If you haven’t noticed already, the demand for permanent makeup services in the beauty industry is growing rapidly. This is amazing news for PMU artists who are constantly looking to grow their business. At the same time, the increase in demand for technicians. This is why focusing on your Microblading advertising is more important than ever.
According to Art of Beauty Academy, the increase in artists who have begun introducing microblading into their services is also increasing. Because of this, the level of competition is getting stronger. This means if you are going to continue to grow, or maintain your market share in your region, you need to go above and beyond to solidify your PMU business.
How do you Advertise for Microblading?
One question I hear the most in the PMU space, is “How do I advertise for Microblading?”. Well, there isn’t just one thing that is likely to do this for you. What helps businesses stand out in a local area, is a combination of multiple things.
Remember that microblading is a service where the clients are definitely reading up on, and possibly evaluating you vs your competitors. There exists a form of doubt in their minds.
Some are worried that they might be stuck with their brows for life. Others might be scared that it hurts. Regardless, one of the most important elements to focus on within your marketing mix is helping your potential dream clients trust you as much as possible. You want to overcome any possible objections to booking in with you.
Whether you’re a seasoned PMU vet who has been doing this for years or a newbie who has just completed their schooling and is looking to start things on the right foot, these 8 microblading marketing tips will help you improve your sales, as well as your brand recognition.
Here are eleven tips that will guide you with the process of Microblading Advertising:
Tip #1 – Be the Leader in your City
If you want to sell your skills as a PMU artist, then you need to become a master of your art. The number one thing most clients are doing when it comes to microblading, is doing their own due diligence when evaluating who might be the best choice for their needs.
Ain’t nobody got time for some messed up eyebrows. Your dream clients are searching for someone who can amplify their beauty, not leave them devastated, and upset. This is why it’s critical that you continue to improve your abilities so it is unquestionable who is the right choice is.
This is the time you need to take the reins and be a leader in your local market. This involves providing an incredible service experience where you create raving fans. Are your current clients flooding your reviews with lots of love, and five stars? Have you put effort into creating a fabulous atmosphere in your clinic?
Think of the little things as well that can help make an experience extraordinary. Remember, people don’t forget phenomenal service. It’s often rewarded with “fans” driving more people your way. We’ll touch on this a bit more later!
Tip #2 – You Need a Professional PMU Website
I get it, building your own website can save you some money upfront. Platforms like Wix, give any business owner a chance to do their own thing. Here is the thing, if you don’t know what you’re doing, it will cost you much more than you could ever imagine
Imagine If I told you that by not having a professional microblading website, you could be losing $50,000 each year? How would that make you feel? Well, unfortunately for many artists, this is exactly what is happening.
How does that work exactly? Well, in most cities each month, hundreds of “new” potential clients are searching for PMU-related services. If your website isn’t optimized by a professional, you might not even show up on Google.
If each microblading client is worth $400-700 each, missing out on just 5 sales a month because of this, equals nearly $25,000 over the course of the year. I don’t know about you, but wouldn’t you rather pocket that on your end? In this case, does it make more sense to pay $1000 for a professional to build your website? I think so.
Now, obviously, it’s still better to have a website up than not at all. So even if you are unable to have someone help you with it, there are so many platforms that exist now that you can get started for a minimal fee. CRM’s like WordPress, Squarespace, and Weebly simplify the web building process so you can put together a respectable website that can catch a new client’s attention.
This can take time though, so remember to look at how you value your hourly worth. Think about how much you desire to make an hour performing microblading. Maybe $100/hr? To build a decent website, on the short end, it will likely take you between 40-50 hours to learn the system, gather your graphics, add your content, and do all the other little things needed to get a site operations.
So that is a value of $4000-5000 (of your time), you spent building something that you could get for a quarter of that.
I do want to preface this, I am not a huge fan of Wix websites. While it isn’t impossible to create a very good website in Wix, it is a lot harder to completely optimize it. This can have a negative impact on your rankings. I created a blog that touches upon this in more detail called To Wix or Not To Wix for Local SEO. I suggest reviewing it before you make your choice!
Tip #3 – Social Media Marketing for PMU Artists
I do not know of a single PMU artist that doesn’t use at least one social media platform. It hasn’t happened to me yet, although I am sure they’re out there. Social media for most PMU artists is the biggest channel for them. Since what you’re doing is so visual, most permanent makeup beauticians will take lots of photos of their work.
