How To Get In Front Of Your Dream Clients In 2025

A lot of stylists who I see doing the, quote-unquote, "right things" normally aren't getting the results that they're looking for, even when they've worked their off, because they don't have eyeballs on the things that they've worked on, right? And so, in today's episode, we're gonna be addressing that for you. Making sure that we actually find those eyeballs and get them on you, and make sure that they also eventually stay as well, too. So, in the marketing world, we call this your top of funnel, right?

So, your visibility for your clients. So, let's talk about why that top of funnel, like, why does that matter? So, top of funnel matters because nobody ... Why, why would somebody give a ...

about looking at your stuff, right? Why would somebody even know that you exist enough to look at your stuff, right? And a lot of the time, like, you can have, like, the sexiest brand. You can, you can have all the beautiful work that you post.

You can post super consistently. But if it's all getting posted into a void and there's no ideal customers who would have the opportunity to see it or know that you exist, then it all just goes to waste, all that hard work that you're putting in. And so, what we need to make sure that we're doing is that we are strategically showing up in places, not just passively but actively, where our ideal client is living. And so, what we wanna make sure of is that not only are we making it so we are findable, but we are forcing ourselves in front of this person.

Okay? So, there's, there's two ways that we can go about making it so your ideal client is aware that you exist, and that's why we call it awareness at the top of funnel, right? And the top of funnel, you know, just to, like, physically draw, uh, j- just to illustrate what that means and why we call it that to you guys, right? Like, like if you think about a funnel, right, there's, like, this large entry at the top, and then it gets smaller and smaller and smaller to the bottom, right?

And so, with our awareness, we wanna get as many people as possible into our marketing funnel, into our content, into our website, into consuming our things that we put out there, right? And then as they go further and further down, as they get closer and closer and closer to trusting you enough to actually booking an appointment, m- those peop- some of those people fall off more and more and more, and then finally you are left with your most ideal people who are nurtured by you, who actually book an appointment, right? So, that's why we kind of call it a funnel. And at the top, if there's nobody actually entering it, right?

Then nobody's actually gonna get to the bottom because there's nobody going through it. And so, that's why this a- this awareness is so important, and, and so to be m- to make people aware of you, like I said, there's two ways about going about it. It's putting yourself directly in front of them, or it's making it so you are likely to be found by this person. Well, we talk a lot about data, and I think the thing is that unless you have that top of funnel visibility and you're getting the eyeballs, it's really hard to see where the rest of your marketing is working and not working, right, if no one's seeing it.

So, with that being said, what are those best, I mean, the best for hairstylists top of funnel marketing platforms? Like, where, where are the best places to put in energy to get in front of your ideal clients? So, you guys, if you've listened to me for any, uh, short amount of time, you've probably heard me say this question is answered by data, right? This a- this question is answered by research.

This question is answered by you knowing who you are best able to serve and wanting to work with and your marketing is curated for, right? Because if your marketing is curated just for anybody and everybody to like you, then you're most likely getting lost in the void as far as messaging, as far as people actually being interested enough to work with you, because in today's day and age everything is so noisy, right? And so, we need to be doing something that is going to make it so one individual, one type of individual, actually pays attention. And so, when we tailor our marketing to this one individual, we are going to have much better results with higher-paying clients.

But what we'll also be able to understand to make that true is where this person is going to be most likely to become aware of you. Like, where are they already showing up? Where, what spaces, locations, and f- platforms are they existing in mostly? And we can go even as far as not just coincidentally, but as far as maybe even if this person was specifically looking for a hairstylist, right?

Because there's, like, these two different types of ways that you can go about it. Like, is there, is this person just generally because of who they are, their demographic, what they're most likely to do, how they're most likely to behave? Are they just showing up in this place b- just because that's where they normally show up, that's where they like to be, that's where they have to be? Or, is it also, and/or otherwise, are they showing up in this place when they're specifically looking for a hairstylist, right?

And so, both of those pieces of information are very, very important, but you won't know that and you won't be able to show up in those places unless you have done the research and, actually, the curation of figuring out who this person is for you and your business, right? So, first you have to figure out who this person is that you're targeting, do the research, figure out where they're showing up, and then you need to do a good job of showing up in those places, whether it be, like I said, actively or passively. Right, right. So, let me ask this question then.

