This interview is with Brayden Beavis, Founder at Your Salon Support.

Brayden Beavis, Founder, Your Salon Support

Brayden, can you tell us a bit about yourself and your journey to becoming an expert in the digital marketing space, particularly within the beauty and fashion industries?

I originally started my career making video games for a small Sydney studio. I worked in QA, release management, deployment to app stores, and customer service. Later, I transitioned to a small startup as a QA Manager—that company experienced explosive growth, and we went from 15 people to over 300 in two years. Over that time, I expanded into leading two offshore teams, an in-house team, and managing an enterprise cultural shift from manual QA to test automation and CI/CD. I know. Super technical! But I have always been interested in beauty and fashion. I had the opportunity to concurrently support opening an A-list salon and project-managing their website delivery. My worlds collided on this project—quite literally—and from there, Your Salon Support was born. Our services have scaled and adapted to what the beauty industry needs, and that is a partner that can support them in becoming industry-famous through the use of digital marketing.

What pivotal moments or decisions in your career trajectory led you to specialize in helping salons leverage technology and digital marketing for business growth?

I took on the project to help Salon HER open its doors from a digital-first mindset, and at the time, it was something I was doing to support its founder—that decision really was the catalyst because I saw first-hand how beauty business owners have neither the time nor the knowledge to effectively use digital to their advantage. I had accidentally stumbled into my dream niche.

You mentioned creating marketing plans around the question ‘What are the next three steps that bring me closer to what I want?’ Can you elaborate on how this simple approach translates into a tangible digital marketing strategy for salon owners?

If we think about why you get into business—whether it is for financial freedom or the freedom of creativity—there is a big-picture scenario here that is an end goal. Maybe we can quantify that more specifically as “I want to have $1M in turnover in 5 years.” This means we have a clear point to aim for. Next, we think about where we are now, and we think about the gap between the two points. Suddenly we have a direction facing our goal, though the distances will range from person to person—that’s okay. It’s not about how far you are; it’s about moving 1% in the right direction. So now we know where we need to head, the question is, what is the next logical step? Then the next one. Then the one after that? If we were to quantify this more tangibly, it could be that you are at $20K months right now, but your clients stop coming back at the 6-month mark. So your next logical step is literally asking your clients why they leave at 6 months and then implementing a retention strategy so you can scale past the $50K. Using your salon software to identify this segment would be hugely helpful too. When we break down our almost seemingly impossible big-picture goals into small, actionable tasks, through consistency, we get closer and closer.

Your advice to ‘look at what everyone else is doing, and then do the opposite’ is intriguing. Could you share a specific example of how a salon successfully differentiated its online brand by going against the grain?

Yes, without naming names. A particular salon created an A-list business, which they achieved through curated campaign content, partnerships, influencer strategy, and tactical press coverage—then broadcasted it all over social media. Meanwhile, a lot of other salons are busy hopping on trends. This created the sense that this salon was THE place to be, and that really was the digital strategy that brought them into the market as a top-tier salon. Trends are vapid; they work, but they come with the caveat of becoming quickly irrelevant and not holding you up in brand authority. We can summarize this salon’s tactic as total brand authority dominance, and that is what I see as the difference between those who go against the grain and those who don’t: establishing that authority.

You’ve experienced significant growth using influencer marketing. For salon owners hesitant about this approach, what advice would you offer for finding the right influencers and ensuring a mutually beneficial partnership?

Be specific in deliverables for each party, and then don’t be afraid to hold them accountable for that. If it’s in writing, it’s a commitment from both of you. I would just caution you to ensure that what you are asking them to do is both quantifiable and trackable. For example, require them to post a certain number of stories or tag your salon in each post. To find the right influencers, look for those whose values align with your brand and who have genuine engagement from a target audience that matches your client base.

You highlighted the importance of ‘evergreen paid content’ on social media. Can you walk us through the process of creating such content and provide examples relevant to the beauty and fashion space?

I think that for any business, particularly new businesses, eyes on your brand 24/7 is critical; or, sadly, you will be forgotten, and quickly. I would consider evergreen content as “always on.” This means the collateral needs to be catchy and drive engagement. It can be a sale or a creative brand moment to capture a new audience or re-engage your existing audience. For example, we have a minimum of two ad sets circulating always. One is a meme-style still taken from a fun moment from our talk show. The second is usually more inspirational and shows off a far more polished side of the brand with a direct call-to-action around marketing for salons. Since we switched to this strategy, followers come in daily, and so do leads. For beauty and fashion businesses, you can adapt this strategy. One evergreen piece could be a behind-the-scenes look at an application or something that’s both informative and visually appealing. I find close-ups of a service to be the highest converters. Another could be a testimonial or before-and-after transformation, polished and accompanied by a clear call-to-action.

How can salons effectively leverage collaborations, beyond influencer marketing, to expand their reach and engagement on social media and beyond?

There is power in being competitive with your competitors, but there is also power in being strategic allies. After all, engagement feeds in engagement, right? If you are able to build a network of similar businesses that consistently shares, likes, comments, saves—whatever that looks like on your platform of choice—well, I can guarantee you will get much further than the businesses that are too scared to share support for others. This collaborative network will help amplify your reach and increase visibility for everyone involved.

You mentioned that ‘revenue is a lagging indicator.’ What are some leading indicators that salon owners should track to gauge the effectiveness of their digital marketing efforts?

I LOVE this question. One is your rebooking rates; two is your new client booking rates. If these are declining, it rolls into the lagging indicator I previously mentioned. Ad strategies, email strategies, social media—these are all the tools you have at your disposal to nurture, re-engage, and convert. In my experience, when you stop using these tools, or there are large gaps in your usage of these tools, your leading metrics drop, and maybe you don’t see the correlation. Then, when it makes it to your lagging metric, your revenue, you FEEL it. And then you panic, jump back onto the digital tools, and the cycle continues. You can interrupt that cycle by being consistent, but also by watching your leading metrics.

Looking ahead, what are some emerging trends or technologies in the digital marketing landscape that particularly excite you, and how can salon owners prepare to capitalize on these opportunities?

I recently found out about a tool called the Hair.app — it blends the use of AI and automation into the consultation service. This level of tech innovation is what the beauty space needs—and I am here for it. I can’t wait to see how this turns out.

Thanks for sharing your knowledge and expertise. Is there anything else you’d like to add?

Yeah, if you are a beauty professional and you have no idea how to begin sinking your teeth into being industry-famous, let’s talk. YSS is here to help!