• Featured
• Industry

You may be a dab hand at nail services, but without informing others of your offerings, only friends, family and those ‘in the know' making a booking.

With competition rife in the beauty sector, you need to ensure you're promoting your services in a number of ways to attract and keep your clientele. Don't just think that marketing is a one-off thing, and if you've filled your appointment book for a few months you can rest on your laurels. It's so important to keep marketing your treatments and your business to stay at the forefront of clients' minds – both existing and potential.

Branding

Aligning your business with quality, professional nail brands and promoting this will really enhance a sense of trust from your clients. You also need to consider another side to branding, in how you brand your business to portray the image of utmost professionalism.

“Branding is a very complex set of elements that create a snapshot or impression to others of what your business is all about,” comments Tom Ferris of Blackwell Ferris Marketing. “Brand is a combination of the naming of your business, choosing brand colours, the font you use, the logo design and icons.

“You also need to consider the way you communicate with the public in writing and face-to-face, the way you design and decorate your place of work, the way you do business, the topics you talk about openly, customer service and many, many more elements – and that's just the side of branding that you have some degree of control over. The rest is actually built by people's embedded perceptions.

“In your business branding, consider consistency and simplicity,” Tom continues. “Make it easy for your customers to recognise you and what you do, and make sure you work by these principles.”

Invest in a work surface and backdrop for your nail pics that's customised to you courtesy of Blackwell Ferris. The hard wearing, boards are printed in full colour with your logo and matte laminated to reduce camera glare.

“Displaying posters or window stickers on your salon window or on your car will not only raise awareness of the services you offer and the brands you use but promote your business in your local area with minimum effort,” reveals Angie Gunter, head of education at INK London.

“Offering branded treatments in your salon means that you will have instant access to all of the marketing material, public relations and word-of-mouth advertising that the brand offers,” reveals Anna Pickford, head of marketing at High Definition. “By offering a branded treatment, your business will instantly become part of that brand's wider ‘family'; it will want your business to do well, and for clients to enjoy their experience, and as a result, will offer a range of much-needed support to help boost your business.

“If you're thinking about adding a branded treatment to your salon, ensure you make the most of every feature available to you,” Anna continues. “Salon finders are a great tool and many brands offer them to make sure clients can find a salon that specialises in their desired treatment, all at the touch of a button.

“Choose products and services that offer a point of difference, that will help you set yourself apart from your competitors. Do your research, find a brand whose values and business align well with your own, and you'll find you reap the rewards.”

Print Advertising

Offering your clients something physical to hold and look at can remind them about you and your services – and be given instantly, with no need for a Wi-Fi connection!

An effective way to advertise, consider promoting your services via flyers and local newspapers and getting some business cards printed to hand out while out and about. Ensure it is visually pleasing, with not too much text. Add offers where possible and it is vital that all your contact details are clear.

“We use a local publication to advertise our salons and to promote our monthly offers within our catchment area,” comments Annie Carr of O'Nine. “It is dropped to every house locally, free of charge so every potential client gets a copy. This format is particularly worthwhile if you know the reach of the publication.

“It is also good for building a long-standing client base within your local community as its readers expect to see an advert from the salon every month. You can tailor the ads around local events such as prom packages or race days.”

Jennifer Linton and Jaye Macdonald, co-directors at Aberdeen salon, Linton & Mac, see flyering as beneficial to business. “Take advantage of hundreds of potential customers on your doorstep by passing out flyers during your salon's downtime.

“Not only will your staff get to meet prospective new customers, but they can talk about your services and help promote what you do to people they meet on the street.”

Social Media

By far the most effective way to reach a number of people in minutes, social media advertising is speedy and easy – and ideal for a beauty- loving audience that favours visuals.

“Social media is open and accessible to everyone and since it has several platforms, there really isn't an easier way to market your business,” comments Angie Gunter, head of education at INK London. “Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and Pinterest are just some of the options available to you and millions of others, so choose perhaps two that you are most confident with and focus on adding content to them.

“Choose your pictures carefully and attract attention by creating ‘different' or ‘funky' nail designs – using relevant hashtags to help gain more followers. Advertise your price list, as clients are often put off by having to message directly to find out what you charge, and ask questions to engage followers and clients into a discussion.”

“Seeing is believing, so one of the best ways to market your businesses is by showcasing before and after images that demonstrate the services your salon offers and the quality of the results,” adds Heather Hughes, UK Director at NovaLash. “Achieving the perfect before and after picture is one of the most popular and powerful ways for salons and beauty therapists to promote and sell their services.

“Higher quality images of a variety of treatments can be achieved with fLASHlight – an on-the-go illuminating lighting system from NovaLash. It's great for salons and therapists to capture professional looking images and also doubles up as a perfect retail product.”

It's important to stay ‘on-brand' when using social media for your business. Ensure that the tone of your posts represents your business' personality and posts are professional at all times. Avoid anything controversial and stay relevant to your audience.

Liv Hopkins, marketing manager at Izabelle Hammon Ltd, suggests:

“Use generic hashtags, such as #nails, #nailart or #nailinspo to gain a wider audience, and then create your own that are unique to your account, so as your business grows, you'll have a solid portfolio of work under one simple hashtag.

“Localised social media advertising can also help increase your client base. Boost your Facebook posts and narrow down the advertising audience to within 25 miles of your business. This means that your post will be put in front of users that live close to you and have a prior interest in nails and beauty – a perfect potential client base on your doorstep!”

Angie Gunter recommends asking clients to ‘check in' to your business when they arrive:

“This will then notify all their friends and followers where they have been which can generate interest – as well as raising your business profile.”

“Social media is no longer about followers, likes and numbers,” reveals Tom Ferris, owner of Blackwell Ferris Marketing. “It's pretty simple and very logical; it's about your customers and you, just like your business is, every single day of the week.

“Your business exists because of you and because of your customers. If you provide a service at a high enough level in a way that attracts customers, then you are able to trade successfully. After all, this is why you have a social media presence at all – to communicate and attract customers.

“As long as we remember to communicate and build trust with our customers, they'll keep them coming back. But how do we continue to build relationships with our customers? The answer is to make constructive use each platform's features in a consistent way.”

Telephone Marketing

It may be considered old fashioned, but telephone marketing is still an option to both interact with existing clients and target new ones. Don't just see picking up the phone as a sales-style pitch, but instead use it to communicate new information to clients and build a rapport.

“Sometimes, we can spend so much time seeking new customers that we forget to look after the regulars,” comments Dina Andreou, owner of Amai Salon, Sutton.

“More than 90% of your clients will leave you their mobile number when they book an appointment with you, giving you another great way to promote what is going on in your business,” comment Jennifer Linton and Jaye Macdonald, co-directors of Linton & Mac, Aberdeen. “Not only can you remind them of their appointment, but you can also share offers, incentives and any standby appointments that may be available. We only ring our existing clients when there is a fabulous offer – such as a stand-by appointment – to tell them about a change in their appointment, or to get feedback from them.

“We have worked hard to forge strong relationships with each of the 3,500 clients on our books, and we would never bother them in a ‘salesy' way. Educate your staff on how to have a perfect telephone manner – always be friendly, helpful, listen, and write everything down. Having a checklist near the phone can help with this.”

In part 2, Helena considers blogs, self-marketing, salon software promotions, and the importance of keeping your website up-to-date.