marketing

Marketing for Your Salon: Are You Doing Enough?

marketing

For any business, big or small, marketing plays a vital part in acquisition and retention.

This is especially true for salons, as marketing and referrals are the two main factors that keep the business up and running.

Consider this scenario: You’re a newly opened salon with very talented stylists, wonderful decor, and great ambiance. A client comes in for a haircut and leaves very pleased with the results. Once home, they take a picture and post it on Instagram for their followers to see. The photo gets highly praised and people want to know where they got that haircut. Unfortunately, the pleased client has nowhere to refer the eager potential clients to, and your salon misses out on a tremendous business boost.

In this day and age when word-of-mouth can only get you so far, there are other methods of marketing that should be adopted in order to keep the business alive. Word-of-mouth is a method that salons still rely on to a great extent. However, what used to be done face-to-face in the past, is now impractical today.

Below are three common marketing mistakes salons make; with the individual solutions.

1. You are expecting business, but making little effort to spread the word

This can happen when stylists are immensely talented, but that talent is all that is being relied on to generate business and bring in new clients. Not only does the stylists’ talent go to waste, the salon loses business.

The solution

Instead of simply wishing for clients, you’ll have to actively attract them. This can be done by engaging potential clients with a variety of marketing efforts that is focused on your strengths. A certain new hairstyle your specialty?  Emphasize it in your marketing message.

2. You have limited yourself to a single form of marketing

As mentioned earlier, previously there existed one form of marketing and that was face-to-face, word-of-mouth referrals. Times have changed astronomically since then. Today, almost nobody actually meets to spread the word; instead they use 160 characters or a picture!

The solution

Social media possesses more strength than a veritable army. And, social media networks are the single most powerful marketing tool in existence. It’s very important to start using them to instantly spread the word about your salon.

3. You’re not rewarding repeat clients

You expect the client to keep coming regularly, yet you do not reward their patronage, which can make you forgetful—meaning few referrals to your clients’ family and friends.

The solution

A gesture of gratitude as simple as a discount voucher or product as a gift, can work wonders. This leaves the client thinking about your salon and your services for longer than usual—leading to a lot of referrals.

Marketing and talent go hand-in-hand when it comes to your salon business. It’s important to make use of the marketing tools and methods available, in order to build and run a successful salon.

Want more tips? Check out our previous post: 10 Tips to Get New Clients.