Inherently visual professions are red meat for me, and that’s especially true when the client is open to a creative approach. This project had both: the client is a philosopher and owns a beauty salon. We opted to develop a static site, using HTML and CSS, so as to maximize creative flexibility. We also installed a WordPress blog to allow the owner to express his creativity via the written word. We used visually exciting images to stimulate the visual senses.
Attract Hair Extension Customers
This client had recently started offering Great Lengths Hair Extensions in his salon and wanted to attract these clients from his website. In order to set his salon apart from the competition, we started with a WOW visual approach as you can see below on his website.
See the site here: www.BeautyAsylum.com
Beauty salon clients are willing to pay more to look good
Our entire society is based on beauty so it follows that women are willing to spend more to look their best. Hair extension customers will pay a premium if they think their hairdresser is an expert. But how do you demonstrate expertise on a website? The answer is: by using dramatic visuals and top quality design!
Branding the salon
Our first task was to develop a brand, something that had not been previously pursued. The name of the salon, The Beauty Asylum, served to fuel a concept that was undisciplined and edgy. We designed a typographic approach combining two disparate fonts to create a simple two-letter mark and one mark utilizing the full salon name.
Two Letter Beauty Asylum Typographic Mark
Beauty Asylum Typography
Tagline
The owner developed his tagline which works well with the name of the beauty salon: Insanely Creative Hair Design.
Creative Use of Visual Images
The scope of the site was limited and the content concise, so I decided to infuse visual impact with large images as backgrounds. I also wanted to have a unique image on each page in order to demonstrate the diversity of beauty. This feat was easily accomplished by incorporating on-page CSS defining a different background on each page.
Content was placed in translucent, roughed edge containers to allow the background image to peek through. The background was also set to a fixed position. This accommodated the use of jpeg’s as opposed to png format images because there was no need to account for the potential of revealing the bottom of the background image. The jpeg’s would be of smaller file size and load quickly. Translucent floating containers were placed on either side of the main content allowing for omnipresent access to the most important pages.
Beauty Salon Visual Design – Home Page
Beauty Salon Visual Design – Location Page
Beauty Salon Visual Design – Contact Page
Subconscious Meaning
Because the salon industry is focused on achieving the pinnacle of beauty, using extremely attractive women in the visual images was the goal of this project. Stimulating the visual senses by giving a sense of beautiful, flowing hair provided an implied meaning that the target client would achieve beauty by hiring this salon.
Attract better quality beauty salon clients * Get a new brand and website!
Contact me today to request a consultation for your salon website re-design!
Create Connection
We used photos of Harold, the owner, for use on the “About Us” page. A single head shot was used above the fold while I compiled a photo montage to place below the content.
Salon Owner
Salon Owner
This was done to develop an emotional connection between the website visitor and the hair salon owner. Very often salon websites fail to showcase the stylists and/or owners’ personality through use of visuals. Developing a connection prior to actually meeting the stylist can increase the likelihood of the customer making the hiring decision.
The use of an image where the owner is smiling with an approachable facial expression increases engagement. The montage served to show the owner “in action” while smiling and giving the appearance of personality and charm.
Content
The owner wrote his own home page content with our direction with the purpose of demonstrating his expertise. All too often beauty salons focus on their own characteristics rather than what the client is seeking: clients want to look their best. Explaining why this salon has the capability to provide expert hair cutting, hair extension application, and color correction was the goal.
SEO
The content provided by the owner was then optimized for the search engines. On-page SEO was utilized in this project to give the owner placement in the organic search results. The beauty industry is very competitive, so the use of authentic SEO can provide a significant benefit by bringing traffic naturally rather than via paid search results.
Floating Menu
Use of this menu style served to encourage the visitor to click on specific pages such as “hair extensions” and “expert hair color.” The “request a consultation” was also utilized to drive the visitor to book an appointment and make a purchasing decision.
Slider
The “before and after” visual slider showcases the owner’s expertise in color application, color correction, hair extensions in an attractive medium.
Custom WordPress Blog
The blog served two purposes the first being a creative outlet for the owner to express his opinions, reviews, and guidance. The second purpose was to bring search engine traffic. In this day and age, static websites without fresh content generally don’t get the benefit of the search engines gods. The blog is hosted ON the domain rather than an exterior site.
Conclusion
The beauty industry naturally allows for creative expression in website design and branding. Our culture is focused on beauty, looking our best, and being “gorgeous” in the eyes of the public. There’s absolutely no reason why a beauty salon owner shouldn’t budget for a stunning website that is a sound business investment. This project proves the point.
Visit the site: www.BeautyAsylum.com
Update: This client has seen a significant increase in revenue after the re-design of their website. They are finding that their customers are pre-sold when they come in for a consultation. They are receiving referrals from other beauty professionals who recognize the stylist from his website (people the stylist does not even know).
Benefits of investing in quality branding and website design:
- The client is now busy virtually all the time
- The client receives pre-sold customers from his website
- Other professionals in his industry know who he is
- His website is higher in the search results
- He now attracts clients from other states who travel to him in his Scottsdale studio
- And best of all, the client has seen a significant increase in his business revenue due to his website re-design
Investing in branding and website design for your beauty salon can pay off in many ways. With a visually stunning website, your salon will be considered an industry leader among your peers AND you’ll be reaping the financial rewards of a major increase in business revenue.
Contact me today to request a consultation for your salon website re-design!
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