Feature - Internet Marketing for Salons

Text by Phil Evans and Jamie Harrison // Images by Phil Evans // Published Friday 2 December 2011

As the global economic crisis worsens everybody is having to tighten their belts and for salons to survive it's vital to attract more clients and sell more services. The internet is an amazing marketing tool, but it takes more than just a website to build your client base. The web may be world wide, but salons rely on local business so you need to specifically target your web presence to a local audience and a focused marketing strategy is vital to increase footfall in the salon.

MyHairDressers.com has spoken to salons and discovered that while many are retaining clients, many are cutting back by reducing salon visits or asking for cheaper services. Client retention is great, but if they spend less, then you need to increase the amount of clients to survive. By targeting your local area with good online marketing, utilising Facebook, Twitter, Google Ads and effective Search Engine Optimisation, more people will know about your salon, more will receive exclusive offers and discount coupons and ultimately spend their money in your salon instead of your competitors.

Phil Evans, MD of Salon Guru provided us with examples of recent salon campaigns and their effect on salon income and profit, “All of these statistics relate to salons in the UK and US over the past 3 years and show the massive and rapid effect a well-planned online campaign can have for salons. To keep it simple I have broken them into campaign type and focussed on the numbers.”

//After 3 years of effort one salon has attracted 13,000 Facebook Fans (one of the largest for a salon worldwide). They talk to this army of potential clients 2 or 3 times a day about salon offers, celebrity hair gossip and new product launches. The immediacy of Facebook means they can get results the next day from any promotion.

//Rather than repeat the costly and exhausting Student Freshers Fair exhibition of years past, another salon's student marketing was 100% online. They ran a Facebook advert, heavily promoted using their Facebook page and also splashed the student offer across the website. In 6 weeks almost 1,500 students downloaded a money-off voucher and it generated £32,000 of salon income. All new clients and all reached using the Internet.

//A “vote for your favourite picture” campaign for a Hair Salon on Facebook boosted their Fans numbers from 500 to over 2,000 in 7 days.

//A salon that was ranked 120th on Google searches for “Hair Color” in their city jumped to number 2 in 4 days after fixing problems with their website to make it more 'google-friendly' and more targeted to a local audience.

//A new salon website had 15 top 3 places on Google search for salon-related key phrases within 7 days of launch.

//A New Client voucher that was promoted across a salon’s Facebook page and website was downloaded by 900 new clients in 20 days and generated $14,000 income.

//A Google Pay Per Click advert for Brazilian Blow Dry keratin straightening cost £540 for a month and was clicked 653 times - a cost per potential new client of £0.83 or $1.30.

Phil told us, “The beauty of online salon marketing is that you can set a daily budget, know the results within hours and carefully target the services you want to sell at the clients that are likely to buy.”

While many of the improvements or campaigns benefit from help by dedicated marketing companies such as Salon Guru, there are steps that every salon can take to spread the word around the internet. 

//Encourage clients to like your Facebook page and post regular status updates to keep them engaged.

//Make sure that your salon is registered in the 'locations' tool. A client in the waiting room or processing area is likely to be sitting on her smartphone and telling all her friends where she is and how great the service is.

//Ensure your webmaster or web designer has the correct and relevant keywords and page titles on each page of your website so Google can find you easily.

//Keep your site up to date with news, blogs, offers and so on - Google likes sites that always have new content.

Phil Evans is MD of Salon Guru.

More info on Internet Marketing and websites for Salons >>