A simple 3 step formula to grow your salon clientele
Even with being a marketing professional, and having worked in marketing for 10 years (and it being what I’ve built my whole business around) I still get overwhelmed with all the marketing “to-do’s” and the long list of things I feel like I “should” be doing for my business. I often feel like I can’t find the time or energy to do everything.
And the thing is, I have an online business! I’m always at my computer, so these things should be “easy” for me. But what about for brick and mortar businesses like yours? I you have a salon, spa, suite, studio, and you’re on your feet all day, with only a few hours in the evening or weekend to do all that marketing stuff, it can be very tough
When it comes to growing our businesses, and doing all this marketing stuff, the word that comes to mind is often “Overwhelming”. And I promise, it’s not just you that feels that. I’m suffering from business overwhelm too right now, even though this is my profession.
2020 has been a tough year, and I think many of us are feeling tired, discouraged, and lacking motivation. That’s kind of where I’m at right now. We feel like things are slipping backward, and we worry that maybe we’re not good enough as business owners. We wonder if it’s just us that feel like we’re never doing enough, or getting far enough ahead.
It’s not just you, I promise.
And while I can’t solve every single business problem, what I am pretty darn good at is online marketing. You know, the thing that helps to attract clients to you and scale your revenue?
So if I can help simplify the online marketing part of your salon, and take out some of the overwhelm, I will try. And in doing so, this is also a kind of message to myself: Stephanie, you don’t have to do it all. There’s strength in simplicity.
Today, I want to share with you a simple 3 step formula to grow your clientele. It’s all about attracting, converting, and nurturing. There are a million different ways to do it, and in this guide I want to help you choose the ways that work best for you. We all have our own strengths, and we simply cannot be everywhere and do everything in business. So don’t take this list as a big “to do” that just adds more stress. Instead, pick and choose a few things that feel right to you while helping to grow your business.
Let’s dig into my 3 step system to grow your salon clientele!
Step One: Attracting clients. Find your business’ “Magic Client Magnet”
One of the biggest, most important parts of marketing is client attraction: How to find clients, how to get discovered, and how to make a name in your city.
This is probably where you focus a lot of your energy on for marketing. And sometimes it feels like there is just way much to do: Websites, Google, Yelp, Social Media, Ads, Email, Lead Magnets, Funnels. So much stuff!
Take a deep breath and repeat after me: I don’t have to do everything. I just need to find what works for me and double down on it.
What might work really well for one salon when it comes to attracting clients, might not be the solution for you! And that’s okay. I want to give you a few easy options that I know can work great for client attraction, and decide on one or two of them that you want to work on. Then, if it works well, keep going with it.
Option #1: Getting found on Google and Google My Business
I personally get about 200 visitors to my website each day from Google. People are searching for things like “salon marketing ideas” or “hairdresser Instagram posts” and they find my website. They find my blog posts, read a bit about me, find out about my business, and many of them join my email list too. Long term, many of these people will stay on my email list for years, developing a stronger relationship with me and eventually buying something from me and becoming a customer.
What if you had hundreds of potential clients finding your business every day on Google? From searching things like “hair stylists near me” or “best facials in Boston”? Hundreds of people are searching for beauty businesses in your city each day. What if they could find you?
Working on the SEO (search engine optimization) side of your business is a free strategy that can bring so many people through your doors every month.
And the great thing is, you actually have a lot of control over where your business shows up on Google! Here are some of my best resources to grow your salon’s presence on search.
SEO for salons: 24 ways to get to the top of Google
5 easy “hacks” to get your salon found on Google
How to use Google My Business to attract more salon clients
Your salon clients are doing their research before booking with you
Option #2: Double down on your Instagram
What if you love Instagram instead? What if you’re more of a social butterfly and spend lots of time on the Gram? Then use this as your biggest client-attraction strategy. Like I said before, there is no “right” way to do marketing and bring clients to you. Whatever you gravitate towards the most, is probably the answer for you.
But if you’re going to double down on Instagram, you want to do it right!
First of all, if you’re just getting started with Instagram for your salon, you’ll want to “check off” all the boxes and make sure you’ve got your profile optimized to attract bookings. Check out my Getting Started With Instagram guide here:
Instagram for salons 101: Everything you need to know to set up and grow your account
Next, it’s all about what content to post to not only show off the beauty services you do, but also share your own knowledge and experience with your followers. Creating posts that lead clients to learn more about you and your services is key. Here’s my content calendar that’s going to make posting so easy!
