Tiktok Marketing Guide for Beauty Salons and Spas 2024

Unlock the power of Tiktok marketing for your beauty salon or spa. Learn strategies to go viral, engage your audience, and boost your brand.
woman on blue background looking at her phone surrounded by Tiktok UI icons
Daniel O'Connor

Daniel O'Connor

Digital Marketing & Multimedia Expert

Table of Contents

Salons and spas have always been at the forefront of the beauty industry, constantly exploring new ways to attract customers and expand their business. In today’s digital age, social media platforms have become an indispensable tool for marketing and brand promotion. Among these platforms, Tiktok has emerged as an entirely new, modern platform for salons and spas to showcase their services, engage with potential clients, and ultimately drive business growth. 

Tiktok isn’t just somewhere to find funny videos, it has grown into an entire discovery ecosystem, where word of mouth recommendations get supercharged through the algorithm. We’ll talk more about the algorithm later, but suffice to say that Tiktok has become a Google competitor, with new products, music, services and shops all competing for attention. 

It’s the latest place to get found, especially if you want to attract a younger, or simply more plugged in demographic. Being a beauty product influencer, or selling you beauty products on Tiktok is well established, but salons can use the same methods to grow as well!

In this 2024 Tiktok marketing guide for Salons and Spas , we will explore the power of Tiktok marketing, creating a winning strategy, utilizing hashtags and engaging content, leveraging Instagram, tips for growing your salon business, maximizing reach and engagement, incorporating Tiktok marketing into the overall business strategy, and the future of Tiktok marketing for salons and spas.

Understanding the power of Tiktok marketing for beauty salons & spas

woman taking selfie video with ring light sitting at desk with plants and beauty products

Salons and spas can harness the potential of Tiktok to reach a wider audience and boost brand awareness. With over 1 billion monthly active users, Tiktok offers a unique opportunity for salons and spas to showcase their services and engage with potential customers. With effective, unique video content, salons and spas can effectively communicate their brand message and attract new clients. Unlike other social media platforms, Tiktok’s algorithm prioritizes content based on users’ interests and preferences, making it easier for salons and spas to connect with their target audience.

By utilizing the power of video content on Tiktok, salons and spas can showcase their expertise, provide tutorials and demonstrations, and share customer testimonials, allowing potential clients to get a glimpse of the quality of services they offer. 

Thanks to its viral nature, Tiktok has the potential to make a significant impact on the growth of salons and spas, as users are more likely to share and engage with content that resonates with them. By tapping into this new channel, salons and spas can really get ahead of the game in marketing. As mentioned previously, don’t treat it as a video sharing platform! 

Don’t treat it like just another social media channel, or a video sharing platform. Tiktok is an essential part of a salon and spa marketing strategy because it is explicitly used as a tool to find new products and services by its users, especially in the beauty industry. At the highest level, it is possible to split Tiktok searches into two groups: one is people searching for tutorials, information to help them learn and improve skills. (when they aren’t just sitting back and letting the “For You” page do it’s work)

survey question "which content did consumers prefer when using tiktok?" survey answer "video tutorials" at 62% then "product or service reviews" at 39%. survey by adobe.

The second group of searches is specifically for product & service reviews. These users have an intent to buy. By putting salon & spa content on Tiktok, a salon owner can get themselves in front of potential clients, on the verge of making a purchasing decision. Instead of searching “beauty salons near me” on Google, these users are doing the exact same search on Tiktok.

Creating a winning Tiktok marketing strategy for your beauty salon

hubspot suvery asking "what % of social media users have bought a product based on an influencers recommendation in the past 3 months?" showing a 33% increase from 2022 to 2023

A well-defined Tiktok marketing strategy is a must for salons and spas to achieve their business goals. To create a winning strategy, salons and spas must start by understanding their target audience and identifying key trends on Tiktok. By studying the preferences and behaviors of their potential customers, salons and spas can tailor their content to resonate with their audience and attract their attention.

