From large spas and salons offering a wide range of beauty treatments to self-employed manicurists and makeup artists, the UK beauty industry is awash with competition. For therapists who want to stay fully booked and small businesses that want to grow, standing out from everyone else means going online. Here we look at six reasons why your beauty business needs a website.
- Customers go online to find beauty services
The first port of call for anyone looking for beauty treatment is online. While some will head to Instagram or Facebook to search, the majority will type what they are looking for into Google. If you don’t have a website, your business isn’t going to appear in Google’s results and that means you’re missing out on the largest number of potential new customers.What’s more, you may also be missing out on customers that have heard about you through adverts, social media or word of mouth. If they want to know more about your services, they’ll expect to find information on your website.
- Provide important information
Before someone makes a booking with you, there will be questions that they will want answering. Having a website means you can provide this detailed information for everyone who visits your site and make it available all day, every day.Important information will include details of the different beauty services you carry out, your location, your opening hours and your prices. In addition, you could include details about your training and experience, the benefits of the different treatments you offer and anything else that would encourage a new customer to book an appointment.
- Showcase your business
With a website, you’ll be able to create stunning image galleries that can attract new customers. If you do hair, nails or makeup, for example, you can take photos of your work so potential clients can see how skilled you are. You can also take shots of your salon, equipment and the products you use in your job, as these can be decisive factors in helping someone make a booking.Another advantage is that you can share these images on social media with a link to your website. This will encourage more visitors to take a closer look at the services you offer.
- Make use of website tools
A modern website isn’t just a collection of pages with text and images. Today there are many website tools that add helpful and convenient services for your customers. One of the most useful of these for a beauty business is an online booking system. This would allow customers to choose the service they want and book a convenient appointment directly from your website, 24 hours a day. Some of these tools even allow customers to pay online, at the same time they book.The benefit of such tools is that they increase the chance of making a booking. If someone was calling to make an appointment while you were busy or out of business hours, they may give up trying and look somewhere else. A booking system on your website would stop you from losing out on these missed opportunities.
- Show off your ratings
Social proof has become increasingly important, with most customers checking online reviews and ratings before they choose to use a business they do not have experience of. Although you might already have reviews on Facebook, Google and sites like Trustpilot, you can take greater advantage of these by embedding them directly onto your website. This means people can check out independent reviews of your business without having to leave your site – which is the last thing you need if you want them to stay and book an appointment. Make sure you place these embedded ratings somewhere prominent so that everyone who visits will see them.
- Take advantage of a Google Business Profile
Business Profile is a free to use listing service from Google that helps small businesses get noticed. It is exceptionally useful for local businesses because when people search for services like ‘beautician near me’ Google displays a map and a list of matching businesses in the local area. If you have a Business Profile account, your company will appear in those search results and on other apps, like Google Maps.The importance of having a website is that when people see a business they are interested in, their first intention will be to visit the website and find out more about it. If you don’t have a website, most people will just look at a different business. With both a website and a Business Profile listing, however, you have the opportunity to appear in many more searches and have more people look at your services.
Conclusion
The internet is the most popular way to find local beauty businesses and today, everyone expects that you’ll have a website providing all the information that customers need. In competitive local markets, this makes a website an essential tool. It makes your information available 24/7, showcases images of your work and your premises, ensures people see how well your business is rated, and crucially, makes it possible for customers to book an appointment there and then.
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