Top 12 Salon Marketing Tips To Expand Your Business

Salon marketing might appear to you as a complicated activity (or more like a long series of activities) but in reality, it can be one of the most creative parts of your job as a salon owner or hairstylist.

Thinking about ways to attract more clients or how to make your existing ones happy is nothing short of exciting.

Here’s a list of 12 tips to boost your salon marketing. Try a couple of these or all of them, if you’d like, and see how your business is going to thrive!

• Have a Good Website
• Have an Online Booking System
• Let People Find you Easily on Google
• Be Active on Social Media
• Use The “Book Now” Feature on Instagram
• Work with an Instagram Influencer
• Get some SEO Knowledge
• Create Online Ads
• Send Helpful Text Messages to Your Clients
• Get in your Clients Inboxes
• Teach your Receptionist how to (Up)Sell
• Remember the Old School Techniques

Photo by Cesar Saravia

1. Have a Good Website

First things first. To have all elements of your salon marketing in order, look at the basics: your website. If you want to have a platform that is your own (unlike a social media profile) and gives you space to showcase all your business information and perhaps your portfolio — you need a website.

Old school or not, people will usually start looking for a new hair salon on Google (more on this later) even if yours was a friend’s recommendation (good for you!), and your website will likely be the first where they can get the information they need.

Don’t overcomplicate your website, you can go for the minimum. Simply display your:

• • Contact information
  • Portfolio
  • Booking option (more on this next!)

2. Have an Online Booking System

We live in an age where fewer and fewer people like to get on the phone.

Make sure your business follows your customers’ needs and has an online hair appointment booking system integrated into your website.

The DaySmart Salon software is easy to set up and use, makes your salon available 24/7 and saves you the pain of double booking. Give it a try and test DaySmart Salon free for two weeks!

3. Let people Find you Easily on Google

Your hair salon should have a Google Business profile so you can appear in Google Maps, Google Search, and the related Google services with all your business information, including your website URL and your phone number where customers can reach you.

Such a simple trick. but this type of Google power can really make a difference for a business.

4. Be Active on Social Media

Google is a popular place for potential or existing customers to look you up but social media is right there in the second spot.

Make sure to have an Instagram profile to post visual content about your business and a Facebook business page with all your contact information. Bonus: your Instagram posts can be duplicated here instantly so you don’t have to spend time creating different content.

On Instagram, make sure to dive into the art of hair hashtags and the best appealing hair captions, as well.

It’s important to tap into both platforms as the target audience is a bit older on Facebook, while Instagram with its younger user base is important, as hairstyling is very easy to sell through pictures. Before and after shots are everyone’s favorites.

If you have the time and means to go the extra mile, look into using TikTok and reach out to a good portion of gen Z. TikTok videos can be 10 minutes long maximum and give you the opportunity to shine your endless creativity: get your clients to talk about their fresh hair cut or go around the salon and introduce your viewers to the products you carry.

Ask your clients to share a review of your salon after they visit and to use your salon’s branded Instagram hashtag, too. This is going to help with your visibility and acquiring new customers.

5. Use the “Book Now” feature on Instagram

If you have a business profile on Instagram, you can add the ‘Book now’ button to help customers get appointments in your salon.

There’s a limited number of providers for these action buttons and you’re in luck: DaySmart is one of them. If you are a user of our software, you can add DaySmart as your partner in the process and get that ‘Book now’ button: check the simple steps here!

6. Work with an Instagram Influencer

An influencer with a follower base that provides a good reach and is relatable for your own followers and customers can greatly spread the word about your salon.

It can be a one-time or a long-term cooperation business with your influencer and it can take up many forms:

The influencer can:

• • • Post before & after pictures about their great hair (thanks to your salon)
    • Share a series of stories, going around your salon, interviewing hairstylists and even clients about their salon experience
    • Talk about the hair product they bought in your salon that you exclusively carry
    • Participate in a social media contest of your salon where a lucky winner and the influencer both have an appointment to refresh their hair

Photo by Sawyer Bengtson

7. Get some SEO Knowledge

SEO, or search engine optimization is a powerful tool to use on your website. There are a ton of free knowledge sources to start learning about this and be assured that it is worth it.

