How To Advertise Your Salon On Social Media

Advertising your salon business on Social Media can seem overwhelming, but in actuality it's like anything else you want to do well: practice, experiment, see what works, do more of that, see what doesn't, do less of that. Seems simple, but that really is the formula. We’re super excited to have Russell Khan, drop some knowledge on us in his area of expertise…Social Media Advertising on the two of today’s most popular platforms Instagram and Facebook. Russell is Director of Commerce at The Sasha Group (a Vayner Media Company), our gurus in all things Digital and Social Media marketing. At Young Nails, we’ve been fortunate to work with Russell and his team over the last 12 months. We can 100% vouch for the positive results.

SOCIAL MEDIA ADVERTISING 101
Did you know that being a salon owner and running your own small nail business is the perfect community to benefit from social media advertising? Everyone and their mother, is on Instagram and Facebook. Think about how many times a day you are on your handheld device sneaking peeks at IG for advice and inspiration on nails, hair, fashion, music, cooking, sports, dating, parenting or your next vacation. How often are you tagging friends and sharing your favorite memes with your friends and family? People are seriously attached to their phones as a resource for entertainment and information. It’s a radio, television, telephone, shopping cart and mail box rolled into one. With eyes and ears locked in, doesn’t it make sense that this here would be your target audience and future client base? You need to let them in and lead them straight through your door. Let them know who you are and all about what you do best...nails.

ALMOST NOTHING TO LOSE AND EVERYTHING TO GAIN
The goal with Social Media advertising is to run an awareness campaign for your business. If you’re not advertising your work on social media, you’re honestly missing out. It’s almost as if you don’t exist. Social Media is the current arena where businesses can be seen on a 24/7 loop. You can cast a wide net to lure in your ideal clientele. Creating an ad on Social Media has the same impact for a local small business as running a spot during the Super Bowl for heavy hitting household brands. It’s a numbers game with a huge audience watching and waiting. You’ve just got to tap in. For local salon owners, it’s very simple. The first step on this journey is to just get started and see where it goes from there. Stay open and kick it all off from a place of excitement not fear.

BREAK FROM THE PAST
Local newspaper ads and radio spots are expensive and ineffective compared to their Social Media counterparts. Don’t you think it’s time to break your business’ advertising and marketing strategy out from circa 1920 and kill it in 2020? Social Media advertising can take you and your business there; targeting today’s clients with a serious laser focus. Remember when online dating was considered taboo? Nowadays it’s easier to meet your soulmate online and it’s completely the norm! The dating apps work because you’re in charge of the vetting process. You select your ideal characteristics and attributes; their algorithm does the rest. Folks from all ages and backgrounds are connecting for fun or for life with an incredibly satisfying success rate.

GETTING STARTED WITH THE BASICS
Pick a platform. Get the lay of the land and get comfortable with it. You will need an online presence which consists of business accounts on Facebook, Instagram, and if possible a website. To get the lay of the land, check out YouTube for an easy tutorials to create these. Building a website and a landing page has come a long way in terms of ease. Many cool website design templates are inexpensive and readily available at sites like SquareSpace or Wix. Now be prepared to grow and expand into the marketplace.
Here are some examples of where to begin with your Social Media advertising.

On Instagram and Facebook, engage, comment, and post regularly. Be aware of which posts are drawing a lot of attention. These will be the best ones to use for your targeted Facebook ads.

Keep it simple in the beginning. Upload your top performing post/image/video to create your FaceBook ad. If you can filter your online shopping experience at Target, you can create a Facebook ad and give it a boost. A boost works if it’s created with a specific target audience in mind. You need to give FaceBook direction. Provide details about your target client. It could be just three differentiating criteria: Women/Within a 5-10 mile radius from your store’s geographic location/Ages 18-30. Eventually you can make adjustments expanding the area, gender, and age range.

If you need help with this, go to YouTube and look for a Facebook Ad Tutorial. Within minutes, you should be making this ad a reality.

Experiment with getting creative. Just get in there to test and try. Don’t overthink it. You will get better. It’s intuitive and FB makes it easier for you to come in and advertise. As a small business owner, you shouldn’t be afraid of losing $100 to a Social Media advertising campaign. Mistakes and misfires are all part of the business building landscape.

A TEN DOLLAR A DAY STRATEGY
Run your Social Media Ad. Make sure the ad offers a deal that’s almost too good to be true...something hard to pass up like a, “Bring a friend- Two for One Special” or “Free Pedicure with every Manicure” to bring them through the door. Promote this deal consistently for $10/day over 10 Days.

In the first five days, the goal is creating an awareness campaign to drive people to your salon’s online presence. Grab your Iphone. Walk around the salon. Take video and photos. Hey “CITY I LOVE” come check out our salon. We have a great offer. Redeem this offer now. Book now with code. Use can use specific software to book appointments and take the money right there. You can direct them to send an email with an appointment request with their contact info. You call follow up with a phone call or email. This is an example of the target audience being acquired. You now have their email and you can keep marketing to them. Stay in contact with content, salon news and promotions. $10 a day for five days; that is the first $50 ad spend. What kind of response are you getting?

In the last five days, continue with the $10/day over the last 5 days re-target the ad. Focus on specifically anyone who went to your landing page or watched the video but did not take the bait. Make another video or post another nail image that was well received. FaceBook can track who visited your website and provide these details for you. Adjust the message to re-target and acquire this tentative customer. This new promotion might say something like the deal is about to expire to activate a certain sense of urgency to respond. Rewind and Repeat.

CRAWL WALK RUN
There is a natural order of things. We learn by doing. We know a lot of nail pros out there may not feel comfortable with all the technical jargon. Don’t be discouraged. Stay curious. Take advantage of YouTube in the same way you use it to educate yourself about nail sculpting or nail art techinques. Here are three steps to build up your Social Media Advertising strategy.

Boost a Post on FaceBook. Advertise your salon on FB/IG. Make it so that your salon ad will pop up on phones anywhere within 10 miles of your shop. This targeted demographic will see your content and get your salon contact info. If you’ve ever wondered how the ads on Instagram seem to be reading your mind? This is how.

FaceBook Lead Forms. These interact with your ad and generate leads. You can take advantage of this by personalizing their experience with the salon with a call to follow-up, connect and book the appointment.

Develop Your Website As you gain momentum and an understanding of what advertising strategies are working for you; you may want to find a local developer. This could be a student to build out your website and help you attach FaceBook code on the backend where visitors to your website get a friendly reminder to come in for a special promotion. This is a more sophisticated automated marketing campaign.

**This is an adaption from our YN Biz Talk playlist on YouTube, “How To Advertise Your Salon On Social Media”.

Follow our YN YouTube Channel and click here to watch the full discussion here: