The current coronavirus outbreak has had a big impact on the environment around us. This is especially true for small businesses like restaurants, shops, and salons. In the Netherlands, owners find themselves at home, trying to make the most of the downtime they have.

While there are some free hours available, why not spend it productively by making some online marketing improvements from the comfort of your couch? This will help you make the most of the slow period and get you ready for the new season!

Here are 4 salon marketing improvements you can make in your free time:

1. Start selling gift cards & gift boxes online
2. Give your website a mini-facelift
3. Stay active on social media
4. Improve your marketing skills & knowledge

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1. Start selling gift cards & product boxes online

One way to make some extra cash while your salon is closed is to sell gift cards and product boxes on your website. There are multiple benefits to sell these online:

• Improve cash flow by getting the money into your bank account early
• They make great presents that you customers can purchase that builds your brand awareness
• You can offer it to customers as an alternative that would like to cancel their appointment To spread the word, you can share this in different ways, like posting it on Facebook and Instagram, or sending it in your newsletter.

With Salonized you now have the possibility to make it easy for customers to purchase gift cards and product boxes online! Customers can go to your website, select a gift card, add their details, pay online, and voila! You can find out more information about how to put this on your website here.

2. Give your website a mini-facelift

Trying to improve your entire website can feel overwhelming, especially if you have to do it yourself. This does not have to be the case. So take a deep breath. By making a couple of small improvements, you can make it easy, clear and logical for your customers to find the information they want, resulting in more bookings.

Keep it simple

When we think about the experience that customers have when they first enter your website, they might have a couple of questions they would like to answer. What services does this salon offer? How much does a haircut or massage cost? Where can I book? Is this a respectable salon?

Answering these questions does not require 50 links and images on a single page. Just make sure you answer the main questions. We advise to keep your website simple and not overload it with information. Additional white space allows your website to breathe, making it feel less cluttered.

Make it clear where customers can book

It is very important that customers can easily find where they can make an appointment. The best way to do this is by highlighting this with a visual aid, such as a colored button that stands out from the rest of the text and images on the page.

The image on the right does a better job of making it very clear where customers can make an appointment. It’s a colored button in the middle of the screen that catches your eye when you enter the site. Potential customers then know where they can book when they decide to do so.

At Salonized we just launched a new booking widget that is always present on the webpage when customers are ready to make an appointment. This means that potential clients never have the frustration of trying to find the online booking page. You can see how it works below, and if you would like to read more about this, you can do it here.

Share your reviews on your website

As we mentioned before, one of the things that potential customers think about (either consciously or subconsciously) when they see your website, is whether this looks like a respectable company. Remember that your homepage is like your storefront, and you want to give them the impression that you have a great salon.

One way that you can do this is by adding customer reviews on your website. This automatically adds a trust factor for potential customers. At Salonized, we let our customers easily add their reviews on their website and you can read more about this here.

There are obviously many more things that you can do to improve your website. We have found a nice blog at Hubspot if you’d like to read more on this topic.

3. Stay active on social media

Instagram and Facebook are becoming more and more important every day. According to Sprout Social, Facebook has 1.62 billion users that use the platform every day, and Instagram is not far behind.

While people are spending more time on social media, why not use this channel to increase your business and inspire potential customers? It's a great way to market your salon. Here are some examples that you could post about:

• Self-help tips for hair or beauty
• Information about hair and beauty products
• Gift card offers
• Stories about your treatments, colleagues, and products
• Anything that inspires you, like a quote or picture

If you’d like to read more about how to improve your social pages, you can read more about it on our other blogs:

• ‘This is how you use Instagram successfully for your salon’
• 'Make your Facebook business page more effective'

4. Improve your salon marketing skills & knowledge

With a couple of extra hours available, this is an excellent time to invest time in learning new skills & techniques that are going to fill your agenda when things are back to normal.

• Facebook & Instagram Ads: Facebook advertising is a great channel to explore for your salon. If you would like to learn more about how to set up your first Facebook ad, you can read this blog.
• Google Ads: Google Adwords might be a bit complex to learn yourself, but perhaps it would be worth your time to speak to different agencies that specialise in it. This way you could find out how much it would cost and how many bookings you might expect in return.

I would recommend starting small to get to know the platform (Google Adwords or Facebook). This way, you can make mistakes without spending too much money. After a month or two, and enough time invested, you should be able to know if the channel is working for you or not.

A final word

In today’s digital age, it's equally important to stay on top of your online presence, as in your salon. By investing a couple of hours every week to make some improvements, you can make a big difference to get more bookings and sell more products.