Let’s Talk Salon Websites

Does your salon website turn browsers and followers into customers?

Transform your ordinary salon website into a Customer Attraction and Retention Machine.

So much attention goes on to salon social media to attract customers! However, that can leave you with a website that simply acts as an online business card.

Maybe it takes bookings, introduces your team and showcases some pictures, but there is very little nurturing and relationship building going on.

BUT… they are so much more expensive than a social media page that costs nothing to put online… why would you even bother?

---

Your salon website is your home, a place that you control, unlike social media

---

You only have to look at other industries to know that having and controlling your own online website pays off massively when it comes to building long time success.

Your salon website is the place to showcase your brand, create content for your customers and collect information for further relationship building.

Transform your salon website and use it to guide followers and browsers into loyal customers.

Segment them on interests and deliver them what they want on social and with email. It’s easy.

There are some key elements your website needs to attract and retain customers. Check them out…

Collect contact details from your salon website visitors.

Social is cool… we all love it, but can you collect your followers’ details very easily?

Yes, you can retarget fans and followers from their activity on your FB or Insta page but you can’t reach out and email them directly and send them offers they may be interested in.

More than 80% of the people that visit your salon’s website will leave without you ever hearing from them again. It doesn’t have to be that way!

Fix this by adding a contact form on your site inviting people to join your VIP Club and leave their email address for a special discount or promotion. Once you have their email address you can start communicating with them through email. Soon enough you’ll convert them to loyal clients!

Remember to try and get this contact form or opt in box ‘above the fold’. This means that it should be on the page as it loads and not below where you have to scroll.

Here’s an example of a salon website that creates promotions and hair style reports in exchange for email addresses.

Make it easy to contact you.

Accept online bookings if it is right for your business.

Have a contact form that connects to your email so at least prospective customers can finish their time on your website by reaching out to you.

Make your phone number large and clickable from a mobile device.

Show your address and directions on the homepage. A map in the footer works really well.

Have an obvious ‘Book Now’  button or link on your homepage.

Make sure your site is Salon Website is mobile friendly.

People search on their phones for everything these days.

Your formatting and content must be responsive on both desktop and mobile.

Add a ‘Call Now’ button.

It’s often the pricing and contact information that can get out of sync with mobile.

Check that this still represents your brand and services.

Is it clear what you want your readers to do?

• Call Us
• Book Now
• Learn More
• Learn How
• Read More…

These are all things you want your reader to do on your salon website. CTA’s – Call To Actions – need to be clear and concise, not confusing, clever or overwhelming. Too many choices make people confused.

A page can have a maximum of three directions or choices. Once the reader goes toward what they want to know more about or are interested in, there should just be one choice. This is what we call marketing funnels.

Too many choices make people confused.

We want to funnel potential customers towards services and products they might be interested in, then deepen their knowledge about that subject via a blog, video or sales page.

Then we can position ourselves as an obvious choice when they are ready to buy the service or product. So remember to have a clear CTA and tell them what to do next!

Great Images Please!

Please only use quality images that represent you and your brand. Not all stock photos are the same and it’s hard for all of us to have high-end photos of our work but please…

Get a photographer to come and do some fab shots of your salon and team. Then begin to put some photos of your work together for your salon website. These are an investment.

If you do weddings, ask them to send over some of the pics for you to use. Candid in salon stuff is fine for social but not your website.

Customer Love Speaks volumes

Social proof does wonders for winning over new clients. A page dedicated to this is great but even better… sprinkle them through your content and animate the sections for maximum effect. Photos of the customer with the testimonial is an even better endorsement.

Tell your Readers how they are going to feel if they use your Product or Service.

Writing copy for your site is a skill and we often focus on the features of a product or service, not the benefits.

People want to know how things make them feel, how they look and what the benefits are to them, not the features.

Branding on Point!

Branding is your style, the voice, look and feel of your salon. If you are super cool, your brand needs to say that through your colours, fonts, images and how you communicate. If you are a bit kooky then let your brand portray that.

Consistency across all your platforms is very important. Not enough salons pay attention to this. You want to be recognisable and reliably speak consistently. People like to know what to expect from a brand. Think Apple, Kardashians, L’Oreal or M.A.C.

Our Branding Checklist has a style sheet you can copy that allows you to map out how you want to be seen. Join the Social Hub and get your copy here…

Here is a small example of part of the style sheet.

We worked with our designer to create a brand that resonated with us, spoke our message and laid the foundation for who we are.

Attracting the right customer to your business starts with your branding, and reaching out and touching the customers that want to be part of your tribe. This is a crucial element to getting the salon success path set in motion.

Tell them who you are.

Your salon website About page should be about your customer and what you can do for them… not about you.

Follow with some bios and pics of your team but remember people are much more interested in themselves than they are in you!

KISS… Keep it Simple Stupid!

More is less… Simplicity Rules.

You always hear it but we don’t always do it!

Your website is about your customers and they want to get to the heart of things without too much fuss.

Too many pages… or not enough, with too much text or funky fonts that they can’t read won’t help turn them into customers.

The psychology of turning a reader or follower into a customer all comes to play in your salon website.

You want to take them on a journey and have them pushing that BOOK NOW button because you have impressed them, they trust your professionalism and they want to join your tribe.

Don’t overcomplicate it or try to be too clever. You’ll miss the golden opportunity that is someone trying to find out more about your business and see if it is a good fit from checking out your website.

Don’t Ignore your Back End

This isn’t always the pretty stuff but just like you plan for your salon to function well, you need for the back end of your salon website to be doing its job.

This means SEO, Plugins, Widgets and Hosting.

Page load time and searchability need attention.

Now this will come down to how you operate. If you have hired someone to do your website they could be taking care of this with the hosting package. If you have done it yourself then keep it updated!