Marketing tips and tricks for solo beauty businesses

Marketing tips and tricks for solo beauty businesses

Dear solo beauty specialist - let’s have a serious talk. Do the following sentences sound familiar?

You are a booth or chair renter, freelancer, home-based salon owner or mobile specialist.
You don’t have too much time to run marketing activities and you may even question if you have enough capital to invest in them at all.
You have fan pages on Facebook and Instagram and occasionally publish a post regarding springtime discounts or Mother Day’s specials, but you act without a specific plan - you just do what seems right at the moment, usually quite spontaneously and kind of last-minute.
You would love to spice things up and gain more clients, but the idea gets lost somewhere between working with clients, checking inventory levels and sanitising tools.
You understand the benefits that come with properly made beauty business marketing activities… but you feel that only big salons can truly pull it off.
You think you are too small, too busy or too focused on being a service provider to have time for anything else.

Do you find yourself nodding to most or even each one of these? If so, then keep reading - this article was written exactly for you.

Part 1: Gaining new clients

We have divided the marketing activities for small beauty businesses into two categories. The first section of the article is dedicated to the ways for gaining new clients, while the second part is all about maintaining the existing clients’ loyalty. In order to keep your business’s numbers up, it’s vital to take care of both.

Optimise your existing channels

Sometimes it’s not even about doing something new - but about taking better care of what you already do. Begin with your social media fan pages.

How many do you run? In most cases, Facebook and Instagram will be enough - unless, of course, your target audience is present on other channels, like Pinterest or YouTube, and you get engagement there. In other cases, spreading yourself too thin is simply unnecessary.
Are they compliant with the networking services’ terms and conditions? Remember that it violates Facebook’s policies to use a personal profile for commercial or promotional purposes. By trying to be sneaky, you risk losing your page. Read more about understanding and mastering Facebook algorithms here.
Do they include all the needed information? Make sure your potential clients can find your name, address, phone number, website address and/or booking page address easily. When searching the Internet, people usually have very short attention spans - if they don’t find what they need quickly, they just move on.
Are they appealing yet professional? Do you have a visually pleasing and recognisable profile and cover pictures? Is your “About” section filled and is the description both engaging and informative? Do you post regularly and is the style of your posts consistent? Are you innocent when it comes to posting personal stuff on business pages? Remember, your social media channels are the reflection of your business in the Internet realm - make sure you present yourself the way you want your clients to perceive you.

Think locally

Most of your clients will be people from your area - it happens that someone decides to travel a long way to meet their favourite stylist, but it’s rather rare, especially if your business is new. This is why, whenever you want to advertise your services, it’s best to think locally.

Ask yourself - what are the people in your area like? What are their habits? Where do they get recommendations from?
When posting photos of your work on Instagram, use local hashtags - make it easy for people from your city, town or village to find you.
Ask local businesses (who aren’t your direct competitors) if you can leave your business cards in their premises. You can even try to establish an official form of cooperation, in which you will recommend their business to your clients and vice versa.
Be present at local fairs, support local communities, advertise in local media.

Don’t fear the paid ads

Paid Facebook advertising is not as scary as it may seem. Try it for yourself - designate a small budget and run a trial campaign. The big secret here is to hit audience members who are primed to respond positively - target only your local area! The cost will be relatively small (much smaller than what you would pay for a broader reach) and you have a greater chance to actually encourage people to check your business.

Promote online booking

You would be surprised to learn how essential online booking is for clients. Nowadays, numerous people much prefer to make appointments online - from simple convenience to aversion to direct social interaction. Most people tend to have very hectic lifestyles and their timing habits may be different from yours. You can even say that online booking is steadily becoming an industry-standard people straight-on expect you to deliver. If you provide online booking, you should definitely make it very clear. If you are using Booksy and its online booking feature, you can simply introduce a “book now” button on both your Facebook and Instagram that will lead the potential client straight to your Booksy-powered booking system. It’s very convenient for the customers and works in your favour - you don’t risk the client getting distracted and/or discouraged by having to search for your booking site by hand. They see your prices and available slots and can book their visit immediately.

Part 2: Nurturing existing clients

It’s a fact that many solo specialists fall into the trap of focusing too much on reaching new clients, while inadvertently neglecting their regulars. Which is a huge mistake, as the cost of gaining new customers can be up to six times as high as the cost of nurturing the existing ones. Loyal customers should be appreciated and cherished - they are your most consistent and stable source of income.

Invest in SMS marketing

SMS marketing, if done right, can be extraordinarily effective. It’s multifunctional, customisable and intimate at the same time - and if you are using reliable tools, it’s also affordable, easy to manage and reaches just the right audience. Using Booksy, you can automate the communication with your customers, sending them a number of messages - from appointment reminders and birthday wishes to carefully targeted promotional campaigns. You can learn more about the perks of SMS marketing and how you can make the most out of it here.

Reward loyalty

Remember the times when you used to collect stamps on your favourite coffee shop’s loyalty card and every ten stamps equalled a free cup of coffee? Nowadays, this technique is considered outdated, and rightfully so - we’ve updated the formula so that it’s much easier to manage and brings you more benefits. If you are using Booksy, you can reward your most loyal customers by assigning them a regular discount or a free amount voucher, or by selling them discounted service packages. All of this helps you build lasting relationships and engage the customers. It also increases the revenue, creates more natural opportunities for contact and allows you to promote certain services or products.

Running marketing activities when you are a solo hair and beauty specialist may seem like quite the challenge. However, don’t let it hold you back - the harsh truth is that with the current oversaturation of the market, you simply have to promote your services in order to survive. Counting on the word-of-mouth marketing alone won’t do anymore. But there is no need to worry - with these few tricks in mind and your multitasking salon management system, your business will stand out from the crowd and keep growing!