Women spend hundreds of dollars (possibly thousands) per year on beauty. They’ll buy all kinds of products and services, from nail and hair care, to makeup. Salons aren’t an exception to this rule. Many women frequent salons as a weekly habit, so there’s a large market out there to fish from. As a business, all that’s required on your part is the right strategy, and you’re set. After all…

Competition is Intense.

Just because you have a large market, doesn’t mean you can slack.

Competition is intense in the beauty care business. This is a niche where customers look for “high quality” services. They seek to be loyal to the best. And most of your customers are willing to spend much money for that privilege.

As a business, your marketing strategy needs to reflect this quality. You have to stand out from other businesses in how you present yourself. And this means that “stale” marketing techniques won’t serve you. Today, we’ll assist you with this marketing element. We have a guide on effective lead generation for salon businesses. Specifically, we’ll be looking at using FB for this process. It’s quite cheap. Expect to spend less than $15 for each lead you generate. This is little money for a conversions, and it’ll help your business grow fast!

Wait – Can’t I Just Use Offline Marketing?

We don’t recommend it. As we mentioned before, competition in the beauty business is intense. You need to constantly present quality. Plus, you need to establish yourself as a quality business, while keeping up that reputation. However, there are other reasons why offline marketing isn’t effective. That is, it’s extremely old school, and it has many drawbacks that online marketing lacks.

The Basics.

Most salons exploring offline marketing rely on word-of-mouth. They expect clients to get family and friends to join in on the salon. And this is done in hopes of turning the salon into a beauty spot with a social bent.

It turns a salon into a meet-up spot, which makes it a “regular place to visit.” And this means return clients.

Others rely on print marketing. They’ll post themselves in local newspapers, hand out business cards, flyers, etc.

Now, both methods seem good on paper. But they come with a fair share of problems, those being…

1.                   It’s expensive. They’ll cost you much money. Lead generation offline means buying space and being sociable. Thus, it is a grind that requires time and many dollars spent.

2.                   It’s old. Everyone is doing offline marketing. This means you’re fighting for breadcrumbs, getting less for more.

3.                   It’s wasteful. You can generate x10 more leads online than from the offline world. And this makes it less stressful.

4.                   It’s ignorant. Consumers today aren’t offline watching TV, reading newspapers, or listening to radio stations. They’re online surfing social media, watching videos, and checking emails.

 

Speaking of Ignorance – All Your Customers are Online.

With a plethora of free information online, why buy newspapers and magazines? Why bother reading flyers? The internet provides information at a user’s fingertips. It’s much better and easier than exploring TV with limited channels and scheduled ads and shows. The world of digital (specifically FB marketing) should be your future. And we expect your competition to be there. So why not head there yourself, and claim a good share of leads in your area?

 

Emphasizing Cost Efficiency.

Most case studies show that Facebook is a platform that generates cheap leads. Expect to spend anywhere from $4 – $14 per lead (depending on your location). As you can see, when you compare this to many advertising methods, you find it flawless and cheap. You can end up with excellent returns, mainly by cutting your ad budget, while maximizing your efficiency.

To give you another number – ad spending on FB provided a return of 1500%+! That’s a lot for your money. In other words, every $1 of advertising generated $15 in returns!

Plus, when you consider that lead generation produces long-term customers, you find yourself in an even more favorable position. This means that your ad spending return will be even greater!

Without Further Ado – Let’s Get to the Guide.

This guide uses “Facebook Lead Ads.” Setting this up is simple, where all you need is a FB page and ad account for your business.

Once you set those up, go through the following steps…

#1 – Define the Service You’re Promoting.

Salon services are wide. You never really do one thing only. You’re usually beautifying multiple elements of your customer’s final look. As a result, we recommend you hone in on “specific services” when marketing. Besides that, make sure you pick a popular service. Something that’s really needed by your demographic should be your “prime selling point.”

#2 – Define Your Offer.

Need an effective form of advertising? If so, start making sales. Take a service’s normal price, and put it on sale for a while. This’ll bound to attract the attention of new customers, especially the “reluctant” type. As an example, maybe you offer a service for $50. If so, consider dropping the price tag to $35 for a limited time. This’ll make you more competitive in your market’s eyes. And it’ll invite those willing to try. Now, many businesses worry about offering sales. They assume that it’ll hurt their bottom-line, eventually putting them out of business. So if that’s your way of thinking, we recommend changing your perception.

You need to think of your customers as “long-term revenue sources.” They’ll show up to enjoy your service once, twice, and years down the line. So in the long-run, what you pay to acquire them as leads means little to the potential revenue they bring!

