With the heavy emphasis usually placed on acquiring new clients, salon or spa’s often overlook maximizing revenue from existing ones, and fighting to win back those they haven’t seen in the past 90 days.
So, let's take a moment and walk through what customer lifecycle marketing can look like for your business and break it down into 3 steps:
STEP ONE: Consumer Awareness + Consideration + Client Acquisition
STEP TWO: Client Retention
STEP THREE: Client Win Back
Awareness + Consideration + Acquisition
Consumer Awareness
For the sake of speed and how nicely these first three pieces fit together, we’re going to lump them all into Step One.
First things first, they have to know you exist, what you do and why they should visit you or another business.
And according to some research, there are nearly one million hair businesses in the United States, so standing out from the crowd requires real effort.
Here’s a checklist of tactics to help you improve your salon’s awareness among consumers, improve the way you look once they do discover you, and tools to acquire new customers once they’re ready.
Location, location, location:
- Hopefully, you selected a location in a thriving area with lots of foot traffic. If so, the right signage will help let locals know you’re open for business. This is the number one, old-fashioned way to drive awareness.
Online Presence:
- Create a user-friendly and visually appealing website showcasing your salon's services, team, and contact information.
- Make it incredibly simple to book an appointment online with you, so use a robust salon booking software like BookedBy. Additionally, you want a Reserve with Google integration between your booking software and your Google Business Profile, as Google reports 79% of bookings entering via a business profile are new clients, on average.
- Utilize local search engine optimization (SEO) techniques to ensure your salon’s website appears in local online searches for the most relevant keywords to your business (i.e., your salon name, the services you provide, the neighbor and street address of the business, etc.). This includes making sure your website page speed load time is an “A” according to a GTMetrix speed test and mobile-optimize the website.
- Set up and optimize your Google My Business profile because as of July 2023, 84% of all searches happen on Google. Make sure you load out your Yelp and Facebook profiles to enhance local visibility and load it up with positive reviews from your most loyal customers.
Social Media Marketing:
- Leverage platforms like Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and Pinterest to showcase your salon's work, leveraging the company profiles as well as staff.
- Share high-quality photos and videos of hairstyles, transformations, and behind-the-scenes glimpses.
- Run promotions, contests, and engage with your audience through comments and direct messages.
- For a much more in depth look at social media marketing, check out our 16 Tips for Crafting Your Salon's Social Media Plan blog.
Partnerships and Collaborations:
- Partner with local businesses, such as fashion boutiques, spas, or bridal shops, for cross-promotions.
- Collaborate with local influencers or bloggers for reviews or features.
Special Events:
- Host launch parties, themed events, or seasonal promotions to create buzz.
- Offer discounts or exclusive services during these events to attract new customers.
Referral Programs:
- Implement a referral program that rewards existing clients for referring new customers.
- Consider offering discounts or free services to clients who bring in friends or family.
Community Involvement:
- Sponsor or participate in local events, charities, or fundraisers to enhance community relationships.
- Display your salon's work at local art fairs or community gatherings.
Collateral and Merchandise:
- Create visually appealing brochures, business cards, and other marketing collateral.
- Offer branded merchandise such as tote bags, hair accessories, or apparel to clients.
Local Advertising:
- Invest in targeted local advertising through newspapers, magazines, or community newsletters.
- Consider geo-targeted online ads to reach potential clients in your area.
- See more options below.
Professional Photography:
- Invest in professional photography for your salon's portfolio.
- Showcase these images on your website, social media, and marketing materials.
Consideration + Client Acquisition
Leverage advertising to pull in consumers with demand for your services and test the ROI. Combine a great Welcome Offer for first-time customers with personal referrals and/or positive online reviews, and you’re setting you and your staff up for success.
Online Reviews:
- Get your most loyal customers to write reviews for you. Consider automating SMS messages to go out to customers after each service completion with a link to your Google Business Profile, asking them to leave you 5 stars and some love.
- According to a 2021 report by PowerReviews, nearly 99.9% of customers read reviews when they shop online. Not surprisingly, 96% of customers look for negative reviews specifically, so make sure you quickly engage with negative reviews and attempt to salvage the relationship. Everyone’s watching.