Creating interesting and engaging content that aligns with the brand image is vital for capturing the attention of Tiktok users. This can include showcasing the latest trends in hairstyles, nail art, skincare routines, or spa treatments. By providing valuable and entertaining content, salons and spas can position themselves as go-to sources for beauty inspiration and advice. We’ll talk about collaboration with influencers later, but one of the goals for a salon’s Tiktok marketing strategy is becoming an influencer themselves

Consistency in posting and maintaining an active presence on Tiktok is necessary for building a strong following and increasing engagement. By regularly sharing new content, salons and spas can keep their audience engaged and encourage them to interact with the content through comments, likes, and shares. This not only boosts the visibility of the salon or spa but also creates a sense of community and loyalty among the audience. 

The Tiktok algorithm is always going to want more content to feed its users, and will reward you for posting more. Make sure you are committed to your strategy, because a start and stop approach won’t get the results you are after.   

Collaborating with influencers and leveraging user-generated content can significantly enhance the effectiveness of a Tiktok marketing strategy. By partnering with influencers who have a similar target audience, salons and spas can tap into their followers and gain exposure to a wider audience.

 

Utilizing hashtags and engaging content to boost your salon on Tiktok

Informed use of relevant hashtags can expand the reach of salon and spa content on Tiktok, increasing visibility and attracting new followers. By researching popular hashtags within the beauty industry and incorporating them into their content, salons and spas can ensure that their videos appear in relevant search results. Additionally, creating branded hashtags specific to the salon or spa can help create a sense of community among followers and encourage them to create their own content featuring the hashtag. It makes it easy for your engaged, loyal clients to both follow you and even post videos of their own about your salon.

Creating engaging and visually appealing content that showcases the unique offerings of your salon or spa is key to capturing audience attention. This can include before-and-after transformations, behind-the-scenes glimpses of treatments, or tutorials on achieving specific beauty looks. By presenting content that is both informative and entertaining, salons and spas can keep their audience engaged and encourage them to share the content with their own followers.

Keep an eye on the metrics. Don’t obsess over viewcount to begin with, stay focused on producing content rather than trying to optimize straight away. Waiting to make that perfectly crafted video each time will severely slow down production. Once there is a good body of videos to analyze, maybe 5 – 10, an understanding can be reached on what works for your beauty salon and what really resonates with followers.

💡Managing & utilizing user feedback to optimize your beauty salon Tiktok content

User feedback, such as comments and direct messages, can provide valuable insights into customer preferences and expectations. Attempt to respond as much as possible. Tiktok thrives off of collaboration and interaction. Negative feedback is inevitable, as it is with Google Reviews. Focus on the positive and let it fuel future content!

Make managing & growing your beauty salon simple.

Be bookable from anywhere, get new clients, reduce admin work, reduce no-shows, digitize paperwork & forms, take online payments and much more.

Leveraging Instagram to amplify Tiktok marketing efforts

Integrating Tiktok and Instagram marketing efforts can maximize the impact and reach of salon or spa content. By cross-promoting Tiktok videos on Instagram, salons and spas can attract followers from both platforms, expanding their audience and increasing brand visibility. It will also save time, letting beauty salons use the same content for different platforms, rather than stressing about needing 100% unique videos for everything.

Utilizing Instagram’s features, such as Stories and IGTV, to showcase behind-the-scenes snippets from TikTok videos can pique audience curiosity and drive traffic to the Tiktok profile. By offering a glimpse into the creative process and providing exclusive content on Instagram, salons and spas can build excitement and anticipation for their Tiktok content. 

Don’t worry, starting out there is no explicit need to go all the way in on ensuring you have distinct sets of content on both IG and Tiktok. Reels is designed as a near 1:1 copy of Tiktok, so the same broad ideas and trends will carry over from one to the other. Salon owners still need to be efficient with their time, after all. 

