Brand promoting in the hair & beauty industry

You’ve run into the term more than once while surfing through social media pages, and you probably thought that it doesn’t apply to you. A brand promoter or tester sounds like someone that has over 50,000 followers and over 200 comments under each of their posts. You look over your fan pages to see a meagre 408 fans. But don’t feel left out - you can still be the brand promoter you’ve always dreamed of being! However, before you jump into the deep end, you should take a few things into consideration.

How to get seen?

Let’s be honest here - your chances of being seen by your favourite brands are greatly improved if you have a large following. The larger the following, the better the recognition. With that being said, you may want to begin with increasing your number of fans. Although this requires a lot of work and research, it is definitely worth it! Make sure your fan page has a unique name (but nothing too complicated, like “suzyq’s_salonemporiumboutique123!1”) in order for your potential followers to find you easily.

Now comes the exciting part - showing off your work to the world! You provide exceptional treatments and clients love your work, so why not share it? Take pictures of your amazing nail art, balayages or permanent brows, but don’t stop just yet. Make sure to tag brands that you use for your breathtaking creations and add appropriate hashtags. This is especially important on social media platforms such as Instagram, which is the Mecca for most hair & beauty professionals. Keep in mind that in order to be seen by the Instagram community, you have to play your part as well. Make sure you regularly comment and like posts from other users and follow prominent industry figures as well as brands. It takes time and loads of patience, but in the end, it is worth it!

Congrats, you’ve been noticed!

You’ve just finished with a client - they came in for a level 9 white blond balayage, and you delivered. You take a few shots of their amazing final look just before they leave the salon and you share them on your Instagram and Facebook fan pages with the appropriate tags. A few days pass and you may notice a new message in your inbox. Of course, you don’t hesitate to open it - after all, it might be the CEO of Olaplex or Guy Tang himself! More than likely, it isn’t them, but what matters is that your business is finally getting the attention it deserves!

Be cautious!

You open your inbox and, to your dismay, it isn’t Guy Tang, but some random stranger asking you to click a link to see his page. Obviously, you’re going to block them. But what should you do when someone contacts you regarding a possible brand promoting opportunity? First, do your research - visit their page, see the number of their followers, look into their authenticity (there are fake accounts which can be purchased to pump up your number of fans), and make sure to research the brand and their products. Are they a genuine company? Where are they located? Most of this information can be found on their website or Facebook page - if they have one.

Secondly, get to know what they’d like from you, as there are many scammers, ready to make a profit off of unsuspecting salon owners. If you’re required to purchase a product from their representative, then something’s fishy - reputable brands usually send you samples of their products and tend to cover shipping costs as well, so make sure you don’t get tricked!

Brand promoter duties

Being a brand promoter isn’t all fun and games - while living the high life, you’ve got responsibilities! You run and manage your salon as usual, but bear in mind that you need to focus on your ever-growing social media presence. Stay constantly active on social media and make sure to promote the brand you’re working with. In most cases, you’ll receive a free product from them that they will expect you to take pictures of and next comment on how much you enjoy using it. If everything goes well and the brand is pleased with your work, you might even have a chance to receive more items!

If everything goes well, then they may want to have you as a long term promoter, which may give you access to employee discounts on the brand’s exclusive products. However, you may have to sign a contract as well - so read it carefully! If you know that you cannot live up to the brand’s expectations, create a counter-proposal and ask if they’d agree to it.

The benefits of brand promoting

You already know that through brand promoting you can gain great products for your business. Besides this, your business becomes more promising in the eyes of other companies who are looking for possible partners, thus increasing the possibility of becoming a promoter for various companies. Additionally, you should share the latest products you’re utilising in the salon with your clients. If the brand is renowned or top of the line, consider raising your prices! If you’re using Booksy for marketing campaigns, send a notification to all of your customers, letting them know of your latest partnership and your price increase!

So what are you waiting for? Join your social media community and take your business to stardom!