You’ve worked hard to become a great hairstylist. Are you frustrated that your hairstylist marketing efforts aren't working as well as you’d like them to? If so, the following tips will help you find more clients to fill all your available bookings.
Focus on Your Branding
Branding effectively helps separate yourself from all those hairstylists who are competing for your clients. Your branding encompasses everything you do inside your business, such as:
• Your personality
• Your business cards
• Your logo
• How you market
• How you act
• Your style
• How you dress
Use Public Relations
PR should be a big part of your overall marketing strategy. Help a Reporter (HARO) is a service you can use to help get free press. Sign up for HARO for free in exchange for reading three emails each day. Send a pitch out to any reporter looking for a stylist to feature. Your efforts with HARO might end up with getting featured:
• Online
• On television
• In a magazine
Public relations gets your brand out there and will attract new clients.
Use Cross Promotion & Partnerships
Take the time to network and find out who you can partner with for cross promotions. The idea with partnerships is to find partners with similar audiences but with who you don’t directly compete. An obvious partnership might be to sponsor a local fashion show. Offer your services for free in exchange for getting mentioned as the stylist who is doing all the work.
Another partnership might be with a local nail salon. Each of you can refer clients between one another. You might also hand out each other’s business cards as a part of your cross promotion campaign.
Offer Promos & Specials to Clients
Test out different promotions and specials to see how well your clients react. For instance, you might offer 50% off a haircut if your client uses you to also dye their hair. Provide cards to clients where they get a free service after coming in ten times. This gives people the incentive to keep coming back.
Use the holidays to offer special promos. You might give a July 4th special where everyone gets free hair styling and blow dry after buying a cut and color. Sell styling products and give clients two-for-one specials. Get creative with this idea.
Make Use of Social Media
Use your social media accounts to generate local clients. Post pictures on Facebook or Instagram, for example. Highlight pics of you working on clients, before and after pics, client selfies, specials and deals, etc. Use video testimonials so people can hear directly from clients how much they love your work and personality.
Post questions and get engagement going on your social platforms. Shoot video tutorials and post them. Tutorials reveal your skills. Once people see how good you are, they'll want to visit your salon.
Use Email Marketing
Capture the email addresses from all clients. This gives you the ability to stay in touch and email out this month’s specials. Don’t forget to get the email addresses of prospects who find you on social media. This allows you to turn local social media fans into clients as you entice them via email to come in for one of your deals.
It shouldn't be hard to gain more clients as a hairstylist. It simply requires focus in terms of your marketing efforts. Use the above tips and you'll soon see more people flowing into your chair.
