Social media apps such as Instagram and Tik Tok have become an integral part of client attraction and retention in the beauty industry, both giving stylists the opportunity to not only learn about their potential clients demands, but allowing them to showcase the services they wish to attract more of! Our biggest pro tip for social media - the more you put into it, the more you get back. There are five principles of online marketing that will set you apart from the competition: to educate, empower, entertain, engage, and evolve.
The Breakdown of the Five Marketing Principles:
Educate: Through the power of social media, you have the ability to educate your clients and other potential clients on hair and extension care/health, beyond the limited time that they sit in your chair. Using your platform to educate grants you credibility to your target audience and gives you the opportunity to promote your favorite products and services.
Ex: “Struggling with hair growth but don’t want to commit to the financial responsibility and maintenance of more-permanent hair extensions, try Clip In Extensions!”
Empower: As a stylist, one of the most important considerations when offering hair services is to understand the clients challenges or insecurities with their hair, and then offer solutions to improve or enhance their natural beauty. Empowerment can be as simple as a hair transformation and as extensive as displaying your continued education as a stylist.
Ex: Showcase a client's transformation or hair journey such as their natural hair growth while wearing hair extensions.
Entertain: As social media continues to boom and more creators begin pushing their content, it has become even more critical to produce unique and original content to help keep the attention of your audience and attract new viewers. This is the part where we stop trying to just sell our services or our products, but add character, personality, fun, and most importantly storytelling.
Ex: Share amusing or funny images, stories, and videos to let your audience see a less serious side of you or a deeper insight of you by utilizing storytelling such as a challenge you overcame behind the chair.
Engage: This principle is the most forgotten one, but the one that goes the furthest. Your goal through social media should be to cultivate relationships, develop an understanding, and foster meaningful conversations. Engaging on social media is the easiest way to do all of those things, while actively keeping a connection to your clients that you may not be able to see all that often or the new clients you haven’t been able to meet with yet.
Ex: Continuously engage with your audience by using Q&A’s on your story, post your availability or your vacation dates, and offer polls to better understand what they would like to see from you.
Evolve: Similar to how you grow behind the chair through continued education and advanced experience, monitor and evaluate your marketing efforts online to analyze what works best for both you and your audience! Social media tactics are constantly changing, and your efforts should change with them.
Ex: Each time you try a new marketing strategy, such as implementing a giveaway or a new product sale, consider how you can expand upon those results.
Content Ideas We LOVE and Recommend Trying:
Before & After Transformations: Extension installs, hair growth over time, your advanced work over a period of time to help build credibility, trust, and empowerment.
Offer Gifts, Incentives or Giveaways: Give back to your audience by offering discounted or free services/products, which in return may boost your audience because people outside of your audience will participate.
Use Testimonials: The easiest way to build trust with potential clients is to portray the satisfaction your current clients already have. Ask your clients to take a moment to submit a testimonial or write a review online. If you have trouble receiving them, offer an incentive such as 10% off your next order or service for a limited time or utilize a referral program.
Show Off Your Workspace: While people love seeing pictures and videos of the hair art you create, they are also curious about the place they will spend a lot of time in for their appointments. Showcasing your salon or studio is a great filler picture to elevate your feed and allows your audience to get a sneak peak of where you work.
Host Q&As, Polls, or Quizzes: Going back to engagement, these tools on social media allow you to gain insight into what your clients and potential clients want to see and learn, while also offering a space for entertainment! Not to mention, they also help boost your overall engagement on social platforms and help keep the attention on your page.
Utilize Reels and Tik Tok’s With Original and Unique Sounds: Social media platforms are boosting and pushing for more original content that has not already been posted on a different platform. This requires a lot of creativity, but can be the make or break to going viral on the apps. But do not worry, the video doesn’t need to be extremely elaborate or edited, and in fact a 6 second unedited video is just as worthy of going viral as a 1 minute video with tons of detail. Overall, just follow and create trends!
Your Favorite Products Available to Purchase: Selling products has become easier than ever, with social media at the tips of our fingers to help market our favorite groundbreaking products. Similar to showing off the place you work, take the time to showcase the products you can’t live without. Home care doesn’t end when your client leaves the salon after their appointment, but only begins!
Tips & Tricks: Educating your clients is a huge factor in protecting their investment and minimizing the amount of corrective work you will have to do behind the chair. Not only will they thank you for taking the time to help them understand the maintenance needed, but it will set you up with clients who are willing to take good care of their hair by investing in professional grade products and services. Take it a step further and help educate the stylists in your community about trivial learning curves you’ve endured as a stylist and watch your social media take off.
Tutorials: Whether it’s a product, service, or styling tutorial - keeping your audience and clients informed about the latest trends in the industry is just as important as offering the most up-to-date hair services, such as hair extensions. A video tutorial such as how to style your extensions, what your hair care routine should look like, or how to install your clip in extensions by yourself not only utilizes the educational, entertaining, and empowering principles of marketing, but allows your audience to better understand your role in the industry and leaves for fewer questions when it comes to your profession.
Show Who You Are: Too often, stylists forget that they should show their audience a little bit about who they are, their personalities, and what they like to do outside of the salon or studio. As your audience grows, you should reintroduce yourself, your niches in the stylist community, and your availability to book. This helps you attract the type of clientele you would like while also making the new client process more comfortable and easier to navigate.
Whether you’re seeking new clients in your chair or wanting to build upon your current online audience, identifying your unique niche and marketing your brand goes a long way. Overall, but authentic, follow and create trends, build relationships organically, utilize your resources, focus on your messaging, and most importantly - be consistent and just post it!
I love this blog so much! Having trouble coming up with content is REAL! 💗