Collaborating with influencers and engaging with the Instagram community can further enhance the exposure of salon or spa TikTok content. By partnering with influencers who have a strong presence on both TikTok and Instagram, salons and spas can reach a wider audience and leverage the influencer’s expertise to promote their services. 

A salon owner might be surprised at the lack of crossover between both audiences; it is absolutely worthwhile to engage with both. Let’s take a look at the numbers:

Tiktok vs Instagram audience statistics

54.1% of Tiktok users globally are female vs 49.4% on Instagram

62% of all GenZ use Tiktok, and it is the most used app of that age group for online searches

32% of Instagram users are 18 – 24, with 30% being between 25 – 35

36% of Tiktok users are between 18 – 24 with 32% being between 25 – 34

selection of survey results from adobe, showing that 64% of genz use Tiktok as a search engine, by far the biggest age group to do so

Tips for creating engaging Tiktok content (that could help a salon go viral!)

We’ve talked about a broad strategy, with a lot of calls to get out there and start making videos. But what makes good Tiktok content for a beauty salon? Four key elements a beauty salon or spa should always be thinking about are the format, how to capture attention, trends and specific Tiktok features. We’ve distilled the basics and some more advanced advice into this section. Let’s go over them in more detail now:

Video Format and Capturing User Attention

Every second counts

The initial seconds of your video are crucial. They must be engaging enough to prevent users from scrolling past. Consider starting with a hook, question, or intriguing statement to grab attention immediately.

Keep it concise
While TikTok now allows videos up to 10 minutes, shorter videos often perform better. Aim for a length that keeps viewers engaged without dragging on—typically, videos around 15 to 60 seconds hit the sweet spot.
 
Keep it clean, clear, crisp

We don’t necessarily mean professional-grade equipment, but your videos should be clear, well-lit, and audibly crisp. Utilize natural light and consider an external microphone to improve sound quality.

🎉11 hook phrases you can use for a beauty salon on Tiktok!

Once again, those first few seconds are crucial! Let’s go over a few examples you can use right now.

  1. Let me tell you how…
  2. Do you want to…? Keep watching…
  3. These are some of the most common mistakes…
  4. Did you know that…
  5. Today we’re testing…
  6. 3 things I’d do differently
  7. This is the sign you were waiting for
  8. Stuff you should invest if you….
  9. How can you get x results in x time
  10. Here’s how I went from x to y!
  11. Here’s how to do x!

Leveraging Trends and Tiktok Features

Jump on Trends

Keep an eye on trending sounds, hashtags, and challenges, and incorporate them into your content creatively. Trends are a driving force on Tiktok; participating in them increases your visibility and the chance of being featured on the FYP. Check Photoroom dipping into a recent trend below for a good example, or ultabeauty’s usage of #girlmath to power their loyalty program ads.

Use Relevant Hashtags

Alongside trending hashtags, include specific ones related to your content’s niche. This aids the algorithm in categorizing your videos and presenting them to interested users. Mixing popular and niche hashtags can extend your reach.

Engage with Tiktok’s Features: 

Tiktok regularly introduces new effects, filters, and interaction options like duets and stitches. Utilizing these features not only shows adaptability but also keeps content fresh and engaging for followers. They make it easier for you to create a variety of different beauty salon or spa videos.

@photoroom

Never take a bad picture again

♬ original sound ❣️✨ - Photoroom

Success on Tiktok for a beauty salon or spa, and in general, is a blend of creativity, trend participation, strategic use of features, and engagement with your audience. By crafting attention-grabbing videos, leveraging the platform’s trends and features, and consistently delivering content that resonates with the beauty audience, a salon’s TikTok strategy can be optimized for better visibility and engagement.

This is a constantly evolving standard, it moves fast, and instant success is no guarantee. Don’t get discouraged; a beauty salon’s website cannot expect to be number 1 on Google for local results straight away. That can apply to Tiktok as well, although we believe that you can get quicker, better results from Tiktok for your beauty salon than on Google!