When it comes to platforms, obviously the answer is where your ideal clients are showing up, right? Can you just give some examples based on what's working for your students? Like, where are you seeing stylists having success? This is where I say, like, it's, it could be the matter of you being found out about, or you putting yourself in front of people.

That's why I keep bringing this up, 'cause it's so important- Right, right. to the entire conversation, right? Like, Facebook groups, right? You can show up in Facebook groups, nurturing relationships, recommending yourself as a service provider, putting out deals, or whatever it may be.

Promoting yourself in one way or another in Facebook groups, right?... or your clients can be recommending you in Facebook groups, right? And so that's where you created a great client experience, and you've also equipped your clients with the knowledge and the tools and the resources to be able to confidently recommend you, right? Right.

Or maybe you're even incentivizing them. And so Facebook groups is a big thing for a lot of people, but it also depends on the demographic that we're working with and we're targeting. Instagram, of course, is the classic one, right? And in, in Instagram, we can be posting ourselves, and we could be using hashtags and geolocations and using keywords and making sure that our s- our actual bios and titles are search engine optimized, and that's making you passively more searchable, right?

Right. More likely to be found. But then also, you actually going out and being social on Instagram also gets you in front of other people and makes p- people aware of you, that you exist. Right.

Right? Not because they found you, but because they saw you. As far as, like, Instagram and updates and things that have changed recently is, like, it definitely has become more search-friendly. So I definitely think it's more important than ever to think about what your people are searching for, because not only could they be searching on the platform, but also if they're doing Google searches, that content is now being recommended on a post-by-post basis.

So if your Instagram post is the best answer to a question on Google, they're gonna show that Instagram post. Yeah. SEO is becoming massively important. Search engine optimization, again, just making it so you're likely to be found when somebody is searching for something or your specific service that you're offering.

And I'm gonna l- go so far as to say it's not just important because these platforms are becoming much more searchable, it's also because AI is very much also a huge important platform that we have to take into consideration as far as wa- a, a top-of-funnel platform for you, really. Yeah. And unfortunately, it's not really one that we can put ourselves in front of people yet. Right.

I did see something, you know, and it's unfortunate that I'm not a- as well-studied or knowledgeable about this yet, but I do think it was kind of, like, a flailing thing. I, I haven't heard much about it since I saw it, but it was k- semi-recent, how like OpenAI and ChatGPT were going to allow businesses to, like, officially register, and even, like, pay to be a part of a registry, so that way they would be, like, recommended in, in OpenAI search, or in ChatGPT searches. Right. And so, like, until that is possible, right, until that happens, like, you can maybe actively market by literally putting yourself in front of people on these AI platforms.

Right. Of course, you could also passively show up in a search. Mm-hmm. Because now, and I made a whole episode about this, how AI is revolutionizing, you know, new client acquisition.

Now, AI ... People are using AI to find services. I know that I'm doing it, like, a lot. Yeah.

Because we just wanna skip through the bull , right? I mean, we wanna, we wanna cut right to what's super specific to us. For example, I've actually been using the ChatGPT Agent a lot recently. Mm-hmm.

And I'm n- It's unfortunately, like, so much less powerful than I wish it was, but what it's so powerful for is when you ha- when you have to do something so stupid that you don't feel like doing, and you have, like, specific parameters around that thing, and you don't wanna do the research or the work to actually, you know, follow through with it. So for example, I had to get my car detailed. I don't think I d- I don't know if I shared this story on, on, on the podcast yet or not. But I had to get my car detailed, and I was like, "Oh my God.

I hate having to find, like, a person to do this. I hate having to figure out the price. I hate having to write the email. I hate having to shop around.

I hate it. I hate it." So I have all these parameters, right? Like, um, this is for my car.

I want this type of detailing. I have this budget. It has to be within this radius. It has to be free at this time.

