Staying in touch with a growing number of customers can be tricky, but it’s important if you want to retain your customer base and create a great experience for your existing clients. 

Text message marketing is not only a great way to stay on top of appointment reminders and nurture customer conversations, but it can also help you promote new services and attract new clients. 

We’ve seen salons generate incredible results with SMS, such as reducing missed appointments, keeping seasonal visits high, and growing bookings. 

This guide shows you how they’ve been able to do that with sample use cases and step-by-step walkthroughs. 

Text messages are a great way to connect directly with your customers because your messages land in their inboxes alongside family and friends. You can cut through the noise and foster loyal relationships with these popular use cases. 

1. Deals and flash sales

Promote upcoming deals and sales with customers via a mass text message. Let them know they can book a bargain to generate an influx of bookings. 

2. Promote your events

Hosting an in-house event? Let customers know with a text message invite. Send a bulk message to a segment of your customer base or everyone on your list to boost attendee numbers. 

3. Send appointment prompts

Invite existing customers back with a friendly appointment prompt. Something like “It’s been a while, is it time for a haircut/massage?” will jog a customer’s memory and encourage them to book back in with you. 

4. Share appointment confirmations

Give customers peace of mind by sending an appointment confirmation as soon as they book with you. You can provide additional information here, including your address, directions, and arrival details. 

5. Send appointment reminders

Remind customers about their upcoming appointment with a friendly message. This reduces no-shows and builds relationships with customers. Set up automated reminders in the SimpleTexting app to ensure your customers never miss an appointment.

6. Collect reviews

Feedback is a crucial part of any business operation – find out what your customers do and don’t like about your spa or salon by sending a review request.

7. Send a thank you message

Either thank customers for coming to their appointment or thank them for sharing a review. You can level up your thank you messages by offering a discount they can use during their next visit. 

8. Communicate with employees

Life happens, people fall ill and when they do, you need a quick way to reach other staff. With a 98% open rate, text messaging is the best way to ensure your messages reach your employees.

9. Provide beauty tips 

Text message marketing doesn’t need to be all business. Give something back by sharing your favorite beauty tips and opinions on newly released products.

10. Share exclusive discounts and coupons

Incentivize your clients to keep receiving text messages by sending out discounts and coupons. Offers and sales are a great way to show appreciation to those loyal to you.

11. Create a rewards program 

Rewards programs are a great way to retain clients. Share salon or spa updates, send out unique discount codes and give members VIP treatment with exclusive treatment upgrades. 

12. Ask for referrals

Drum up extra business by asking customers to recommend you to a friend or to refer someone for their first appointment

Get inspired by these salon text message marketing examples 

Looking for some inspiration to fuel your salon text message marketing campaigns? Here are some ideas to get those creative juices flowing. 

The appointment reminder

This message reminds the customer about an upcoming appointment and provides a link if they need to reschedule. 

You can take this message one step further and link to the directions on your website or link to an FAQ page if it’s a customer’s first appointment with you. 

The “we miss you” message

This message reminds an existing customer that they haven’t booked an appointment in a while with the added incentive of a discount. 

The sign-up discount

This message welcomes a new customer who has signed up to receive text messages from the salon and offers an incentive if they make a purchase. 

The social proof message

This message shares a whole host of customer reviews with potential customers to provide social proof and give on-the-fence consumers a nudge in the right direction. 

It’s time-consuming to send individual messages to all your customers. Instead, use a text message marketing service to automate messages, send bulk texts, and store all your customer conversations in one place. 

1. SimpleTexting

SimpleTexting’s dashboard is intuitive and easy to use, with features that are perfect for salons. Send mass texts to different customer segments or connect one-on-one with customers via two-way messaging. 

You can quickly set up a new business number (or connect your account to an existing number) and get texting ASAP. 

2. ClickSend

Like SimpleTexting, ClickSend lets you set up and send automated text messages to customers to remind them about appointments, schedule bookings, and share discounts and incentives. 

