The beauty industry is very competitive – in fact, it’s one of the largest in the world. We’re sure you know of a few or even several stylists in your area. You also may have noticed that even in small towns, salons must compete for their customers.

So, how do you compete with local businesses or larger, more established stylists? The key is to get creative and thoughtful when it comes down to branding. This can make or break your salon business, but we’re here to teach you how to succeed.

Without further ado, here’s what every stylist should be doing to keep their branding relevant!

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How to Brand Your Salon in Three Easy Steps

Here are the steps you can take to branding your salon:

1. Identify Your Brand Personality

This is what you can think of as a collection of personality attitudes and values that you and your business represents. Start crafting your brand personality by asking yourself these initial questions:

1. What do you provide clients? Are you going for a posh experience? Or a laid-back experience?
2. What’s your style? (Modern? Retro? Classy? Consider how you would describe your style and the surroundings of your ideal studio)
3. What are your main interests? (Write down a few specialties...do you love color? Cuts? Skincare? makeup?)
4. How would your friends describe you? (Fun and outgoing? Supportive and caring? Sassy and energetic?)

Give the People What They Want

What do you specialize in? Is it nails, hair, makeup? A little bit of each?

When it comes down to branding your business, you need to consider what individuals want from a beauty service or product. Because most of your customers are probably women, the message you bring forward should be feminine and appealing to your target clients.

First things first: women love products that shout charm and elegance. They will come to you because they want to feel great about the way they look. If you’re not branding your business in a way that will appeal to them and make them feel comfortable, you’re missing out on a large pool of customers.

Therefore, branding is so important and necessary. As a stylist, you want to give the people what they want and show them what they want to see – a beauty salon full of charm, elegance, and fun!

Let's Talk Logos

Your company logo is essential. It’s what sets you apart from everyone else. This must be unique, capture the niche of your salon, and look good! We strongly encourage you to use a script font in your logo and branding. While script fonts don’t make sense for other industries like insurance fields, they make perfect sense when talking beauty!

We can all agree that script fonts flow nicely, brings a nice vibe, and is inherently feminine. These fonts can bring elegance to your beauty salon and will be automatically perceived that way at a glance!

What about the colors used within your branding? We often see hues of pinks and purples used because they convey femininity. Sometimes, green is used when the brand prioritizes natural products. This is a wise choice since customers will be able to associate the color with all things natural.

Logos are so great because they help you attract new clients in an instant. They convey your salon mission statement and brand’s personality right off the bat. When done correctly, they will appeal to your target market. This branded material should be on your business cards, website, t-shirts, social media accounts – everywhere!

So, if you’re in the process of creating a logo that stands out, you first have to ask yourself what you are offering your clients. Is it anti-aging products that will help them reverse the signs of wrinkles and fine lines? Or perhaps you’re a makeup artist who focuses on getting brides dolled up on their special day?

Whatever it is you do, settle on a logo that will communicate this. Make it memorable and appealing to a female’s sense of self-esteem. With the fierce competition around, you really need to stand out, so don’t be afraid to be different.

2. Set-Up Your Own Personal Booking Site

A beautifully designed personal booking website goes a long way and is incredibly important for building your business brand. It’s one of the first impressions that potential clients have of you. That’s why we designed an elegant, professional booking site to help you impress clients.

Immediately after you sign up, you’ll get a personal website set up and ready for you to customize. Here’s some of the creative content you’ll be able to include your brand personality in!

• Background picture
• Business name
• Website URL (what clients type into the internet to view your site)
• Photos of your work to attach to services
• Personal bio
• Business info (booking hours, location, etc.)
• Client reviews

To see how other stylists are killin’ it with beautiful booking pages check out this feature. It’s a round-up of some stunning examples of personal booking sites that our GlossGenius professionals have customized … and good inspiration for your own!

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3. Link Your Social Media Pages

The most popular platforms for beauty professionals are: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, and Pinterest. We've compiled a breakdown of the pros and cons for beauty professionals on each platform!

