The salon chairs are installed, the mirrors hung, and the shelves stocked with premium hair products. Your dream of starting a salon has come to fruition—now it’s time to get your services on the map.
Delivering an incredible customer experience is your primary goal, but clients must first come through your doors. Whether this is your first salon or you’re a seasoned veteran, a savvy marketing plan is critical to growing your salon business. Get started with these 12 hair salon promotions.
12 hair salon promotion ideas
- Launch a loyalty program
- Start a blog
- Run a referral contest
- Offer incentives for customer reviews
- Post before-and-after photos
- Tag clients on social media
- Run seasonal sales
- Host an event
- Attend networking events
- Share educational content
- Send thank you emails
- Experiment with paid ads
Salon owners know the importance of having their chairs full. Here are 12 salon marketing ideas to bring in new clients and retain loyal ones.
1. Launch a loyalty program
If there’s one reliable way to attract customers, it’s a loyalty program. The average American shopper participated in 19 loyalty programs in 2024, the highest number in 10 years. In a recent survey, 84% of Gen Z and millennial respondents said loyalty programs played a role in deciding whether or not they continued purchasing from a specific brand.
You can use a loyalty program to incentivize repeat customers through rewards for their ongoing purchases. Setting up a loyalty program for your salon business will not only help bring clients in the door but also ensure they stick around for accrued perks or personalized experiences. Examples of loyalty programs include points-based systems that offer rewards, tiered models with escalating perks, subscription plans with benefits, and access to community-focused events with special offerings.
2. Start a blog
One of the best ways to spotlight your salon is by maintaining a blog. A blog helps you develop authority as you provide expertise on hair care, new trends, and styling tips, or share stories about you, your team, and your business. You can post a mix of long-form content, videos, and image-led posts.
Having a blog can highlight your business to hair enthusiasts and potential customers, as well as improve your rankings on search engine results pages (SERPs), drawing more eyes and potential clients to your business.
Shopify offers no-code templates so you can get your blog up and running quickly on your salon website. Link your blog posts to your online booking page so interested customers can easily book an appointment.
3. Run a referral contest
A referral program is a great way to incentivize loyal clients to spread the word about your business. These programs often include an individualized code or link for clients to share with friends and family. When a referral books an appointment or buys hair products using the link or code, the transaction is tied back to the original client to track their referral.
Although these programs often involve some sort of benefit for the client doing the referring and the new customer being referred (such as a 10% discount), such benefits aren’t mandatory. A referral contest—where the person with the most referrals wins a prize, such as a free haircut, products, or gift certificates—is a great way to boost involvement in your referral program. You can find smaller ways to reward everyone for participating in your referral program, like a free travel-size hair product, to help build client relationships.
4. Offer incentives for customer reviews
They say the proof is in the pudding, and this is particularly true when it comes to social proof—the concept that humans often make decisions based on the opinions and experiences of other people.
You can leverage social proof to your hair salon’s benefit by offering incentives for existing clients to review your salon services online. Give discounted or free services or a free gift to clients who post a positive review on social media platforms or review sites such as Google, Yelp, and Trustpilot. The more good reviews you have across an array of sites, the more likely it is that your business will appear in search results and catch the eye of people looking for a trustworthy, well-regarded salon.
5. Post before-and-after photos
Everyone loves a transformation story, especially if it includes great imagery. Capturing before-and-after shots of your clients (with their permission) to share on social media or your blog is a great way to showcase your talents and bring new clients to your salon.
6. Tag clients on social media
When sharing photos or videos of customers or business partners, make sure you’re tagging the people and products in your posts to ensure maximum engagement. Tagging clients makes them more likely to repost and share your content, expanding your reach to prospective new customers. Regarding products, tagging the hair products and brands your salon uses could pave the way for potential brand deals down the road.
7. Run seasonal sales
Seasonal sales can be a great way to push products and services around a specific event or holiday. You can offer discounts during traditional retail holidays (like Black Friday or Christmas), tailor promotions around local events or festivals that fit your brand (a special discount for graduation season, a state fair, or a music festival in your city).
8. Host an event
Parties, events, and social gatherings can help you build customer loyalty while attracting new clients. Consider events like a regular happy hour, encouraging existing customers to bring friends. The event can include giveaways, samples, and flash discounts on products. Consider partnering with other local businesses, like a neighborhood restaurant that can serve food and drinks, or a beauty salon that can offer quick makeup tutorials to go with your hair styling demonstrations.
Keep customers informed of these events and other client appreciation moments using one of the many offerings in the Shopify App Store for loyalty programs and email marketing.
9. Attend networking events
Networking is a great way to identify new clients and potential business partners, and community events are an ideal place to network. You can find relevant events by contacting your local chamber of commerce or browsing event websites like Eventbrite, Meetup, or community message boards. Social media platforms like LinkedIn and Facebook are also good places to find gatherings focused on a particular industry, theme, or location.
Target events tied to both your specific area of expertise and the wider industry. Attend gatherings across the entire cosmetology industry, for example, and check out events in your larger metropolitan area beyond your specific town or city.
10. Share educational content
For anyone who isn’t a hair professional, maintaining their look between appointments is easier said than done. Sharing educational tutorials on your blog or social media accounts with hair care tips and tricks can boost your reach while establishing trust with potential clients seeking specific salon services.
11. Send thank you emails
If you want to stay top of mind for your busy clients, send a thank you email after their service and encourage them to book their next appointment. Ask them to rate their most recent service and share feedback about your stylists, facilities, or products. It’s a personalized touch that can build goodwill while providing valuable customer insights to aid your salon’s marketing efforts.
12. Experiment with paid ads
Paid ads can increase brand visibility while you’re trying to generate buzz about your salon. With local SEO, Google Ads places your salon at the top of results pages when users are searching for hair services in your area. Meanwhile, social media ads on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, X, and TikTok can get more eyes on your business and, in turn, more customers.
If you’ve never advertised on social media before, this beginner’s guide to social media advertising is a great place to start.
Hair salon promotions FAQ
What is an example of a salon promotion?
There are countless promotional ideas for showcasing your salon services. One example of a salon promotion is a seasonal discount tied to a holiday or local event, such as a “New Year, New Me” sale that offers a percentage off for specific hair services in January.
How to promote a hair salon?
While there is no one-size-fits-all approach to hair salon advertising, there are several effective ways to get more clients into chairs. If you’re a salon owner looking to boost clientele, you can launch a loyalty program, run a referral contest, offer incentives for reviews, host events, and experiment with paid ads.
How do I attract customers to my hair salon?
Leveraging the power of social media is a good way to reach customers and boost sales. Posting before and after photos or videos, sharing educational hair care content, and reposting positive reviews can boost engagement and authority and help get new customers through the door.
