If you’re reading this article, chances are you own a beauty business and you’re looking for some clear marketing strategies that won’t break the bank. You can relax now, you’re in good hands.

The secret to making your personal beauty business more profitable relies on one of two things happening: you start making more money from your existing clients, or you start increasing your number of clients.

All strategies stem from one of these two options. So how do you narrow down a plan?

To help with just that, we’ve curated a list of 7 strategies that are sure to make your beauty business profitable.

3 REVENUE-SCALING STRATEGIES FOR EXISTING CLIENTS

Let’s begin with strategies involving scaling your revenue with your existing clients.

1.    Increase Prices

Before you stop reading, give us a chance to explain. Increasing prices is not a lazy person’s guide to making more money in your salon, it is actually a branding strategy. The clientele at your beauty business already expect a certain level of service, and appreciate a little feel of luxury while they’re at it.

A higher price point is a great way to set yourself apart from the competition and create a feeling of exclusivity. The key, however, is not to alienate your clientele in the process.

Make sure you don’t price yourself out of the market or offer no improvement in services, or you may experience kickback. Some great examples of how to incorporate touches of luxury for a traditional beauty spa, or hair salon could include: Offering a glass of champagne to clients while enjoying your services is a great way to add a little luxury without breaking the bank.

You could also purchase a low-cost private label product to provide to each customer as part of the service. For instance if you are providing false lash services you could include the oil-free makeup remover as a lash cleanser.

If you’re still not comfortable raising prices outright, consider starting a VIP program and charging extra for the exclusive right to services under that umbrella.  This way the clients wanting the exclusive services could choose to benefit or not, without any pressure.

2.    Diversify Product Offerings

Another key way to increase revenue from your existing clients is to diversify your product offerings.

If you are an eCommerce beauty store, look at the buying insights of your current client base to see if there are crossover, or related, products you could offer as well to boost individual purchase percentages.

If you are a brick-and-mortar beauty business, try carrying your own white label products that complement the luxury spa experience. Companies like Eyebrowz Designs offer professional-grade cosmetics and hair care products that have already been vetted and can compete with top beauty brands on the market today.

Adding a few white-label cosmetic displays around your beauty businesses’ checkout area is sure to boost business, but will also help your business gain credibility. Depending on the company and the quality of the product you choose, your white label product could be the next must-have beauty product on the market.

3.    Invest in Talent

Don’t get it mixed up and think we’re talking about getting rid of your current stylists, or beauty consultants, we’re actually referring to upgrading their experience in your business. Many beauty business models rely on sub-contractor-type employment, but there are no rules that say you can’t step out of the norm and offer more benefits.

It doesn’t have to be as far as medical benefits or insurance, we’re talking about simple things that will improve their skills and improve current client satisfaction levels. What does this look like in practice? It could include:

Creating an incentive based on the number of appointments or sales they make within a given period. This could not only help them learn how to market themselves better, but also help you bring more qualified clients to your business.

Creating a training program where more skilled employees mentored others to help bring them up to speed. By having better-trained employees, you will have happier customers. Happier customers mean more revenue every time.

Partner with a local beauty school to provide an open channel for new recruits. While you don’t want to scare off your employees, you do want to ensure your business can thrive, even if the employees stop working for any reason. Simply having a number with a name on the other end that can supply fresh talent can provide much-needed peace of mind to a beauty business owner.

4 DEMAND-GENERATION STRATEGIES FOR NEW CLIENTS

The next set of strategies involves scaling up your client base.

4.    Find Hidden Service Options

A great strategy for increasing clientele involves polling your current client base about their interests. It could be you have a great new product offering idea right under your nose and you didn’t even realize it. Your customers are the best group to run these questions by, as they can offer insights into what may be missing from your store’s experience.

Rather than beating around the bush, you can try asking outright, but there may not be many who are willing to talk about personal details. However, we have found that offering an incentive to complete a questionnaire or survey is the more popular option.

Something as simple as a fish bowl in the store to collect survey responses could improve your response tremendously.  Or, offer something tantalizing like free spa packages and you now have a sure-fire way of collecting the responses you need.

5.    Diversify Your Client List

Beauty brands are so used to catering to women that we often forget that there are crossovers for many beauty products with men and children. It goes without saying that an increase in your target audience will result in more profitability.

Why not ad grooming kits or products specifically made for men? It’s no use giving all of that business to the barber shops if you have the option to cater to them as well.

When looking at the option of catering to kids, mind that you don’t alienate current clients by affecting their calm with this adjustment. Providing a separate area for kids’ services will help parents de-stress and enjoy a little and enjoy a little peace, no matter what chaos is reigning in the next room.

6.    Become the Expert

One of the most straightforward, but genius ways to create buzz about your beauty business, is to become an expert in your field. Creating a fan base on social media is the new crowd-marketing, and the beauty business is no different. The quickest way to get clients to you is to position yourself as the expert on something.

If you are in the beauty business, you go into it for some reason. Chances are you have a skill set you may not have explored yet. This is a perfect forum to drag them out. Content marketing is the strategy most like this one and it operates under the same assumptions. If you create content that is authoritative and answers questions or needs, you are on a fast track to becoming an expert in your niche.

• If you are an online eCommerce store, you could provide content about how to run a store, or how to market your products
• If you run a beauty salon, be the go-to neighborhood colorist. Provide content via blogs and vlogs, that answers common questions and addresses the pain points of your desired clientele,
• If you sell beauty products via your social media, create content on how to start a beauty business, or how to select the products that fly off the shelves

No matter what you choose, make sure you can speak with authority on the topic and make sure you have something your potential new clients want to hear. Researching competitors and keywords will help get you closer to your content marketing goal.

7.    Leverage Social Media

Social media is by far the best organic growth strategy available today. In our current market, we have access to insights and behaviors of our ideal clientele like never before.

People are sharing their lives all over social media, and if you haven’t yet learned how to leverage this trend, there’s no time like the present.

The best way to start is by creating a Facebook Page in your local area and start nurturing your potential clients. Use this forum to introduce loyalty programs, free products, or friends-and-family discounts. Whatever promotions work within your beauty business model.

Facebook Reels and TikTok offer unmatched forums to draw attention to your beauty brand. Going along with your content marketing strategy, creating video content about your brand or product offerings goes a long way to attracting new clients and solidifying your brand as an authority.

Social media is also a way to add relatability to your brand. Highlight comments or pictures from some of your best clients, or show how you appreciate your clients over social media and you’ll draw instant attention. People like to see businesses that appreciate their clients.

You could even create a referral program right within the Facebook group forum. Current customers could earn VIP rewards for referral customers.

At the end of the day, if you try one or more of these strategies you will likely see a difference in your business’s bottom line right away. The choice is up to you on how you will implement these 7 strategies, but we do hope you try at least one. If you do, let us know how it worked for you.

And, if you like the idea of diversifying your product offerings, and want to explore options, we would be happy to start up that conversation with you.