Salon Promotion: 10 Unique Ways to Sell Your Salon

With so many different beauty salons out there, it’s important for you as a salon owner to make sure your business stands distinctly above the competition. Having a solid salon promotion strategy is vital to getting your skills, story, values, and ideas out into the world. After all, a positive public perception of your brand is what brings in customers.

However, when you’re promoting your brand alongside bigger or more established companies that have a lot more money, standing out may seem like a herculean task.

But it doesn’t have to be. With the right tools, motivation, and innovation, you can propel your salon to the forefront of people’s minds. The fact that you’re reading this blog means you’re interested in learning and growing as a business owner. And luckily for you, you came to the right place.

We want you to think big: it’s time for you to go out there and make your own history! Make a big splash, take a risk, go where you’ve never gone before as a business owner, and do something truly extraordinary.

When you’re promoting your brand alongside bigger or more established companies, promoting your salon may seem like a herculean task.

Competing and promoting your business the same way that established salons do would be a big mistake. However, if you choose to write your own story, and tell it in a way that is different, cutting-edge, and unique, then you might just find yourself with a success story of your own.

Today, we’re sharing 10 unique ways that you can sell your salon. Interested? Keep reading!

1. Create A Competition 

People love competitions, so why not create hype for your salon by searching for the next great self-taught nail artist, hair stylist, or makeup artist? Set the stage for an exciting and new competition that your community would love to be a part of.

To promote this competition, you’ll probably have to use those tried and true promotion methods (such as going on the radio, canvassing non-competing businesses, putting advertisements in your local paper, putting pamphlets in people’s mailboxes, going to your local recreational center, blasting it across social media and more). However, rather than promote your salon as just a place to do your hair, your nails, or your makeup, you would be promoting your salon as a place for a little healthy competition.

People love competitions, so set the stage for an exciting and new competition that your community would love to be a part of.

The prize could be a chance to work at your salon (and hey, if you need any help then you could use this very example as your chance to find somebody!) or you could offer full salon tools and an internship to the winner. Mixing business with competition is a delightful way of selling your studio to the public as a place for professional advancement on top of stellar service.

2. Run A Fun Contest 

This suggestion, unlike a competition, is for new and returning customers. It’s for the lovers of beauty who don’t have a professional background. In this case, the idea is to run a unique contest that would intrigue and attract new customers.  

• Worst picture contests

Try running a contest where people submit photos of the worst haircut they ever had, the worst manicure they ever had, or the worst makeup they’ve ever gotten, and give the prize winner a complete makeover or a service in any area that you specialize.

• Caption contest

If you don’t want to do the worst picture contest, how about involving your staff in a fun contest where you get your potential and current customers to caption the best photo you share on your Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook?

Hairstylists, perhaps you might recreate a Great Gatsby party scene, with a unique twist, and see what kind of story your followers come up with. The best caption wins a hairstyle of any genre they choose!

The idea is to run a unique contest that would intrigue and attract new customers.

Makeup artists, why not do a 1920’s makeup and ask them to caption the scene. Maybe a well-dressed woman has just been jilted by her lover and has to go back to her cold husband. The possibilities are endless and the prize is, of course, a full face of gorgeous makeup.

For all salons, this is your moment: it’s your chance to grow your social media following and your brand’s reputation. If you participate in this kind of contest, you can demonstrate that your salon is an easy-going place that isn’t afraid to have fun with their staff and be lighthearted with their customers.

3. Use Guerrilla Marketing Tactics 

The expected way to gain attention from your local community and beyond would be to put an ad in the newspaper, go on the radio, network, rely on word-of-mouth, and hand out and stick flyers everywhere. Guerrilla marketing means deploying unique, original, or different methods, which perhaps neither you nor anyone in your industry has used, in order to get big results for a small amount of money.

We’re not here to be ordinary, we want to leave our mark. So why not do something edgy and unique for the sake of your business?

Some unexpected guerrilla tactics, which are eye-catching, exciting, and unique are:

• Write in chalk on the streets

If you’re a hair salon that wants to cater to children, then this would be a wonderful opportunity for you. I would suggest that you draw a hopscotch on the sidewalk in front of your salon. This would signal to parents and children that you’re open for their business and it would generally say a lot about who you’re targeting.

For adults, who perhaps have outgrown hopscotch, you can certainly use chalk to appeal to them too. Try drawing a large arrow pointing to your door or to your sign – that lists the current deal and services that you offer. Additionally, if your building allows it, you could write anything you wanted about your services or the special features of your salon there too.

Guerrilla marketing is deploying unique, original, or different methods, which perhaps neither you nor anyone in your industry has used, in order to get big results for a small amount of money.

• Commission a mural

Can you imagine how epic and fantastic this would be? There are few things more enthralling than public art, and this is one of the biggest and most stunning ways to tell your story. Remember the chalk we talked about earlier? Here’s a brilliant way to get attention. Commission an artist to craft something big, right outside your door!

• Surprise strangers with a free makeover!