This is super important because showing off your work, will help potential new clients see how great you are, feel confident about your abilities, and are more likely to book in with you.
It is important to remember though, that it can take time to get each social channel set up, so make sure to focus on just one or two starting out, before you try to do too much at once.
You want to make sure you’re investing your time and effort wisely. This is where you need to look at an aggressive Microblading advertising campaign.
Instagram for Microblading Businesses
For microblading artists, the most effective organic approach to social media is through Instagram. Why is that? Well, as I mentioned before, showing off your work is going to be paramount to your success in building confidence. Remember we talked about bad brows? Well, you better believe they are scoping out your work and assessing you vs others.
Now, while the imagery is obviously the #1 element to showcase on Insta, you also need to think about how you brand your business page. Think about your current color scheme, fonts, and general vibe you want to establish. This will help build consistency and really create the image of your brand.
The best thing you can do is check out other artists. What are they doing that seems to really work? What hashtags are they using when promoting their microblading business?
Hashtag, Hashtag, Hashtag
Use hashtags! People find your profile because of hashtags. If you post something on your Instagram account and you don’t use hashtags, that post might as well be invisible. The more relevant hashtags, the more visibility your post will have. We collected some of the most common hashtags used in the Microblading and permanent eyebrow space.
- #Microblading
- #MicrobladingEyebrows
- #Eyebrows
- #Brows
- #EyebrowsOnFleek
- #Micropigmentation
- #MicroStroking
- #PermanentMakeup
- #SemiPermanentEyebrows
- #SemiPermanentBrows
- #PermanentCosmetics
- #FeatherBrows
Facebook for Microblading Businessses
Facebook, in my opinion, is the ultimate social media platform for rock star PMU artists. First, Facebook allows you to create a business page specific to your brand. You can do things like converse with potential customers, you can take payments, sell products, and use their booking calendar for appointments, just to name a few.
You can join local Facebook groups and share your business there. Typically, in bigger cities, you will see pages with tens of thousands local residents. Don’t be shy! Share your pictures, your success, and anything you can promote (within-group rules) to help get you noticed. You’d be surprised how many people will end up following you back, and even booking in!
Now, the #1 reason why Facebook is amazing for PMU artists? Facebook ads are second to none. The targeting abilities and the best in the industry so it allows you to really start narrowing down your message to your ideal clients. This means more leads, more booked appointments, and ultimately more sales.
Tip #4 – Influencers and Bloggers
While others might tell you to go after celebrities, and people with millions of followers. That can be crazy expensive, and you’re likely not going to get many local followers as a result. Instead, research local influencers and Bloggers.
They will have bigger local followings, and if you choose the right kind of influencers or bloggers, you will connect with ones that have a similar market to you.
Create partnerships, they can be a huge source of new contacts from potential clients. Mutually beneficial relationships are what smaller businesses need to look at as an important piece of their marketing strategy.
Need some ideas?
Think about other people within the beauty or fashion space that aren’t doing what you do.
A – Nail Salons and Nail Specialists
B – Small clothing stores or Boutiques
C – Hair Stylists
Tip #5 – Google: How to use it for Microblading Advertising
These are going to be some of the most important things to learn in this entire article, so please go through it carefully. When someone is searching for something, where is the go-to source of information? Well, it’s Google!
According to Permanent Cosmetics Marketing, each month there are over 1,000,000 search results of people looking for PMU services. From those results, 300,000 will likely click on the first result they see.
This is why harnessing Google as part of your microblading advertising campaign, will likely bring you the largest return for your business.
Google Adwords for Microblading Advertising
Google ads, also known as PPC (Pay Per Click), are the ads you typically see immediately when searching for a product or service on Google. While I firmly agree that they get fewer clicks than Google Maps and organic listings, it can still be a well-calculated move that can pay off big time.
Google Adwords is the absolute quickest way to start generating leads. Ads can be created very quickly, and unlike Facebook, you don’t need images, videos, or really any creatives.
The downside is, you do pay per click, and each click could cost you anywhere from $1 to $15. It is important that you do proper research on how to manage a campaign before you start, or you could blow through your budget very quickly, and inefficiently.