And so I don't feel like dealing with any of that as far as the search goes. Another example is I can't find a doctor within my insurance network that's within, uh, the radius of 20 miles- Right. that is this specific type of doctor for this type of specialty. You know, like this type of ...

Right? S- so because of this, because of m- the w- the same n- nature that I am, you know, using AI for, your clients are now doing the same thing for searching for service providers. 100%. And we've even s- I've seen many examples of this, particularly within my students' businesses.

And they're like, "Yeah, my clients are telling me that they're finding me through ChatGPT all the time," and it's because they have excellent SEO. So I have a, I have a follow-up question to this. So when their clients find them on, like, AI, like ChatGPT or wherever, 'cause I know, like, even Google, like there's an AI summary at the top of it now. Yeah.

Like, so regardless of where you're searching, like, it is an AI search at this point. Um- AI, and, and, yeah, and that's just gonna be more and more true, and even with A- uh, even with Instagram, too. I, I, I, I, it, it- Yeah. Even Instagram's nate- Meta's- Yeah.

native AI is now a thing as well, too, and that is absolutely going to affect if you show up in that search or not. Sorry. Go ahead. 100%.

And so my question is, like, when they are getting, which I think we can maybe get into in our next episode a little bit, but I'm just gonna ask this, like, preview question. Where do their clients go from there? So are they just like, like, are they going straight to the online booking? Are they going and checking them out on Instagram?

Are they going to ... Like, what's the next step in the process? I'd be so curious about that. Well, I feel like it's kind of up in the air, right?

Right. Because like AI just gets to kinda decide that. When AI is crawling, it's always going to go with the path of least resistance. Right.

And so therefore, normally that actually is going to be like topper, higher-funnel marketing or whatever normally will show up in, like, a Google search or something like that, right? Mm-hmm. So like, that would normally be maybe, like, your website or your Instagram, especially I think that AI would be smart enough to know that a lot of people would probably want to look at Instagrams as far as- Yeah. portfolios of work when they're shopping for- Yeah.

a hairstylist, right? But, you know, w- a- and so that t- that's the answer to that question. Like, it's honestly so up in the air. Yeah.

And maybe this is a good case for why you need to have some sort of presence al- across these different platforms, right? Mm-hmm. Because you never know which one is gonna be the first one to pop up. Yeah.

And you may have a really ideal client, and because it showed your Facebook profile that actually looks terrible, that you haven't updated in forever- Yeah. now you lost this person when you could've got them, right? Right. And I'm not saying, and you know I'm gonna ...

My, my philosophy is not to say, like, you need to put your 100% into every single platform. What I do think is you should put your 90% into one platform and then put, like, a little bit here and there just to make, make things s- semi-updated and maintained over time. For sure. So the entire ecosphere of your-...

platforms all are up to date, just in case they happen to be the source that is shown in these searches. Yeah. Another thing that becomes very important because of these AI searches is my exact underlying sentiment of this entire conversation, which is, it has to be marketed to a specific person- Mm-hmm. and you should be known for a specific thing.

Because, like I said, wh- I'm using AI because I'm a specific person with specific needs and nuances, right? So the way that I am searching is very specific. That's why I'm using AI, because I know that a lot of the time if I do a s- Google search with all of my specificities, then I'm not gonna get the exact results that I need and I'm gonna still- Okay. have to be doing a lot of searching around, right?

So, if you're just a generalist, right, and you have the majority of the public using AI to find a specific service provider, within a specific budget, who specializes in a specific thing, who's within a specific r- uh, you know, like, if you aren't as specific as the way that the clients are specifically searching, then you're not gonna show up, right? Yeah. And honestly, I mean, like, at this point, because of this particular happening in the world, like it is now more than ever, and I say this every month, every year, now more than ever, beneficial and almost essential for you to be specializing, setting yourself apart, and specifically speaking to a specific person, and doing the research, understand what they're most likely to be searching in that AI, so that way you can have those same keywords and- and emulate those same topics and things in your own marketing funnel, so that way you are likely to show up. Yes.

