There are almost 100,000 businesses offering beauty services in Poland. The popularity of professional beauty treatments is slowly returning to its pre-pandemic glory. It is therefore no surprise that more and more foreign salon chains are trying their hand at this market. So what should effective marketing communications of beauty services in Poland look like in 2023? What major threats should we watch out for?
Table of contents
- Understand your customers or lose them
- SEO is the king of marketing among local businesses
- Content marketing, i.e. blogging and sponsored articles
- Social media – what to publish to win customers?
- Cooperation with Polish influencers
- Attention – important changes in the law for aesthetic medicine practices!
Understand your customers or lose them
The beauty industry is governed by its own rules. Although specialists in cosmetology or hairdressing often develop and promote original treatments, most often the offer of salons is quite similar. After all, it is impossible to reinvent the wheel. The principle that the more treatments, the better is, in our experience, a dead end. Polish customers do not expect an exceptionally diverse range of services. On the contrary, the more choice there is, the more confused they feel about the available options. So instead of trying to break records in the number of treatments on offer, it is much better to keep them to a minimum.
Which treatments to choose? This is where a product development strategy comes in handy. It is worth answering questions such as:
- Who is our customer and what is their budget?
- Who is not our customer?
- Who are our competitors and what do they offer?
- How do we want to differentiate ourselves from the competition?
- What are we best at?
- What does our customer value in this type of service?
- What qualities and values should the customer associate our brand with?
If the brand already exists in other markets, this task will certainly be easier. However, it is good to do your homework and get to know your Polish customers and their individual needs in depth. Let’s say you are a chain of salons specializing in a particular laser hair removal technique. Up to now, you have been operating in markets where many of your clients have been light-skinned women with very dark hair. The typical Slavic woman, on the other hand, has a fair complexion and light, fine hair. With this type of beauty, laser hair removal may not be a particularly popular treatment, and if it is – the type of laser should be different (tailored to her hair type and skin colour).
SEO the king of marketing among local businesses
Whether you run a small beauty salon or a chain of salons spread across the country, one thing remains the same. If your brand doesn’t have a well-configured business card in Google My Business and ranks poorly in search engines (especially for local key phrases), it’s hard for it to be visible to potential customers. Local SEO is one of the most important tools in professional services marketing in Poland. Its power should not be underestimated. Providing all the necessary information on the business card (opening hours, parking information, etc.), collecting positive reviews from customers, and regularly publishing news (including photos of the salon) are useful in better positioning.
Good positioning of the salon’s website should also be taken care of. In Poland, most beauty salons or aesthetic medicine practices do not invest in their websites (the appointment booking system is largely based on Booksy or social media). – so it is worth adding a few points at the start and investing in what your competitors are not doing. When positioning local beauty services businesses, two types of key phrases will be useful:
- phrases related to the city (e.g. beauty salon Warsaw, manicure Krakow).
- branded phrases (e.g. Light Sheer laser hair removal, Dermapen mesotherapy, Semilac hybrid manicure).
Content marketing, i.e. blog and sponsored articles
Content marketing combines several objectives. Firstly, valuable articles rich in relevant key phrases support the positioning of the brand website and thus increase the number of hits on the site (while also increasing the potential number of customers). Here, it is advisable to use long tail phrases, i.e. very specific queries (e.g. Needle mesotherapy, micro-needle, or needle-free?).
Company blog on the website of the beauty salon Touch of Beauty
Secondly, properly planned and implemented content marketing builds the salon’s brand in the long term. It is good that such a communication plan does not only include a strategy for the development of a company blog but that it goes one step further by using the various online marketing tools available. From the experience of a PR agency dealing with Polish content marketing, we can say that in the beauty services sector, video (especially video showing treatments) works great – the one published on the website, as well as on Youtube or the brand’s social media.
It is also worth investing in public relations activities. A very good solution is to publish expert articles in the media, especially local ones (although in the case of a chain of surgeries, national media, and trade media, e.g. women’s press, beauty websites or blogs, etc., work better). These can range from classic sponsored articles and press releases to guest blog posts and even interviews with brand experts. In such materials, a lot of information can be smuggled in – photos, tips, or advice, but also information about the service, the equipment used, the technology, and the effects of the treatments. A huge plus of publishing on websites is the possibility of gaining a link directing to our website.
