Spending a few hours and effort developing your salon marketing plan for the year 2022 can assist you in improving earnings, attracting new clients, and keeping existing ones. However, getting started on it without enough groundwork may not provide the desired results.

Whether you’re operating a mobile salon, a tiny beauty shop, or a neighborhood hair salon with the best hairstylists, having a marketing plan is vital. It will only assist you in reaching your corporate objectives faster and better.

 Assess last year’s performance.

Consider how 2021 went for your hair salon business before determining what you want your salon to look like in 2022. What worked well?, What didn’t work as planned? What would require a few modifications to function effectively?

Create a dashboard that allows you to track, analyze, and evaluate your salon metrics while laying the groundwork for your company’s yearly objectives. Here are a few numbers to consider:

• The average number of appointments per month
• Calculate total revenue yearly and monthly
• Number of new clients gained during the year
• Number of clients
• The number of followers on social networking sites such as Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.
• Number of Visitors to a Website

This activity will give you an estimate of your company’s health and present situation. Then, attempt to connect these figures with your marketing efforts. For example, did you reach the maximum number of bookings when you went all out with your marketing campaigns? Did you boost engagement and followers on social media when you followed a specific strategy?

 Set A Goal

Determine your salon goals based on the results of the first step and your company’s health. You’ll need two types of plans:

• Short-term goals: For example, if you want to reach the following objectives in the next few months and all year, they should be separate.
• Long-term goals: The priorities you want your salon to have over time. For example, you may aim for “the go-to beauty salon in the region,” “an upmarket hair salon,” or “a meetup nail salon for women” as your goals. This will give you a sense of purpose and energy to continue marketing.

To set your salon business goals, you should first paint a picture of what you ideally want your salon to look like. Reverse engineer to develop your salon business objectives after that. Consider the following questions while thinking about what you want to accomplish next year: Saloon revenue, profits, new client acquisition rates, customer retention statistics, and social media.

Make a budget and stick to it

Consider marketing spending as an investment rather than a cost. You may be able to tell yourself how much you spent on your marketing efforts in 2021. And now that you’ve established your objectives, you know where you want to get. So figure out how much more money you’ll need to spend on marketing for things to work out the way you.

It’s critical to spend at least 5% of your gross revenue on salon advertising, according to a typical rule. However, to speed up your business’s growth, increase your marketing budget to 10-12% of revenue.

Revamp Your Website

In today’s age of technology, your online presence is critical. Unfortunately, many hair salons were forced to learn this the hard way during the epidemic. Furthermore, your salon’s website and social media may be powerful marketing tools. It’sTherefore, it’s crucial to devote time and effort to updating and improving them. This can help you attract and retain more visitors and acquire new consumers. Not only that, but it will also assist you in regaining the attention of your old customers.

You may give your website a facelift by switching color palettes, updating the text, and adding new photographs of your work.

Include your brand name in a nutshell, including its logo and slogan, on every one of your social media handles—request them to tag you in their photos, repost their photographs, post frequently to increase interaction and reach, and upload pictures from work. Lastly, don’t forget to post this on all your social channels.

Concentrate on retail stores.

The retail sector, which includes both physical and virtual stores, is a lucrative revenue source. You should devote more time and attention to your retail company. Consider how you feel about your current retail items. Ask for feedback to better understand what types of goods are popular among your consumers. Take a look at last year’s sales figures. There are many ways you may increase sales this year by restocking your company’s most popular products.

There could be certain goods that you know are excellent but haven’t gained the attention of your consumers. Try to offer these items at a discount and package them with the finest ones. Also, inform your existing customers about the salon services such as straightening, bleaching, waxing, etc. You can stand out from other hair salon businesses by even starting your range of retail products if that’s not the case currently. The exclusivity can work wonders!

Pro tip :

Cross-promotion with a local business in your region is another option. For example, is there a new trendy café or store that just opened in the neighborhood? Inquire if you may keep copies of each other’s cards and flyers, and consider setting up a discount scheme for mutual clients.

