The world has shifted online for the tiniest of their needs and still, we see a lot of Indian salons forgetting about building and maintaining a website that’s not only inviting but truly leaves a mark. In five simple pointers, Vidhi Arya from Professional Beauty India explains why you need to work harder towards your salon’s website!
Trust me, if people could, they would take beauty and hair treatments online. While that’s a reality we can only hope for, there’s a reality many salons are not acknowledging. That is: every salon needs a website that pulls customers in. While social media accounts are doing the job, there’s a lot more that a website can cater for.
Thanks to clients’ dependency on the internet, many have developed a habit of screening through the social platforms of various salons before making up their minds. In this case, while Instagram profiles are great for showing the kind of work you do and the offers you’re running, a website can give a client a lot more insight into your world.
Here are five reasons how a salon’s website can help your business:
Give your clients a sneak peek into your story
Every salon has a story! Let your website be a portal for your clients to step into your story and connect with you. Beauty has a lot to do with emotions and in this aspect, you cannot overlook the emotional connect you can build with your clients just by telling your story.
Your mother started the business back in the day in a single room and today, you’ve raised it to become a 10-outlet chain? Are you looking for giving the best hair services to curly-haired girls because only a few understand this hair type? You want to build a safe space that stands on the foundation of inclusivity. Spell it out!
Your social media will only speak limited facts and clients are likely to get lost on your feed. This is where your salon’s website becomes your mirror.
Showcase your services and prices
A lot of times, you’d find your DMs on Instagram flooded with messages, such as “do you also provide hydra facials”, “how much for this haircut”, “which products will you use for this service” and so many more. However, how many of these can you practically reply to?
These days everyone’s busy and no one has the time to go to a salon to check out their menu and understand the pricing. A website can be a handy tool in such a case. You can list out your services with a short description, helping people understand how it helps them and what kind of products and procedures will be followed. It’s a great idea to include prices too.
This reduces unnecessary enquiries and helps them ease the process of making up their mind and booking an appointment.
Help your client expand their understanding
A lot of times, clients have heard terms and are looking for expert explanations of them. Your website can be a gateway to education for them. For instance, people know there’s keratin, botox, and hair lamination, but how do they differ? What’s the difference in process and results? As a salon, take it upon yourself to answer such questions through blogs.
Don’t just stop there! From haircare tips, skincare routines, at-home practices to maintain results of salon treatments, new product launches, there’s so much you can educate about on your salon’s website.
Not only will this build credibility and trust, it will surely improve loyalty and engagement. Good blogs and proper SEO will also attract more eyeballs and drive online and offline traffic.
Help them make bookings
Like I said, your clients are busy. They remember to book appointments at odd hours—while scrolling at midnight or during a lunch break. A website with an online booking system means you never lose a potential customer just because they couldn’t call during working hours.
To make the process more pleasant, have automations in place so that they receive appointment confirmations and you receive appointment requests as well.
Earn more revenues
Why limit your earnings to in-salon visits? With an e-commerce section, you can sell professional haircare, skincare, at-home products, allowing clients to shop for their favourite products from the comfort of their homes.
Additionally, you can have a section where you sell memberships and gift cards. Gift cards for salons can be a huge hit. So many people would love to gift their friends a salon visit, but how will they manage with payments? With a gift card, you make the whole process simpler for your clients.
Additionally, a lot of people love the concepts of memberships, however, many salons fail to explain the whole thing at ease. Or, otherwise clients forget about the benefits. If you can list down the various memberships you offer along with their benefits, it becomes convenient for clients to avail them. Plus, with impulse shopping on the rise, it can turn out really beneficial for your salon.
Representational Banner Image | Credits: Freepik