How to grow your salon clientele: Strategies for success

Long-term relationships with clients are desirable for any salon business. They are the recipe for steady sales, business expansion, and publicity. However, attracting clients is a challenging task without an existing client base. Therefore, it is necessary to make every effort to promote your salon’s services.

The purpose of this blog is to provide tips on how to grow your salon clientele. These ideas will help new salon owners and those looking to expand their existing client base. Choosing the right strategy for attracting clients will make this process pay off in spades.

Basics of building a salon clientele

When starting your hunt for clients, it’s important to focus on three key areas: emphasizing effective customer service, building trust, and bringing it all together for the satisfaction of every client. Here’s how each of these areas contributes to sustainable growth:

Quality service. This is the fundamental principle of customer retention. If clients are happy with the hair, nail, or other beauty services they have received, they will always come back. To achieve this, stylists must be professional and use high-quality products to ensure clients are delighted with the results.
Trust-based relationships. Clients return to stylists they trust. You need to establish rapport with them and listen to their wants and needs before you get down to business. Many clients like to talk about their personal lives, problems, and successes, so active listening is the pillar of a trust-based atmosphere. This kind of connection guarantees that new clients will become regulars, and as a result, they will recommend you to others.
High satisfaction rates. Customers tend to remember when they have been treated as special. It is your attitude and small extras that can make them feel this way, such as tea, coffee, or a gift.

More actionable strategies

Building a salon clientele from scratch is a tall order. The challenge is how to properly establish a client base when people haven’t had the opportunity to see your work yet. Below, you will find strategies with benefits and practical tips to apply after opening a salon suite without clientele.

Bringing it out in the open with digital marketing

Here are the key digital marketing tactics that will help you effectively attract new clientele for your salon business:

Social media marketing. Instagram and Facebook are perfect for salons to target because they allow you to visually demonstrate your work. Post before and after photos to captivate potential clients. Hashtags should be geolocalized, and advertising should attract subscribers from your region.
Google My Business (GMB). Having a GMB profile helps your salon show up in local searches and on Maps. This means that any potential client can find your salon, contact information, and opening times and even read what others are saying about your studio. Edit your profile from time to time.
Search engine optimization. Let’s make it clear: this strategy will only work if you are looking to run your salon in the long term. SEO takes time to pay off and is great for expanding your clientele as you get going.

How to increase salon clientele through referrals and reviews

You can start by gathering recommendations and positive reviews. Word of mouth, for example, is one of the most effective forms of business promotion, and implementing a referral program is one of the best ways to make it work. Your clients should be interested, so offer them a reward for their recommendations. This could be a free procedure, participation in a master class, or a discount on their next appointment.

As for positive reviews, you can ask satisfied clients to rate their experience by describing their impressions of the procedure they have received or simply rating your salon online. The most effective way to encourage them to do this is to write a personalized text message or email thanking them for visiting and including a link to your reviews page.

Experience shows that potential clients trust reviews they can read on Google, Instagram, and Facebook.

How to increase clientele in a salon through education and engagement

Clients, especially women, are eager to try new styles and learn new techniques and treatments, so offering them will make your salon popular. Here’s how you can stay ahead of the game:

Zero in on trends. New beauty trends, products, and techniques are emerging all the time. To keep your customers interested, you should know what’s generating buzz right now. Simply checking out the most popular blogs and following leading beauty professionals’ social media accounts can help you stay on top of trends.
Seminars and training. These could be events where clients learn to achieve a certain look at home or harness some beauty techniques. Such events can position you as an expert and make customers feel connected to your brand.
Continuing education for stylists. To become a successful business in the beauty industry, you should focus on learning new techniques. Explain to your stylists that they should continue their education by attending seminars or courses.

Maintaining and expanding your clientele

Online ads and word of mouth are the answers to how to build a salon clientele fast. That said, attracting clients is one thing, and customer loyalty through repeat visits is another.

The first impression should be as positive as possible. Create an atmosphere of trust and care, and make sure that the results match the visitor’s expectations. Then, allow clients to earn points or interest them in the 5th or 10th free treatment.

Small gestures go a long way. Simply remembering the client’s name and the product or music they like can have a positive effect on their experience in your studio. Such little things are phenomenally effective for building long-term relationships and expanding your client base.

Now you know how to increase clientele in your salon. When new clients show up, use the most appropriate strategies to engage them so that people always want to come back. Happy clients mean the prosperity of your salon.