THOUGHT PROCESS
Using images in ANY kind of marketing – but especially digital marketing – increases its engagement factor exponentially.
ACTION STEPS
Let’s take a closer look at the marketing power of imagery, including the types of images that work best in salon marketing overall and tactics Salon Suite owners can employ to increase brand awareness and engagement, online and off.
Salon Marketing Statistics – Why Use Images to Promote a Salon Suite?
Salon marketing with images extends post REACH
- Facebook posts with images see 2.3X more engagement than those without images. (BuzzSumo)
- Tweets with images receive 150% more retweets than tweets without images. (BufferApp.com)
- (Blog and web) articles with an image once every 75-100 words received double the social media shares as articles with fewer images. (BuzzSumo)
Salon marketing with images is MORE MEMORABLE
- When people hear information, they’re likely to remember only 10% of that information three days later. However, if a relevant image is paired with that same information, people retained 65% of the information three days later. (BrainRules.net)
Clients and prospects want to learn about your Salon Suite via VIDEO
- 4 times as many consumers would rather watch a video about a product than read about it. (Animoto)
- Using the word “video” in an email subject line boosts open rates by 19%, increases clickthrough rates by 65 AND decreases unsubscribes by 26%. (Animoto)
- 43% of consumers want to see more video content (Hubspot)
Salon marketing with images MOTIVATES ACTION
- People following directions with text and illustrations do 323% better than people following directions without illustrations. (Springer.com, image credit, NeoMam)
Using Images Online and Offline in Salon Suite Marketing
While many of the stats above allude to digital salon marketing using images to promote your Salon Suite, the same principles apply to offline marketing, including your business card, menu of services, in-salon signage, advertisements, coupons, flyers and more.
For instance, think about your current menu of services. It may be mostly or even all text – or words – with no images. Adding imagery can make your menu more visually appealing and create memory points for services and retail products.
Manufacturers’ point of sale displays are often highly visual. This is because they know it’s the imagery – not the products – that get the shopper’s attention and appeal to purchase, often as an impulse buy item. Taking from this idea, make sure that you have imagery interspersed throughout ALL your retail inventory to draw client’s attention and steer them to the right products.
The most effective marketing imagery helps shoppers “see themselves” using products or experiencing services (and their results). Make sure you gear your salon signage and advertising imagery to include people who represent your ideal client types – this could include age, gender, lifestyle, interests, fashion, and so on. Imagery should also be aspirational – not only reflecting your ideal client types back to your audience, but reflecting back the best version of what they want to be.
Your client spends most of their time at a station looking in one general direction. This is prime real estate where visual imagery can work to help launch conversations about retail products, add-ons and other services. Station signs can help you sell more without saying or doing more!
Make step-by-steps instructions (to share online or off) easier to follow and motivate more clients to take action (such as purchasing retail products needed to complete, by including images along with text-based instruction. For even more power, explain the step-by-step in a short video.
Video as a Salon Suite Marketing Tool
You may already be taking selfies and client before-and-after photos and sharing them on social media; however, video can take these marketing tactics to the next level. They’re more visually interesting. They enable you to educate and explain. You can tell people the specific actions you want them to take and why. And maybe most importantly, they’re the type of marketing that consumers want most when it comes to learning about a brand.
While many of the stats above allude to digital salon marketing using images to promote your Salon Suite, the same principles apply to offline marketing, including your business card, menu of services, in-salon signage, advertisements, coupons, flyers and more.
For instance, think about your current menu of services. It may be mostly or even all text – or words – with no images. Adding imagery can make your menu more visually appealing and create memory points for services and retail products.
Manufacturers’ point of sale displays are often highly visual. This is because they know it’s the imagery – not the products – that get the shopper’s attention and appeal to purchase, often as an impulse buy item. Taking from this idea, make sure that you have imagery interspersed throughout ALL your retail inventory to draw client’s attention and steer them to the right products.
The most effective marketing imagery helps shoppers “see themselves” using products or experiencing services (and their results). Make sure you gear your salon signage and advertising imagery to include people who represent your ideal client types – this could include age, gender, lifestyle, interests, fashion, and so on. Imagery should also be aspirational – not only reflecting your ideal client types back to your audience, but reflecting back the best version of what they want to be.
Your client spends most of their time at a station looking in one general direction. This is prime real estate where visual imagery can work to help launch conversations about retail products, add-ons and other services. Station signs can help you sell more without saying or doing more!
Make step-by-steps instructions (to share online or off) easier to follow and motivate more clients to take action (such as purchasing retail products needed to complete, by including images along with text-based instruction. For even more power, explain the step-by-step in a short video.
