Table of contents
Beauty and wellness is about more than offering haircuts, makeovers and massages – it’s about showing people the transformative and personal nature of what you do, and how you can make their lives better in a fast-paced and furious world.
It’s a delicate balancing act promoting your products and services while also caring for your client’s wellbeing. Here are some website tools and features to make your customer’s online experience as stress-free as possible.
Top features of health and beauty websites
1. Online booking
‘We run an appointment-based salon, so we need software that allows our clients to easily book and manage appointments,’ says Romain Lambert, owner of Kawada Hair Studio.
‘It’s so helpful that each employee has a login and can use their own device to access Square Appointments to accept, decline or change appointments with ease, wherever they are. They can also use the Square Register at our front desk to rebook and check out clients after their appointment. It connects us all easily and honestly.’
Clients visit Kawada for everything from basic haircuts to bleaching, restyling and colour correction. Having a booking button on the front page of the website means they’re just a click away from treatments they want without having to speak to a receptionist. The ease of use can increase sales and boost customer retention.
Romain adds: ‘We also use Square Register to take payments. Our clients find it very fancy and easy to use, but also immaculate as it blends so well in the salon design that clients don’t even realise we have a point of sale!’
2. Online payment
Taking bookings online is good, but taking online payment is even better. It doesn’t just make payment simpler and easier for your clients, but it cuts down on admin time for you too. If the process is quick and seamless that’s a big tick for many clients, ensuring they come back time and time again.
You don’t need to be a technical whizz to include eCommerce either – payment software integrates easily with your existing site, and you can take the headache out of setting up an online store with Square’s eCommerce platform for free.
3. Testimonials
With the best will in the world, potential consumers are savvy and if they think they’re getting too much of a hard sell, they bounce off your site without ever booking.
But testimonials can be the thing that persuades them to commit – after all, people trust other people’s opinions far more than they trust a slick marketing campaign. Pepper your site with easy-to-read glowing reviews of your products and services. If you don’t have any right now, go get them! Ask past customers what they think, and make sure requesting feedback is part of your automated email marketing.
4. Quality Images
It’s a cliché, but a decent picture really is worth 1,000 words, with 50% of shoppers saying images help them decide what to buy, according to Google. So, it’s essential your website looks professional with high-quality images.
Don’t be afraid to be bold, original or different and edit your photos favourably if it catches clients’ attention, but avoid generic images and staged photos. The right picture draws in your client; the wrong one can cheapen what you offer, make you look unprofessional and worse still, stop them booking with you at all.
5. Newsletter sign-up
Don’t shy away from having a newsletter sign-up – it’s a great way to capture customer data and market both your services and products. Not only that, but it’s a very cost-effective way to build your brand and boost business. It’s not just a great way to promote what’s on offer – it also helps establish you as an expert and widen the audience you market to, with strategically placed sign-up pop ups on your site.
Newsletter integration with your site is straightforward. Just remember, if you do nothing else, be consistent. Build your brand and attract new customers by sending out regular newsletters with content that’s relevant and engaging.
6. Social media integration
Beauty is a highly visual industry so having a solid social media presence where you share lots of before and afters, make-up tutorials or massage tips is a no-brainer.
It’s an important part of your marketing strategy, helping you build trust and loyalty. Having social media links on your website means customers can flick between your social media and your online store with ease, while you set about building a strong online brand.
7. Responsive
There are more than 22 million Smartphone users in Australia, so it’s vitally important your website works on handheld devices as well as laptops. If your website isn’t mobile-friendly, you could be losing a ton of custom.
A responsive site is one which resizes and functions just as well on a mobile phone. With more than half of Australians buying online through their device according to Dejean Marketing, you could be missing out on an awful lot of custom if your site comes up short.
Of course, what works brilliantly for one site might not work so well for yours, but by implementing these seven features you give yourself the best chance of building a strong customer base.