Don’t Forget About Advertising

If done correctly, salon advertising may be pretty successful. While Google pay per click has been around for a long time and is highly effective, Facebook and Instagram advertisements are becoming more popular. And why not? They allow you to target your audience based on gender, interests, geographical location, and other factors! Instagram is part of Facebook, so you may place adverts on Facebook as well! You may also create Instagram-specific advertisements. For example, Instagram will make it easier for you to reach out to a younger demographic. You can produce images, carousel advertising, videos, stories, and other things.

It is preferable to lead the visitors to a landing page to increase conversions when executing Google PPC advertising. In exchange for an offer, ask for their name and email address/phone number. Advertisements that provide a great new customer discount are more effective than others.

Pro tip:

 Another way of promoting your salon is by showcasing your skills by clicking pictures of your work and posting them on the salon website. You may, of course, hire a salon marketing agency to create and edit the video for you. However, if you don’t have the finances, all you need is a later-generation smartphone with your buddy or colleague.

Encourage client loyalty and retention.

Did you know that more than 5% increase in customer retention can boost income by 95%?

Customer loyalty is crucial for your salon’s success, as this may be seen simply by looking at the salon industry. Customers who have previously visited your location are critical in the beauty business, as they are the foundations of your company.

Creating loyalty programs at your salon can help you strengthen your client relationships. These will help customers become more loyal and invested in your services. There can be multiple types of loyalty programs for you to offer:

• Points system: Customers will receive more points for more lavish spending, after which the amassed points might be used to obtain rewards. For example, you may provide your existing clients with a complimentary haircut if you have a collection of 200 points.
•  Loyalty Punch card: This is an excellent customer loyalty program for novices. Give your consumers a punch card to punch each time they come in. The consumer receives a freebie item or service when the card is complete!
• VIP Memberships: Customers who purchase these memberships can obtain highly discounted rates over time.

Make your marketing plan resistant to a pandemic.

Here are some precautions to take to keep your salon marketing plan pandemic-proof:

• Promote online booking: Encourage your customers to book their appointments in advance. You can use a salon appointment system to make this job easier for you as well as your customers. 
• Encourage cashless payments: ‘The most contentious term is “touch.” Covid helped to create the term. The most excellent approach to go is cashless payment methods offered through secure gateways like Square, Stripe, PayPal, and others.
• Display the following items: Cleaning and disinfection procedures: Displaying your designs in your salon, on your website, and on social media will help you build customer confidence in your safety measures.
• Take advantage of virtual consultations: Reduce foot traffic in your salon and enforce social distance through virtual consultations offered over popular and safe video conferencing tools like Zoom.
• Videos on how to use home beauty kits: In the case of a salon closing, be prepared to offer DIY beauty treatments and retail products for your existing customers and social followers, as well as beauty kits from your shop.

A salon software may assist you in dealing with the pandemic and saving time, if not a lot of time. With its Zoom integration, salon booking software can help you take 24×7 online appointments, advertise pre-bookings for sessions, set appointment limits, accept digital contactless payments, and give virtual beauty consultations!

Make the most of your strategy!

Creating a beauty salon marketing plan for your company isn’t enough. To succeed, you must make it function.

Mark any significant dates and events like Easter, Valentine’s Day, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, etc., to create special deals around them. Remember to promote your salon’s anniversaries or other particularly significant occasions such as the school proms.

Last but not least, don’t make a plan that makes you nervous. Create a program that is doable and reasonable. Also, don’t forget to have fun while getting closer to your salon!

Conclusion  

It’s easy to get so caught up in putting people at their best that you may find it challenging to make time for marketing efforts. A salon marketing strategy for 2022 will serve as a map and keep you focused on the bigger picture so that you don’t lose sight of it due to daily chores!

Being a salon owner, you may find yourself so occupied with making people look and feel their best that it might be challenging to find time for marketing efforts. It’s difficult to discover new hair salon marketing ideas and tactics that work. But it’s only half the struggle. You still have to bring them to reality. Finding out how to do so isn’t always simple, and it might take time.