Building Your Business

As a new salon owner, you will want to get the business up and running as soon as possible to start earning some revenue and to begin paying off debts.

A satisfied customer is absolutely the best advertising you can have. Satisfied and happy clients will bring you more business as they talk about their experience in your salon. You must strive to make all customers happy.

A satisfied client is the very best form of advertising because she will  refer your salon to friends and family. So, make your clients happy, then, develop a referral program in which both the referring client and the new client reap some sort of reward.

Advertising includes all activities that promote the salon favorably. In order to create a desire for a service or product, advertising must attract and hold the attention of readers, listeners, or viewers.

Social Media

Marketing your salon in modern times means using social media. When done right, social media can be the lifeblood that will allow your salon business to grow and prosper.

The first step is to have a plan or a goal. You need to identify what from social media, and what social media can do for your salon. Some of your goals can be:

• Get more clients to your salon.
• Build awareness of your brand and salon.
• Remain in touch with your existing customers and let them know of updates and offers.
• Get feedback and likes.

These are just a few goals, you can and should think about what your specific goals are.

There are many social media platforms that can benefit your business. Staying focused on one of these platforms at a time will provide you with the best results instead of going after all of them at the same time.

Once you have mastered one platform and it is working for you, bringing you new clients, and you believe that you only need to keep updating what you have built, then you can tackle another platform.

But, which one should you go after first?

According to Shopify this are currently the most popular social media platforms.

Facebook is the first social media platform you should have a presence on due to its popularity and size

Facebook is the largest social media platform, and is probably the most effective tool to bring in more customers. This platform should be your first one as you embark on social media marketing. A Facebook Business Page can also be a helpful tool for connecting with your current clients between their appointments. This is an ideal place to post promotions, promote limited quantities of products to create demand.

With a Facebook Business Page, you can post a “Featured Stylist” each week listing something that sets them apart from the rest. You can also ask clients to tag their friends for incentives and encourage clients “check-in” while getting a service in the salon.

Once your Facebook page is in order and you are bringing in new business, the next step in this platform is the use of Facebook Ads. Remember that when people see an ad they think of it as an interruption, which is why you’ll need to have some type of offer in place to get their attention in order for people to drop what they were doing and book your services.

Facebook Ads allows you to run very targeted campaigns, and you can get started with as little as $10.00.

You should also use Facebook to share posts with loyal clients, invite them for events, promotions, or specials that will be seen by their own Facebook friends.

Instagram, owned by Facebook (Now Meta) will let you reach younger audiences than Facebook, making it your second social media platform.

Instagram is a visual industry social media platform that can be very important to your success. Because it is a visual platform, it is a great place to post “Before and After” photographs, certainly after getting your clients permission to post them.

Instagram is owned by Facebook, but the platforms are very different. An interesting fact is that Instagram has a younger audience than Facebook, which gives you a new platform to reach new potential clients.

Instagram works off a very simple premise, you follow accounts that interest you, and in turn other people follow you. Customers and other people can “like” your posts and comments, and you can do the same to other people’s comments.

For Instagram, the first step is to get some of your customers to follow you, or more likely, to follow your salon. Once you have followers, if you like a photo, it will visible to anyone who can see the post. Your followers may also see your username below a photo you’ve liked, creating potentially new followers, who can become new customers.

Other Platforms

After the two platforms above, you will need to do your homework to decide which other platforms work best for you. Among your options are:

• Bangstyle: The only social media platform dedicated solely to the art of hairdressing and the stylists that create the looks.
• Yelp: The top search engine for businesses. This is a great platform, working via word-of-mouth and peer reviews, but you have to be careful, as negative reviews can damage a business’ reputatoin.
• LinkedIn: It functions like a professional version of Facebook, it has pages dedicated to Salons, or to Beauty Industry.
• Snapchat: This platform will be your best bet when you are traying to attract a younger clientele.
• Nextdoor: This is a neighborhood and local businesses platform. It is used to stay in touch about events going on around your area. Although strictly peer-based, this is the perfect place to incentivize your clients for positive reviews seen by individuals in the same area.