There are currently over one million companies operating within the U.S. salon and spa industry. With new salons emerging every day, trying to make a name for themselves, and current salons holding on to keep loyal clients, pushing for new clientele can be fierce.
Today’s business owners are becoming more marketing savvy. Social media, and content marketing skills are now required to keep a steady flow of salon bookings.
Luckily you don’t have to be a marketing master to use these 20 fabulous hair salon advertising ideas to increase customers.
1. Advertise Your Salon With Instagram & Facebook Ads
Facebook and Instagram are two of the most powerful social media marketing platforms you can use to drive clients to your salon. About 67% of marketers find Facebook to be their most important social media channel as well as hair focused brands have seen a 39% or more
increase in return on ad spend on Instagram.
Start advertising your salon on Facebook and Instagram to get the word out on your services. Be sure to use a “booking service” for your ads call to action.
House of Blond
2. Create a Video Series of Your Service
They say a picture is worth a thousand words, but I say a video is worth far more. You can capture a lot more bookings with video content, so grab a camera and show your stylist in action.
Smart Insight found that 53% of customers who engage with a brand after watching a video on social media, suggesting that video can be an effective form of marketing.
You can start a YouTube channel for your salon. You can create content with the following:
Answer commonly asked questions new clients may have for your hairstylist.
Showcase the various styles and treatments you can offer clients.
Highlight members of your staff and your salon’s interior design.
A video compilation of your hair salons amazing skills.
Check out Salon 718 YouTube channel to see their salon video series.
3. Advertise That You’re Open Late, On Weekends & Holidays
Market Watch found that a salon’s target market mainly consists of eco-conscious women who are between the ages of 20 and 35.
They’re city-dwellers who rent homes and apartments and have jobs in creative or social services fields. Since most of your target audience is employed, they’ll be working between the hours of 9-5 pm.
Some clients won’t be able to book during the week, and with weekends left open, books are likely to go fast. Keep your salon open late during the week and or weekends to accommodate more books. This makes it convenient for working clients to visit your salon and helps to encourage recurring visits from current clients.
Salon De Larue
Share your extended open hours on your online platforms (i.e, website, facebook, ads…) so new clients can easily be informed.
4. Make Booking Your Services Easy
Your salon’s booking service or system could be stopping new customers from getting through the door.
If a booking service is too complicated or times out, then you can lose potential customers coming to your business. This includes poor customer service on or offline.
First, decide where and how customers are going to book your services and if you’ll have multiple platforms for booking, and monitoring them closely to prevent overbooking.
Promote bookings on your website
Promote bookings on your social media
A good booking system can also help to reduce your salon’s cancelations. Try to make phone calls or send emails to follow up on the day or at least an hour before for double confirmation.
Impose a “no lateness/no show policy.” Ask clients to come in 10-15 minutes before their appointment to secure their spot. If clients fail to keep their appointments you can giveaway spots to walk-ins. When clients see how serious you are about your appointments, they’ll start taking you seriously.
For more, check out this [Salon Case Study] on how Debbie filled appointment book in under 30 days!
5. Offer a Selfie Station Inside Your Hair Salon
Everyone takes selfies so much so that National Selfie Day is a social media holiday loved by many Instagrammers.
Create a selfies-station at your salon and ask clients to take a selfie for social media and tag your salon. A selfie station provides free marketing for your salon; each post allows your salon to be discovered and referred to friends and followers of that client.
Ready to set up a station in your salon? Here’s a quick selfie station checklist:
- A backdrop (a clean wall or custom step-and-repeat)
- Good lighting (ring lights are a great investment)
- Themed props (optional but a good way to boost the salon’s profile)
- A sign or decal with your salon’s Instagram handle and suggested hashtags
6. Always Rebook Salon Clients During the Visit
Re-book clients during their visit, instead of waiting for clients to reach out to you for their next styling, take out your appointment book and settle on a date (range).
You should practice this with your new and current clients, so you know when or how many people to expect for the next month. Be sure to follow up and rearrange your bookings as needed.
Still not convinced that rebooking will help your salon?
Here are 25 Reasons That Will Make You Value Rebooking Clients.
7. List Your Salon on Salon & Spa Directory
Directories are still relevant today; they’ve moved from that big yellow book to online websites. Increase your salon’s online presence by listing it on a popular salon and spa online directory.
Next to Google, serious salon-goers know that they can search or top-notch spas on recommended directories.
