Beauty and salons marketing
New clients,
and the ones who stay.
Judge every source of new salon clients on how many come back, not on first bookings. A source that costs twice as much but brings regulars beats a cheap one that brings one-off bargain hunters. Route bookings through your own link where you can: Fresha, for example, charges nothing for bookings made through your own link, Instagram or Facebook. And keep reminder texts factual: once a message promotes something, the Spam Act needs consent, your details and an unsubscribe honoured within 5 working days.
Written by Dan Picken, a marketer who checks the sources. Last checked 6 November 2026.Where new clients
come from.
Ask a salon owner where their best clients came from and the answer is usually a person, not a platform: a friend, a mum at school pick-up, a colleague who wouldn't stop talking about her brows. Paid channels fill the gaps. Here's how the sources typically compare for a local salon or studio. Your order may differ, which is the point of counting.
| Source | Good for | Watch |
|---|---|---|
| Referral from a client | Clients who arrive half-sold | They can't refer you if your booking link is hard to find |
| Google profile and Maps | 'Near me' and suburb searches | Hours, photos and reviews need to be current |
| Booking marketplace | Filling a new stylist's book | A fee on every brand new client it sends |
| Instagram, unpaid | Showing the work to locals | Slow, and reach is not bookings |
| Paid ads | Filling specific services and days | Discounts bring discount hunters |
| Gift vouchers | A new client someone else paid for | The voucher must last 3 years |
| Walk-ins | Barbers and nail bars on busy strips | Hard to track unless you ask |
Count the
keepers.
A keeper is a new client who books again. It's the one number that tells you whether a source is working, because almost no salon makes its money on a first visit. A cut client who comes back every eight weeks visits six times a year. A lash client on three-weekly fills visits far more often.
Most booking systems can report new clients by source and visits per client. Run it for the last three months and you'll often find the source that looked cheapest brought the people least likely to return. The opposite happens too: a referral program that costs a little brings clients who stay for years.
Give it time to be fair. A colour client on an eight-week gap can't have rebooked in a month. Compare sources over the same window, and look again at six months.
What does each
keeper cost?
Put in new clients, how many came back and the spend for each source. Use your booking system's reports.
Source keeper
Which source brings
clients who come back?
For each source, put in the new clients from the last three months, how many of them have booked again, and what you spent on that source. Pull the numbers from your booking system's client source and visit reports. The marketplace cost is worked out from Fresha's published new client fee. Every starting number is made up.
Cheapest client who came back
-
| Source | Came back | Per new | Per keeper |
|---|
'Came back' means booked at least once more. Three months is short for colour clients on an eight-week gap, so compare like with like. Free sources still cost time; this only counts dollars.
Vouchers bring
new clients.
Every gift voucher bought for someone who's never been to you is a new client, paid for in advance, arriving with a friend's recommendation attached. That makes vouchers one of the best acquisition tools a salon or day spa has, and most treat them as a December cash grab.
Sell them online all year, around birthdays and Mother's Day as well as Christmas. Make the voucher easy to redeem, and greet the recipient as a first-time client: a consult, a tour, a rebooking offer before they leave.
The rules are simple. Most vouchers sold since 1 November 2019 must be redeemable for at least 3 years, with the expiry date shown and no fees after purchase. A 12-month voucher isn't just a breach, it's a new client you've told to go away.
Referrals,
done properly.
A 'bring a friend' credit is a fair trade: both people get something for a booking. That's reciprocity working in the open, and it's allowed.
Keep it apart from reviews. Google bans offering incentives for reviews, and asking selectively for positive ones. So 'refer a friend and you both get $20 off' is fine, while 'leave us five stars for $20 off' isn't. Don't bundle the two in one card at the desk.
Make referring easy: a short link the client can send by text, and a referral source option in the booking system so you can count them.
Texts that bring
them back.
Reminder texts are the cheapest marketing a salon owns, and the easiest to get wrong. A message with only the facts (your appointment is Thursday at 2pm, reply to change) is service. Add a promotion and it becomes a commercial message.
The ACMA says commercial messages need consent, accurate sender details and an unsubscribe that works within 5 working days. Consent can sometimes be inferred from an ongoing relationship, but the ACMA says that doesn't cover messages sent just because someone bought something. Express consent, a tick box at booking, is the safe way.
Small additions count. In one ACMA case summarised by a law firm, a factual email became commercial because of a single banner promoting the sender's events. So '10% off if you book your next colour today' in a reminder needs the consent and the unsubscribe, even though it's one line.
The rebooking
happens at the till.
The best moment to win the second visit is while the client is still looking in the mirror. Offering the next appointment at the right gap for the service, before they reach the door, does more than any campaign afterwards.
Make it routine, not a sales pitch: 'Want me to pop you in for six weeks? Thursdays still good?' Then a reminder a few days out. That's the whole system, and it's free.
What I see most often
What I'd check first
on how a salon wins clients.
- 1
No source recorded
Booking systems where the 'how did you hear about us' field is empty for most new clients, so every source looks the same.
- 2
No next booking offered
Clients leaving without being offered their next appointment, and no reminder at the usual gap for the service.
- 3
Offers in reminder texts
Promotions added to appointment reminders, with no unsubscribe and no record of consent.
The honest bit. No lead source fixes a disappointing first visit. If keepers are low across every source, the problem is in the chair or at the till, not in the marketing. Fix that before you spend more finding people to disappoint.
Questions
people ask.
How do salons get new clients?
Mostly through referrals, Google Maps and Instagram, with booking marketplaces and paid ads filling gaps. Gift vouchers are an underrated source. Track each new client's source and whether they rebook.
Are salon appointment reminder texts spam?
Not if they only contain factual information about the appointment. Add a promotion and the Spam Act needs consent, your details and a working unsubscribe.
Can a salon reward clients for referrals?
Yes, a referral credit is fine. Rewarding reviews isn't: Google bans incentives for reviews, so keep referral and review requests separate.
Do booking marketplaces charge for returning clients?
Fresha says no fee ever applies to your returning clients, and charges a one-time 20% commission, with a $6 minimum, on brand new clients from its marketplace.
Is there a benchmark rebooking rate for salons?
There's no reliable public Australian benchmark. Use your own booking system's data, compare sources over the same period, and watch the trend.
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