Four Simple Ways to Drive New Bookings
While your regulars keep your business steady, new bookings keep your business growing. Whether it’s a lack of marketing or too much competition, driving new bookings can be difficult without the right tools and techniques in place. Luckily, we’ve got you covered — explore four simple ways to attract new clients to your salon.
Polish Your Online Presence
To get discovered by new clients, your business has to show up online. Today, clients can find a seemingly endless number of stylists online through a swift Google search. Therefore, in order to stand out from the crowd, you need to optimize your online presence.
If a client searches for a stylist in their area and lands on an outdated web page, they’ll quickly move on. To prevent clients from dropping off your page, comb through your public profiles (your personal website, Yelp, Facebook, Instagram, Styleseat, etc.) and ensure each platform is up to date with your current services and hours of operation. Use high-quality, up-to-date photos to document your recent work and include a clear link and call to action (such as your StyleSeat profile) so any new visitors know exactly how to book time with you.
Make your StyleSeat profile even more accessible by adding service descriptions to your Service Menu and photo tags to your Photo Gallery. Adding details to your profile will not only help your page rank higher in the StyleSeat search, but it will also help you land more bookings —as new clients are more likely to book a new service that has a description.
Leverage Referrals
Today, word of mouth holds some serious marketing power. As a result, your existing customers are some of your most valuable promotional tools. Encourage your clients to recommend your services to a friend by running a referral program. When your client refers someone new, treat them both to a reward. Use an incentive that is motivating and valuable such as a discounted service, a free service after 10 referrals, or free salon products.
Focus Your Social
When it comes to finding new clients, it’s important to be where they are. Luckily social media tools like Instagram, Facebook, and now Tik Tok present a free and easy way to reach new audiences. Today, social media strategy takes more than a selfie and a cookie-cutter filter. To take your social strategy up a notch, take advantage of tools like Later, which allow you to plan and schedule your Instagram posts before they go live, and Canva where you can choose from thousands of free social templates.
If you’re running social media across multiple platforms, you might be spreading yourself thin. Instead of trying to create new content for Instagram, Facebook, and Tik Tok, focus your efforts on one handle and repurpose your content across each channel. Once published, you can simply share content from one app to another or use tools like Hootsuite to manage each channel in one place.
Take advantage of your platform to run promotions, announce last minute appointment openings, and highlight new services. With every message, make sure your followers know how and where to book you. Include a call to action in each post and add your booking link in your bio. Once your followers know how to book time with you, take every opportunity to lead them in that direction.
Run a New Client Promotion
New client promos are a great way to capture new business and get new clients into your salon. You can use your social channels to advertise your promotions and drive brand awareness. Once a new client lands on your page, convince them to make their first booking with an enticing promotion.
When it comes to creating your promotion deal, evaluate your most popular services. Choose a service that is lucrative (to ensure you won’t lose money on a discount) and offer a 5 to 15 percent discount for new clients. Alternatively, you can offer a discount on a service bundle, if a client books a full cut, offer a 15% discount when bundled along with an extra service. Once a new client is in the chair you’ll have the opportunity to build long-lasting beauty relationships to keep them coming back.
Use StyleSeat’s Marketing Program
Win new clients without lifting a finger with StyleSeat’s marketing program. With our New Client Connection program, you choose the type of clients you want and we’ll get you discovered. As your partner in marketing, we’ll run ads and promote your profile across search engines and social media to match you with long-lasting customers.
When we connect you with a client, you’ll give them a private rating to help us find more clients who are the best fit for your business. Plus, we’ll continue working for you even after the appointment is over by encouraging your new client to leave a 5-star review, pre-book their next appointment with you, and refer their friends.
Whether you’re building your clientele or looking to grow your top services, adding new clients to your list is critical. Explore more ways to optimize your StyleSeat profile and grow your client list with StyleSeat.