That constant evolution can make it hard to keep track of exactly what you should be doing. Luckily, Tiktok’s Creative Centre provides a centralized resource for any beauty salon or spa to refer to when looking for exactly what the latest, greatest topic of the day is.

Useful resources for creating Tiktoks

Creatorset.com
Animated assets for captions, lower thirds, subscribe banners and more. These can add professional polish to your beauty salon videos for very cheap.
Pexels.com / freepik.com
Avoid using stock where you can, but these sites give you a huge variety of free images, symbols, and icons that can be used to spruce up your Tiktoks.
Myinstants.com
All those viral sounds and phrases you hear can be found here. Invaluable to keep up with trends and making meme related Tiktoks!
Veed.io

Auto-generated captions, fancy transitions, highlighted subtitles, and lots more in an easy to use package. While most people watch Tiktoks with the sound on, flashy, well done subtitles are another tool to draw in viewer attention to beauty salon Tiktoks.

The Future of Tiktok Marketing for Salons and Spas

So what lies ahead for the future of Tiktok content, and where does a beauty salon’s marketing strategy come into the picture? There are fancy AR features that are always on the verge of breaking out. Imagine a user being able to superimpose a certain hairstyle or facial treatment over themselves. These promises tend to overpromise and under-deliver. Nevertheless, Tiktok is constantly rolling out new features for editing and collaboration. The best way to stay in the know about them is by following Tiktok’s news center

Tiktok’s own “What’s Next 2024 Trend Report” doesn’t delve into the technology or algorithm. It instead sets the stage for a future where beauty business owners, providers and enthusiasts have to be willing to put themselves out there, trying to avoid conventional concerns around company branding. The medium is the message! Social media demands a level of personal investment from content creators, the ability to laugh at themselves, and be vulnerable.

Be bold, be brave

For beauty entrepreneurs seeking to captivate an audience, the key lies in boldness. The eternal ethos of brands on social media has been ‘be personable, be real, authentic‘. This guide has already said as much. It’s never been truer on Tiktok. Be vulnerable, be yourself, and take risks! That’s what will drive effective content that will make you stand out in the beauty space.

Be curious, be adventurous

Your audience’s curiosity is your most valuable asset on Tiktok. Engage with dynamic content that taps into new trends and conversations within the beauty community. Inspire action by aligning with the unexpected, and watch as your brand becomes an integral part of your audience’s discovery journey.

Tell your story

Stories have the power to embolden and inspire. Reshape the beauty narrative with diverse voices and creative collaboration, inviting users to see your brand in a new light. Quick, gripping content paves the way to longer engagement, and every second counts. Every business owner and their employees can contribute; we all have a story to tell, and parts of that story will resonate with an audience.

@yocalehub How often should you book your clients in for facials? #yocalehub #facials #salonowner #medicalspa #skincarebusiness ♬ original sound - Yocale
Be authentic

Direct, authentic communication fosters trust. Use Tiktok to build meaningful connections with your audience. Remember, authenticity is your ally—deploy it wisely to strengthen loyalty and trust in your brand, one view at a time.

Key takeaways​

  • Salons and spas can effectively leverage Tiktok to reach a wider audience, boost brand awareness, and gain new clients
  • Use of hashtags can help maximize the reach and impact of salon and spa content on Tiktok
  • Integrating Tiktok and Instagram marketing efforts can further amplify a salon’s following 
  • Consistently engaging with the audience, showcasing unique treatments, and offering exclusive promotions are key to growing the audience for a beauty salon on Tiktok
  • Maximize reach and engagement on TikTok by optimized use of hashtags and collaboration with other creators
  • Always start videos with a hook phrase, keep them concise, and participate in trends.
  • Post as often as you reasonably can: try starting out with 2 videos a week, and work your way up from there.
  • Be yourself, and have fun. This applies to any social media content you do for your beauty salon and spa. Good luck out there!

Make managing & growing your beauty salon simple.

Be bookable from anywhere, gain new clients, reduce admin work, reduce no-shows, digitize paperwork & forms, take online payments and much more.
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