Free guide to promoting a hair or beauty business

Discover new marketing ideas to help you promote your beauty salon or hairdressing business to potential customers in your local area more cost effectively, with this free marketing guide from Selectabase.

Running a beauty salon or hairdressing business is hugely popular. In fact beauty salons, hairdressers and beauty consultants are consistently some of the most popular types of new business to start up in the UK, according to monthly data from New B2B.

This is often because running a beauty business can be an attractive lifestyle choice, particularly for women wanting to build a career or return to work.

But to build a successful beauty business, new skills are often required and challenges need to be overcome. One of these challenges is how to promote a small beauty business to potential local customers, but on a tight budget.

There are in fact a surprising range of marketing tools available to beauty salons and hairdressers, which can be easily afforded and managed. And which don’t require extensive marketing knowledge or prior business knowledge.

To make the process easier to understand we have broken it down to core components;

Targeting your Marketing

But before you can embark on a marketing campaign you need to decide what type of establishment you are running and who it will appeal to. For example does your local market consist of trendy youngsters, the affluent middle aged, busy mums, or career women? Each will have different needs and requirements so find out who your local audience is then tailor your services and prices accordingly.

Once you’ve identified your market, follow our guide to promotional tools and ideas you might like to consider, to help you attract more of the right type of customer to your establishment.

Direct Mail

Direct mail is a particularly attractive option for promoting hair and beauty businesses. It can be targeted closely to those potential consumers most likely to visit you, is relatively low cost, and can be easily implemented without specialist skills. Plus the results are far more measurable than other promotional methods.

Start off by sourcing a good mailing list from a reputable source. There’s a huge range of lists available – for example one list company, Selectabase, offer many lists which are well suited to the hair and beauty sector:

• The Birthday Mailings list gives you details of local consumers who are just about to celebrate a birthday. Target the women on the list with a special offer or a birthday treat like a makeover or full beauty treatment. A birthday mailing is usually always welcomed, especially when it includes an exclusive offer.
• The Consumer Profiles list identifies the majority of individuals names and addresses in your Town and County. A variety of lists can be selected based upon demographics such as age, affluence, marital/household status, lifestyle habits and postcode area. You can mail out a specific offering to a niche target audience or promote your complete service to a wide audience.

Mail your list with a good quality mailer and a letter personalised to each person, explaining clearly the benefits your establishment has to offer. You can also include a unique voucher for them to redeem, which will help you measure the success of your mailing.

Events

Special events are a good way to give potential customers an extra incentive to come out and spend money with you, when they might not normally do so.

You can organise your own regular events, maybe on a quieter day of the week to boost sales. Look at ideas to match the interests of your market such as inviting in other complementary services such as aromatherapy, head massage or pedicures.

You can also link in events with seasonal events or activities such as major social events taking place locally.

PR

Build up good relationships with your local press and use these contacts to get regular coverage for your business. Let them know about special events and news stories such as new staff or services on offer, and always accompany your press release with good quality photographs to improve the chances of it getting published.

If you find a particularly good publication, then ask if you can supply them with free regular health and beauty tips in return for promotion of your establishment. And don’t forget local radio: there are lots of local stations now, who are generally very keen to feature local businesses with a story to tell.

Website

Make sure your business has a simple but good website, full of the information people want to find, such as prices, how to book, parking, location, directions, opening times and so on. Think about including a guestbook for customers to add their comments, and use the website to get visitors to sign up for special offers and news sent by email.

Press Advertising

Many small businesses rush to use press advertising in local press or directories, without considering the other options, or whether advertising is the best way to promote their business, particularly as advertising may be reaching many people who are simply not your target audience.

Press advertising can be great for raising awareness of your business, but only if it is used on an ongoing and consistent basis. For example, print a voucher or special offer every week in your local paper, and you’ll eventually feel the benefit of this repetition. However dabbling in occasional advertising rarely achieves results.

Summary

In summary, there are a wide range of affordable and effective marketing tools available to promoter a health, hair or beauty business on a local level. All it takes is some organisation, a little effort and some imagination to achieve significant results from your marketing spend.