Marketing a Salon – Empower Your Stylists | Ep. 31

Are you standing in your own way?

As a salon owner, your passion and vision brought your business to life, but that same drive can actually stifle your growth — especially when it comes to marketing a salon.

Here’s a hard truth: A tight grip on every aspect of your business could be suffocating its potential.

Let’s talk about why loosening that grip might be the best move you’ll ever make.

Watch the short:

And watch Episode 31 of Marketing 100 below, where salon business experts John and Kayle get spicy about why salon owners sometimes need to get the f*ck out of their own way…

Continue reading for our practical guide on how to give your team marketing freedom, build trust, and create better content without micromanaging every post.

Marketing a Salon – Team Content Creation Basics

Today’s marketing landscape, particularly in the beauty industry, is all about consistent content creation and authentic storytelling.

But here’s where many salon owners stumble: they overthink, overanalyze, and ultimately, under-deliver.

You’re probably guilty of this if you:

• Obsess over what competing salons are doing
• Spend hours perfecting every social media post
• Hesitate to let your team share their work
• Feel the need to approve every piece of content

Here’s the thing about content marketing: you never really know what’s going to resonate.

Often, it’s the simplest, most authentic moments that take off – not the perfectly polished posts you spent hours crafting. Sometimes, what feels basic to you as an expert is exactly what your audience needs to see.

It’s often those things that you talk about that are so intuitive and just come natural to you that you don’t even think they are valuable to share – it’s often those that actually are the most valuable.

Related: Check out our guide on team-driven salon social media marketing for more specific strategies.

Trust Your Team (You Hired Them for a Reason)

Remember why you hired your stylists in the first place? These talented professionals aren’t just there to do hair. They’re the heart and soul of your salon’s brand.

When you micromanage their every move, you’re not just frustrating them — you’re suppressing their potential to help your business grow.

You hire your stylists for a reason. You selected them for a reason, and you need to let them do their work. If there’s a problem, if there’s something that ends up being an issue, like culture fit-wise or procedurally, then that’s absolutely something that you should address and correct. But if you’re micromanaging everybody, if you’re dictating the way that everybody needs to do things in your business, then you’re probably doing it wrong.

Team Trust Building Strategies

The solution isn’t just about letting go. It’s about building a foundation where trust comes naturally. Think of your salon as a bouquet of personalities: they should be complementary but not identical.

You should hire people that think sort of like you, but are not the same as you. You guys should have a value alignment, but it shouldn’t be ‘this person is exactly like me or they’re the wrong person’, because that’s never gonna work. Especially if you’re that kind of personality, you can’t hire another you because you guys aren’t gonna get along.

This means:

• Clearly communicating your salon’s values
• Including your team in your vision
• Allowing for creative freedom within brand guidelines
• Learning from mistakes rather than preventing all possibility of them

The Art of Constructive Feedback

When you do need to provide guidance or feedback, approach it with intellectual honesty. Instead of shutting down ideas with a hard “no,” try these approaches:

• “I don’t know how I feel about that thing, but give it a shot.”
• “I’m actually uncomfortable with that, and here’s why. What do you think?”
• Frame concerns as conversations, not commands
• Keep feedback constructive without being controlling

Team Content Creation Guidelines

While day-to-day social content should flow freely from your team, there are times when more structure makes sense:

• Schedule regular brand/media days for polished, strategic content
• Create basic guidelines for brand consistency
• Let different team members experiment with different channels
• Allow for varied content types based on team members’ strengths

Successful Staff-Led Marketing Examples

When you finally step back, something magical happens. Your team starts creating authentic content that resonates with clients. Effectively marketing a salon relies on that exact authenticity.

Those casual behind-the-scenes Instagram stories, quick TikToks of color transformations, the genuine interactions shared on social media. They often perform better than overly polished, micromanaged content.

Marketing Delegation Action Steps

Ready to start delegating your salon’s marketing?

1. Start small – pick one area where you can give your team more autonomy
2. Set clear brand guidelines, then trust your team to work within them
3. Focus on outcomes rather than controlling the process
4. Celebrate and learn from both successes and failures

The Bottom Line

Your salon’s success depends on your ability to step back and let your team shine. As counterintuitive as it might feel, getting out of the way might be the most powerful move you can make as a leader.

A Final Note on Leadership

If you’re feeling unable to trust your team with your brand’s voice, it might be time to examine the foundations of your business.

Are your core values clearly defined? Has your team truly bought into your vision?

Sometimes, what looks like a marketing challenge is actually a leadership opportunity in disguise.

The most successful salon owners aren’t the ones with the tightest control – they’re the ones who’ve created such a strong culture that their team naturally embodies the brand in everything they do.

Want more marketing guidance? Discover our complete guide to outsourcing or DIY salon marketing.

P.S. For even more proven salon marketing tips, don’t forget to check out the rest of our Marketing 100 series.