How do I get more new clients for my hair salon?
By the Margin Media team · Updated
You get more new clients for a hair salon by being easy to find and easy to book: a complete Google profile, recent reviews, photos of real work, and a phone that gets answered. New clients choose from what they see in a search, then book with the first salon that responds to them.
Where do new salon clients come from?
New salon clients come from three places: a search on Google, something they saw on Instagram, and a friend's recommendation. Even the friend's referral ends in a search, because the person looks you up to find your number, your hours and your photos before they call.
What are the steps to bring in more new clients?
Work through these in order. The early steps cost time, not money, and they make any advertising you pay for later work harder than it would alone.
- Complete your Google Business Profile with every service, your real hours, and photos of recent colour, cuts and the salon itself.
- Ask every happy client for a Google review on the day of the visit, while they still love their hair.
- Post your stylists' real work on Instagram, and put your phone number and booking link in the profile.
- Make your website say what you do, where you are and how to book, on the first screen of a phone.
- Answer every call and message from a new client quickly, because they are contacting other salons too.
- Follow up with anyone who asked about a service and didn't book, until they book or say no.
- Run ads only after the steps above are in place, so the people the ads bring in get answered.
Why do new clients enquire and then go somewhere else?
New clients go elsewhere when nobody answers them. They call while every stylist has a client in the chair, hear voicemail, and try the next salon on the list. A regular will wait for a call back. Someone who has never met you has no reason to.
How does Margin help a salon get new clients?
Margin works on both halves: being found and being answered. That can mean work on the Google profile and ranking, AI search visibility, a rebuilt website, or ads run in an account the salon owns. Which of those a salon needs is decided on a free 30-minute audit.
On the answering side, Mia, the AI receptionist, picks up the calls your team can't, books an open time, and follows up by text with people who didn't book. Bookings land on the portal calendar and your team is told. Texting begins once phone carriers approve your salon's number, which takes days to a couple of weeks.
What Margin sets up for this.
- Google profile and local ranking
- Review requests after each visit
- A website built to turn a visitor into a call
- Mia, the AI receptionist, on every call
- Follow-up until they book or say no
What a business needs is decided on its audit. It is a one-time setup fee and a monthly fee, with exact numbers on the audit.
How Margin works for salonsSee the portal with a sample business
Related questions
Should a hair salon offer a discount to new clients?
A hair salon doesn't need a discount to win new clients. A new client chooses on photos, reviews and how quickly someone answers. A first-visit offer can help fill a new stylist's book, but it also draws people who leave when the price returns to normal.
What is the fastest way for a salon to get more clients?
The fastest change for a salon is answering the calls it already misses, because those people are already trying to book. Reviews and Google ranking build over months.
Do new salon clients still phone, or do they all book online?
Both. Regulars who know their stylist and their service often book online. New salon clients phone or text when they have a question first: whether you do their hair type, or how long a colour correction takes.