4 Ways to Increase Your Customer Base at Your Beauty Business

By Denise Prichard

As a salon or spa owner, you’re constantly looking for ways to grow your customer base because you know that it is the ticket to success at your business. You’re already using the marketing tools available to you within your salon software or spa software to the fullest extent, but you are still well-aware there is a bevy of untapped markets surrounding your location that you want to turn into loyal customers.

One of the most successful ways to expand your customer base is to create specific offerings for groups that you may have overlooked or that your brand messaging doesn’t currently market to. Here are some ways your beauty business can help reach a much broader audience:

1. Offer discounts for college students

With the average total cost of attending college hovering around $50,000, it may be hard for ramen-fueled students to find the extra cash to afford to go to a salon or spa on a regular basis. However, with nearly half of students reporting they are under a great deal of stress during the school year, there is a huge market that’s in serious need of some rest and relaxation. To tap into this demographic, you can try offering student discounts that can help you increase revenue without sacrificing the worth of your services. Here are a couple of examples to get you started:

With proof of a student ID, students can get 20% off of services at your business any time they come in.
Offer day-specific promotions for students to save on your services. If you’re worried about students filling up all your prime booking times with discounted services, just offer student discounts on one day of the week to leave the rest of your days open for full-price customers.

Check out our guide for other ideas on how to market to students

2. Give seniors a much-deserved discount

Speaking of demographics that need to pay attention to their expenses, retirees also need to tighten their purse strings every now and then to save money for necessities. Most people over the age of 65 are on a fixed income and may not feel comfortable spending their hard-earned cash on something that is out of their price range.

On top of that, seniors are also one of the top demographics that could benefit from services such as massage, acupuncture, and chiropractic care—which means your business could see a huge surge in clients if your prices can cater to this demographic.

3. Support the LGBTQIA+ community at your beauty business

Consider neutralizing your beauty space and your services to include the unique needs of the LGBTQIA+ community. Just small steps like the following examples can have a huge impact on the inclusivity in your beauty business. Here are some ideas:

Your services:
- A lot of salons base their haircut pricing on gender—instead, you could either offer a standard price for everyone or create pricing tiers for different hair lengths to be more inclusive in your pricing structure.
- Consider introducing services to help transitioning and transgender customers like adding hair removal, skin care services, and hair care education to your menu.
Your facility:
- Have gender-neutral restrooms. Maybe your facility has two separate bathrooms with doors you can adorn with signs that represent both genders. If you only have one space for bathrooms, utilize partitions for privacy purposes.
- Update your client in-take forms to allow your customers to select how they identify. You can even add a section that allows customers to choose their preference in pronoun.

4. Be family-oriented

Let’s face it—it can be hard for most parents to find childcare when they are in need of a massage or a haircut. A great way to help moms and dads alike stay on top of their beauty and wellness appointments is by offering childcare at your facility to help take the stress out of dropping the kids off at grandma’s house or with a sitter.

Another thing to keep in mind when finding ways to be more family inclusive is by offering workshops that cater to families with stay-at-home parents. More and more dads are putting their careers on hold to be stay-at-home dads—in fact, over 20% of men are choosing to spend the day with their kids instead of behind a desk. To encourage these proud papas to come to your beauty business, try creating workshops at your facility to help educate dad on hair care techniques and styling for their daughters and sons.

These are just a few simple ways to ensure your beauty business is more inclusive. We have a bunch of tips to help increase your customer base available to you in our new inclusivity guide made specifically for businesses just like yours.