you develop these four pillars of your beauty brand, stick to them and post consistently using them, you will find that you’re attracting your ideal clients…and that translates directly to money in your bank account!
What this really means is that you don’t need to stress about how many people are interacting with or even seeing your posts, so much as if the right type of people are seeing and interacting with your posts (interacting meaning BOOKING AN APPOINTMENT!)
“The best vanity metric is money in your bank account,” says Jodie. Amen!
Consistent posts + recognizable brand = more bookings
Jodie says that trying to learn how and what to post on Instagram from influencers or other types of businesses doesn’t translate well for beauty professionals.
“So much advice out there isn’t relevant to the beauty industry.”
“Let’s say you get a post to go viral. You get a ton of engagement and followers…but they can’t tell what you’re about or what you do - they’re not gonna keep following you,” explains Jodie. And that means that you definitely won’t get their booking.
But something I’ve gone through personally, and know a lot of my students have as well, is figuring out exactly what my “recognizable brand” could be. Translating your personal values and personality into a brand can be tricky! It can be a struggle to grab at the words to define yourself - what’s Jodie's advice for this?
One of the first things Jodie goes through with her students is “pulling that out” of each person.
She says your personal traits aren’t necessarily what needs to be incorporated into your brand, but being relatable is important. “People connect with real people.”
Here’s an activity to help you brainstorm what your brand could look and sound like. Picture your ideal client. What do the two of you have in common? What could you connect on or bond over?
From that starting point, think of what type of content and captions you could write that would interest that person.
“You don't have to bear your soul on Instagram…but what can you draw from your personal experiences to build a relatable post with someone?” Jodie points out.
How to ‘show up’ authentically on Instagram to attract ideal clients
Often we’re so afraid of being judged, particularly by people we know in real life, that we don't take the risk of building an authentic brand…and then, we miss out on standing out and building a clientele that we love to serve.
What are Jodie’s tips for creating an authentic brand that feels true to who you are and attracts like-minded people to your beauty business…especially when you feel like there’s nothing particularly special about you?
Jodie totally understands that feeling, and she’s helped all of her students push through that, too.
“It’s so easy to feel like you don't have anything unique about yourself. I have a ton of exercises I do with students - but I want you to know…there’s no one else in the world that’s you. There is something about you that you can double down on,” she says.
She also points out that your brand evolves with you. We work on our personal development for our whole lives, and it’s totally acceptable (and actually really smart!) to show off that progress over time with your Instagram following. Coming across as “perfect” can be seen as fake or a turn-off for a lot of people.
“That’s not what people want to see now - people on a pedestal, being perfect. They want someone who will walk beside them,” explains Jodie.
How to create a well-nurtured, high-booking following over time (without constant posting!)
Jodie acknowledges that it does take time to build a strong following for your beauty brand…especially the type that consistently book with you instead of just ‘liking’ all your content.
Being patient and consistent is key. Jodie says that her patience and consistency paid off, sometimes in slow motion:
“I had followers for three years that finally saw one post made them book an appointment.”
“If you have people that already ‘know like trust you’, your job behind the chair is gonna be so much easier.”
There are, however, ways that you can speed up the process by creating an attractive, high-converting Instagram page.
Here are some of Jodie’s tips:
Have a solid content plan: Create a good mix of entertaining posts with education posts, as well as glowing reviews of your business. Establish yourself as the expert in your field by teaching your audience what you know. Be sure to showcase testimonials and guest experience reviews so that your followers know what they can expect when they book with you!
Be present on your page and create a strong bio: Make sure you have photos of yourself! You’re a very important part of your brand! Jodie says that as a rule, for every 6-9 photos you share, you should have one of yourself. As well, be sure to write a strong bio that reflects your experience and expertise, as well as whatever your niche is (ie. balayage, sunless tanning, bikini waxing expert, etc.) Jodie guides her students to create a strong ‘brand statement’ to put in their bio by filling out the following sentence: “I ____ for _____.” (ie. “I create low maintenance hair for busy entrepreneurs.”)
Consistent visual branding: All of your Carousels, education posts, graphics, and highlight covers should reflect your image/color palette across the board. Remember, you are solidifying your beauty professional brand with every post you make!
Stick to your niche: It’s confusing for your followers if you seem to have a certain expertise and niche, but then you post content that’s outside of that realm. If you focus on balayage, don't start posting pictures featuring wild-colored hair models suddenly.
Don’t share too much in your Highlights Reels: Your Highlights Reel can be a fun cross-section and summary of the more popular posts you’ve made over the past year, but don’t make a habit of posting too too much content in your Highlights Reel because, as Jodie says, “Most people don’t watch those all the way through. It’s not gonna get seen.”
Here’s the best news of all about curating a high-converting, attractive Instagram page for your beauty business: if you’re posting the right type of content, you don’t have to post every day!
“If you're intentional about your content, you won't have to post every day. When people land on your page, they'll see what you're about even if you're only posting twice a week,” says Jodie.
That’s great news for you, the super-busy beauty professional who’s totally running the show and doing everything all the time!
Automate your posts to save yourself time and worry
I used to avoid Instagram at all costs because I found it so stressful to create posts, publish them, and then freak out when they don’t perform.
I asked Jodie for her advice on how to battle this fear and start enjoying building a brand on Instagram…and she had great advice for me!
“Setting it and forgetting it is the most powerful tool in your arsenal.”
Jodie runs 9 social media accounts - and literally can’t do it manually. She teaches students how to put a few hours a month into scheduling posts without having to think about it every week.
When you schedule a post and then literally forget you did it, you won’t obsess over how it’s performing.
“It’s a task you check off your to-do list and then it’s done,” says Jodie.
As well, she said, a mindset shift was super helpful for her to ‘get out of her own way’ and enjoy posting on Instagram - and she teaches this mindset shift to all of her students.
“My biggest piece of advice is a mindset shift and a strategy. It’s not always about you - it’s about your client. How much are you holding back in terms of what you can offer because you're afraid of being judged? How much is it worth to you to protect yourself from being judged?”
“There’s no point in being ‘the best-kept secret’. I fully believe everyone has a unique talent that is of service to the world.”
We judge ourselves more harshly than anyone else does, in life and on Instagram. Be brave. Be real. Show up. It will be worth it when your new favorite ideal client is in your chair because they found you on Instagram and couldn’t wait to book with you!
You can find Jodie on Instagram @itsjodiebrown.
