What is a beauty salon Instagram and why it's important
Instagram was initially created to share visual content – photos and videos. That is why it's the best way to promote any beauty business. So do not be shy to demonstrate your services, satisfied customers, and beautiful photos of beauty products and reviews.
The target audience of Instagram is girls and women from 15 to 50 years old who live all around the country. They love beauty content and are ready to spend to stay healthy and beautiful.
Any business connected to beauty must have a good-looking Instagram profile. Whether you own a luxurious beauty salon, an economy nail studio, or even a barbershop doesn't matter. We all like well-made visual content.
There is great competition between the beauty salons. To be noticed, you must stand out: create a unique visual concept, fill the Instagram profile with quality content, and set up the traffic. Let's take a closer look at the main steps you have to take to win in this "game."
Instagram and TikTok are trendy social media platforms, but their demographics and user base differ.
As of 2021, Instagram has over 1 billion active users worldwide, with a significant portion of its user base consisting of millennials and Gen Z. It is a visually oriented platform that allows users to share photos and videos. Also, it includes features like Instagram Stories and Reels for short-form video content. TikTok, on the other hand, is a relatively new social media platform that has quickly gained popularity among Gen Z and younger audiences. It focuses on short-form video content and has over 1 billion active users worldwide.
Ultimately, which platform is more trendy depends on your target audience and the content you want to create or consume. Both platforms have unique features and strengths that can be leveraged for different purposes.
Yes, Instagram can be a very effective platform for promoting a beauty salon. Instagram is a visually-driven platform, making it a great platform to showcase the work done at the salon through high-quality photos and videos. In addition, Instagram has many features that can be useful for promotion, such as Instagram Stories, Reels, hashtags, and Instagram Ads.
How to create and maintain a beauty salon Instagram
Creating a visual concept and strategy of maintaining and promoting a social media of any business includes the following stages:
The first stage is creating and preparing a profile for traffic.
The second is the development of advertising campaign strategies, testing hypotheses and deciding on the leading promo campaign.
What should the Instagram profile of a beauty salon include
Nickname
It is better to be laconic and reflect the name of the beauty salon. No need to start the nickname with numbers or include there double spaces. As usual, it shows that the profile is fake or that it is a poorly-made account. In the case of naming, stay minimalist to be chic.
Profile photo
Profile photo depends on the salon's mission and strategy. If you have a personal brand then it will be better to install a professional close-up portrait of the master. However, if you have decided to open a salon with its own brand, the best idea is to create a logo.
Bio (description)
This field is situated between the profile photo and highlights. You can give a 150 description of a beauty salon and its originality. Minimalism is a trend, so do not give too much information – just the main ideas. Plus, it has to be interesting for your customers.
Highlights
All the important information is better to be placed into highlights. The basic structure: About us – Services & Products – Cases – Reviews – Contacts.
Design
To keep the visual concept, you can create templates. To do this, think about the colors, fonts, elements of decor that are already used in the decoration or logo/signage of a beauty salon. In order to create an effective visual brand identity, think about the design that can be associated with you and the services you provide.
Content plan
This is a plan of posting posts and stories on the Instagram profile of a beauty salon. The best way is to balance selling, expert and personal content. We advise you to prepare a plan for 1-2 months in advance.
Just try these advice and you will receive:
Visual brand identity
Clear unique selling proposition
Content plan.
Once, you create an Instagram profile, post 9-12 posts about you, your business, values and cases.
All the steps can be easily done by you or, of course, you can also hire a professional in this field. Thanks to the popularity of Instagram, there are many of them nowadays.
Live posts and highlights in the beauty salon Instagram
Highlights are becoming a trend of 2021 as they allow communication with clients in the easiest way. Statistics show that up to 70% prefer this type of visual content.
Highlights for a beauty salon can demonstrate:
Situational content
Ready-made works of the masters
Brand new products and services
Reviews on cosmetic products
Clients' reviews
Posts and highlights are getting longer and more detailed. Honesty came into vogue. The more you tell, the more people trust you. Just stay open and never lie.
The audience is full of ideal photos, fake success and pathos. The emphasis has shifted, now users tend to tell the bitter truth and they are appreciated for it. The visual contains fewer filters, less retouching and staged photos.
Ideas for posts and highlights of a beauty salon:
News about the company, salon, staff. It is a must to include in your first publications a post-acquaintance with a salon or a master, a success story, or a text about how the idea of creating this business was born.
Useful beauty tips and hacks.
Daily routine of the beauty shop.
News of the field: always stain in touch with the latest trends.
Partners' recommendations: mutual PR, collaboration, tags.
Research: how the components of a hair dye influence the result.
Forecasts, rates, statistics in infographic format.
Videos from beauty events: beauty contests, webinars, etc.
