The beauty industry is one of the main business areas today. A study by the 2GIS service shows that in 2023 the number of salons of various types in megacities increased by 3.3%. In this article, I will share the latest trends in the beauty services market and tell you what to pay attention to when promoting a beauty salon.
- Defining the target audience
- Development of a unique selling proposition (USP)
- Using social networks for promotion
- SEO and creation of a beauty salon website
- Local marketing
- Loyalty program and promotions
- Cooperation with influencers and bloggers
- Organization of events and master classes
- Analysis of effectiveness and correction of promotion strategy
- Let's summarize
Developing a beauty studio means creating a unique brand that stands out from competitors due to its service features, design and exclusive offers.
Effective use of social networks to regularly update content, including photo and video work, is becoming a key tool for attracting and retaining customers.
Targeted advertising and a personal approach to each client increase audience involvement and loyalty. By investing in promotion, beauty salons strive not only to increase their client base and profits, but also to strengthen their position in the market.
Defining the target audience
Understanding the composition of your target audience allows you to set up marketing and advertising campaigns in such a way that they most effectively attract and retain the attention of this particular group clients.
Among the main aspects of determining the target audience are:
- Demographic characteristics. This includes age, gender, income, education and marital status.
- Geographical location. The location of potential customers can significantly influence the choice of services. Salons in big cities can offer a wider range of services than those in small towns.
- Psychographic characteristics. Interests, beliefs, lifestyle and values. This helps you understand which services will be most attractive to your audience. For example, young people interested in conscious consumption are more likely to choose a salon with natural and organic cosmetics.
Potential target groups may include successful businesswomen, students, parents with small children, etc. If you want to better understand your audience’s preferences and needs, analyze your existing customer base, conduct surveys, and conduct market research. It is important to consider the level and status of your salon, the average cost of services and the target category of clients who can afford services in the salon. Also pay attention to the frequency with which customers are willing to return.
Development of a unique selling proposition (USP)
You can create an attractive and memorable unique selling proposition through creativity and a deep understanding of your target audience. It should not only differentiate you from your competitors, but also evoke an emotional response in customers so that they choose you. How to create a USP? Conduct marketing analysis.
Research your audience
The first step to creating an effective USP is understanding who your customers are, their needs, wants and pains. For this purpose, surveys can be conducted to analyze feedback. The most convenient way is sending on WhatsApp, where automated messages asking for feedback work for your development.
Identify your brand’s unique features
What makes you unique? What products and services of yours are not duplicated by competitors? Why do clients come to you most often? The answers to these questions will help define your value and uniqueness.
Formulate your unique selling proposition clearly and clearly
Brevity is the sister of talent, remember? Also, your USP should be concise and understandable. Clients should immediately understand why they should choose you. Avoid common phrases and clichés. The USP should be clear, convincing and memorable.
External and internal interior design
Of course, in the beauty industry it is important to note the design of the salon itself. An aesthetically pleasing space not only creates a first impression, but also influences how a customer perceives your brand. Design, like service, can be one of the reasons why customers will come back to you again and again.
Using social networks for promotion
Social networks provide ample opportunities to interact with your target audience, increase brand awareness and attract new customers. Effective SMM strategies and well-planned content will help you achieve these goals.
- Defining the target audience. Having a clear understanding of who you want to attract will help you create content that will be of interest to your potential customers.
- Choosing the right platforms. Focus on those social networks where your target audience is most active. For a beauty salon, this could be VKontakte and a prohibited network for publishing photos.
- Regular posting. The content plan for a beauty salon account may include photos before and after procedures, reviews of services, interactive posts: surveys and competitions. Educational content, for example, tips on self-care, will not be superfluous.
- Interactivity. An engaged audience is the key to account success.
SEO and creation of a beauty salon website
A website for a beauty salon is not just an addition to a business, but an integral part of it and a powerful tool for attracting customers. A professionally designed website serves as the virtual face of your brand. It’s also easy to sign up for the service at any time on the website. You can add a link for recording to your business card on Yandex Maps – for this you need to connect a CRM.
Well, in order for the site to fulfill its functions, it requires careful optimization for search engines (SEO). Proper SEO optimization improves the website’s visibility in search engines, attracting more potential customers. SEO optimization includes:
- selection of keywords,
- adaptation for mobile devices,
- speed up page loading and much more.
The main goal of SEO optimization is to increase the site’s position in search engine results, so the content on the site itself must be unique and useful to the audience.
Local marketing
The best way to promote a local business is to use online maps, for example, from Yandex. It is important that the salon is displayed correctly on maps: the exact address, opening hours, contact information and high-quality photographs are taken into account.
