How to Build a Website for a Beauty Brand
In an industry as intrinsically visual and personal as beauty, a striking and effective website is paramount for attracting and retaining customers. A website is the first window into any beauty business, from makeup retailers and nail salons to hair stylists and day spas. It allows potential customers to get a sense of what experience they can anticipate and the value a business offers. That’s why aesthetics, user-friendly integrations, service listings, and clear purchase options are just a few key aspects for those looking to outshine the competition and grow their businesses organically.
A beautiful and well-designed website effectively disseminates information about your client’s business. It is also an integral component of your client’s marketing and search engine optimization (SEO) strategy, functioning as the foundation for reaching target customers. Not to mention, a website doubles down on branding and communicates a certain feel, experience, and authority to potential customers before they even make a purchase.
The following are essential steps to building an effective website for a beauty brand.
Designing a beauty website that attracts customers
Step 1: Establish a design that complements your client’s brand
Every beauty website should be designed with the business’s overall branding in mind. The website is your client’s first chance to create a cohesive identity with the goal that customers will one day recognize the brand’s colors, fonts, and logos.
The Squarespace Logo Maker helps you create unique and memorable logos for all marketing materials and products. Adding logo design to your services is a great way to add value to your offering, making you a vital partner to your client’s business.
Learn more about the basics of designing a salon site.
Step 2: Communicate services and products clearly
When it comes to building websites that drive business, it’s important to capture visitors’ attention as soon as possible. To avoid the risk of losing visitors (and therefore paying customers), ensure your client’s website has straightforward messaging. You’ll want to include relevant information such as products, services, benefits, and purchasing options.
Simply put, customers should be able to access products and services within the first few seconds on the website, so there is no confusion about what the brand offers.
Step 3: Include the essentials
Your client’s website should feature all the details potential customers need to know in order to work with the business.
Services: Regardless if your client sells makeup, facials, or haircuts, they’ll want to provide a clear menu of service offerings or available products.
Pricing: Along with your client’s list of offerings, their website should feature the costs of every service. You can use a layout page to highlight services and pricing.
Location(s): If your client runs a brick and mortar business, make it simple for customers to find their location by listing the business’s address. To get started, you can use a pre-built contact layout page, which includes different combinations of forms, maps, addresses, and phone numbers. You can also start fresh with a blank layout and build the page with text blocks.
Hours of operation: Display your client’s hours of operation on their contact page and/or in the footer of their website for quick access.
Imagery: Photos and videos help convey a business’s story and convert leads into customers. Choose compelling images that will make the most powerful impression while also showcasing the business and its offerings.
The business story: People want to learn what makes a business unique and why they should choose to work with one over another. Storytelling is an effective way to introduce your client and their team. It also helps a business connect with customers by sharing the brand’s vision, missions, and values.
How to make an appointment: In addition to sharing information about the business, use Squarespace Scheduling to manage and automate appointments. The tool empowers customers to make their own appointments with the click of a button, saving your client time they can otherwise spend on appointments or additional business needs. With built-in invoicing features, your clients can use Scheduling to book and bill customers all in one place.
Step 4: Optimize for mobile viewing and search results
Since many customers will discover your clients by searching the web on mobile devices, mobile presentation and optimization are incredibly important to the user experience. With Squarespace’s new content editor Fluid Engine, you have the option to display the content as it appears on desktop or design the mobile layout independently on any version-7.1 website.
Learn how to optimize your client’s website for mobile.
SEO is also an important consideration for building an effective and discoverable website. In order to optimize your client’s website, you’ll want to consider implementing SEO best practices such as text and page formatting, keyword usage, content structure, and site and page descriptions. For a more exhaustive list of ways you can establish your client’s site ranking, read our client checklist for boosting SEO.
Step 5: Connect to social media
Social media has become one of the most popular ways to discover a brand. Likewise, social media is a great way to interact with customers and promote products or services. Connect your client’s website to their social media profiles so visitors can quickly access the stories, images, videos, and posts related to their brand.
Learn how to add social icons to any Squarespace websites.
You’ll also want to ensure their website is linked in their social media bio. With Bio Sites from Squarespace, you can drive your client’s social media followers directly to their website to make a purchase or an appointment.
Learn more about the importance of integrating social media.
Step 6: Implement Squarespace Email Campaigns
Email is an effective way to nurture leads, establish a brand, and efficiently communicate with customers. By integrating Squarespace Email Campaigns to your client’s website, it’s possible to send on-brand emails with updates, upcoming offerings, and other relevant content to their audience.
In order to collect email addresses for your client’s mailing list, you can leverage promotional pop-ups and newsletter blocks. Place opt-ins in several spots around the website to capture contacts and build your client’s customer mailing list.
Learn how Squarespace’s all-in-one email marketing solution can grow your client’s business.
Step 7: Finalize with eCommerce add-ons
To help your clients sell appointments online, a Business or Commerce plan subscription is highly recommended. While customers may want to opt for a Personal plan for a straightforward content-based site, only Business and Commerce subscriptions feature the ability to sell products, access advanced analytics, and utilize premium integrations and promotional features to reach new audiences.
Check out what’s included for each website plan type. If you’re not certain which plan works best for your client, don’t sweat it. You don’t need to choose a plan type until it’s time to publish their website.
If your client sells physical products, Business and Commerce plans enable your clients to create a robust online marketplace. With online stores, customers can browse merchandise, such as beauty products, add items to their carts, and seamlessly check out without having to leave the site. On Squarespace, payments can be processed through Stripe or PayPal, as well as later-payment plans such as Afterpay.
Learn how to sell your client’s products online through their website.
Want more?
Check out Squarespace Circle, Squarespace’s program for professional designers. Along with exclusive content, discounts, and other perks, Circle brings professionals together from all across the globe to exchange advice while connecting with new clients and collaborators.