If you learn to use the right keywords the right way on your site, you’ll increase your chances to get to the top on the first Google Search Result page.

The higher you are, the more likely users will click through your site and book an appointment in your salon versus any of your competitors in your area.

If you start blogging and utilizing your SEO knowledge, you’re going to up your game even more.

These are just the basics of the basics so make sure to start your SEO journey with a good guide.

8. Create Online Ads

The world of online advertising is massive but it can be worth it to tap your toe into it. As a starting point, you can test:

• • • Facebook ads with different goals, from promoting your Facebook page to getting more website visitors
    • Instagram ads in a post or story format
    • Google ads to boost your chances in the search results, or topically related websites to your business

The best thing about online advertising is that you don’t have to spend a fortune if you want to give it a try.

You can set a certain budget that you want to spend on an ad campaign and see what it does for you. You can choose to pay only when somebody clicks on your ad.

The opportunities are virtually unlimited so if you’re ready to set aside some of your budget for this, you might see great results coming in — more clients in your salon, potentially.

9. Send Helpful Text Messages to your Clients

There are several ways to use the power of a good old text message in your business. You can text your clients:

• • • A reminder of their upcoming appointment
    • A reminder to share their review online after their appointment
    • A list of recommended hair products after they visited your salon

With pre-made templates and good software, your text marketing will do the work for you.

The text marketing feature of the DaySmart Salon software is going to help you: Fill last-minute openings on your books. Send promotions to clients filtered by specific criteria. Send recurring or one-time blasts offering a call-to-action. Fill off-peak openings with time-sensitive deals. Increase average sales value by up-selling specific products.

10. Get in your Clients Inboxes

Email marketing is certainly not dead and must be used smartly. Besides having a website or being able to contact your clients via a call or text messages, an email database is another tool that you own and where you don’t have to rely on an external platform

(Your Instagram profile could be shut down but if you have your clients’ email addresses, you’re still able to communicate with them).

You can send out emails on several occasions:

• • • Wishing your client a happy birthday
    • Promoting your giveaways and special events
    • Introducing new products that just arrived in your salon
    • Reaching out to clients you haven’t seen in a while

With a smart salon software, you can set up automated email campaigns that run for a set time period or on a given occasion. Send out “Thank you for visiting” emails after appointments or “Happy birthday” emails to those celebrating their anniversary in the month, offering them a discount on a product on their next visit. The DaySmart Salon software offers you several email templates and easy-to-understand data reports for your email campaigns so you can learn what works best with your clients!

11. Teach Your Receptionist how to (Up)Sell

You know what they say: divide and conquer. Your receptionist is a powerful ally when it comes to customer service but also: upselling.

Make sure they ask clients about booking the next appointment as well as upselling your services and products.

It helps if they can recommend products to clients learning about their hair type or if they remind them to share a picture of their new haircut using the salon’s hashtag on Instagram. If their duties allow, the receptionist can even take the picture right there and then.

You can arrange a simple photo corner in your salon for customers to take their selfies and a sign to remind them: “Share your photo with #XXXXsalon [your salon’s name]!” — Offer to give a free product each month to one lucky winner uploading their picture. This is going to help you incentivize your customers, strengthen your relationship with them and build brand awareness at the same time.

12. Remember the Old School Techniques

There are so many marketing opportunities from the old days that you can count on in the midst of all the new and shiny techniques:

• • • Spreading your business cards around the salon and events
    • Giving out product samples
    • Offering gift cards
    • Having a ‘recommend a friend’ initiative
    • Giveaways for special events on your social media profiles, e.g. “1+1: Win a free haircut for your Mom!” or “Christmas giveaway: Win a free hair appointment to stand pretty under that mistletoe!”

Salon Marketing: Smart and Easy

The DaySmart Salon software will let you try a handful of these marketing tips for free for up to two weeks.

With DaySmart, from having an online booking system to sending out automated emails and text messages, your salon marketing can live a life on its own — under your orders but without you looking over everything 24/7.

If that sounds good, make sure to register for free and see how you can boost your salon marketing and expand your business!