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These days, it’s getting easier and easier to reach people. BUT it’s also getting harder to reach the RIGHT people. Using Facebook, you can serve thousands of people with an ad, but it’s useless if those people have no interest in what you’re offering.
It’s tough to start a business and a lash business is no different. You need clients or you’re not going to be able to pay your bills. It’s as simple as that.
In future posts we’re going to go a lot more in depth about how you should market your eyelash extension business to new and existing clients, but, for now here’s a quick and dirty list of great ways you can acquire new clients.
The key here is to be creative and test your ideas to see what works. There are no bad ideas – just test them to see if they work for your business!
Craigslist is old school but you’d be surprised at the interest you will be able to get there still. Place a well worded ad that describes you and your services in a great light and you’re probably going to get a call.
Ad placement is key on Craigslist. As time goes by and more ads are posted, your ad will be pushed down the list and your visibility will diminish. For best practices on posting on Craigslist, take a look at this post.
Facebook Marketplace is another great place to post your lash services. Make sure your images are on point for best results!
If you’ve just started out, you’ll probably want to spread the word to your friends and family. Get some practice in by giving them a free set and ask them to tell all their friends where they got their lashes done. Word of mouth is a powerful thing!
This is a great starting point but you’ll likely only get so far using this strategy (unless you know LOADS of people)! I once knew a salesman who sustained his career for 2 years by selling to his network alone. One day he ran out of new people in his network and as soon as that happened, sales stopped!
PS: Don’t give away too many free sets. You’ll only devalue your work.
Scour your area for beauty businesses that don’t offer lash extensions. Speak to them and propose a referral program where you both refer your clients to each other.
As an example, you might find a nail salon down the road from you. The people that visit that nail salon may well be interested in eyelash extensions. Ask the nail salon to put your business card on display in return for doing the same. Offer a referral discount to their clients. Get creative!
The great thing about this particular strategy is that you’re creating a network of already well-established businesses that will refer you clients. You could potentially fill your schedule with this strategy alone!
This one’s fairly easy. Tell your clients that if they refer someone to you then they’ll get $X off their next treatment, and the person they referred will also get $X off their first treatment.
It’s a great incentive to get your clients working for you!
The 2 platforms that are the most important to focus on at the moment are Facebook and Instagram. Organic posts are a great way to build a free following and you will, in time, reap the rewards for putting in the work to build up your followers.
However, if you need clients quickly then advertising on these platforms is the best way forward. Yes, they can turn into money-eating black holes if you’re not careful, but if you’re willing to do some upfront reading and put aside some money for testing your ads then it can be unbelievably powerful.
I’ll be writing some more in depth articles about how to best go about advertising on Facebook & Instagram soon, so stay tuned!
For people to find you on Google then you either need to have a decent website up and running, have a Google Business Account so you show up on Google Maps or be running Google Ads (fairly complex, and similar to FB & Insta in that it can be a waste of money if you’re not careful).
Everyone uses Google, so if you can rank highly enough to be visible to people searching for eyelash extensions in your area then you’re going to get new clients.
At a minimum, sign up for a Google Business Account and add yourself to Google Maps so you can be seen when people search Maps.
You can build your own simple website using a website builder like Wix.com. It doesn’t need to be the best website in the world – what it must be is a respectable front to your business. You can run a mom & pop store behind the scenes but if you have a nice looking website people will believe that you're the real deal. A big time player. Get a website now and build your reputation as a real business.
If you get a website, it needs to attempt to capture visitor email addresses at some point. You’ve seen websites with pop-ups asking you to subscribe. The reason they do this is so that they can build a list of interested people who they can send email marketing to at a later date.
Send your list an email once a month to convert some of those interested visitors into actual clients.
If you use a booking system then make sure you can download your email list from there too. Emailing existing clients is a great client retention strategy as well.
There’s a lot you can do with email marketing, and I’ll go into this in more detail at a later date.
Everybody likes to get a discount. But setting a time limit to claiming the discount is key. If people feel like the promotion will be around for a while, they’re going to wait before they book. What happens when people say they’ll do something later? It never gets done…
Saying that a discount will end when 10 customers claim it or that it will end in 24 hrs adds pressure. Nobody wants to miss out on a great deal, so making it seem like they might miss out is what will push them over the line to book.
There you have it - 10 ways to acquire new clients for your lash extension business.
Some are easier than others, and some are better for people starting out than those of you who already have some clients. Pick one or 2 that you think you can do and give them a try. Most importantly, don’t give up!
As mentioned, I’ll be digging deeper into these marketing strategies in future posts. For now though, if you have any questions or comments, please write them below!
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