You can start with a Google My Business page and work your way to these top five online salon directories:
1.Your Salon 
2.Green Circle Salon 
3.Signature Style 
4.Salon Association 
5.Salon Ratings 
I’ve never met someone who would turn down a discount, and I’m neither have you!
Offer a special offer or discount to attract new customers to your salon. This could be a 15% discount on an overall cost or a special on a bundle for your services.
Seasonal discounts are always met with praise. in fact, seasonal promotions and discounts can improve your sales by 15%.
Try not to offer too many discounts; you don’t want new clients to get unaccustomed to paying full price. So keep track of how often and who you offer discounts too.
9. Reward Customers Who Give Referrals
Once you have a solid base of clients at your salon, start implementing a referral program to reward customers for bringing new clients to your salon.
Customers who are referred to your brand are up to 5x more likely to use your referral program than customers who weren’t. Referral marketing is broken down to a science, in a world where everyone is bombarded with ads online and in social media, and influencer marketing becomes more monetized getting referrals from real people is valued more than ever.
The best thing is, referral marketing is trusted across all age groups. A Nielsen survey found that the majority of each age group trusted referral marketing more when compared to digital and traditional marketing techniques:
Give customers and their referral a discount on their next salon visit. You can create referral cards to track your program and ensure that customers aren’t abusing your referral program.
10. Create the Ultimate Salon Gift Package
Create gift packages for special events like weddings, prom, graduations, birthdays, and Mothers/Fathers day.
Offer additional services like a spa treatment or pedicure and gift certificates. Feel free to also add a gift basket of skin and hair products to make your customers feel special on their important day.
11. Sign Up for Wedding Directory or Vendor Websites
Increase your salons by listing on wedding vendor websites to market your bridal packages. These websites allow you to network with other brands and meet clients willing to pay for services for their bride and bridesmaids.
These websites highlight business with the best reviews and can help to build your salon’s online presence and profile.
Wedding Vendor Site: The Knot
You can also partner with wedding planners in real life, becoming their established salon or hairstylist of choice. Even after the wedding, you can capture a few repeat customers along the way.
12. Host a Fabulous Giveaway
With an average of over 34% of new customers being acquired through contests and giveaways, you are sure to see some new customers at your salon after hosting your own giveaway.
Hosting a giveaway isn’t as hard as it looks. It’s actually quite easy.
When you’re planning your salon’s giveaway you need these four things to start:
1. Choose a Giveaway Worthy Prize: The better the prize; the more interest people will take in entering. Winning a free 50 dollar blow might get you a few entries, but you won’t get the full impact of a giveaway for your brand. Choose a prize that shows off your salon’s best services and skills.
2. Decide Your Entry Method: What do contestants have to do to win your giveaway? Write clear steps on how to enter; ensure that the entry method helps you to meet your giveaway goals. For example, your salon wants more social media exposure, post on Instagram, and ask contestants to like and tag friends to enter.
3. Select a Start and End Date: One of the reasons giveaways fail are short or sudden deadlines. Give contestants time to find your giveaway and enter. Hubspot found that the best duration for your giveaway is 25 days to 60 days.
4. Decide Your Giveaway Platform: What will you be using to monitor and manage your salon’s giveaway? You can use social media, your website, a landing page, or Wishpond.
Wishpond Spa Campaigns
Learn how to run a contest with this step-by-step guide for your salon, and if you’re already running a giveaway; you can choose these 5 best ways to announce & notify contest winners (with examples) how to announce winners.
13. Feature & Advertise in Beauty Magazines
Someone once said that there’s no such thing as bad press. Personally, no press is bad press. Advertise your salon or get features in a local or nationwide beauty or fashion magazine or blog to gain exposure for your salon.
Your ideal client is someone who wants to look good and stay up to date with trends, especially when it comes to hair and nails. So you want to choose magazines that they’ll most likely be flipping through on a day to day basis in print or online.
Feel free to reach out to beauty bloggers, editors, and writers to have a discounted season to give an honest review about your salon to attract new customers.
Here are the top 8 publications to stay on top of salon trends, that caters to a more global audience.
Rent a mobile truck and host a salon pop-up in busy areas. Offer services like blowouts, nail treatments, massages, make up, and facials.
Visit public spaces in the city to grab the attention of the passing crowd, be sure to advertise your pop-up on social media so customers can invite friends and family once you’ve parked in your spot. As a bonus add complimentary wine or mimosa, selfie station, or discount to make your pop-up more fun.
15. Use Geo-Targeted Google Ads For Walk-Ins
During peak hours when clients are looking for new hair salons to book, start promoting geo-targeted to drive local customers to your salon door.
