For hair salons ยท Marketing planning
A marketing plan for your salon.
Salons rarely lack ideas. They lack a decision about which chairs to fill, with which services, and who does the posting when the stylists are booked solid.
Or text (508) 546-9942
Slide it
You vs. Salon Jane Doe.
Left is your website today. Right is the one Salon Jane Doe has. Drag the line, then hit the button.
Crickets on the left. That is the problem.
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Illustration. Joe is made up. Your competitor is not.
The hair salon version
Why it matters.
Two senior stylists are booked far out, a newer stylist has gaps all week, and the owner is paying to promote haircuts that the full stylists cannot take anyway. That is a common salon picture, and it means marketing is spending money to fill the wrong chairs. A plan starts by naming where the open capacity actually sits and which service would fill it profitably.
The other decision is the offer. Selling 'hair' is not an offer. A lived-in color package for clients who want fewer visits, a bridal trial plus day-of booking, a new-client consultation with a newer stylist at a set price: those are things you can price, post and measure. I pick two and write them down.
What I would build
For a hair salon.
What you sell, to whom, and why someone picks you over the salon down the street. Written in plain language your stylists can repeat, so the front desk and the feed say the same thing.
I define offers tightly enough to price, aimed at the chairs and hours that sit empty. Filling a newer stylist's Tuesday takes a different offer from pushing a senior colorist's book further out.
Which channels get effort and which get ignored. For a salon that usually means the Google profile and Instagram first, email kept for regulars, and everything else left alone until those two are working.
A weekly routine a busy salon can keep, what gets measured, and the threshold that triggers a decision, such as the rebooking rate at checkout. Then a date to look at it honestly and change what is not working.
The mistake I see
Discounting new clients and ignoring the regulars
First-visit discounts bring in deal hunters who rarely rebook at full price. Meanwhile the regular who has sat in the same chair for years gets nothing. Effort spent on retention, referral rewards for existing clients and clear pricing usually serves a salon better than a coupon that trains people to wait for the next one.
What you get
Marketing planning.
Before anybody designs anything, I figure out what you are selling, to whom, and what has to happen every week.
- A written position: what you sell, to whom, and why you over the alternative
- The offer, defined tightly enough to put a price on
- Which channels get effort and which get ignored
- A weekly rhythm somebody can actually keep
- What gets measured, and the threshold that triggers a decision
How it goes
For a hair salon, step by step.
→ Keep scrolling. It moves sideways.
One long conversation
Your numbers, your best customers, the jobs you wish you had more of.
Narrow it
Most plans fail from doing six things badly. I pick two.
Write it down
One page. If it needs ten, it will not survive a busy month.
Set the review
A date to look at it honestly and change it.
Step five is you.
The free Receipt shows what your hair salon should fix first. About half a minute, no card.
Print my Receipt →
Questions
What hair salons ask.
Should we raise prices or run more promotions?
Look at the book first. If your best stylists are booked far ahead, a price increase on their chairs is usually the right move, and promotions would only add strain. If chairs sit empty, the issue is visibility or the offer, not price. A plan answers which situation you are in before anybody touches the menu.
How do we plan around stylists who might leave?
Build marketing that keeps the client connected to the salon as well as the stylist. Salon-owned reviews, a salon email list, rebooking through your system and a consistent brand all give a client reasons to stay when a stylist moves on. You cannot prevent departures, but you can stop each one from emptying a column of the book.
Is a plan worth it for a salon with only a few chairs?
Yes, and it may matter more. A small salon cannot afford to try six things at once. One page that says which two channels get effort, what the offer is this season and which number you check each week costs less than months of posting into a void and guessing.
What comes after
Pairs well with.
Everything else
Other services for hair salons.
Same service
Marketing planning for other businesses.
Where I work
Southeastern Massachusetts and Rhode Island.
Start here
See what your customers see.
The Receipt looks your hair salon up the way a customer would and itemizes what is costing you calls. It is free. Or skip it and book fifteen minutes with me.
Or text (508) 546-9942