Free eBook: One Month of Salon Instagram Posts
Next, if you want to get found by new clients on Instagram, you’ll 100% want to make sure you’re using the right hashtags. The hashtags that work for you are probably different from other beauty businesses out there. Here’s a guide on how to find the perfect hashtags for client attraction:
The ultimate guide to Instagram hashtags for salons
And finally… Instagram Stories! They’re the fastest growing place where your followers and spending time… and you can’t ignore them if you want to use Instagram to its full potential in your beauty business! Here’s a guide to what to post in your salon’s Instagram Stories: https://sunnystorm.marketing/blog/instagram-stories-beauty-business
Option #3: Grow your personal brand as a beauty professional
The third ultra-powerful way of attracting clients to your business is through growing your personal brand as a beauty professional. But what exactly is a “personal brand”? And why is it so important?
As opposed to making the focus of your business just your salon, your personal brand puts the focus on you. When you build your personal brand, you promote yourself as an expert, as the local “go to” girl, and make a name for yourself in your town.
It’s such a powerful way to attract clients, because they’re not deciding to visit you based on your pricing or your portfolio of work, they want to work with YOU. They’re attracted to your personality and unparalleled experience. Here are some resources to start building up that brand of yours.
First of all, if you like the idea of creating a personal brand that attracts ideal clients, check out my guide here, where you’ll get a real clear idea on building up your reputation.
Personal branding 101 for beauty professionals
Next, there are a few incredible ways to start growing your personal brand. I share them here:
3 powerful ways to build your personal brand as a beauty-preneur
Okay we started with the basics, and now you know three ways to start attracting clients to your business, so they can discover you, learn more about you, and eventually book an appointment with you.
Did you decide what your number one client-attraction strategy is going to be? Remember, start with focussing on just one of these strategies. Of course, in a perfect world we would be doing all of the things, but instead of getting overwhelmed, I’ve decided to focus my efforts on the things that come most naturally to me, and it’s okay if my marketing looks different from others. Each business is unique!
The main point is, you do need a strategy to consistently attract clients to you. So figure out which of these you’ll work on, or if you’ve got your own that’s not on this list, that’s great too!
Step Two: Converting Clients. How to actually get bookings.
Now that you’ve decided how you’ll be consistently attracting leads, let’s talk about ways that get clients booking with you.
If you’re ready to bring in clients ASAP, I’ve got a few really great ideas for you. Again, you do'n’t need to and shouldn’t work on all of these at once. Figure out which strategy sounds best to you, and which one you think clients would appreciate most, and do that!
Here are my favourite client-converting strategies for your salon or spa.
Option #1: Facebook and Instagram Ads
It’s no surprise that I love Facebook and Instagram ads so much. I personally spend tens of thousands of dollars on them each year, and I have an online course where I teach beauty business owners how to do them as well.
The awesome thing about Facebook ads is that you only have to invest a tiny bit of money in them, and they can pay off big time. Imagine spending $30 in one week, having 5 new clients find you through your ad, and making $800 in revenue from these appointments. Talk about an insane return on investment!
If you’ve tried boosting posts before on Facebook or Instagram, but you’ve been disappointed, you’re not alone. Unfortunately we don’t get much instruction from these apps about how to make a high-converting ad. That’s where I’d love to help you! I wrote an ebook sharing my experience working with hundreds of beauty businesses on their Facebook ads, and I want to share the secrets to making them work! Click below to grab my eBook:
Option #2: Google Ads
Even if your website doesn’t show up on the first page of Google or Google Maps, it doesn’t mean that you can’t have clients find you every single day through search. Google Ads can help.
Google Ads are those sponsored ads that you see at the top when you search on Google. Imagine if you could make sure to show up first any time someone in your city searches “Best hair salons nearby” or “Nail salons in my city”. It’s totally doable!
I especially recommend Google Ads if your services are higher-priced and clients tend to do quite a bit of research online before deciding where to go, for example, hair extensions or microblading.
If you’ve been thinking about Google Ads and want to make sure that you show up on search, to convert more clients, here are some resources to get you started.
Google AdWords for salons: how to make $3,600 in bookings with $175 in ads
How to use Google ads to get bookings -- without wasting money
Option #3: Build a website that converts
So far I’ve shared two paid strategies to convert clients. But what if you don’t have a lot of budget? What if you’re not interested in investing money, and want a way to convert clients for free?
