When it comes to running a beauty business, being a skilled esthetician and offering top notch services is only half of the story. You might have the best services on the market, but unless you know how to sell them, you will lose customers to your competition.
To come out on top, you need to market your services in a way that resonates. The problem is, lots of marketing strategies are time consuming, hard to measure the effectiveness of, and simply fall flat with your target audience.
This is where salon marketing apps come in. They help you make marketing campaigns that connect to customers and don’t take hours of your time. When used well, salon marketing apps are the key to more customers, bigger ticket services and a higher hourly rate. All of which means more financial freedom for you.
Artemis has helped over 2000 businesses achieve financial success. We’ve seen time and again how marketing is critical in that journey. Here, we take you through the salon marketing apps we trust most to elevate your marketing game.
What is a salon marketing app?
So, what do we mean when we say ‘salon marketing apps’?
Broadly speaking, there are two kinds of salon marketing apps.
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The salon marketing apps that do everything.
These are the salon marketing apps that have everything covered, from scheduling to creating posts and building analytics reports.
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The salon marketing apps that do specific tasks.
These are the salon marketing apps which are really good at just one particular thing. For example, creating a stellar graphic or writing a compelling email campaign.
This blog will take you through the best of both salon marketing apps. But firstly, let’s think about the key reason why salon marketing apps are well worth your time. Then, we’ll move on to the key things to look out for when choosing salon marketing apps.
Benefits of a salon marketing app
There are many benefits of using salon marketing apps. Through helping thousands of business owners nail their marketing tools and strategies, we’ve whittled down the biggest three.
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They save you time on marketing
Especially when you start out and you’re not confident in your marketing skills, planning, writing and posting content can take time. This can create stress for busy entrepreneurs. When used, salon marketing apps will save you hours of time and plenty of bandwidth.
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They tell you when your marketing is working
We all know that feeling of throwing posts and emails out into the ether and hoping for the best. Without knowing whether they’re helping you generate clients, it can leave you feeling confused and powerless. Salon marketing apps can measure how well your marketing converts, and suggest ways to make it even better.
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They show you how to market your services well
Many beauty business owners have a solid training in aesthetics and a good handle on business admin, but when it comes to marketing, they’re at a loss. Salon marketing apps help everyone from the complete beginner to the marketing guru create campaigns that get people through your door.
What to consider when choosing salon marketing apps
Before you download salon marketing apps, have a hard think about what you need help with.
The answer might be ‘everything!’, in which case there are loads of salon marketing apps out there that cover all your bases. But equally, you might need something specific. For example, you could have your website and social copy down to a tee, and all you need is a graphic that grabs attention. In this case, check out salon marketing apps for graphic creation.
In the next part of this Salon Marketing Apps blog, we’ll take you through the salon marketing apps that do it all, and the ones that do something specific. So you can choose the tools that will get your business connecting to clients.
Our top 10 salon marketing apps
Do-it-all Salon Marketing Apps
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Vagaro is a full business solution for a wide range of business types. 20 million customers use the Vagaro marketplace, and it has swathes of excellent reviews. One of its key features is Vagaro Marketing, an all-in-one marketing solution.
As part of its marketing tool, you can use the app, website and online marketplace to promote your services. With Vagaro Email and Text Marketing, you can easily connect with clients at scale. Furthermore, you can use Vagaro to design and launch a branded website and app.
Whether you’re building your marketing up from the very beginning, or simply want to manage it all from one place, Vagaro is the salon marketing app for you.
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A purpose-driven, all-in-one booking software that empowers self-care providers, Phorest plants a tree for every practice they onboard. Its powerful yet easy-to-use marketing suite has everything you need to help your business grow.
Firstly, use their marketing templates, photo editor and image library to write emails and texts that convert. With their tools to refine your target list, you’ll reach exactly the right customers. Further, you can track which clients engage with your campaigns, make a booking, how much they spend, what they buy, and more, so you can see which campaigns paid off.
If you’re looking for salon marketing apps with exceptional business support and great environmental credentials, then check out Phorest today.
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GlossGenius is an all-in-one salon software that drives bookings and grows revenue. Its marketing tools help you create text blasts, email campaigns and social media schedules that will show clients old and new exactly how great your services are.
Furthermore, GlossGenius uses modern marketing methods to bring in high value clients. And their tools are streamlined in one system for your convenience.
Finally, with its smart technology that asks clients to leave reviews with every receipt, you’ll get greater client satisfaction, more reviews, and new clients for your business.
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Next up in our do-it-all salon marketing apps run down - The Salon App. This app is designed for independent salons to grow their business, strengthen client relationships and optimize team performance.
Its ‘ultimate salon marketing tool’ will help you attract more clients, clients who make regular visits and spend generous amounts. With tools to help you collect and categorize client data, you can target your marketing to the right audience. And its personalized text templates and email editors help you create custom campaigns, tailored to each client.