And that is, like, the perfect segue into what I was actually gonna say, which was- Oh. Go ahead. the type of content that's best for this part of the funnel, right? So, like- Gotcha.

what is that? And I feel like, yes, definitely, like, that searchable, like, what are your ideal clients saying, in their own words. 'Cause I feel like we can get- we get pretty caught up in hairdresser-speak, right? Like, it's a natural thing, it's how we learn, it's how we talk to each other.

And so, like, aside from that hyper-specific, like, SEO-optimized content, what is the best other type of content for that visibility phase? Yes. I just wanna answer the rest of your last question, and then I'm gonna answer this. Okay.

And just to shout out a couple other platforms, like, a lot of people are being found on Reddit nowadays. That's a big thing, because- Mm. the same- same sentiment of, like, the AI. Like, people are, in- in all of my Google searches, a lot of the time if I wanna hear from real humans, I wanna cut through the BS- Right.

I am searching whatever I'm searching and then I put Reddit at the end of my search, right? Because I want to hear from real individuals. Wow. And a lot of my students are being found on Reddit.

Like- Wow. it's a thing that's happening. And then the last thing that I wanna say, which we normally don't think about as a quote-unquote platform, is also in-person local networking. And that is absolutely a platform, it's absolutely a top-of-funnel opportunity.

Like you having a booth at some sort of local organization fundraiser event, or you just being a part of your mom's club, uh, with- with your kids in school or whatever, the sports. Like, those are all top-of-funnel, like, awareness opportunities and places, and also places where your ideal client may be very likely to find you and want to find you, and be most likely to convert with you if they found you in that way, right? So, just wanted to cover all the platforms. There's probably more that I'm forgetting at the- G- Google My Business, Yelp, those are- you could consider those as top-of-funnel platforms as well, too, of course, 'cause they're, like, Google searches, Yelp searches, all the things.

To answer your question, what type of content? So, we talked about levels of awareness on the podcast before, and I think th- you know, the levels of awareness, which refers to how aware of the problems and solutions is your client in their journey to becoming a customer with you, right? So, like, th- if you think about it, every single one of your clients has gone through some sort of journey to becoming aware of the problems that they have and the solutions that are out there, right? So maybe at one point, they didn't even realize that they even had curly hair, right?

So, there's like- there's no problems, right? Like, there's no issues, they're just waking up every day. They know, however, they know that their hair is maybe frizzy, maybe they're calling it something different, whatever it may be, but they don't call it curly hair, right? And so then maybe they become aware that they have curly hair, so now that they're- now that they're problem aware, right?

And then, maybe they're like, "Oh, well, I need somebody who's going to specialize in curls." Or, "I- is there even a- is there even solutions out there? Is there- are- even people who do specialize in curls?" Right?

So then they- then they be- they become solution aware. They now find out that there are a bunch of curl specialists out there who only work on what this person has, right? And then they find you. So now, they are product aware.

Now, they know that you exist and this other curl specialist exists, and this other curl specialist exists specifically. Not just, "There's solutions out there," now I know what the specific solutions and products actually are. And then, they become a customer with you. So then now they know who you are, they trusted you enough, and now they make the decision, right?

And so, when we talk about, like, the- the- the marketing funnel journey, and when we talk about levels of awareness, it's interesting because at the top of the funnel where they're just finding out about you, they could actually be at different parts of the levels of awareness. So, it's not necessarily, like, a linear conversation. It's not li- it's not, like, a linear, like, you should only be posting this type of content ch- at this level. However, I do believe that we can make......

pretty good guesses, pretty educated guesses as to the majority of the content that we need to be posting and particularly when we're looking at more top of funnel content places, right? So, like, what we could do is we could, let's say, speak to the person who is aware of their problem, let's say, in your story highlights and maybe, like, one of your pinned posts, right? Right And then the rest of it could be speaking to the person who is maybe shopping between different curl specialists, or different specialists .. Right Or whatever it may be, right?

So maybe it's like one of them is a post that is educating them more about their curls, but then the Right ... other post is something that is convincing them that you are the right fit for them, right? And the ones that are convincing people that you're the right fit for them, normally we shouldn't be doing as much of that .. Yes ...

as much as we should be doing the things that are grabbing the people's attention and making them give a about you at all first, to even consider you .. Right ... as an option. So, that's my general understanding of it, or my general theory about it Yeah What are your thoughts?

