Promoting Mobile Hair Extensions

[clazaridis]

Hi,
I completed a Habia approved hair extension course in August 2009. I went mobile straight away and have had plenty of bookings for them. I work full time in an office in the day and would ideally like to concentrate on building my mobile hair ext business up more! I probably have a couple of clients a week whether it be a consultation, fitting or maintenance. I have done the following so far:

1. Free ads everywhere I could on the internet ie: Touch Local, Gumtree, Adzooks etc etc.
2. Car door magnet adverts - (loads of old folks calling for cut and blowdry from them!!)
3. Flyers through doors
4. Facebook group & fanpage
5. Website (only a freebee as money is tight)

I also do mobile spray tanning and would love any other ideas of marketing my business so i can leave the boring desk job!!

Thanks

 

[chameleonhair]

Hi Clazaridis,

It's funny really, I am in exactly the same situation as you!

I am also chained to office work and long to break free and be my own boss.

This is what I've done so far

1- Free Advertising - free index, yell.com, hot frog, gumtree (I'm going to have a look at a couple of the ones you have mentioned)

2- Facebook group and fan page (Tip for this one, when you put pictures of your work up, if possible, tag the customer. This way them and their friends can view your page too)

3- Leaflets - I'm currently in the process of having these printed, I'm getting 1,000 done and going to put them everywhere! I don't trhink it's worth the time to put through peoples letterboxes. I am going to go around local beauty salons, hairdressers (who don't offer extensions), Bridal shops, prom dress shops etc etc and offer a leaflets swap, I will recommend them if they recommend me. Extensions isn't as easy to sell on recommendation than, lets say, beauty, as you can't give someone a cheap and easy freebie treatment to entice them to recommend you to others :-( but it's worth a try to get your leaflets in shop etc. If they say no, they say no, I feel I have nothing to loose by trying.

4- My Website. So far the most important advertising tool in my arsenal. I have only had it up about a month and have received nearly ALL of my recent referrals from it. Websites are only great if people know about them. You have to make sure the website is SEO’d - see Search engine optimization - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. But don't pay for it if possible, it's very easy to do it yourself. E.g, if I search 'Hair extensions Rotherham' on a search engine I either come up on the bottom of the first page, or the beginning of the second, and I'm the only mobile Extensionist that shows up on the first two pages, so I have a good chance someone looking for a mobile hair extensionist in Rotherham will find my website. A quick search for 'Hair Extensions Derby' and I can't find your website anywhere, which means that your website isn't getting you the exposure you need. My other suggestion would be to get your own website, go to somewhere like One.com Web hosting**-**Domain • Hosting • E-mail** and buy a domain and the hosting (one.com only costs about £20.00 in total for the first year). Then either make your own website using the free editor (if your good with computers) or get someone cheap but good like verve design to do it for you if you can afford it.


5- Salon Appointments - At first I thought I may be able to start doing a couple of days a week in a Salon doing the extensions, possibly renting a room or a chair. After speaking to one salon owner, I realisd that Hair Extensions can be more of a 'one off' thing, whilst you will get regular clients, it's not somethng someone can just come in and have done on a whim (like Nails, facials etc). I'm seriously considering offering a proposition to salons in my area.If they don't offer Hair Extensions, They can add my prices (plus their commission) to their price list, and if they get any interest, they just give me a call and I can do the consultation and then hopefully the install in the salon. This means no hanging around an empty chair/room. The Salon gets a cut of the profit and can offer more services, the client gets what they want in the familiarity of their local salon, and I get to stay mobile.

Please let me know if you've found any other ways to advertise, or if you have any tips/tricks for being a Mobile Extensionists.

Dawn

 

[xgxexmx]

Hi,

I completed a Habia approved hair extension course in August 2009. I went mobile straight away and have had plenty of bookings for them. I work full time in an office in the day and would ideally like to concentrate on building my mobile hair ext business up more! I probably have a couple of clients a week whether it be a consultation, fitting or maintenance. I have done the following so far:

1. Free ads everywhere I could on the internet ie: Touch Local, Gumtree, Adzooks etc etc.
2. Car door magnet adverts - (loads of old folks calling for cut and blowdry from them!!)
3. Flyers through doors
4. Facebook group & fanpage
5. Website (only a freebee as money is tight)

I also do mobile spray tanning and would love any other ideas of marketing my business so i can leave the boring desk job!!

Thanks

I am also in the same position as you. Last few weeks i have been getting busier and i am now getting clients from word of mouth which is always good. I would love to work in a salon but at the moment being mobile is so much easier and dont have to pay for rent. I advertise the same ways as you although i have not done any leaflet drops. I have found most of my business has come through from gumtree where i have a link to my website on there. I would just love to have enough clients to do it full time. Ideas to advertise cheaply is difficult !!
xxx

 

[clazaridis]

Thanks for the replies, I will definately look into the website thing more, if i search for mobile hair extensions derby I usually come up on the first page on but on my gumtree advert. I have added in loads of descriptive words that are supposed to link to search engines but the obviously don't work! I'll have to sort that out and maybe look at a proper set up for it. I'll let you know how i get on with it, been really busy, out every evening on appointments so something must be working!