Attracting the Right Salon Clients (Tips & Strategies)

Get more of the salon clients that you want in your chair. We’re covering the salon marketing ideas and strategies you can use to attract the type of clients that purchase what you offer at the right price and that stay loyal for longer.

So I talk a lot about getting more new clients, but it’s not only about getting more clients. It’s also getting the right clients,

  • Who do you want in your hair salon chair?
  • Who do you want in your therapy room?
  • What is the right client that you want to attract to your business?

So that’s what we’re going to focus on this week.

How to Get More of the Right Salon Clients

John: And to do that, I invited My from the hair salon Peach Stockholm. 

My: Hi guys. Good to be here. 

John: It’s great to have you here. That video that we recorded some weeks back where we talked about marketing. 

We talked about how My is getting a queue of clients to her salon through her marketing. Really insightful videos. If you haven’t watched that, I strongly recommend you do so, but anyway, today we’re going to talk about clients as well.

We’re going to talk about salon marketing, but we’re going to talk about how to get the correct type of clients to your business.

So I know you’re doing a lot of good work with this in your hair salon today. So do you have any tips that you could share with the viewers today on what you’re doing in your salon to attract the right type of clients? 

Create the Right Vibe for Your Salon

My: Yeah, actually, I have. One of the biggest things that I thought a lot about when I started this salon was having the right vibe.

And also the vibe that my employees and I send out. So we have a very cozy, homey feeling in the salon because that’s the type of relaxed clients that we like. So if you want an upscale salon, you should have that type of interior and that type of style. 

John: So you feel you’re getting the clients that match your interior.

My: Nowadays, I think you have to be more specific. You can’t just be too broad. You have to have a signature style and show this is what our salon represents.

We like a type of cozy style. So you get a good coffee, a sit-down type of song. So I think that’s important. 

Yeah, the way you communicate, the way you come across, you will naturally attract the type of people who like that vibe you’re creating.

I think it is important that you post pictures of what you do on social media or your website. Like before and after, and maybe some of your real, really good postings and good videos. You can post what type of treatments that you really like to do.

I like long and blonde hair. We like to do highlights. Post those types of pictures, because then people will search both on Google or on Instagram. 

If you hashtag it and they search on this type of hashtag and then you will get the clients that like blonde hair or long hair. You will not have to go to short itchy cuts if you don’t like that.

John: And do you work with that deliberately. If you want to promote a certain service, then you’re sharing more of those images? 

My: That works. We have a hairstylist that does a lot of extreme colors.

So she posts a lot of extreme make-overs or extreme colors. She will get that type of client. You can see it’s really obvious. 

John: That’s awesome. I think that’s something that maybe it’s obvious when you hear it. But it’s something we don’t think about, and maybe we’re starting to put out stuff because we think it looks cool, but then we’re getting the clients.

They want that thing. That’s not specializing in this. So be mindful of that. 

My: Back in the days when you didn’t have this marketing channel that you have today. You would get clients dropping by, or someone stopped someone who looked good in the hair. But now you can post and show we like this style.

I like to do long balayage type of color. So you will only get that type of client. 

Discounts Can Attract the Wrong Type of Salon Client

John: Okay, cool. And you said you had three tips, right? 

My: When I started a salon, I looked at many promotion ideas, how to get the name out, and how to get all the new clients.

And I discovered that we have, at least in Sweden, we have Groupon or Let’s Deal, where you can get a discount price. But I discovered that the clients that get the discount price. They usually do not come back. So they’re usually not the client you want in the salon. They will not want to come next time and pay full price.

John: Yeah. No, I think that’s a great point. And it’s something we’ve talked about on the channel before as well. Because if you start to do discounts on your core service. Or you do discounts on your haircuts nails or basically whatever your core services are. You will set the expectations with those clients when they come in, and for them to start paying full price after that will be difficult.

And you attract the people who are bargain hunters. And they go in for wherever the offer is. It’s a dangerous place to be. 

My: Yeah. I think it’s better if you want to do a promotion for new clients, it’s better to offer a small gift with the first treatment or something. Maybe that’s more specialized for them.

When you get to hair treatment, we will choose the mask for you, and you will get it free of charge. So it feels more personalized for them and more like a giveaway. So they will pay the same price next time. And it will not feel pricey for them. 

John: It’s about instead of giving away a discount, you’re adding more value instead.

So they’re paying full price, but yes, they get more value. So yeah, because sometimes you need some promotion to get people in. But if you can add something more that makes it more valuable rather than doing discounts.

Cause then you probably attract the wrong type of client. And I have a video where I go deeper on this and how can you create those promotions and avoid discounts? 

Yeah. Good. So that was like three tips for attracting the right type of client or the type of client you want in your salon. Just a quick recap.

  1. So the first one was around your brand, the environment you create, everything from the interior to the feel and the vibe of the salon. And because that will attract the type of person that likes that vibe.
  2. And the second one was about the content that you share online. If it’s Instagram or if it’s your website. But that if we’re talking about hair or anything else that will attract that type of client.
  3. The third tip we talked about was discounts. How that can be dangerous and that you start attracting clients that you don’t want.

My: Yeah. And I also think when you get the type of clients you want, you also get a much higher satisfaction rate in clients because they like the vibe. They like the style you do because you’re usually better at what you like to do. You get more comfortable and like the clients, and the clients will also like you.

John: That’s a great point as well. And at The Salon Business, we put a lot of focus on creating a salon brand, and when you create your brand who you’re targeting,  your target client is really at the center of this. Does this start with understanding who do you want in your chair?

Because it doesn’t matter how you communicate unless that matches with who it is that you want to get into the chair. So that’s a fundamental part of branding.

And there is a course available at The Salon Business where we go into branding brand strategy and how to define your target client.

Good. So I look forward to seeing you in the upcoming weeks.

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