Video as a Salon Suite Marketing Tool
You may already be taking selfies and client before-and-after photos and sharing them on social media; however, video can take these marketing tactics to the next level. They’re more visually interesting. They enable you to educate and explain. You can tell people the specific actions you want them to take and why. And maybe most importantly, they’re the type of marketing that consumers want most when it comes to learning about a brand.
4 Ways Salon Owners Can Use Images with Impact in Salon Marketing
1 – Selfies
What if you started off every day with a Salon Suite selfie photo or video to share on social media? It tells people you’re open for business and each selfie could be used to tell part of your story or feature an interesting aspect of your Salon Suite – from retail to ambience to what’s new to what’s most popular.
2 – Social Proof
Social proof photos and videos include before-and-after client photos, short testimonial videos, or even tagging a client on social media with a photo to let them know they made your day. Any time you can tag someone on social media it extends the reach of your posts, because it puts the content into the news feed of your client and their social followers as well as your own.
Sharing social proof photos and videos puts the spotlight on your work and on your client. It’s a way of showing your client how important and influential you think they are – it’s a high compliment to them that makes them look good and important to their social followers.
Social proof doesn’t just happen in the Salon Suite, either! Share images and videos when you attend networking events, participate in your Chamber of Commerce or take part in charity projects or give backs. All of these types of imagery can give people reasons to want to do business with you.
3 – Artistry and Expertise
Photos and short videos can be used to show off your artistry and your expertise. You can take and share photos and videos that highlight your best work, before and after photos, step by step instructions and more. You can use this imagery to explain the features and benefits of retail products or show your clients how to use products and tools at home to recreate the results you produced in the Salon Suite at their appointment. When you use video to show off your artistry and expertise, upload the content to your own YouTube channel. It will help you build an audience and give you a reservoir of video content that you can share over and over again on social media, in your email newsletter and on your website.
4 – Emotional Appeal
Great marketing isn’t about selling, it’s about engaging! Engaging imagery doesn’t just appeal to logic and reason or explain features and benefits. Engaging imagery has entertainment value – it appeals to emotion as well as logic. It helps your clients see themselves taking action. It enables clients to see themselves achieving desired outcomes. It can make people want to do business with you over and above the products or services you sell. You can appeal to emotion in video and photo salon marketing:
1 – Selfies
What if you started off every day with a Salon Suite selfie photo or video to share on social media? It tells people you’re open for business and each selfie could be used to tell part of your story or feature an interesting aspect of your Salon Suite – from retail to ambience to what’s new to what’s most popular.
2 – Social Proof
Social proof photos and videos include before-and-after client photos, short testimonial videos, or even tagging a client on social media with a photo to let them know they made your day. Any time you can tag someone on social media it extends the reach of your posts, because it puts the content into the news feed of your client and their social followers as well as your own.
Sharing social proof photos and videos puts the spotlight on your work and on your client. It’s a way of showing your client how important and influential you think they are – it’s a high compliment to them that makes them look good and important to their social followers.
Social proof doesn’t just happen in the Salon Suite, either! Share images and videos when you attend networking events, participate in your Chamber of Commerce or take part in charity projects or give backs. All of these types of imagery can give people reasons to want to do business with you.
3 – Artistry and Expertise
Photos and short videos can be used to show off your artistry and your expertise. You can take and share photos and videos that highlight your best work, before and after photos, step by step instructions and more. You can use this imagery to explain the features and benefits of retail products or show your clients how to use products and tools at home to recreate the results you produced in the Salon Suite at their appointment. When you use video to show off your artistry and expertise, upload the content to your own YouTube channel. It will help you build an audience and give you a reservoir of video content that you can share over and over again on social media, in your email newsletter and on your website.
4 – Emotional Appeal
Great marketing isn’t about selling, it’s about engaging! Engaging imagery doesn’t just appeal to logic and reason or explain features and benefits. Engaging imagery has entertainment value – it appeals to emotion as well as logic. It helps your clients see themselves taking action. It enables clients to see themselves achieving desired outcomes. It can make people want to do business with you over and above the products or services you sell. You can appeal to emotion in video and photo salon marketing:
- Express your personality and/or your brand personality
- Be funny – when you make your audience laugh, they trust you!
- Be enthusiastic – if you’re not excited about something, why should anything else be?
- Express empathy – the idea that “we’re all in the same boat”
- Be sympathetic so the client doesn’t need to be embarrassed about something or afraid to ask
- Demonstrate that your understanding is Level: Expert so the audience trusts your solution
- Include information that makes the client feel good about choosing to do business with you
A picture is worth a thousand words, as the old saying goes. Make it a point to infuse more imagery into every aspect of your marketing to make it more effective this year.