If you’re the owner or manager of a spa or salon, integrating SMS into your marketing and communications efforts can be a real game-changer. Due to the personal and direct nature of texting, this channel is perfect for connecting with both your employees and clients. In this guide, we’ll explore how you can use texting to elevate the customer experience and streamline your daily operations.
What Is Text Messaging for Salons and Spas?
Text messaging for beauty salons and spas involves using SMS to communicate with clients. The goal of SMS marketing is often to enhance client engagement, encourage return visits and facilitate a better customer experience.
With features like two-way messaging and automation, SMS is an excellent communication method for service-related businesses, making tasks like confirming or rescheduling appointments a breeze. Thanks to its impressive open rate of 98%, you know recipients will almost always read your messages. When sharing time-sensitive information, such as a reminder about an upcoming booking, this can be particularly reassuring—no-shows can be costly in this industry.
SMS for salons and spas also involves using texting to connect with your employees, from your operations team to staff members like nail techs and hair stylists. When you make communicating simple and keep everyone in the loop, such as providing scheduling updates via text, employees will likely feel a lot happier and more engaged.
Whether using texting for external or internal marketing purposes, this method of communication allows you to reach out to those who matter most to your business.
Benefits of SMS Marketing for Salons and Spas
SMS marketing offers many benefits to hair salons, nail salons, spas and similar businesses:
- Enhance customer service: Texting is a convenient way to resolve customers’ queries about services, bookings and prices. And offering two-way messaging can facilitate customer engagement. Clients will be able to text you and receive response without picking up the phone. After getting all the information they need, customers might even be ready to book an appointment.
- Improve operational efficiency: Instead of fielding calls for those last-minute appointments, you could let your clients book directly via text. Doing so can free up a lot of time, allowing your business to focus on what it does best—pampering customers.
- Leverage customers’ favorite platform: With texting being the preferred method of communication for many, especially among younger generations, people will appreciate skipping out on the hassle of a phone call. An easier booking process can translate to more bookings.
- Boost revenue: SMS offers segmentation capabilities, so you can send highly targeted messages to promote new services or products and special promotions, encouraging business growth. Plus, by sending reminders that will actually be seen, your spa or salon can avoid profit losses related to missed appointments, strengthening its bottom line.
- Foster customer loyalty: A customer loyalty program can help you retain customers and promote repeat bookings. Sharing exclusive deals and coupons through SMS can be a great way to ensure your clients don’t miss out on these offers, making it easy for them to participate.
- Encourage referrals: As the owner of a salon or spa, you likely know that growing your customer base is just as important as maintaining it. Referral programs are a powerful way to tap into word-of-mouth marketing, encouraging your existing clients to bring friends and family to your business. Since texts are easy to forward, this channel is ideal for allowing customers to share referral codes.
- Keep costs in check: SMS marketing campaigns tend to be a lot more cost-effective than more traditional methods, such as printing out posters or flyers or advertising in a local magazine. Additionally, as 98% of Americans own a cellphone, and nine out of 10 Australians own a smartphone, texting offers a much greater reach.
How Can Salons and Spas Use SMS Marketing?
Here are seven strategies for salon and spa SMS marketing you can implement to improve both the customer and employee experience.
1. Take Bookings
As mentioned, you can allow your customers to book appointments by sending an SMS. By offering a link to your booking site via text, you add a convenient way to book the appointment without the back and forth of manually checking calendars. Be sure to include a branded URL to avoid being blocked by mobile carriers.
2. Send Confirmations and Reminders
After clients have booked their appointment, sending an SMS confirmation is great for letting them know you’ve gotten their booking request and it’s marked on your business’s calendar.
Before your client is scheduled to come into your salon or spa, sending reminder texts and offering the option to reschedule can significantly lower your cancellation or no-show rate. You can set up these messages to automatically go out a week before and then again the day before your clients’ appointment date.
3. Offer Appointments to Waitlisted Clients
Popular spas and salons often have jam-packed schedules, with more clients wanting appointments than they have time for. In the event someone opts to reschedule or cancel, send customers on your waitlist a text to see if they’re available. This way, you’ll fill the appointment, and someone will be thrilled to snag that spot—it’s a win-win.
4. Promote New Products and Services
Did your salon just receive the latest must-have hair products? Maybe your spa is now offering a cutting-edge microcurrent facial? Sending an SMS message is the perfect way to let your clients know. To make the news even more exciting, you could include a discount code for them to use on these new products and services.
5. Collect Client Feedback
Whether you want to check in after each visit or get a general feel for how people are enjoying your spa or salon, SMS allows you to get immediate feedback from your clients. Either choose to include a link to a survey or ask recipients to respond directly via text.
By making it easy for your customers to share their thoughts, you’ll gain valuable insight into where you can improve. Plus, you can encourage participation by offering access to rewards, such as a discount after completion of the survey.
6. Manage Loyalty Programs
Along with rewarding loyal customers with vouchers and coupons via text, you can use this channel to update clients about how many points they have. Sending a text is also an ideal way to send alerts about members-only deals, especially for limited-time offers.
7. Improve Client Engagement
The right SMS message can make clients feel extra special, improving their overall experience at your spa or salon. A simple “Happy Birthday” or a surprise discount can boost customer engagement. Another idea is to celebrate your clients’ anniversaries with your salon or spa—saying thank you for their continued support can go a long way.
8. Simplify Internal Communications
Beyond using promotional SMS for salons and spas to communicate with your clients, texting can make your team members’ lives easier. Rather than requiring employees to check emails, work with booking platforms, chat with colleagues and look at schedules, you can simplify internal communications with SMS:
- Improve scheduling: You can keep your hairstylists, nail techs, estheticians, beauticians and massage therapists up to date on their booking schedules by sending texts as soon as clients make an appointment. If you have a last-minute opening, you can easily contact your entire team to help fill open spots and ensure your business is fully booked.