3. TextMagic

TextMagic’s marketing software lets you set up notifications, send appointment reminders, and create bulk message campaigns from one central dashboard. 

How to start text marketing for your salon 

1. Choose your salon text message marketing service

Start by finding the right salon text message marketing service for you. Choose one that has the features you need, including the ability to send bulk messages to different audience segments and one-to-one messaging. 

2. Set up your text-enabled phone number

Your clients are probably already familiar with your phone number. With SimpleTexting, you can text-enable your existing 10-digit landline. You’ll still receive calls as usual but can send and receive messages from your SimpleTexting dashboard or our mobile app.

We can also set you up with a text-enabled, registered local number or help you pick and verify a toll-free number. This article covers how to pick the right number for your SMS marketing efforts. 

Your number needs to be registered with The Campaign Registry (TCR). To do this, you can fill out a 10DLC registration where you’ll supply:

• What you’ll be using the number for
• Two sample text messages you plan to send
• The opt-in method you’ll use to sign people up
• Your business contact information
• Your business’s name, industry, and EIN

Once you’ve submitted your 10DLC, SimpleTexting will send your application to TCR where it’ll be reviewed and verified. 

3. Collect customer phone numbers

The most important step in designing your text marketing strategy is gathering contacts. 

Do you already have a list of phone numbers from people who have given your salon permission to text them? If so, you can upload it directly into your SimpleTexting dashboard. 

Alternatively, you can: 

• Use SMS keywords, where customers text a word to your number to confirm their subscription
• Use a mobile sign-up widget, where customers can enter their phone numbers to receive messages
• Use a click-to-text button, where customers simply click to receive your messages. 

Be aware that the methods you use will need to be compliant with privacy regulations. 

4. Write a text message campaign

Get started with your first text message campaign. You might start with a welcome message, a discount, or a sale to deepen the connection with customers and reward them for signing up to receive your texts. 

If you don’t know where to start, you can use the help of AI to spark inspiration or get some words down on a page (just click the “Generate message” button). 

You can always tweak the copy in your campaigns later down the line. The most important thing is that you get started. 

5. Schedule a text blast

Once you’re comfortable setting up a campaign, you can start scheduling text blasts to go out to your entire customer base or segments. 

This might include discounts for your most loyal customers, an invite to an upcoming event, or a reminder for customers to book an appointment if they haven’t done so in a while. 

6. Reply to individuals who respond

There’s a good chance customers will respond to your text messages, especially if they know you and are a regular. 

This is a great opportunity to engage with them further and open up conversations with your best (and new!) customers. Take the time to check your dashboard inbox to read replies and respond to them — this is where you’ll drum up business. 

Read more: Find out how Gabriel Ortiz, Founder of Primero Negocios, uses SimpleTexting to help his client base of small business owners connect and engage with their customers.

• Texts are engaging. Clients don’t just open texts, they engage with them. The average click-through rate on text messages is 36% and the conversion rate of SMS hovers around 45%.  
• Quick open times. 30% of consumers check their incoming text notifications in under 60 seconds of receiving them. 
• Get in front of customers. We’re not saying you shouldn’t send emails. But, if you’re not sending text messages, chances are your customers are missing your messages. 
• Separate personal and professional life. It can get confusing using your personal phone for business texts. Having a separate phone number or text messaging service for your business will keep your personal and professional life separate. 

Take the next step with salon SMS marketing

If you’re ready to give text marketing a try, we encourage you to sign up for a free 14-day trial account. 

You’ll get 50 messages, plus you can create a keyword. And yes, it’s free—no credit card, no contract. (We’re confident you’ll love your texting experience.)

When you’re ready to upgrade to a paid account, simply change your billing plan from the dashboard.

Still have questions? Start a chat with our customer service team or check out a demo of the platform here. You’ll get a sneak peek into your new favorite tool.