Oh my friend, there is so much you can do here! That’s why my third strategy is about creating a website that converts clients.
Since there are potentially hundreds of people visiting your website every day, you’ll want to make sure that your website does an amazing job of turning those visitors into paying clients. It needs to be set up to get appointments and grow your revenue.
Here are some ideas to make it happen.
First of all, get a popup on your website! I have a popup on my website and it converts 8% of my website visitors into leads and adds hundreds of email addresses to my list each month.
Here’s how you do it: Create a special promotion just for people who are on your website. You could limit it just to new clients, or you could make it for anyone who has yet to try out a specific package or treatment. This “gift card” or voucher should have a $ value; for example $10 off or $5 off. This value will depend on how expensive the treatment is of course.
Once you’ve decided on your offer, create a popup on your website with that offer.
For instructions on how to do this, check out my guide here and scroll down to #3:
Genius free advertising ideas for your salon or spa
Next, you’ll want to make sure that you website is not only fast, but beautiful.
Here are some resources to get your website looking beautiful and easy to use, so it leads clients into booking with you:
How to make your salon website branded and beautiful
How to easily create a salon website that you're proud of
Salon Website Inspiration: 9 truly great salon websites to inspire you
Step Three: Nurturing Clients. Creating relationships that last.
So far I’ve focussed mostly on introducing new clients to you and converting them into bookings and revenue. But what about afterwards? What happens to all of those clients who visit you for the first time? How many of them rebook with you?
And, even more important, what are you doing over time to build a relationship with your clients?
Here’s something I’ve learned: a social media follow is not enough to maintain a client relationship. I can’t tell you how many businesses and salons I’ve frequented where after my first visit, I never hear from them again. I usually feel like it’s up to me to get back in touch with them to book my next visit. And we don’t want our clients to feel like that, ever.
The awesome thing is, if you work at building a great client relationships, you don’t need to focus so much time and effort on building your client list, but instead focus more on what you already have. It’s the best growth strategy you can find.
Option #1: Email Marketing
Email marketing is one of those overlooked gems in marketing. So many salons are under-using it and missing out on strengthening relationships with clients. When you have strong relationships, you have a higher rebooking rate, higher client spend, more frequent appointments, and more retail sales. Email is my favourite way ever of maintaining these relationships.
When you send regular emails to your clients (I like to start with once a month), they feel like they’re part of your community, and that you genuinely care about them.
Remember, these emails shouldn’t feel salesy and promotional, they should be personal, educational, relational, and a genuine joy to read.
To get ideas about exactly what to put in your emails, and how to write emails that actually help build your business, check out my resources here:
The 6 types of emails you need to be sending to your salon clients
The ultimate guide to building your salon’s email list (and making sales from it!)
Option #2: Client education through video marketing
What if email marketing isn’t your thing? What if you’re starting from scratch and have zero email list?
You don’t have to miss out on building relationships even if that’s the case! My second marketing strategy for nurturing clients is to focus on educating your clients and followers through video marketing.
When you show up on video, whether that’s to teach a technique, or teach about products, or just to inspire your clients with your beautiful work, you’re creating relationships.
Most of the content that salons post on social media is impersonal. Lots of it is just photo after photo of their client work: hair, skin, nails, lashes, brows, makeup, etc.
Of course it’s important to post that type of content, but even more importantly, you need to share personal content that puts the spotlight on you.
And my favourite way to do that is through video marketing. If you feel like videos are “your thing” and you want to start doing more of them, here’s your strategy!
Here are some of my best resources for video marketing as a hair or beauty salon:
Why and how to use live video for your beauty business
How to make binge-worthy videos for your salon's Facebook page
Video marketing for salons: 6 apps you need for awesome Facebook and Instagram videos
Reminder: You don’t need to do “all the things” for marketing
We put so much pressure on ourselves as business owners to do “all the things” in business. And when it comes to marketing our businesses, we feel like our to-do list is infinite.
But I hope that in reading this guide, you see that the online part of marketing comes down to three main systems: Attracting clients, converting clients, and nurturing clients.
If you choose just one strategy from each of those systems, and really focus on it, you don’t have to do everything else. We each have different types of businesses, and we can each market our business in a unique way too.
The best systems are the ones that work for you. So relieve some of that pressure and remind yourself you don’t need to do it all. I hope you feel like you now have some options to run with, and you’ll choose the ones that work best for you!