Imagine this: You've got all of your new beauty salon supplies, and you are ready to open your salon for the day. You've done all of the proper training, you have all the certifications, and you are excited to begin offering your services. You open the door to your salon, and… Zilch. Not a patron in sight. Where did you go wrong, and why are other salons pulling more clients than yours? 

Today, we will be providing you the tips and tricks you need to stand out from other beauty salons in your area and help you start ushering in more clients. When it comes to attracting clients, there is always room for development! 

Advertising methods are continually shifting. Clients have an abundance of information at their fingertips, and your job is to make sure that your salon is front and center. 

Here's a big tip: It's all about educational marketing. Let's dive into some areas that can help you stand out from the crowd and draw in loyal clients!

Highlight Your Training

Boast about your certifications. You are certified to perform your beauty services, and that is a big deal! Brag a little; you've earned it! Frame your certificate, hang it on your wall, share it on social media, and bring it up as often as possible. 

Certified beauty technicians are educated on the best techniques and materials to use. Taking the initiative to seek quality education and training in the beauty industry is a biggie. 

Keep in mind that being a certified professional is just the first step to becoming a genuinely excellent beauty specialist. Please don't call it quits after getting your first certification. Keep going to classes, expos, trainings, and anything else available to you. 

Never stop learning, and never stop putting in the extra effort to continue improving your skills. Clients will feel at ease, knowing that their stylist has the enthusiasm and determination to get a quality education. 

Share with potential clients your thoughts on the program you are certified through, the training courses that you have taken, and the supplies that you use. Your excitement and love for the brand will generate excitement for your client as well. 

Be knowledgeable about the products you use, and share your knowledge with your clients. An informed stylist makes for a comfortable customer. Take the time to answer your clients' questions about products, their contents, and their longevity. By being attentive to any concerns that your client may have, you help ensure the client will feel at ease about the treatment. 

Being passionate and open about the products you use and the reason you use them will help your clients see that you are well informed and are equipped with the knowledge you need to take on their business.

Perfect Your Social Media Presence

Post your work. Social media is hot, hot hot! More often than not, a client will check your social media before reaching out to you to book an appointment. Make sure when they do, they are met with something enticing! 

Use social media as a platform to show potential clients why they should be excited to come to your salon and why your salon practices excel above the others. Show them how fantastic your work is and make them envious of your previous clients' outcomes. 

Imagine This:

Imagine you are looking into getting a beauty treatment for the first time. You hop on to the internet and begin your search for the best salon in town. You find the two closest salons to your location and start investigating them. Upon opening the Instagram of the first salon, you are met with images of photoshopped models and stock photos of the products the salon uses. 

On the second account, you are met with stylists' videos applying lash extensions on clients, cute group shots of all stylists who work in the salon, and a collection of before and after images from real-life clients who had good experiences. Now ask yourself this: Which salon would you choose to go to?

The Lesson:

The biggest mistake you can make is posting too much content that isn't original to your salon on your salon's official social media accounts. We know it can be tempting. Photos of fabulous salon results are everywhere. Not sharing them can seem almost like a disgrace to the game, but you must resist. 

Here is why: When a client opens up your social media account and sees nothing but stock images, they will immediately assume that the reason you are hiding behind somebody else's content is due to a lack of social media-worthy results from your salon. Simply put, original content is Gold! 

Be Proud of your Brand!

You are trained, and as a result, you are using unique products that many other salons cannot offer. Use this to your advantage. Get on your social media accounts and show off what you can do with the skills you have worked so hard to perfect. 

Highlight the product that makes your salon special. My Absolute Beauty offers the perfect tool you need to get optimal lighting and video recording on all of your clients with our Beauty Lamp, which is available online through myabsolutebeauty.com.

Keep it Clean

Take a look around your salon and make sure it is clean. We are not talking "My judgemental mother-in-law is on her way over here," clean, we are talking "Push those beauty supplies over, this man needs open-heart surgery right now," clean. Seem like we are going overboard here? Not really. 

It is imperative that treatments be performed in a sterile environment to ensure that no contaminants contact your client's sensitive eye area. Clients can tell the moment they wander into a salon if it is a place they would feel comfortable getting beauty treatments done in. Make sure that your salon is inviting and clean.

When you are done scrubbing down your salon, get ready for a truth bomb: You have to look clean, too! Take the extra time to put yourself together and look professional and tidy every day. Personal hygiene goes a long way. 

Suppose you, as the stylist, are not presenting a clean outer appearance. In that case, clients will be less inclined to feel comfortable allowing you within such proximity to them for a lengthy treatment like lash lifting or other therapies. Leave no possible trace of doubt in client's minds that anything in your salon, including the stylists, has any form of dirt or germs on them.

Get reviews

Reviews can be the difference between sitting alone in your salon all day and having to schedule weeks in advance because your bookings are full. They are also one of the trickiest areas to improve for your salon. 

How can you make people take the time to write reviews for your salon? Most clients forget about you the minute they leave the salon and don't think about you again until it's time for their next touch up. Breaking that client mentality can be challenging, but there are a few tricks out there to help you obtain real clients' real reviews.

Strong Online Presence

The first step is to make sure that you have all of the platforms for reviews set up. Are you on Google? If not, create a Google My Business listing and start managing your reviews. Do you have a Facebook page? What about Yelp, Bing, etc. The list goes on and on, and you need to make sure to put your salon on as many as possible. 

Putting your salon on all of these sites will help customers find you through multiple avenues. Don't risk clients only being able to find your competitors through the search engine they use. Put yourself out there! 

Do a promotion

Pull clients into your salon by offering a discount in exchange for an honest review. A great way to do this is to provide a value deal on a selected treatment for clients who submit a review. By running this promotion, you will help your salon gain real reviews and entice customers to become regulars at your salon. Double win! Just remember, it is against most platforms' terms of service for you to ask for or encourage a "positive review," so make sure all reviews are welcomed and rewarded. 

Watch Your Business Grow 

Suppose you are passionate about your education and certifications, have a stellar social media presence, keep a clean salon, and have a significant amount of reviews to back up your expertise. In that case, potential clients will take notice. Don't be afraid to flaunt a little; you have put a lot of effort into your salon, and it is your time to shine. Putting forth the extra effort to build up your salon will pay off, but the results are not always immediate. Have patience, be consistent in your actions, and keep pushing forward. 

The most important part is not to get discouraged and never give up. Your salon will only grow as much as you allow it to. Working hard at building your clientele and putting in consistent effort to raise awareness of your services will be worth it. Before you know it, your salon will be the talk of the town.

Looking for a way to save? Use code: SPECIAL10 at checkout for 10% off your total purchase. Happy shopping!