Social media – what to publish to gain clients?
Social media is nowadays an absolute must for beauty salons and beauty centers. The majority of Polish women use Facebook and Instagram to search for information on beauty salons (often not even the classic search engines!). Polish women also appreciate the possibility of asking a direct question about a chosen treatment – and Messenger or DM on Instagram is the most convenient place for this. A regularly updated social media profile with fast-responsive moderation will always win out over a perfectly prepared website but at the same time zero communication from the brand.
So what to publish on social media for beauty services in Poland? The keys to success are excellent customer service (i.e. responding to comments and messages) and diverse and truly valuable content to stand out. Content is often the reason why some salons are booked weeks in advance.
We know from experience that the best results are achieved when different formats are combined:
- written content (e.g. information about new treatments, new employees, anecdotes from salon life).
- images (e.g. before and after photos, photos of machines, photos of the salon interior, photos of staff, event reports).
- graphics (e.g. simple tips on how to take care of your skin or hair).
- videos (e.g. of the course of a given treatment, expert tutorials, opinions of clients in video form, video reports from events).
It is also worth informing on current promotional campaigns, events, or discounts. Polish women love the opportunity to save money. Every now and then, it is good to give them the opportunity to enjoy a treatment at a slightly lower price than the standard price.
Promotional graphic published on the social media of the Time For Wax salon
The best options for this are, for example:
- seasonal offers (e.g. promotions for Valentine’s Day, Black Friday, or Women’s Day),
- gift cards (Polish women love to use vouchers),
- loyalty system (e.g. discounts for regular customers, discounts for recommending new customers, birthday gifts or points system),
- competitions with prizes (e.g. in the form of a free treatment).
Cooperation with Polish influencers
Nothing is as effective in attracting new customers to a salon and creating a buzz around a brand as working with a top Polish beauty influencer. So as long as your budget allows, it is a game worth playing, especially if you are a chain of salons with locations in different parts of Poland. Of course, as long as you prepare well for it and find the right influencer (we wrote about how to verify Polish influencers in a separate article on our blog).
What we believe brings the best results are influencer materials prepared in video form. These can be videos on TikTok, reels or stories on Instagram, or – the most effective of all – YouTube videos. Usually, such materials are a report on a given treatment or an interview with an expert representing the salon. It is worth letting the creator prove himself here – perhaps he will come up with an idea that turns out to be an absolute hit. However, don’t forget to make sure that the influencer tags your brand in the content and mentions the brand name several times in their material.
Attention – important changes in the law for aesthetic medicine practices!
In 2023, a huge legal change will come into force that will revolutionise marketing in this industry! Provisions concerning the promotion of aesthetic medicine have been included in the provisions of the amendment to the Medical Devices Act. From January 2023, it will be prohibited to promote specialised equipment, implants, dermofillers, and laser or hyaluronic acid-based treatments in the media (both traditional, online, and social media) by reporting on the products used for the treatment. That is to say: it will be prohibited to publish content promoting the particular medical device used for the treatment (e.g. hyaluronic acid).
This applies not only to classic advertising materials or communication on Facebook or Instagram (e.g. showing ‘before’ and ‘after’ photos of the treatment if the name of the preparation used appears in the post) but also to collaborate with influencers. Polish creators will not be allowed to create material promoting aesthetic medicine procedures, such as lip augmentation with hyaluronic acid.
However, this is not the end! Advertisements will also be banned from using the image of doctors or people claiming to be medical professionals, such as actors playing aesthetic doctors. There will be a fine of up to PLN 2 million for breaking the regulations.
Do you run a beauty salon in Poland or are you planning to enter this market? To do this effectively (and safely!), it is worth consulting specialists. As a Polish PR agency, we have experience in creating communications for beauty brands in Poland. Contact us – let’s talk about the opportunities.