Google My Business for PMU Artists
If I told you that a proper Google Business profile, could help you generate 20-30% more business, would you believe me? Truth be told, it is the most underutilized part of this entire microblading advertising article.
According to Microblading Marketing, adding a consistent flow of high-quality photos alone could increase the clicks to your website by over 35%. That can translate to lots of new bookings each and every month.
It is important that you do more than just claim your profile. Remember, it is 100% free to use! Once again, it’s FREE! There is no reason why you shouldn’t be using this today.
Make sure that you fill in as much relevant information as you can. That means lots of photos, a breakdown of all the services you provide, and any important information to help people know more about who you are.
Need help with your Google rankings? Check out our PMU Google Booster package! Perfect for artists just starting out, or in smaller cities.
Microblading SEO
The last component of Google advertising is SEO for PMU Artists. To be visible in your local area, and the search engines, it is going to take much more than just a website to accomplish this. It involves a mixed strategy of content on your website, establishing the right backlinks for your business, and being highly relevant to your potential searchers.
When you are able to rank near the top for terms like “Microblading YOUR CITY”, or “Permanent Makeup YOUR CITY”, you will start driving lots of potential new buyers your way. If you want to learn more about how to start doing this for your business, check out our killer article “SEO for PMU artists“.
Tip #6 – Local Directories
While this isn’t nearly as important as everything already mentioned, it can still help create positive signals, and traffic to your website. So what do we mean by directories? Well, we listed some of the most important ones you should focus on.
Tip #7 – Customer Loyalty & Referral Programs
A happy, raving fan is someone who can help grow your business more effectively than any other source. With word of mouth advertising, you are 5x more likely to sell a product or service when a friend or family member is preaching your awesomeness.
While this isn’t usually something that really takes off for a solid year or so into business, once you have a constant stream of referrals coming in, your busy is going to be booked months in advance.
Think about rewarding your raving clients who are essentially your news salespeople. Maybe offer a gift card, or a cool reward for those that seem to be bringing in more, and more brows each month.
Here are some ideas you could try out:
- 10%-15% off your next appointment
- Refer a friend – give these to your clients with an offer of money off for their friend and something for them if the friend books
- Gift vouchers – always have gift vouchers available for happy clients to buy for their friends and family. It’s a great way to get bookings down the road.
- Loyalty cards – if you offer various PMU services, you can easily get them interested in your other offers. That means more revenue and value from that on the client.
Tip #8 – Offer Flexible Payment Options
This piece is becoming more, and more important I find for artists each day. When it comes to permanent makeup services, you will always get those that are more price sensitive. While there are many benefits for customers to get these services, they aren’t an exact “need”. These services are more of a “I want that”.
By offering a payment plan, you get to ease the mind of the customer in terms of “the hardest barrier to overcome in a sale”, while also protecting your business.
So what option should permanent makeup artists use? Well, we recommend Cherry Payments because they’re designed to work with businesses like Permanent Makeup Artists, as well as Spa’s, and other beauty professionals.
Cherry will pay you upfront, while your customer picks a plan right for them. That means that they will also be the one responsible for receiving the funds directly from your customers, so you don’t have to chase anyone down!
Tip #9 – You Need to get Microblading Reviews!
This is going to touch on various elements from what we already went over, but it is the glue that holds it together. Reviews are crucial to your business in this day and age. People are constantly looking at other reviews to give them more “unbiased” insight into who you are, and what your business is about.
According to The Drum, online reviews impact purchasing decisions over 93% of the time. So essentially, zero to no reviews could mean a 90+% drop in new business. Ouch!
Reviews also help with your Google My Business ranking. One of the top factors, outside of your proximity to the searcher, your Google Reviews. This means that if you have none, or you’ve been graded a poor score (under 4), you could easily fall back and never be seen in your local area on the maps.
How do I get more Microblading Clients?
Here we are at the end, and while I could come up with dozens of more ideas, these are going to be the most effective for you. Not only that, you will see the best ROI from these methods, compared to overspending on things like print media, television ads, or even radio.
We don’t want you to get overwhelmed though, that is why the easiest thing to do is to take one step at a time. Try starting out with one of these options that you think you could do today. Once you feel confident in your work, slowly start looking at additional options to complement your choices.
So that’s it, we hope this guide has helped you see your potential options when it comes to microblading advertising for your PMU business. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to our team!