#3 – Set Up an FB Lead Ad.

We’re assuming that you already have a business page on FB. If so, you might be thinking of the standard “boost post option.” This isn’t what we’re looking at. Instead, we’re going to explore a different form of advertising – one that your customers will appreciate.

Lead Ads – The Details.

Quick definition – lead ads are a special FB ad that lets your customers get the info they need, and without leaving Facebook. It does so by letting you capture and store the person’s info (with their permission).

This system has a few advantages, being…

1.                   It lets a customer stay in FB to view your ad- so they can stick to your business page.

2.                   As a business, you never worry about web design. In fact, everything occurs within FB, making the process more manageable for you.

Additional Advantage.

Don’t want customers to fill long forms? We understand those wishes. After all, forms and surveys can be annoying for some customers. The lead ad model saves you that trouble. Since it captures the customer’s information for you, you get to know what they want, without much effort! You’ll find that this saves you time designing questionnaires and inquiries. And you can focus more on marketing and the service you offer!

Next Selecting Your Target.

You have to set who can see your ad, and who cannot. And with Facebook’s lead ad systems, you can do so with great accuracy, manipulating many factors. The first would be location. Through “geo-targeting,” you can select the addresses of those that’ll see your ads. This allows you to localize your salon’s ad reach, saving you money as you advertise to the right people.

Now, if you check the settings, you’ll find that the default is usually “the entire US.” This is obviously something you adjust. And you’re most likely seeking to advertise in a locus of a few miles from your business. But location isn’t everything. There are other factors to consider. Geo-targeting isn’t just restricted to location, but it also involves age and gender.

You can select the age groups that can view your ads. You can shave off different ages, catering to a niche market that suits your services. Plus, you’ll obviously set your gender settings to women. After all, you’re running a salon – which is a prime female hangout spot!

 

As You Can See…

Your targeting criteria are endless. The previous metrics we mentioned only look at basics. There are other more sophisticated criteria you can follow, including ZIP code, education level, etc.

But there are also industry-specific criteria. For example, you can narrow down your target customers to those seeking…

•                    Cosmetics.

•                    Beauty Salons.

•                    Eyelash Extensions.

You can take it a step further – and seek women within specific income ranges (ensuring they can afford salon visits). You can do so by targeting women that visit luxury retailers, seeking those that like certain expensive brands. Another thing you can do is define household income. For example, you can see women in households earning $100K to $250K per year. And if you think the previous criteria are tight, then worry not. You can reach thousands with the previous settings. It’s just a matter of knowing the customers in your area!

Designing the Lead Ad.

The next step is image selection. You need to select a photo to represent your ad. For the sake of simplicity, we recommend the single image option. From there, it’s time to make a form. Through this form, you’ll quickly collect the customer information for your lead ad. The previous two steps constitute most of the work. You need an image that’s good enough to attract attention. And obviously, your form inquiries have to be short and on the mark. From there, your ad’s design is almost finished. All you need are a few artistic tweaks, and your ad is ready for launch!

Other Info to Collect.

The lead ad forms let you collect tons of information. However, note that the more info you ask for, the more likely you are to repel customers. So be conservative in what you ask, and pick what’s relevant for a good service. That is, email, name, and phone number are enough. Other info (especially the personal type) might be asking for too much.

But that’s about it. From there, you’re set. Just log into Facebook, and download your leads on desktop!

So What Do I Get From This Campaign?

As we mentioned before, the price tag per lead is quite low. It’s as little as $4 per individual, and as much as $14 – that being the higher end, and for more expensive locations.

However, when calculating results, note that a lot has to do with your marketing skills. The way you present yourself can get you many leads on a small budget. And that’ll shave down the cost per lead to the lower ends.

Other than that, the use of Lead Ads is an excellent strategy. It’s definitely much cheaper than traditional marketing, which is exhausting and a dozen times more expensive.

Basically, whatever your level of experience is online, you’ll be advertising for cheap. Just remember the following points below, which are key to your lead ads strategy…

The key to this strategy is:

•                    Provide a good offer.

•                    Accurately select your targets.

•                    Keep it creative – don’t be bland and copy.

By getting the previous 3 points in order, you guarantee that you stay ahead of competition!

Final Note.

Experimentation matters. There is no universal price tag for marketing. The budgets that work for one person many not for another.

After all, you might be a normal salon for everyday visitors. Or, you might be a luxury salon, with a different target market and different needs.

Those details weren’t covered here. But that’s because they’re quite personal, and they’re related to your brand identity and business model.

But in summation, keep in-mind that digital marketing should be your new marketing focus, and FB is where to start. So get on the platform, and start your marketing!