Am I making sense? Like, it took me a second to get there Yeah. No, that definitely makes sense and I think you, like, hit m- all of those. The only other thing that I would add is just, like, the first level of awareness that you spoke about, like the, you know, not necessarily knowing what exactly that is.

I feel like that is a really beautiful opportunity to speak to the symptom and I ta- like, this is, like, my favorite topic Got it And then walk them through the, I guess, across the bridge to knowing that this is their problem, right? So, it's hard to position a solution to people who don't know what their problem is Yes So, if part of your content is, is m- speaking to the symptom, the everyday experience, like, what they are going through and then kind of bridging the gap for them and connecting the dots .. Yes ... that is gonna build a ton of trust as well, and then you're also gonna have the ability to speak to that, like, just symptom-aware person who doesn't quite actually know what the problem is yet Yes.

Thank you so much for saying that. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. Very, very true part of this conversation. So, so, like, go back to, like, the curl example, right?

Like, this person doesn't even know that they have curly hair. So, an example of content that can start to make them understand that they have curly hair, which then almost creates a problem almost, or it creates .. Right ... a problem or a desire, right?

Is, like, "Okay, do you have, do you feel like you struggle with frizz, right? Do you feel like you're, whenever the humidity hits that it, like, poofs out, right? Do you feel like you have, you can only use a flatiron on your hair to make your hair look any type of good?" Whatever it may be, right?

And by the way, this is not my opinions in any way, shape, or form. This is just what we normally hear from somebody who is Not problem-aware, right? I'm just using real-life heard examples Yes Um, so yes. W- yes.

Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. Exactly what you said Yeah. I think that's, like, a really great, great kind of way to describe that type of context. We've covered the problem-aware, we've talked once people know and they're searching, and I feel like all of those different types of content and those platforms are gonna give people a really strong foundation to build that, that top of funnel.

So, my last question, Hunter, is how do you diagnose? I know you do a lot of, like, funnel reviews and all of these different things, right? You're looking at hairstylist marketing all the time. So, if someone is listening to this, how can they diagnose if, like, this is their problem is the top of their funnel Yeah.

Normally, it comes down to numbers. I mean, like, let's say that we're looking at your social and we are, like, looking at your analytics and, like, really there's truly, like, very low impressions, very low engagement, and not that engagement always is, like, the tell-all per se, but, like, if I'm looking at somebody's, you know, I- Instagram or their work, their marketing, whatever it may be, and there's nobody who is then getting onto that, following them, doing something, getting to the next step, then I'll ask, "What are you doing in order for you to get into in f- this thing, whatever it is, in front of more people?" I'll also look and see, like, are we using, are e- are we search engine optimized? Are we using the hashtags?

Are we using the geotags, right? And that's normally h- the combo is I'll look at the numbers, I'll have a theory, and then I'll also see, like, I wanna know what, are there actions in place that are actually helping us? And if there's not, then it's pretty obvious that the awareness is the problem, especially if the work and the brand is all really great, then it's just we need to add more searchability and awareness to this part of the funnel. So, that's been specifically, like, how I can figure out if the awareness is the issue, right?

It's like, are we getting people from finding out about you to actually getting onto a platform in which they can consume content from you and they're continuously consuming those things? And when somebody does get onto that part of the funnel and then they do continue forward, then I know that that's not the issue, right? It's just we need to get more people. We need more volume I love that.

I feel like you and I could nerd out about this, like, all day. But let's .. because on the next episode, we're gonna dive into, like, once you're in front of them, what happens now? So, like, once you nail that top of funnel or even if you haven't nailed the top funnel and you just wanna look at this holistically to make sure you get good results, that's what we're gonna be talking about next week Cool.

I'm so excited to talk about it with, with you, Jodi. Thank you so much for contributing so much to this conversation. You and I are marketing nerds and I love to get to have this conversation with you. Thank you so much for tuning into the Modern Hairstylist podcast, my friend.

End of transcript. © 2025 Hunter Donia LLC.