4 Promotional Ideas For The Holiday Season!

The holidays are just around the corner! Now is the time to begin preparing for a great holiday season for your clients and for your pocketbook too. Here’s 4 promotional ideas to help you make it even more successful for your salon or spa business. Just follow the steps below and get to work.

1. Promote a flavor or scent. For example: Peppermint! Follow these steps:

• Research peppermint infused products & services from your supplier and a sample order as early as the first or second week of October. The sooner the better.
• Test the products & services to your liking then place your order for the season.
• Train your team on use, benefits, description, etc.
• Purchase decorations around the flavor them. Peppermint flavored candy canes, tea, cookies or peppermint chocolate, colors, etc.
• Come up with a special. For example: “Book our peppermint infused conditioning treatment and receive 15% off of that service.” Or, “Book our peppermint infused conditioning treatment today and receive 20% off of our peppermint infused shampoo and conditioner.
• Create your promotional banners for social media and also to print and use as shelf-talkers and placards.
• Launch advertising on social media and in house the second week of November.
• Create an incentive for your team to support them to sell through the promotion throughout the season.
• Track results daily, update the team weekly and coach/cheer lead accordingly!
• Have fun & enjoy the experience! Your energy and enthusiasm will make all the difference!

2. Black Friday Promotion: Win A Gift Basket. Purchase a gift card on site or online on Black Friday and get entered in a drawing to win a $300 (amount can be up to you) package of services and products.

• Create a Gift basket of products and services and attach a retail value to it. Assemble the basket. Include holiday themed products or any products you are looking to get off the shelves. Include 4 other gift cards of $25 value each. Add ancillary gifts if you have them, such as salon t-shirts, coffee mugs, and the like. Add Hershey’s kisses, candy canes and other holiday themed yummies and wrap it in festive themed clear plastic and ribbons. Take pictures of it for social media.
• Place the gift basket at the front desk or reception area 3 weeks ahead along with placards announcing the Black Friday promotion.
• Launch a social media program with an image and verbiage to your networks 3 weeks ahead. Post at least twice a week. Don’t bombard your followers with it.
• On Black Friday keep track of all persons who purchase the gift card and select one lucky winner at the end of the day! Contact the winner and have them come to the salon/spa the next morning to claim their prize. Take pictures and get their permission to use it. Post the images on your social media networks for further publicity.

3. Charity Gift Card Program. For every gift card purchased donate a percentage (5-10%) to a charity.

• If you are aligned with a local or national charity already then proceed to the next step. If not, do some research first, ask your team if they have any near and dear to their heart.
• Connect with the charity and request signage, placards and images that you can use to add to your promotional campaign.
• Script out what you plan to say to advertise the program to clients.
• Set a goal for how much money you want to raise for the charity.
• Inform the team about the program and give them the script so they can be prepared.
• Launch a social media campaign along with placards & signage at the front desk.
• Keep track of results and each week post a message at the front desk and on social media informing clients how much you have raised to date.
• At the end of the season, have a big check created with the amount donated and invite a spokesman for the charity to your business for a photo op which you can then share with your followers.

4. Holiday Rewards Program. Clients earn points for their rewards program during the holidays. (This takes into account that you have a rewards program for your clients where they earn points on an annual basis which they can redeem for specials and services. If not, this is a great time of year to launch a rewards program.)

• Create various ways that clients can earn points such as:
• During the holiday season a client can earn double points on retail purchases.
• Clients who purchase any package specials you offer can receive triple point value
• If clients purchase a gift card they get point values based on the dollar amount purchased. The more they purchase the bigger the point value you can offer.
• Program participants can earn additional points if they take advantage of any holiday promotions you are offering. (This can also entice clients not enrolled in the points program an incentive to join.)
• Create an email that will go out to all points program participants. Send the email out 2 weeks prior to start of the season. Schedule reminder emails to go out once every 10 days during the season and twice on the last week to remind clients that the promotion is about to end.
• Place a sign at the front desk which is holiday themed sharing the various ways clients can earn points.
• Decorate the team with buttons saying, “Ask me about our rewards program!”
• Track your results, share with the team and encourage them to continue talking about it with customers!

I hope these marketing ideas get your creative juices flowing! Have a great holiday season!