Ultimate Salon Marketing Strategy for 2025

As the hair and beauty industry becomes more and more competitive, attracting and retaining high quality customers is going to be more important than ever in 2025. Stay tuned for my marketing tips. Hello, hello, hello my salon friends. Phil Jackson here, your queen of salons, coming in your eyes and ears again with another dose of Wise Owl Wisdom and this episode due to be released on Christmas Eve. If Christmas is your thing, let me be amongst the first to wish you a very happy Christmas and a peaceful and prosperous 2025. That said, how do we make sure we have a prosperous 2025? Well, part of that picture, a very important part of that picture, is going to be marketing. So rather than sharing a load of marketing tips, which you may or may not choose, I thought it would be more useful if I shared how I feel salon marketing is going to evolve and change over 2025. And there's an overarching theme to what I'm going to describe. And that overarching theme comes to us through AI, believe it or not. And I'm not talking about leaning into AI for more and more of your marketing. I do think there's a fantastic, significant role in marketing for salons using AI. But I think most of what I'm going to describe is a reaction to AI. This will become clear as we go through. So my first strategy for a successful year of marketing is to really lean in to video. And I know lots of you are a little bit camera shy and you may well not be hugely comfortable in front of the camera. Trust me, from someone who has been in front of the camera for quite a few years now, it takes some getting used to. And even now I can think of things that I would rather do than be creating video content, which is very strange given how good we are at maintaining and nurturing relationships with our customers when we are face to face. So I'm going to encourage you to find a way to use video which is comfortable to you, whether that be what we call face to camera, which is what I'm doing now, or whether that be something a little bit more casual, a bit more behind the scenes, whether that be conversational. And actually, a really good way, if you don't like being on video, a really good way of taking some of the pressure off is to share the screen with someone else and have a chat between the two of you. But find a way to make it work. How does that tie in with AI? Well, I think what we're going to see over the next 12 months is a huge increase in the amount of AI-generated content in terms of blog content, social media posts.

And I think what that's going to create is a craving for authenticity, a craving for connection. And the best way we have to market our salons online in an authentic way is to get on camera, start building that relationship through the lens. Let people know you, understand you, get behind you, trust you, build your expertise, build that level of trust with potential and current clients, deepen those relationships with the clients you already have. So I want you to prioritise video. Don't just tie yourself to the social media platforms, though. At the end of the day, if you post a reel to Instagram or Facebook, they own that content, not you. So make sure that you've got it in other places, too. I think a really useful way of using video is doing exactly what I'm doing here, which is creating what we call a long form piece of content. So a longer piece of content, then dividing it up, chopping it up into little pieces, which we can then use as reels on Instagram, as we can use on reels on Facebook. We can use on TikTok and we can use on YouTube shorts as well, driving people to your longer form content. Keep that on your on your website. Not only have we got nice up to date content for your website, which Google loves, but also we've got somewhere to drive our customers to in order to get more leads or turn more people into customers. So that's how I would be using video in 2025. There will be a way, I promise you, there will be a way that you can start to get comfortable on camera. While we're talking about Google, I think the mistrust that is starting to build on our social media platforms means that local SEO is going to become much more important. I think so many people have been piling all of their efforts into social media for such a long time that this is actually going to be quite a big shift in salon marketing. But I think, again, because of AI generated content, people are going to start feeling that social media becomes more and more phony, that those connections are not real, that those relationships that are built on social media need a bit of authenticity to them. So I think actually having SEO a priority for your website, but also investing time in your Google profile, making sure that we're nurturing more local connections, making sure that we're obtaining those five star reviews and responding to them appropriately.

I think that's going to become much more important. So I would be prioritising those things in 2025 as well. Now, I appreciate all of that is a slow burn, but do bear in mind when it comes to marketing, what's happening in your business now is not just a result of the marketing that you've been doing this week. It's a result of the marketing you've been doing over weeks, months, even years sometimes. So while we're looking for those short term wins, perhaps with our video content, let's also make sure that we're sowing the seeds for those longer term wins with things like SEO and those local listings. So prioritise the authenticity that comes through your Google links and your website, not just your social media. Next up, I want you to start prioritising more personal communication. What that means is that I think we need to really look at how we're communicating with our customers, again, away from social media. I think social media is going to become a noisier and noisier place, but a place where it's harder and harder to stand out as something authentic. So how can we communicate with our customers? Well, digitally, you know I'm a big fan of email marketing. I see email as that quiet space away from social media where we can have a longer conversation with our customers, where we can share more information and really position ourselves as the experts. And people give email marketing a bit of a bum rap, to be honest with you. People give it a bit of a hard time saying things like, oh, yeah, that's fine. But if my open rate's only 20 percent, I'm not being funny, darlings. But if you could get 20 percent of your followers to see your post on Instagram, you would be absolutely thrilled. So don't underestimate the power of email marketing. That said, I also recognise that if your clientele is very young, that email marketing may not switch them on in quite the same way. So we need to be looking, I think, at the messaging apps. I think we need to be leaning into WhatsApp, Telegram. But also don't don't throw out SMS marketing. SMS can feel a bit clunky. But in terms of open rate and very short term immediate impact, SMS really can't be beaten. But make sure when we're putting these messages together that they're highly targeted so that they feel much more authentic and much more personal. Blanket bombing the entire database with your SMS message is not going to work. But take a small segment of that database, maybe even just a dozen of your customers and put something together that's highly targeted to them, highly relevant to what you think they might be interested in.

And I think there's some marketing collateral there. And finally, I think I need to emphasise the need to get away from digital altogether. We've talked a little bit about the importance of local SEO, but I want to go a stage further than that. And I want us to start to really see our salons as communities and a part of a community away from that digital space. I think when we're putting our marketing together, I want you to start emphasising what your business is about, why you're in business. I want you to be sharing causes and charities that you get behind with your customers. I want them to see behind the scenes. I want them to really get to understand you and feel like they're part of the salon family. Because, again, I think that drive towards AI-created content is going to leave people craving a sense of authenticity and community. Furthermore, I want you to see... Furthermore, gosh, how posh am I today? Furthermore, I want you to see your salon as part of a community as well. Start getting behind some local charities, local causes. Make sure that you're sponsoring the local netball team. Make sure that your name is in the local magazines. Make sure that you're part of the PTA or business organisations that represent your high street. Make sure that we're really part of that root level support for our local areas too. Make sure that also that we're seeing ourselves as part of the salon community. Make sure that you're looking at industry charities, form connections with other salons and look for opportunities to collaborate too. But that connection, that community, I don't think can exclusively happen in the digital space. And I think people are going to be craving those kind of connections as we go through 2025. Ultimately, I see 2025 as a huge opportunity marketing-wise to just calm down. Everything I'm describing is slowing the pace of marketing, deepening connections, actually doing less promotions, less offers, but letting them run for a longer amount of time. More targeted, more personalised, more intimate relationships with our potential and existing customers. And I think that feels like a breath of fresh air. But I don't have all the answers. I know it's contrary to belief, but I don't have a crystal ball where I can see exactly how things are going to go over the next 12 months.

What do you think? What am I missing? What are you building into your plans for 2025? Reach out and let me know. I'd love to hear from you anyway. You know I love hearing all the latest gossip from my salon owner friends. Also reach out if you'd like to feature in a future episode of the Build Your Salon podcast. I'd love to get you on air sharing your story, sharing your journey through our incredible industry. Just seven short days until our next episode of the Build Your Salon podcast. And until then, take care. Sit down and see what's going on with the queen of salons. Hair, beauty, and more successful tips for business owners. All on Build Your Salon.