It doesn't have to be expensive to market your salon or barbershop. To create a successful marketing strategy that will get you noticed, grow your client list, and enhance your profits, you'll need to invest some time but not necessarily a lot of money.
Marketing your business should be an essential part of your business plan. When using marketing to grow your business, it is important to understand what marketing is and how to use it effectively.
During February, the NHBF conducted a snap poll on our social media channels, asking followers their marketing priorities and strategy for their salon or barbershop. So what's better than to see what fellow salon and barbershop owners are doing to market their business. Here is our finding.
This blog covers:
- Boost brand recognition
- Make bookings and generate leads
- Growing your audience with algorithms
- Boost community participation
- Offline Marketing
- How to use offline marketing
- Content is key
- Social media jargon and what they mean
- Resources
Boost brand recognition
To establish your business, you need your salon or barbershop known to the areas you serve. This entails publicising your name. Avoid just releasing promotional messaging to build genuine and long-lasting brand awareness. Instead, prioritise information that highlights your personality and values. For Salons and Barbershops, it means promoting the characters and personalities of your business, what makes it quirky or how it differentiates from other salons and barbershops. It could be something simple as a unique feature in your shop. NHBF social media followers say they use Instagram to show their business's personality/brand as this social media channel is a visual platform. It goes hand in hand with the hair & beauty industry.
Make bookings and generate leads
Social media channels such as Instagram and Facebook, which are most popular with our followers, allows businesses to reach clients that they may not have had the opportunity to do in the past. However, having social media followers doesn't guarantee clients through the door. Social media followers don't book on the spur of the moment, whether it's online, in-store, or directly through your social accounts. For salons and barbershop owners, it's about informing clients about new services and special offers. Do you have your retail products and services integrated into your social profiles? Do you have any special offers for your followers or those registered with your website? Ensure that you have your menu at the forefront on all your social media channels and website with the prices marked clearly so clients can book with confidence.
Growing your audience
Understanding the algorithms on social media could help bring extra footfall through your shop as it enables you to reach an audience that you may not have had access to previously. The first step is identifying the most important values about your salon or barbershop. The NHBF suggest going through your social media channels, keeping an eye on or listening for specific keywords, phrases, or hashtags. Once you have identified those buzzwords, use those words in all your promotions, social media content, blogs and website. If is done correctly, your business will be prominent on search engines such as Google or Bing when searched by a potential client.
Boost community participation
According to Index statistics, 46% of customers believe brands that engage with their audience either on social media or within the community have better customer service. Therefore, it pays to experiment with new strategies to capture your audience's attention. Don't spread yourself too thin. Instead, focus on networks where your core audience is already active. As previously mentioned, Instagram is a popular social media channel for our industry and NHBF followers, as it allows salons and barbershops to upload artistic, creative images. And as our survey suggests, many of our followers use free graphic design platforms such as Canva to create visually striking photos and graphics.
Offline Marketing
Not everything has to be online, either. Digital Marketing, i.e. websites and social media etc., may have become the go-to channels to market a business or service but offline marketing isn't quite finished yet. In fact, due to the trend of people wanting to cut down on their "screen time", more and more businesses are returning to traditional methods.
Offline marketing is a type of marketing in which advertisements are placed on various channels such as leaflet dropping and is away from the internet. This sort of marketing is the traditional method of marketing that was in use before the internet and is now widely used by practically all large and small businesses who want to connect with people who are not digitally savvy or want to do their marketing with a different approach.
How to use offline marketing
Offline marketing in the hair & beauty businesses could be simply word of mouth. Request that your frequent clients tell their friends and family about your services. Don't be scared to urge others to talk about your salon or barbershop to market it. They'll gladly do that if they're satisfied clients.
If you're a new business, use local newspapers for advertising your business's opening or if you are an existing business that has introduced new services. Have you perhaps thought about sponsoring a local sports team? Sponsoring local community groups is an excellent way for your business to imbed itself within the community. It helps grass-roots organisations and promotes your business with local people. Partnership with other local businesses such as bakers could result in joint marketing campaigns where each business offers discounts to their customers and clients when both business are used.
Content is key
Any content is the foundation of your marketing campaign. Based on your goals, audience, and brand identity, you should have a pretty clear idea of what to post at this stage. You presumably have a good idea of which networks to cover as well. To begin with your content, you will need a content strategy. It doesn't have to be sophisticated and it can be done on weekly basis. To help you create a content strategy, download our 2022 Marketing calendar, which will help you to plan your social media and marketing events in your salon or barbershop.
Telling stories through your communications channels are particularly useful for taking your potential clients behind the scenes and personalising your social feed. Consider how you may utilise stories to cover an event or take your followers on a journey without requiring them to leave the comfort of their phones. With permission , show what services clients have used with before and after photos.
Video is the most beneficial content type for attaining social goals, according to 54% of marketers, and with good reason. With the introduction of TikTok and Instagram Reels, social video is more popular than ever before.
Salons and barbershops can capitalise on this trend by using the following strategies on their social media profiles:
- Post regularly and always use high-quality images and video clips. You can post a live video stream (create 'highlights' to keep a permanent record).
- You can create 'stories' with short video clips or images that are available to view for 24 hours. You could showcase what's happening in your salon, introduce staff Members, run polls, publicise offers and appointments, and share the fun!
- Make sure your content will catch the imagination of your target audience. Make it about them, not about your business. What do they want to see? What do they aspire to? How can you help them get the latest look?
Social media jargon and what they mean
Reach. The number of unique users who saw your content is post reach. How much of your material makes it into users' newsfeeds?
Clicks. This is the total number of times your content or account has been clicked. It's critical to track clicks each campaign to figure out what piques people's interest or pushes them to book a service.
Engagement. The total number of social interactions your social media channel has received. This reveals how well your audience views you and how willing they are to communicate with you.
Resources
To ensure your salon or barbershop thrives and grows you’ll need to create a workable marketing plan, NHBF Members can download this Salon Marketing Plan Guide.
Read our blog on opening a salon or barbershop.
E-marketing: do's, don'ts and benefits for your salon or barbershop.
Capitalising on annual events blog.
Blog: How to Market you salon or barbershop for (almost) free.