Lastly, you can track the results of all your campaigns, and see exactly how much revenue each one has generated.
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Mindbody - one of the leading salon marketing apps for the fitness and wellness industry - is proven to grow revenue by an average of 36% in 6 months. Alongside all the business tools you need, Mindbody’s marketing tools will help you build a thriving community of customers.
Its automated smart messages share deals and promotions for open bookings, so you can fill empty appointment slots. Further, its customizable emails and texts automatically send to the right audience, converting walk-ins, winning back lost customers, and creating loyal clients.
Finally, Mindbody’s user-friendly dashboard shares metrics like click-through, unsubscribe, and open rates. So you can make data-driven decisions about your campaigns.
For an all-in-one salon marketing app that’s geared up for fitness, beauty and wellness, Mindbody is for you.
Single Tool Salon Marketing Apps
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Mailchimp
Best for: email campaigns
Still one of the most effective (and cost effective!) ways of reaching your customers, email marketing is an important tool in any good marketer’s toolkit.
With Mailchimp, your practice will level up its email marketing and turn emails into revenue.
How? Mailchimp’s Content Optimizer whips your copy and images into shape, based on email best-practice. With automated email funnels, you can send the right message to the right customers at the right time, without lifting a finger.
Additionally, its segmentation tools make it easy to target people based on their behavior and interests, so you can keep your emails relevant. Then, Mailchimp uses analytics and AI-assisted suggestions to help make your content more engaging.
For one of the most sophisticated, easy-to-use and effective salon marketing apps for email out there, Mailchimp is worth a shot.
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Best for: scheduling socials
There are 4.48 billion social media users worldwide, so you’d be wise to focus on social media if you want to build your brand and your business. The trouble is, with so many social channels out there, it can be time consuming to write, design, schedule and monitor each of them.
With Buffer, you can run all your social media, across channels, through one salon marketing app.
Furthermore, Buffer helps you grow your social channels by suggesting what and when to publish and when, the hashtags you should use, and generating performance reports. Plus, it helps your team write, amend and sign-off content internally, with easy-to-use approval flows.
Finally, it offers affordable pricing plans, and a constant flow of new features to help your social channels thrive. In short, Buffer is a great choice for anyone looking to streamline their social marketing.
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Best for: nailing Instagram
With over 1.3 billion users worldwide, Instagram is a fertile place to attract new customers and build brand loyalty. But with the need for eye-catching visuals and copy that converts, creating a good feed takes time and energy. Plus, it isn’t always clear which content really brings in customers.
Later has all the tools you need to create an Instagram presence that pulls in punters. Its visual planner lets you schedule content months in advance, with a preview that helps you see exactly how the feed will look.
Additionally, the app helps you source relevant, on-brand, user-generated content that appeals to your audience, taking lots of the leg work out of content creation.
Later’s link.in bio tool turns your Instagram profile into a mini website, complete with analytics. You’ll know exactly which posts are driving traffic, and where your followers are converting. Lastly, it collates data so you can see what works, and makes suggestions about how to improve your strategy.
For an Instagram feed that turns heads, Later is one of the salon marketing apps you can’t do without.
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Best for: performance data
Without a doubt, Google Analytics is the best of the salon marketing apps for getting data on your marketing. By placing a tracking code on every page of your website, it tracks the results of all the emails, socials and adverts connected to your site, as well as the website itself.
Find out visitor numbers, where they come from, which pages they visited, and how long they spend on each one. You can also get data on your advert and email conversion rates, and how well you are optimized for search engine success. Finally, Google Analytics gives you a dashboard that’s easy to navigate and summarizes your data.
If cross-channel data crunching is your bag, then Google Analytics is one of the best salon marketing apps for you.
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Best for: creating visuals
When it comes to making visuals for ads and socials, we all know the familiar dilemma. Do I pay someone to create a graphic for me, or do I risk it with my own dubious creative skills?
With Canva, you can avoid both. Its library of stock elements and templates gives you all the tools, inspiration and guidance you need to create beautiful, compelling, on-brand graphics.
What’s more, it’s very easy to use - no need to worry about long task bars with hundreds of strange icons. And it’s built for marketers - with templates for every social channel, advert style and email format you can imagine.
Best of all, its basic plan is free. From absolute beginners to graphic designer pros, Canva is one of the salon marketing apps you shouldn't pass up.
Conclusion
Good marketing has the power to take you from working all hours for next to nothing, to owning a business that’s hands-off money maker. So, spot where you need support, and use the salon marketing apps to your advantage. You have so much to gain.
It must be remembered that Artemis marketing support doesn’t stop with a list of the best salon marketing apps. Our ‘ How To Grow Your Business Through Marketing ’ eBook, is a free step-by-step guide to complete business marketing, from value propositions, to personas and promotions.