This one might be risky, especially if you pick someone who already likes how they look and doesn’t feel the need to change. But take the opportunity to put your name out there by offering up your services for free.

Go to your local mall, station yourself towards the center, and stop people as they’re shopping and introduce yourself, your services, and your offer. You might be surprised at how many people would be receptive to it, and they might tell their friends all about the makeover they received from your salon!

And with this suggestion, you can totally have fun with it: prepare in advance by getting speakers and microphones (of course, getting permission from the mall) and make it an event – complete with free cupcakes, drinks, and lots of loud music.

4. Do Something For A Good Cause

There’s nothing that beats making the world better place, but perhaps second to that is earning a genuinely good reputation for your business. So mix beauty and giving back!

There are a few ways that you can do this effectively:

• Have people come into your salon, for one day only, and pay what they think your service is worth, and donate the proceeds of that to the charity of your or their choice.
• You could also put on an event, where you ask for testimonials about someone that your customers and potential customers feel is the most deserving of a makeover. Perhaps they’re the mom of four kids and they don’t have time to care for themselves, or maybe they’re someone who works overtime hours with the elderly and they never take the time to care for themselves.

You could advertise this on the radio, in the newspaper, on social media..shout it out! You’re doing something to give back, so you have to make the public know that this one is for a good cause!

5. Spearhead A Speaking Engagement

If you count yourself as an expert on hair, nails, or makeup, you should get out there and share your story!

Plan a speaking engagement in your community, and invite hair, nails, or makeup experts to speak about the beauty industry and what it takes to open up your own salon. This could also be a chance for you to network with other salon owners and help promote each other.

If you count yourself an expert on hair, nails, or makeup, you should get out there and share your story!

You can also teach the next generation by making that speaking engagement for young or new beauty experts in your field. Not only will this solidify you as an expert in your field, but it will also put you on the map as a leader who owns a company that cares.

6. Launch An E-Book Or Video 

There are always emerging hair, nail, or makeup artists who are interested in making their big break. How do they do that? They study! So why not be one of the ones who are smart enough to promote your brand while helping other people?

Launching a free e-book or a how-to video is no small task: it takes a lot of time, effort, creativity, and determination. But the payoff is too good to sit on the sidelines. You never know who might rise the ranks, perhaps a few years after you release your book or your how-to video, and say that they got their start watching your how-to video or reading your e-book!

7. Host A Webinar 

Rather than making a one-off kind of video or e-book, consider hosting a web-based seminar where you teach people how to do hair, skin, makeup or nails on a weekly or monthly basis. Not only will this help the next generation, continuous output of content will do wonders for your salon branding!

8. Start A Podcast

Podcasts are extremely popular today, with people opting to listen to them on their commute or while at the gym. Look into starting a beauty broadcast, where you share your expertise. Maybe you could focus on the difficult sides of running your own salon, the pitfalls you encountered along the way, and any message or advice you would share with up-and-coming salon folks. 

Try this: to keep it interesting, why not have a different person come on the podcast each week? You could even have salon owners of different disciplines on as guest speakers. That would keep things fresh and exciting on your podcast!

9. Start A YouTube Channel 

Talk about buzzwords and touchy subjects: this is your chance to do something edgy and controversial like covering celebrity looks and discussing whether or not those looks suit them. We all know that celebrities have personal stylists and makeup artists, so why not put the spotlight on those people too? Talk about how good or bad of a job they did on all of their clients and explain what you would do differently.

Do you want to know how celebrity stylists, who go forth as beauty experts, are made? They talk, and they keep talking until someone listens!

Talk about buzzwords and touchy subjects: this is your chance to do something edgy and controversial!

10. Create Exclusive Offers and Events 

And last but not least, another way to promote your salon is to put on unique and exclusive events to celebrate your clients and thank them. Luckily, there is software on the market that allows you to. With WellnessLiving’s all-in-one management software solution, you can create private events for your valued customers, and you can even sign your customers up for a monthly membership so they can enjoy your services with one monthly fee.

Wondering what that looks like?

Ayanna, the owner of Pedicure & Shoes 2 GO Day Spa said:  “I tried another software and it wasn’t a fit for us and it was more expensive. Starting out, every dollar counts, and your software offers the same, if not more than the other software and it was less expensive. That really helped me out because it was something that I really needed. We just launched our monthly memberships, and everyone loves them. The monthly membership gives them a break for doing something that they already do. One of our memberships is unlimited mani’s and pedi’s, and they can come at least once a week. With the software, we can put our memberships in there, and it bills them every month…we make them feel special.”

Take A Chance

Today, you have to work smarter, rather than harder, to make it. With numerous salons, all within blocks of each other in most major cities and in moderately sized towns, your competition is fierce. To stand out, you have to be different.

At WellnessLiving, we aim to do all that we can to help you be successful. With our all-in-one management software, you won’t be able to do everything that we suggested in this blog, but you will be able to manage your clients and your business better. There is so much you can do with our software, and it’s going to fit your business right down to the letter. Book a free no-commitment demo today!