Even if your salon is sandwiched in between other salons (as often can be the case in today’s competitive market) there are tried and tested ways how you can attract local customers in your salon.
Today I’ll share with you the secrets to local customer attraction success through these 7 ways.
1. Yelp for salons
one of the cool and useful aspects of Yelp is its ability to show up in the local search at the very top. For example if your salon is in Salford of Manchester and users are searching for salons in Salford, provided your salon is listed in Yelp, the chances of the salon appearing ahead of other salons in the search is quite high.
Another attraction of Yelp is of course the client reviews. More reviews and more 5 stars your customers give you in Yelp the best. So give your clients a good reason to Yelp for your business. If you have not got your listing on Yelp, go ahead and list it today.
2. Google my business
Yelp is not the only local search. If you have not done it already, make sure you add your salon to Google Local, now known as Google My Business. When visitors search for the salon in your area, they will be able to find your salon faster if you are listed under local search. Make sure you add your salon name, website, address and phone number.
3. Google Reviews
Like Yelp, Google allows customers to leave reviews online. First things first, make sure your customer service skills is spotless, the receptionist knows her/his job and is excellent at client
communications, make sure the stylists are great at hair and customer care, after all you don’t want one unhappy customer to ruin
the salon reputation online. Once you are happy you have stylists and salon to die for, go ahead and encourage customers to leave reviews online. More 5 little stars you have, better for the business.
Salon Marketing School includes a step-by-step guide how to
effectively ask and receive reviews from the customers online.
4. Multi location salons and franchise salons
If you have a salon in multi locations or you are a franchisee, you need to think twice of your local marketing strategy. Firstly if you are a franchise salon, make sure you have reasonable control over your own
advertising, in particular in your local area, so having a strong relations with your mother franchise salon is important.
If you have your own salons but in multiple locations, make sure you
understand who manages the local advertising (if it’s not you), and how it is done correctly. Organization is the key, you may be doing all the right things for salon and may be having the best strategy
to attract local clients but if your salons are not perfectly coordinated and managed you may end up confusing locals. So take your time to check who is doing what and how.
5. Bing Local
Firstly make sure your salon is listed under Bing Local search, then optimize for local search even further. Bing allows business owners like you to Geo-target local clients. You can improve the radium targeting… for example, you can decide to target clients within 1 miles or 10 miles radius from the salon. You can also Zip code / post code target customers. You can easily view where your customers are coming from through clear reports that Bing Ads generate.
6. Facebook and not as you know it
Facebook’s “Place Tips” can be a really cool tool for local businesses like your salon. In a nutshell this smart new feature will use signals from the mobiles, WiFi and GPS to deliver location based recommendations and suggestions to your potential customers.
How does it work?
Imagine your customers will see “place tips” from Facebook, which could include your salon, at the top of their Facebook News Feed when they are out and about. If they see your salon, and tap to view more, they’ll find things like your salon offers, posts, photos etc.
The Place Tips only will appear for customers who give permission to Facebook to access their location. But the bottom line is, make sure your salon is ready for those people who like to see what’s around them.
7. Near Me
Finding your salon once upon a time required yellow pages, maps, phone calls etc. But today more and more people simply search for “salons near me” or “around me”…
But they are not just looking for salons “near me”, they are making decision to visit your salon based on what they find. They also
expect to make decisions instantly, so if you let your potential clients wonder what’s your salon about, or the website is not fast enough, or not very mobile friendly and they find it a little complicated to book the appointment you will most likely loose them, forever. So make sure when your local clients search for salons near them, your salon presence is ready at it’s best online.
Good luck, and don’t forget you don’t have to do it all yourself. Get expert help, delegate, pay an expert to manage your salons online presence. You can contact us at Salon Punk and ask for help. Tell us about your salon, your monthly budget and what you require exactly.
Happy local customer searches
Tamara Machavariani, from Salon Punk
We help salons get busy fast
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