When you run a hair salon or work as a hairstylist it can be challenging to see how online text messaging might help you improve your business. After all, you are focusing on other aspects of running your salon. You are handling appointment reminders, for example, or dealing with no-shows who cancel at the last minute.

Yet those are precisely the types of tasks you can automate when you embrace text message marketing for your business. Everything from running promotions to dealing with cancellations can be done almost entirely automatically. Even better, you'll leverage the power of SMS technology to reach out to all of your customers simultaneously, saving you an almost incalculable amount of time in dealing with each client on an individual basis.

Why does text messaging for a beauty salon work so well? Let's look at the specific salon SMS strategies you can incorporate to make your business run more smoothly:

Every customer has your phone number when you work in the beauty industry. This can be a good thing, but it can also be horrible. You run a service-based business, which means you're only as efficient as one person at a time. That means you need to expand your business in one of two ways: becoming more efficient or increasing the prices.

To increase those prices, you first have to make sure that you're drawing in new customers, customers who are willing to pay for the best beauty salon around. If you want to portray yourself as a top-end beauty salon, you will need top-end services: appointment booking, automated confirmations, and running your new services by their SMS inbox. In other words, you're going to have to modernize.

The good news is that marketing yourself as a beauty salon can be done via SMS. One fundamental way to accomplish this is through seasonal promotions. Back-to-school family promotions, for example, such as "four for three" deals, can help you book up an entire afternoon of work back to back. With these promotions running for you via SMS, you can book new appointments without lifting a finger. Meanwhile, you'll have solid blocks of customers coming into the beauty salon, where you can also upsell haircare products.

You also have to think about how people perceive your business. One of the most important ways to do this is to work on how your business communicates. For example, people like it when you offer a personal touch during a cancellation at least they can understand a canceled appointment if you're willing to reach out to them rather than send them an automated email. If you use SMS marketing, you can have the software automatically send out notifications to an entire block of customers when you need to cancel a day. Using these templates is quick and easy, and yet because it's done through SMS, customers will feel like you've reached out to them personally.

For example, consider if there's snow in the forecast tomorrow. You need to cancel everything but it takes a lot of time to reach out to people over the phone. Some may not answer. However, a text message can handle these notifications with ease, leaving you more time to focus on your business or to kick your feet up.

Because your beauty salon is limited to the amount you charge, eventually, you're going to need to raise your prices. You can use SMS marketing to create scarcity laden "book now!" deals, in which you lock in new appointments before your prices go up. Doing so can generate a flurry of activity, filling up your calendar when you need more work. Even better, you can use those appointments to promote further what you're going to be doing when you raise prices such as explaining the quality of services you'll be providing.

Special offers like these are great at building your beauty business. But they also demonstrate the power of using SMS as a communication tool. SMS can work like customer relationship management (CRM) software. Your SMS messages can be like a marketing blast, informing your customers about upcoming deals, changing pricing details, etc. You can also create discounts for clients who refer a friend, helping you get new business when customer foot traffic has been slow.

An automatic beauty salon text message that handles appointment confirmation can be a real boost to your productivity. You can be working on a client's hair while your SMS text platform takes the confirmations. This helps you give more attention to each client increasing their satisfaction with you and helps you multi-task without expending any extra work.

These SMS messages can also be a great help on the customer's end. You can send them a rescheduling link if they need to un-confirm the appointment. This makes your beauty salon look better, but it serves a real function, reminding each client about an upcoming appointment. This helps you to reduce no-shows. Reduced no-shows mean you'll make more money with work, proving the value of salon SMS marketing, even as the SMS platform helps you manage your day-to-day tasks.

With great touches like SMS marketing blasts and appointment confirmations or reminders, you can begin attracting new clients. Your salon business should have a reputation as convenient, easy to use, easy to book, and easy to pay for. Salon SMS marketing is one of the most powerful tools for helping you get there. It will engage with your clients in the way most people are engaging with businesses these days through their smartphones. Using everything from promotional texts to text reminders won't only make your business look better it will make your business work better.