- Send praise: If one of your masseuses receives a rave review or you notice how incredible your receptionist is at welcoming guests, share your appreciation via SMS.
- Get feedback: Just as you would with customers, send out surveys through text to find out what your employees really think. This shows you value your team’s opinions and makes it easy for everyone to respond.
Best Practices for Salon and Spa SMS Marketing
Explore the following best practices to get the most out of SMS marketing:
- Stay compliant: The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and mobile carriers in the United States set various SMS compliance rules or regulations. The specific laws that your salon or spa must follow will depend on where it’s based.
- Obtain consent: Before you can send messages to your customers, they’ll need to give consent by subscribing to your mailing list—this is known as opting-in. You should also provide information on how they can unsubscribe, which is referred to as opting-out.
- Introduce your business: Include the name of your spa or salon in every text you send. By identifying your business and being easily recognizable, the more likely recipients will engage with your messages. Doing so can also help you avoid being blocked.
- Personalize your messages: Personalization is the standard, with 71% of customers expecting tailored interactions from brands. Include recipients’ first names and other relevant information to show you’re delivering content created specifically for them.
- Keep it short: Texts should be concise and to the point—you want readers to get all the necessary information at a glance. You should also limit content to 160 characters to avoid your messages being split up into two separate messages.
- Include a CTA: A clear call to action (CTA) will help recipients understand the purpose of your text and guide them toward the desired action, such as clicking on a link. Always include a CTA like “Book Now” or “Learn More.”
- Be mindful: Send texts between 8 a.m. and 9 p.m. rather than late at night or in the early hours of the morning. Beyond being respectful of recipients’ boundaries, a well-timed SMS can make them more likely to read your content. You should also send messages sparingly to avoid overwhelming your clients.
SMS Templates for Salons and Spas
If you want to make connecting with clients easy, use these pre-written templates for various spa and salon text messaging scenarios.
Booking Confirmation
Hi [Name], your appointment has been booked with [Employee Name]. We’ll see you on [Date] at [Time]. Cancel or reschedule at [Link].
Appointment Reminder
Hi [Name], this is a reminder about your appointment at [Business Name] on [Date] at [Time]. Reply YES to confirm or NO to receive a link to reschedule or cancel.
Last-Minute Availability
[Name], we have a last-minute opening at [Time] for [Service] today! If you can make it, reply YES.
Promotional Offer
Hi [Name], we have good news! Get 15% off any [Service] this week. Book your appointment today [Link].
New Service Announcement
Hi [Name], [Business Name] is introducing [Service]! We know you’re going to love it as much as we do—book now at [Link].
Customer Feedback Request
[Name], how was your visit to [Business Name] today? Get 10% off your next booking by sharing your feedback at [Link].
Birthday Wishes
Happy Birthday, [Name]! We want to give you something special: Enjoy 30% off any service this month! Book your appointment at [Link].
Loyalty Program Update
[Name], you’ve just earned [X] points! Learn more about how to redeem your rewards at [Link].
Referral Offer
Hi [Name], want 25% off for you and a friend? Forward them this text! You’ll both receive a discount once they’ve booked an appointment at [Link].
How Red Oxygen Can Help Salons and Spas
Now that you know how your spa or salon can use SMS, are aware of texting best practices and have some pre-written templates, all you need is a trusted application-to-person (A2P) software provider. While person-to-person messaging is perfect for chatting with friends and family, you’ll need to rely on A2P texts for SMS marketing, reminders and other business communications.
Red Oxygen provides software that makes texting simple for businesses like yours. Here’s how we can help.
Easy Setup and Integration
With Red Oxygen, text messaging for beauty salons and spas becomes easy. Our team will assist with setup, allowing you to start reaping the benefits of SMS as soon as possible. With experience in your industry, we can also provide guidance and tips on how to get the most out of your texting strategy.
Thanks to our SMS gateway application programming interface (API), you can integrate texting with your current software, such as your online booking platform. This way, you can up-level your texting capabilities with features like scheduling your messages, auto-response and call forwarding. With our SMS API for beauty salons and spas, you can also send texts straight from your web browser or major platforms like Gmail and Outlook.
Personalized SMS Capabilities
Our SMS tools let you add a personal touch to each text you send, such as addressing clients by name. With our solutions, you can also tailor your content to customers’ specific interests, such as their favorite brand of products or a service that they repeatedly book.
Depending on where your salon or spa is based, you can customize your sender ID so your messages are instantly recognizable. Rather than displaying an unknown number, clients will see your business’s name on their mobile devices.
Compliance Guidance
At Red Oxygen, we can help your spa or salon maintain SMS compliance regardless of where you are in the world. We abide by the FCC rules in the United States and the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 in Australia. We’re also here to help you navigate any other SMS-related rules, such as 10-digit long code regulations for A2P messaging.
Growth and Scalability
The solutions at Red Oxygenare designed to grow with your business. As your salon or spa expands, you can easily add more people to your subscriber list. With the ability to store unlimited contacts, you can ensure smooth communications while you scale.
We also make it simple to create highly targeted segments, allowing you to better fulfill customers’ specific needs and deliver individualized content. Need to reach hundreds of clients at once? Our software also offers bulk SMS capabilities.
Request a Demo With Red Oxygen
For over 24 years, Red Oxygen has helped thousands of businesses improve customer retention and streamline operations through SMS. We’d love to do the same for your spa or salon. Along with having access to the easiest way to send texts from a computer, you’ll receive 24/7 support. Whether you have a question about compliance or want to know if your message has been delivered, we’re here to help and pride ourselves on providing exceptional customer service.
Start using SMS marketing today and request a demo with Red Oxygen!
