The nature of marketing has changed dramatically in the wake of the still ongoing information revolution. Businesses need to get creative in order to reach prospective clients; the days of advertising exclusively over the radio and on billboards are long gone and influencer marketing is here to stay.
One of the unique elements of advertising online is how scale-able it is to any budget. You can do web marketing for pennies. The more money you put in, the more you’ll get out.
Influencer marketing is one of the many ways you can expand your online presence and find new clients. This guide will explain what influencer marketing for salons is and how you can leverage influence to gain new customers and increase profitability.
What Is Influencer Marketing?
To understand influencer marketing, it might be useful to compare it to another type of marketing—celebrity marketing. You’ve probably seen a thousand examples of celebrity endorsement, from Pepsi’s many youth outreach attempts (some more ill-fated than others) to the old cigarette endorsements from the ‘30s and ‘40s.
Influencer marketing is similar; the difference is that the endorsements come from Internet celebrities rather than more traditionally famous people. Some of the biggest influencers of our times, like the Kardashians, fall under both influencer and traditional celebrity status. In the same vein, traditional celebrities are among the most followed people on various social media channels.
The goal of influencer marketing is to leverage the reach of social media stars in order to increase engagement with your brand. You’d be amazed at the kind of clout influencers have; 4 in 10 millennials say their favourite YouTuber understands them better than their friends. In other words, you’re not just extending your reach; you’re leveraging trust.
Why Influencer Marketing is Great for Salons
Social media is an inherently visual medium. While there are influencers who primarily write blogs, the most successful bloggers will almost always include pictures in their posts. This pairs extremely well with salon work which, at its core, is about beauty (on the inside and outside).
When a beauty influencer goes to your salon and posts about it, people who follow them for their beauty tips will be inspired to visit your salon. This is how you leverage trust; thousands of people follow this influencer to learn beauty tips. The influencer trusts you and their followers trust their tips—that transfer means their followers will trust you.
The influencer you choose will have followers who opt to check out your page. Make sure you have salon appointment software integrated in your social media, so that prospective new customers can book immediately.
How to Market With Influencers
Where is your advertising budget going? How big is your budget? Understanding how much you’re willing to spend is one of the key elements to any marketing strategy—that’s true of influencer marketing for salons, as well.
There are several different kinds of influencers, from mega-celebrities to local heroes. Who you’ll want to target depends heavily on your budget, but most salons benefit from targeting micro-influencers. These are people with thousands, or even tens of thousands of followers, but no more than that. They generally cultivate a following within their own city; perfect for salons in less metropolitan areas. In places like New York, you might do well to target people with a bigger following, but keep in mind that this route has a higher upfront cost.
There’s no set-in-stone payment amounts for influencers, so you can get incredibly creative with what you offer. You might, for example, offer a full salon treatment for an influencer as payment. That works beautifully because the influencer can simply post or blog about their time at your salon, complete with before and after pictures, hashtags, the works! An arm’s length relationship about what they post is a wonderful idea; they’re the ones with social media savvy, after all.
You might consider an influencer takeover of your Instagram, Snapchat, or other social media. Takeovers are well-liked because they can generate new followers for both your salon and the influencer who is taking over your account. You give up a substantial degree of control, but this too has its benefits. Influencers will post things you’d never have thought to post yourself. When those posts get substantial engagement, it can help you reshape your social media strategy.
You’ll want to work with influencers who post primarily on visual platforms. Instagram should be your priority, though Snapchat and Facebook aren’t bad to target, either. Do a substantial amount of research before you approach an influencer. Google their username to see if there’s been any drama surrounding them – influencers are sometimes prone to attracting negative press. You’ll also want to make sure their aesthetic and personality matches your brand; just because someone has a lot of followers doesn’t mean they are the kind of clientele you’re looking to attract.
Having well-established customer profiles is a good way to ensure you find the right kind of influencers. Salons that are trying to attract young adults will differ wildly in their influencer marketing strategy than salons who are trying to attract older clients. You want to accumulate data about your optimal client’s demographic information. You’ll also want a deep understanding of what drives those clients to go to a salon in the first place. With that information in mind, you’ll be able to find influencers who suit your style.
Start incorporating influencer marketing in your salon today!
With the Holistic Hair Tribe Partner Program set to launch the Influencer Tier *very* soon, you can now earn additional retail income by simply tapping influencers and talents in your local community. Not a Partner yet? Be sure to sign up here.
NOTE: Only influencers who are affiliated with Holistic Hair Tribe stylists will be able to join the program. Announcement coming soon!