Google targeted ads allows you to select a booking option so you can capture new clients as soon as they click on your ad instead of sending them through third party pages.
In fact, we have found 12 reasons why google ads will help you reach new customers.
Google Ads are relatively easy to use; just keep your eyes on your bidding and budget, and you should be fine. I’ve also included this detailed guide on Getting to the Top of Google: A Recipe to Google Adwords to help.
16. Create Stunning Business Cards & Posters
Whether it’s the latest trends in social media or marketing, business cards still have a place in the world today. Create branded business cards for your salon team members for them to distribute and ask current clients to pass them along.
You can easily create a salon-inspired business card with Canva. Choose from hundreds of easy to use and edit templates. No experience required!
Here are 9 tips on how to design a salon business card.
17. Market Your Salon At Local Events & M.I.C.E
It’s no use hiding. If you want to advertise your salon, you need to get out the door and be known. Network with business in and around your niche to grow your clientele list.
One way to do that is to market your salon at local hair events or M.I.C.E (Meetings, Incentives, Conferences, and Exhibitions).
Rent a booth and offer services and discounts for event goers, hand out brochures, business cards, and encourage people to follow your salon on social media to keep up to date with current or future specials.
Be sure to speak with business owners exhibiting and attending the event to build future partnerships or co-promotions.
Markdown major holidays and local holidays you’d like to advertise your salon on and offline, then start planning. Start using Facebook and Instagram ads for the holidays to drive bookings to your digitally savvy clients. Print flyers and advertise in newspaper articles for your more mature clientele. Cover your tracks and reach people of all ages.
19. Create or Update Your Salon’s Website
Like it or not, customers now expect businesses to have a website, about 70-80% of consumers research a business online before visiting in person or making a purchase.
Email, website, and social media are the top three marketing tools used by small businesses: out of all three, a website is ranked as the most important.
Which begs the question, do you have a website for your salon?
If the answer is yes, then dust it off and update it. A salon that promises customers with the latest hairstyles and skills should have a website that reflects just that. If your website looks like it’s stuck in early 2000, make an upgrade. If not, be sure it’s filled with relevant contact details, new images, and an efficient booking system to start taking in new clients.
If the answer is no, here are four website builders you can use to create and launch your website in under an hour:
Wix
SquareSpace
Weeby
WordPress
Sponsoring or joining fashion events can help to advertise your salon in the styling community. Partner with a designer and help to bring their designs to life with your salon stylist flawless skills.
Fashion events produce attractive content for your website and social media. You can go live, update your post and engage with followers by asking them to book for a chance to replicate their favorite model’s hairstyle.
Fashion shows are also a good place to find celebrity clients and influencers you can collaborate with to market your hair salon. If you see someone who has a large following or would make a good brand ambassador for your salon, reach out to them and offer them a discount or free service.
Bonus
Make your salon’s instagram locally relevant using the right hashtags.Hashtags make your salon post discoverable for people who aren’t following your account or follow the hashtag that is used in your post. Try to use hashtags that are relevant to the post or what clients are using or searching for on Instagram.
Karley Dana Hair
Here are some helpful social media marketing guides for your salon:
Summary
Here are 20 fabulous hair salon advertising ideas to increase customers:
- Advertise Your Salon With Instagram & Facebook Ads
- Create a Video Series of Your Service
- Advertise That You’re Open Late, On Weekends & Holidays
- Make Booking Your Services Easy
- Offer a Selfie Station Inside Your Hair Salon
- Always Rebook Salon Clients During the Visit
- List Your Salon on Salon & Spa Directory
- Promote a Discount or Special Offer
- Reward Customers Who Give Referrals
- Create the Ultimate Salon Gift Package
- Sign Up for Wedding Directory or Vendor Websites
- Partner with a Spa for a Giveaway
- Feature & Advertise in Beauty Magazines
- Host a Mobile Salon Pop-Up
- Use Geo-Targeted Google Ads For Walk-Ins
- Create Stunning Business Cards & Posters
- Market Your Salon At Local Events & M.I.C.E
- Create Holiday Promotions & Packages
- Create or Update Your Salon’s Website
- Sponsor or Join a Local Fashion Show
Once you start implementing these marketing ideas, you’ll begin to see a change in your salons online and offline presence.
Be sure to do monthly checks to see how effective your advertising ideas have been, here are 5 quick ways to check your salon marketing is working
Need more help with your salon marketing?
Book your free 1-on-1 personalized webinar for expert marketing tools and tips to grow your business.