Interview with staff.
Insides: show how some services are done.
Use polls to increase profile engagement and interact with the audience.
The successes and achievements of the masters. Diplomas and certificates increase customer loyalty.
Details: “reveal the secrets” of the industry.
Unusual tips, hacks of the masters.
Interesting facts.
Comparison of the cosmetic products.
Before/After posts.
TOP3 - best products.
Best innovations.
Provocations and shock content to entertain the audience.
Discussions on hot and hot topics of the industry.
For and against any salon services.
Competitor research
The easiest way to find out the nearest competitors:
to search with Google,
to use online maps,
to analyze Instagram: use tags, locations to find the nearest salons.
Analyze each competitor for a unique selling proposition and assess their strengths. Do not forget to check:
style of the accounts,
how the accounts are structured,
where do the competitors want to direct a client (direct messages, messenger, website),
how active the account is, statistics, comments, likes,
a number of followers and statistics on views.
Take a look at the posts with the highest amount of likes, it can inspire you to create something similar. But, never copy. It is very important to produce unique content. And, of course, you can always get inspiration from competitors.
So, the competitors have been analyzed, the profile is ready! And now, it is high time to promote the page to get more likes, followers and real visits to a beauty salon.
Promoting beauty salon services via Instagram: popular hashtags
There are several types of ads on Instagram:
free: mutual PR, hashtags, barter, mailing, networking;
paid: marathons, bloggers placement, targeted advertising.
Let's consider free ways of advertising.
Mutual PR. The way of promotion when Instagram accounts of a beauty salon and, for example, a cosmetic brand advertise each other via posts and highlights.
Hashtags. They are the keywords used for finding services and products. The most popular hashtags for a beauty salon are #beautysalon, #beauty, #salon, #nails, #hair, #skincare, #makeup, #hairsalon. Anyway, you have to look at the post/highlight and then decide which hashtags will work in this case. For instance, if you demonstrate a balayage, add a hashtag with this word, etc.
Barter. A nail salon provides a free service to a beauty blogger and she posts about it on her page. A simple and effective way of promotion.
Mailing. This tool allows you to make a special offer, remind about your salon or introduce a new product. And, sure, attract attention.
Networking. This is communication, posts, replies to comments on blogs with a similar target audience.
The obsolete methods are massliking and massfollowing. And, giveaways that can "kill" any account as after them people will unfollow the profile and you will get awful statistics.
Online booking as a component of a sales funnel: advantages of online appointments
When all the preparations are done:
you've described the product line,
identified the target audience,
prepared an account for receiving traffic and decided on a promotion strategy.
Then you have to think about the way a client will visit your beauty salon.
There are many variants to book a service: direct messages, calls, google forms, etc. But talking about offline service, when the time is essential, you will definitely need a salon booking system. It is convenient both for customers and a salon. The system offers:
A client sees the list of services and selects a convenient time.
Business minimizes the risk of human error: the administrator was busy or mixed up the dates, the phone is unavailable, etc.
Reminders about the appointment for staff and clients.
You can choose an online booking service that works like a CRM system.
The system collects data to form a client base, statistics and consumer behavior. Based on this data, you can manage the assortment matrix. It is also a way to promote a beauty salon by offering customers discounts and promotions.
An additional function of the online appointment scheduling software is the accounting of materials and the preparation of data for the formation of an order for consumables.
Integration with social networks. Just put the booking link on your profile and enjoy a flow of customers.
The mobile app, which is available both on IOS and Android.
When you are done with the sales funnel and customer flows are defined, a CRM system with a booking feature will help to optimize business processes.
Tips on maintaining the Instagram of a hair salon
It is essential to post user-generated content regularly. Instagram is set to notice every like and comment so that it will raise your rate.
Using all types of posts (story, video, posting, Reels) increases the network's loyalty to the profile.
Use native ads. For instance, ask satisfied customers to give feedback with a post on Instagram. You can motivate them with a discount or free products. It will show other clients that you are professional and your visitors are happy. Professionalism always builds loyalty.
Cooperate with profiles with a similar target audience: a section of recommendations and word of mouth will help get more visitors.
Effective communication in a beauty salon increases loyalty. Do not be afraid to share your fears and failures, be sure to talk about your wins. This way, you will involve clients in your salon, and we all like to feel "in the game."
Conclusions
Maintaining a beauty salon's Instagram account is hard work. You will need basic knowledge about this field together with time and resources.
Instagram is getting more and more popular. The popularity of the service is confirmed by the growth of signed-up and active users and by the list of specialties in demand in this area: copywriters, designers, SMM specialists, targetologists, marketers, content managers, and so on.
Use every chance to succeed. Instagram will be a great helper in attracting loyal customers. And with EasyWeek appointment software, you will attract customers in a snap!