Nurture your neighbourhood: attract new salon clients

Potential clients who live and work in your immediate neighbourhood are a valuable new income stream for your salon. But how to attract them? We asked salon marketing expert Alice Kirby, founder of the Salon Social Club, to give us the lowdown on local marketing.

You see them every day walking past your salon window: people who are ‘neighbourhood regulars’.

They either live or work close to you.

But do they ever come through your door?

Don’t despair – there’s plenty you can do to turn that around.

Max out your salon social media

Your salon social is one of your most effective marketing tools to reach out to potential new local clients and tempt them in.

Try these salon social tips to make a splash locally:

1. Always use location tags and local hashtags (#Chester #HairChester) in your social posts to make it easy to get found.
2. Get involved with neighbourhood Facebook groups that share the same target audiences as your salon business. Build genuine relationships to raise your profile, join in the conversation and don’t treat it as one big advertising exercise for you.
3. Use social media to publicise your location including opening hours, parking, and public transport options.
4. Buddy up with businesses on your doorstep to market jointly using social media giveaways, in-salon raffles and offers.

• The prizes and offers are bigger and much more enticing.
• You split the promotional costs. And the work.
• You piggy-back on each other’s customer base. So your salon business gets seen by a new local audience – exactly the target audience you dream about.

When looking for potential social media marketing partners choose local independent businesses that serve the same type of audiences as you: florists, card shops, cake retailers, photographers, fashion, wedding-related businesses, restaurants, and jewellers.

Connect with local influencers

Effective influencers don’t have to be celebs with mega followings. Local influencers with an active, loyal local community of 1,000+ are a powerful way to market your salon services.

Once you’ve found one or two local influencers that you feel could be a good fit:

1. Offer them free products or services in return for a review.
2. Right from the start of the relationship be clear what you expect in terms of number of reviews and frequency.
3. Build up a good relationship with them with the aim of becoming a ‘regular’. A ‘drip-drip’ approach is always more effective than a few random reviews posted months apart.
4. Work with your influencer to publicise special offer codes for first-time visitors to your salon.

Targeted advertising, online and offline

Online advertising

You may be a bit daunted by the thought of advertising with the ‘big boys’ such as Facebook, but it can be surprisingly cost-effective with even £3-£5 a day enabling you to accurately target potential clients who live in your area. You choose how much you want to spend and how long you want your ad to run for.

Give it a go: there’s very little to lose and a lot to gain.

Google Business Profile

This free service is vital to ensure people searching in your immediate neighbourhood can find your salon, so don’t ignore it. Take some time out to set up your profile (it’s simple to do). You can list your opening hours and service menu as well as adding images and video for maximum impact.

Traditional advertising

Don’t ignore traditional ways of publicising your salon in the immediate area.

Your windows are ‘free’ advertising to the many passers-by each day so display your Good Salon Guide star rating prominently to give trust in your business, social proof and credibility 365 days of the year.

If your salon is in a residential area I’d also consider:

• Adverts in local community newsletters and websites.
• Door-to-door flyers.
• Leaflets for other local businesses to display (always return the favour).

You could even get some prominent free publicity in the local press by partnering with a charity or sports team that’s active in the area.

Get more reviews and testimonials

Nothing is more powerful than word-of-mouth recommendation. So once you start attracting more clients who live and work in the neighbourhood, your next goal will be to encourage them (and all your clients) to leave positive reviews on your Facebook and Google Business Profile.

How? Follow these simple steps:

• Ask selected clients to leave a review concentrating on those who are really pleased with the service you’ve provided. Don’t forget: strike while the iron’s hot and before they leave your salon.
• Avoid offering incentives to leave positive reviews, but you can always show your appreciation afterwards by offering a complimentary treatment or free product.
• Set up a friendly competition among your team to see who can get the most positive reviews each month. (Remind them they can’t offer incentives.)
• Always reply to positive reviews on Facebook and Google – don’t take your clients’ support for granted.

Good Salon Guide Members: Ask clients to pop a review onto your member profile. This ensures people searching for a salon in your local area see them and feel confident in your expertise and service.

Hair & beauty marketing specialist Alice Kirby can be found at Lockhart Meyer Salon Marketing and the Salon Social Club.