Beauty salon marketing guide
The cheapest client a salon will ever get is the one already in the chair. Good salon marketing starts there, then fills the gaps with reviews, referrals and being easy to find nearby.
→The short answer
Beauty salon marketing works best from the inside out: rebook clients before they leave, ask every client for a review, reward the ones who bring a friend, and fill quiet days with offers you can stand behind. Then make sure people searching nearby find your services, prices and a booking button straight away.
(01)The market
Mostly very small businesses, competing street by street.
The UK hair and beauty market in numbers
Your competition is often one talented person with a chair, a phone and an Instagram account. Talent is the starting point, not the edge. The edge is being the salon that's easiest to book, keeps its clients and gets recommended.
(02)Rebooking
Marketing that costs nothing but a question.
Rebooking: the cheapest marketing a salon has
Book the next one before they leave
"Shall we get your next appointment in now, while there's a choice of times?" Asked at the chair or the desk, every time. A client with a date in the diary isn't shopping around.
Know each treatment's gap
Roots, fades, infills and brows all need redoing on a rhythm. Tell clients what theirs is, so rebooking feels like advice, not a sales pitch.
Reminders that cut no-shows
Most booking systems send a text or email before each appointment. Turn it on, and make rescheduling easy so a client who can't come moves rather than vanishes.
Deposits, explained
A deposit or card details at booking reduce no-shows. Say clearly how much, when it's kept and when it's refunded, before they book.
"It's been a while" messages, done properly
An invitation to book again is marketing, so by email or text it needs the client's consent or the soft opt-in: they gave you their details as a customer and were offered the chance to refuse, then and in every message since2.
(03)Reviews
What a new client reads before they risk their hair.
Reviews: ask everyone, reward no one
Ask at the end of every appointment
When the client is looking in the mirror and happy, hand them a card with a QR code, or send the link with their receipt.
Ask everyone
Not only your regulars. Google doesn't allow businesses to ask only the customers they expect to be positive3.
Never pay for them
Reply to every one
A short, warm reply to praise, and a calm, specific one to criticism. New clients read the replies as closely as the reviews.
Our guide to getting Google reviews has the message templates and the full rules.
(04)Referral schemes
Your clients' friends are your best new clients.
A salon referral scheme that works
- Reward both people. A credit for the client who refers, and something for the friend's first visit. Two-sided rewards get passed on; one-sided ones get forgotten.
- Make it a credit, not cash. Credit off the next appointment brings both of them back through the door.
- Keep it simple to use. A short code or a named card, recorded in your booking system so nobody has to remember.
- Write the terms down. What counts, when the credit can be used, and when it expires, on your website and the card.
- Keep it separate from reviews. Rewarding a referral is fine. Rewarding a review isn't, so never combine the two.
- Tell people it exists. On the mirror, the receipt, the booking confirmation and once in a while on social media.
Local partners can refer too: wedding venues, photographers, gyms and the bridal shop down the road all meet your clients first. A simple swap of recommendations costs nothing.
(05)Quiet days
Every salon has them. The trick is filling them without cheapening the brand.
Salon marketing ideas for quiet days
An honest off-peak price
A standing lower price on your quietest days, stated plainly. Not a "was" price you never charged: misleading price comparisons are against consumer law5.
Last-minute slots, posted when they're real
A story or a message to your list when a slot opens up today or tomorrow. Our salon social media ideas include templates.
Treatments that suit quiet times
Longer treatments and consultations fit midweek mornings that won't fill with quick cuts.
Gift vouchers, ahead of the dates
Promote them a few weeks before Christmas, Mother's Day and Valentine's Day, so the money arrives in a busy month and the visits fill quieter ones.
Small events
A colour clinic, a brow evening or a skincare talk for a dozen people brings new faces in on a night you'd otherwise be closed.
(06)Being found nearby
Being found by people searching nearby
A complete Google Business Profile
Every service, your prices, opening hours, real photos of the salon and the work, and your booking link.
A page for each service on your website
Balayage, skin fades, gel nails, lash lifts: one page each, with prices, what's involved and how long it takes. People search for the treatment, not the salon.
Booking in two taps
The book button on every page, linked straight to your booking system. If people have to call, many won't.
We build salon websites that work with Fresha, Booksy and Treatwell, and our local SEO service covers your Google Business Profile.
(07)Checklist
Tick off what you already do.
A 10-point beauty salon marketing checklist
Questions
(08)Questions
Start with what's free: rebook every client before they leave, ask every client for a review, run a simple referral scheme and keep your Google Business Profile complete. Spend money only once those are working.
A credit for both people works well: some money off the referrer's next visit and the friend's first. Keep it simple, record it in your booking system and write down when it expires.
Send reminders before every appointment, make rescheduling easy, and take a deposit or card details at booking, with clear terms on when it's kept and when it's refunded.
Sources
(09)Sources
Every figure on this page comes from one of these. Checked on the date shown.
- 1Industry statistics 2024, National Hair & Beauty Federation. Checked 26 October 2026.
- 2How do we comply with the PECR electronic mail marketing rules?, Information Commissioner's Office. Checked 26 October 2026.
- 3Prohibited and restricted content, Google Maps user-generated content policy. Checked 26 October 2026.
- 4Fake reviews: guidance on the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 (CMA208), Competition and Markets Authority. Checked 26 October 2026.
- 5Unfair commercial practices (CMA207), Competition and Markets Authority. Checked 26 October 2026.
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