Facebook

Pros:

• Broadest audience (over 2 billion users!) so you can reach all demographics
• Easy to schedule posts
• Easy for potential clients to search for professionals by location
• Can link directly to personal booking site

Cons:

• Hard to build a following on Facebook because some studies suggest that people spend less time on Facebook
• The Facebook algorithm favors viral and sponsored content, so it's harder to get an organic following

Instagram

Pros:

• Highly active beauty community
• Most aesthetic platforms
• Content is widely seen and relevant to the beauty industry
• Filters make it very easy for people to post aesthetic photos
• Hashtag system makes it very easy to get discovered even without a large following

Cons:

• Hard for potential clients to search for professionals by location (pro tip: try adding your location and specialty to your Instagram bio so you come up in relevant searches!)
• No links permitted in captions for posts
• No direct way to schedule posts

Twitter

Pros:

• 280 character limit makes it easy to convey short, punchy messages and updates
• Retweets and hashtags make it very easy to get discovered even without a large following
• Easy to schedule posts
• Links permitted

Cons:

• Hard for potential clients to search for professionals by location
• Less active beauty community compared to Facebook/Instagram
• 280 character limit makes it difficult to publish longer messages

Snapchat

Pros:

• Stories are an easy way to convey a brand personality and directly communicate with clients
• More personal, making it easy to increase connections with customers

Cons:

• Difficult to grow a following on Snapchat without help of other social media platforms
• All posts delete after 24 hours, which means you have to be more involved
• Largely Millennial user base
• Lacks professionalism

Pinterest

Pros:

• Boards are great for developing an aesthetic and for inspiration
• Can be easy to use for references for services
• Active beauty community, but less so than Instagram

Cons:

• Hard for potential clients to search for professionals
• Content is widely distributed
• Difficult to develop a customer following

Regardless of which social media platforms you decide to set up, make sure that on your profile, you clearly display:

• Name and business information
• Location: Make it very clear for your clients to know exactly where you are located so that they know they’re near enough to book you.
• Booking Site Link: Putting your email or phone in our Instagram will probably mean that you’ll get more calls and emails with people trying to sell you amazing “weight loss pills” than clients trying to book appointments with you :-) . The best way to avoid this issue is to use an appointment booking and management service and provide clients with the link to that. This makes you look like you take your talents and/or profession seriously and it will help attract clients!

Remember, the less your clients have to work to find and book you, the more business and beautiful work you’ll be able to do!

Make Your Beauty Biz Stand Out

Branding your business should differentiate you from your competitors. While the process of getting noticed can be simple, it does require brainstorming and careful thinking. Win new customers by asking yourself these three questions:

1. Who Is My Primary Competition?

If you’re the only eyebrow threading boutique in your small town, you’re set! That is until another brow specialist comes along. However, in most cases, all beauty professionals have some competition – their primary one being those who specialize in the same area they do.

Determining who you’re competing against will allow you to take the appropriate measures to set yourself apart.

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2. What Are You offering?

This may seem like an obvious question, however, it’s one that needs to be thought about carefully. Out of the 5 well-branded makeup artists in your area, how are your services any different? If you sell a product or offer a service that no one else does, perhaps you can focus on this throughout your marketing.

Moreover, if your competition doesn’t offer natural products, you could bring forward an organic brand. The important part is to bring new customers in, show them why you and your services are so amazing, and make them want to stay!

3. Who Are My Target Customers?

Are you targeting older women who are looking for a way to rejuvenate their skin? Or a younger crowd who’s thinking about what exotic color to dye their hair next? Consider your customers and who you want to attract to your beauty salon. Use this to guide your marketing and research the basic demographic in your area.

Having a solid answer to these three questions will allow you to construct a well thought out plan and begin marketing your brand. As you market your salon, you want to engage your existing clients while attracting new ones. Use social media, your website, and even old-fashioned methods like flyers when starting off. You’ll be happy you did when you see the results coming in!

As a salon owner, mastering the art of brand identity is more than just picking out appealing fonts or deciding on a color scheme. It's about crafting a narrative that speaks directly to your target audience, encapsulating the essence of your beauty or hair salon. Your brand strategy should not only resonate with your vision but also translate seamlessly across every facet of your salon business.

We hope you’re doing what you love, and your customers will notice this, too. Part of being successful is specializing in a profession that you’re good at, enjoy, and understand the benefits in and out. You then want to share these benefits with everyone who walks through your door.

The beauty business is among the largest in the world and one that’s very competitive. We hope the information within this guide will help you build your brand and give you the edge over competitors.

Stay true to your vision, embrace innovation, and keep your brand voice harmonious.

Our last word of advice is to be patient, consistent, and have fun! It’s then you’ll see your salon brand grow and your profits rise!

Interested in using a smart, automated personal assistant to grow your business? Sign up for your free 14-day trial of GlossGenius here!