Referral Program:
- That’s right, leaning on your loyal customers to recommend your salon to their personal network is the BEST method of attracting new clients, so consider creating an incentive for them to do so. It doesn’t have to be large because they already love you, but a special discount, a gift card, something small is you putting your money where your mouth is in thanking them.
- Don’t forget to do something personal and meaningful like a handwritten Thank You card. Never underestimate how far these human touches go.
Advertising:
- Social Media: Getting the proper amount of reach with social – short of going viral in your local community -- now requires an ad spend. If you’re savvy, you can experiment with promoting your posts or you can consult with a local agency. We recommend getting a couple of consultations before attempting it on your own.
- Google AdWords: Google is still the dominant search engine so any Search PPC should be tested here. AdWords is a bit more complex than the social media advertising dashboards, so we strongly recommend getting a professional consultation before spending money here. Also, adding Google Tag Manager to your website and placing the Google AdWords pixel there will allow you to cookie and retarget visitors to your website with ads as they move around the internet. Retrageting costs are typically much lower than search. Test both.
- Out of Home: Outdoor advertising, commonly referred to as out-of-home advertising (OOH), encompasses promotional activities that occur beyond the confines of a consumer's residence. This category traditionally spans a wide range of mediums, including billboards, bus shelters, benches, and various other outdoor platforms. In some markets, these ad positions might be cheap and if they’re well positioned in your geographic area, get quotes.
- Direct Mail: It’s not difficult to mail a slick postcard with a great Welcome Offer to the ideal households within a certain distance of your shop. Always worth considering.
The Welcome Offer:
- Your Welcome Offer can be something as simple as a 25%-off or a flat rate discount of $25. When you do your research about other comparable salons in your area, take note of what they offer to first-time customers.
Client Retention
Consumers with an emotional connection to a brand have a 306% higher lifetime value and stay with a brand for an average of 5.1 years vs. 3.4 years.
But how easy is it to lose a “loyal” customer? A study by American Express found 33% of customers will consider switching companies after just one instance of poor customer service. Yikes.
Why should you care? One customer experience agency found loyal customers are 5x as likely to repurchase, 5x as likely to forgive, 4x as likely to refer, and 7x as likely to try a new offering.
Pro Tip: Build a base of loyal clients and work hard to keep them. 🤪
Customer Loyalty Programs:
- Implement VIP loyalty programs that reward clients for repeat visits.
- Offer discounts, free services, or exclusive perks for loyal customers.
- Remember, consistency is key in building awareness. Combine these strategies and tailor them to your salon's unique brand and target audience for maximum impact.
SMS & Email Marketing:
- Build an OPT-IN SMS and email list and send regular newsletters with promotions, new services, and salon updates. You’ll need a salon and spa management software provider like BookedBy to manage that for you.
- Use personalized and engaging content to keep clients informed, interested, and purchasing.
Make It Personal (Staff and Shop):
- Handwritten cards for client birthdays or special occasions, featuring them on social (with their permission), or anything that makes sense based on your personal relationship with them. This isn’t a factory production line; every one of these clients is unique and ready to build a meaningful relationship with your business.
Deliver the Goods:
- You can get everything else right, but if the service provided is subpar, it won’t matter. Your brand is toast.
- Deliver a world-class experience from booking online, to arrival, to check-in, to service, to payment and post-service.
Client Win Back
What does trouble look like? If you haven’t seen a client in 90 days or more, that’s trouble.
Despite a customer becoming less responsive, there remains a 60-70% likelihood of successfully making a sale to them again. In contrast, the chances of success when selling to a new potential customer are only 5-20%.
Seek to Understand
You should have staff identify any known issues with a client in your salon and spa management software and before reaching out, make sure there weren’t any obvious issues. If there were, hopefully you’re not just discovering it now.
Be thoughtful in what you say and how you approach based on what you discover.
Exclusive Offer
It’s worth it to recover a lost client, so hit them with a meaningful promotional offer to return for a service, reactive a membership or purchase some product.
For a full breakdown on winning back clients, check out our blog Winning Back Lost Clients: Tips for Salon and Spa Businesses for more information.
Conclusion
To maximize revenue for your salon or spa business, especially for those in early stages of development, you need to perfect the entire client lifecycle, meeting the consumer at every step and delivering a fantastic experience.
