Creating a solid foundation to drive sustainable growth

You’ve built your beauty business up from nothing, and you’ve got a solid client base you can rely on to keep things stable. Now, it’s time to start growing your empire. However, the tools and technology you need to find those new clients seem to change as quickly as the latest beauty trends. Where do you start, especially when resources are tight?

Don’t worry — Boulevard’s here to help. These tried-and-true strategies will help you find and retain new clients, regardless of the social media platform du jour. 

Find out where your prospective clients hang out online

Creating and maintaining social media profiles is considered table stakes in 2025. If you don’t have accounts on prominent platforms like Facebook, Instagram, or TikTok, you’re missing out on a way to connect with new and existing clients to educate them on the latest trends or show off new services. Developing a social media strategy that leverages their unique qualities — photos and Stories on Instagram, short-form videos on TikTok — will allow you to maximize your impact on each platform.

But your time and resources are limited, and focusing those resources in the wrong place can lead to limited returns. How do you know where to focus?

First, you should make sure that every link you use as a call to action in your social media ad campaigns includes a UTM tracking tag. These tags get added to the end of your website or booking form links and will let your ad management software track where the conversion came from.

Then, you can supplement this work with client surveys to find out how they found your business in the first place. While UTM tags help you see which of your digital marketing techniques are most effective when they’re actively clicked on, they can’t measure whether they arrived via word-of-mouth referral — or whether someone simply saw your post on Facebook and decided to give you a call.

By combining these two data-gathering techniques, you can determine which platform is most successful at bringing in new clientele — and then you can start posting away. 

Tidy up your online presence

When managing your digital accounts, you shouldn’t neglect the rest of your online footprint. According to one survey, over three-quarters of consumers look at a business’s online profile before visiting its physical location, and nearly half are likely to visit after finding a strong presence through local online search.

That’s why maintaining and updating your website is just as important as staying on top of your social media accounts. It’s a central hub for information about your salon or spa, where you’ll keep services, costs, membership details, and hours of operation up to date. Making sure that your website’s brand identity matches your physical location — along with some up-to-date glamor shots to show off your team’s handiwork — will go a long way to putting prospective clients in the right mindset before they ever step through your doors.

Your website is also a key ingredient in improving your website’s local SEO (search engine optimization) rankings, which you can pair with a Google Business Profile to help your beauty business appear in search results. Local SEO algorithms use three main criteria to surface search results: relevance, distance, and prominence. By keeping your website and Google Business Profile updated with the most accurate information, you’ll help Google surface your business whenever anyone located nearby searches for a relevant service.

You should also encourage current clients to leave reviews on your Google Business Profile to help boost your search rankings. The more five-star reviews you have, the more likely Google will notice that your salon delivers exceptional quality and will be more likely to recommend it over the competition.

Reduce friction with online booking

When you advertise online, your campaigns will fight for attention against every other ad or piece of content your potential clients see. The time and effort it takes for clients to transition from seeing your post to making a booking should be as frictionless as possible. If they can only book an appointment via phone or walk-in, you’ve added an unnecessary obstacle to the process. If the ability to book isn’t immediately available, people will move on or eventually forget to do so — so online booking options are a must.

Online self-booking isn’t just a great way to improve your conversion rates. You can use these forms to do some initial fact-finding about your client. What are their color and style preferences? What type of vibe are they looking for from their visit?  Do they like small talk? What are some unique health or beauty concerns they have? By asking these questions up front, you can pair them with the perfect specialist right off the bat and create a better, personalized experience right from their first visit.

Plus, online booking will do wonders for your retention rates. According to our Official 2023 Salon Industry Client Retention Report, nearly 80% of clients who booked their first appointment online will return for their second. So you’re not just attracting new clients — you’re getting them to stick around for years to come.

Leverage referral programs

Word of mouth is huge for growing your client base. A 2021 Nielsen study found that nearly 90% of respondents trust recommendations for new products and services from people they know. Trust and loyalty are powerful tools for driving sustainable growth, and they are right at your fingertips. 

To leverage these tools, you can develop a referral-based loyalty program that provides discounts or free products for your existing clients as well as any new clients they bring into your salon. Platforms like Boulevard’s built-in loyalty suite can help you develop the perfect program for your beauty business, monitor its usage, and automatically apply discounts for you, so you don’t have to track that information yourself. You can even track program usage data over time to see what’s working and what isn’t, allowing you to adjust the program as needed.

Network with other local businesses 

Building a healthy salon or spa isn’t just about business — it’s about being a part of your local community. And there’s no better way to get involved than to find other local business owners and organizations and partner with them on exciting projects. 

These can be as simple as creating quid pro quo offers, like providing discounted rates on services for new clients if they bring in a receipt from another local business. Or you could even host parties together, where everyone invites their client base to come for a night out and mingle. These partnerships are a great way to expand your reach into potentially new markets, helping to drive growth to even greater heights than before.

Attracting new clients should be part of your ongoing business strategy, not just a dial you turn when revenue is down. Mix and match these strategies to keep the flow of new business healthy all year ‘round.