Customer reviews on these platforms also play an important role, as positive reviews can greatly increase your salon’s appeal to new customers. Automation of collecting reviews in this case is your faithful assistant.
For example, services for promotion on maps are able to collect reviews from customers and automatically place them on the card of your business in Yandex Maps, 2GIS, etc. The service synchronizes with your CRM system, tracks customer statuses, and on the day of purchase automatically sends a message to the customer asking them to leave a review. WhatsApp, a popular instant messenger used by more than 2 billion people in the world, was chosen as a tool for communicating with customers and increasing their loyalty.
Loyalty program and promotions
Rewards encourage customers to come and stay forever. In other words, rewards programs promote customer retention. After all, by offering a rewards program to your customers, you show them that you value their attention.
Before introducing a loyalty program, of course, you need to conduct analytics and improve the quality of service, because customers come for quality services.
Loyalty programs for beauty salons:
Discount system is perhaps the simplest and most understandable type of loyalty program. It offers clients a fixed discount on salon services or products after purchasing a loyalty card or reaching a certain spending amount. For example, after the first visit, the client receives a card that entitles him to a 5% discount on all subsequent services. As the total amount spent in the salon increases, the discount percentage may increase. It’s a simple and motivating way to keep customers coming back.
Virtual discount card – the bonus system works on the principle of accruing points (bonuses) for each amount spent in the salon. For a certain number of bonuses, a client can receive free services or goods. For example, for every 1,000 rubles spent, the client receives 100 bonus points, which can later be exchanged for a free haircut or a discount on the purchase of professional shampoo. This method is good because it encourages clients not only to visit the salon regularly, but also to increase the amount of their expenses for each visit.
Virtual bonus card – CHOP cards. For example: every fourth visit to a beauty salon entitles the client to a free facial, or every fifth purchase of professional cosmetics provides a 50% discount on the next purchase. Such cards introduce an element of excitement, and also serve as a manifestation of care for the client, of course.
Cooperation with influencers and bloggers
Start by choosing influencers whose style matches yours. It is not necessary to focus on the number of subscribers: sometimes micro- and middle-influencers with a narrow audience can bring more benefits, and you will spend less money on collaboration.
It is important that the blogger shares your values and can naturally fit your salon into their content. For example, if the salon specializes in natural cosmetics, look for bloggers who focus on environmentally friendly products. If you braid your hair, do curly hair, look for bloggers and potential clients.
Integrating a beauty salon into influencer content should be organic and interesting. Let them spend a day in your salon and show the services, their process and results in stories. Potential clients will see not only the quality of services, but also the atmosphere in the salon (and we already discussed above that this is also very important).
Organization of events and master classes
Organizing events and master classes in a beauty salon is a great way to promote. With its help, you can both attract new clients and strengthen relationships with existing ones. Develop a program of educational and entertaining events that will be of interest to your target audience. These could be master classes on skin care, makeup workshops, etc. Such events not only increase customer interest and engagement, but also provide them with valuable knowledge and skills that they can use in their daily lives.
For example, hold an “open day” where clients are offered free consultations and demonstration procedures. Thematic meetings dedicated to certain aspects of beauty and health, for example, proper nutrition for healthy skin, would fit perfectly here. These events can be a great opportunity for a salon to showcase their services. Don’t forget to use social networks to promote these events: bright announcements, countdowns to the event and photo reports will help attract even more attention to your beauty salon.
Analysis of effectiveness and correction of promotion strategy
Tracking the results of advertising and marketing campaigns allows you to understand which methods work most effectively and which do not. Analysis tools and methods include web analytics, customer reviews. At the same time, you need to work both with positive reviews (be proud, publish, show) and with negative ones – eliminate weaknesses.
And in order for the brand’s reputation to remain clean, work with negativity can be carried out with the client in personal correspondence. This kind of “interception” of negative reviews helps companies increase both revenue and customer return.
Particular attention should also be paid to advertising performance indicators (KPIs): click-through rate (CTR), conversion, customer retention and ROI (return on investment ).
And of course, based on the collected data on the performance of current marketing and advertising efforts, steps are taken to adjust the promotion strategy. Target audiences, budgets, and distribution channels may change. At the same time, it is important to regularly analyze the effectiveness of campaigns and respond flexibly to how consumer behavior and market conditions change.
Effective implementation of changes in the promotion strategy helps improve brand visibility, attract new customers and increase the loyalty of existing ones. All this leads to increased sales and strengthening of the salon’s position in the market.
Let’s summarize
Successful development in the beauty industry requires a strategic and integrated approach that combines various channels and promotion methods – from SEO optimization to the development of unique selling proposition. Some methods will work instantly, while the results of others will have to wait.
