So, what can you be doing at the salon this autumn to ensure that your peak-season is a successful one? There are lots of events that you can take advantage of throughout the next couple of months and in the lead up to Christmas, like Halloween, Bonfire night and Black Friday! And also a couple of Charity events, which are great for fund-raising money for a good cause but also, raising brand awareness & great projection for you! For example, you’ve got ThinkPink in October for Breast Cancer awareness & Movember for attentiveness to men’s health!
So we’ve separated out a few little ideas that are relevant throughout this season to help you to kick-start your promotional strategies - just to ensure that you get that nice Christmas ROI for some little well-deserved treats!
Offers & Up-selling
We’ve said time and time again, the discounted sale is not always the winner, or the right way to go for your brand reputation. OK, so we’re not going to lie that it’s great when you see an offer online or on social media showcasing a big % discount, whether this be retail or maybe a restaurant?
However, how many of us are guilty of seeing a shared status about a particular promo code, and thinking ‘great, I’ll head down there if it’s (x) % off!’ But, once the business is back to full price, if you’re not already a regular customer you find yourself never visiting there again unless there’s another offer on. We’re deffo guilty!
What you definitely don’t want to be is ‘the brand that discounts’. As once you get renowned for doing this, it’s sometimes very hard to steer clear of that image and get value from your full price services again in the future.
Instead, we recommend you up-sell! Offer little add-ons to your clients already existing full price purchase. Sometimes, the extra product can actually seem a lot more generous than a discount and in the long run, it generally offers more value to the customer in terms of service. Plus, by offering an extra mini-treatment or product, you may actually be helping to market those to the client for a potential future purchase. A little something to think about.
So, a few potential offers that you could use throughout autumn are:
- Book your Halloween treatment with us and receive a FREE (chosen retail product)
- Sparkle this bonfire night, head down to (salon name) and receive a complimentary (chosen mini gift) with each treatment purchased
- Countdown to Christmas, book your December salon treatments early to receive a complimentary (chosen mini-treatment)
- Rebook today’s treatment to receive (chosen gift/voucher)
Make sure however that whatever it is that you are offering as a freebie here, it is still cost effective to you. The last thing you want is to sell yourself short in terms of profit, just to save face of not discounting. Make sure you plan out the figures beforehand.
Charitable Events & Friend/Family Packages/Event Gifts
October and November are renowned for their Cancer-research & Macmillan events, the most popular being ThinkPink for Breast Cancer and Movember for prostate Cancer & Men’s health. You however also have Children in Need in November too, so plenty of events that you could use to raise money for a good cause and to also hopefully increase your client base in doing so. The beauty here is, charity events can also tie-in with non-charitable events, so for example you could do a ‘bring-a-friend’ to your ThinkPink event? This way, it means that you have fresh-faces arriving at the salon to get some mini treatments, in the hope that they then return in the future. And in the meanwhile, you are raising a ton of money for Cancer research - brilliant! Also, if you associate your business with charities, this makes your brand much more recognisable and appreciated by onlookers who can see that you get involved in fundraising. A few ideas for you to try out are:
- ThinkPink, with a friend! Head down to the salon for mini treatments and (X) % off retail products. £(X) entry and all profits go to Cancer Research UK.
- Calling all guys who want to get involved in some fundraising for a good cause! It’s Movember, donate £(X) on our JustGiving page and send us a selfie or your best Movember-tash be entered in to our prize draw. Winner receives (chosen gift) and all entry donations go to Prostate Cancer UK.
- It’s Children in Need, so we’re running a friends & family week to get involved! Book a family package with us and save (X) % off the usual single-treatment prices, plus free compliments on your arrival! All profits made & donations go to Children in need UK.
For the above ideas, between you and your team, come up with the little mini-treatments and the services that you’d like to use for your family packages and spread the word via social media, email or text! Obviously, these are just little ideas to get you started. We encourage you to introduce your own event ideas too, as then they are even more personable to your salon-brand.
The Salon Atmosphere
Salon Décor is one of the biggest influencers in your client journey, especially around peak season! It’s so true, that atmosphere and ambience help to make a sale. If throughout October and Christmas, you dress the salon in all things pumpkin, tinsel and trees – the likelihood is that you will instantly make your clients feel festive and without realising, this will uplift theirs and your mood. And we all know, Happy Customers = Happy Shopping! A simple and easy way to increase your seasonal sales. Complimentary freebies are also crucial here. (And no we don’t mean give away a load of free treatments) but just a couple of little refreshments will do, for example:
-Tea, coffee, fizz/prosecco? Even theme your coffees, get a little pumpkin spice syrup in-house!
-Halloween themed sweets, cupcakes, biscuits, anything festive-styled!
- Xmas favourites like Quality sweets, roses, miniature heroes…you get the idea.
So there’s just a few of our little ideas to get you off to an amazing, autumnal start! It’s also great to get involved with charitable and celebratory events at the salon, and this applies all year-round, not just in peak season. Events such as these are extra fun for you & your team, and can really help to boost morale during busy times. Use your autumn marketing to even get your employees together for a little team-building session. Go somewhere nice as a team for some food/an activity and use the night to brainstorm some ideas. A great way to give all of your staff members’ inclusion in some planning, to ensure that their voices are heard and that they feel respected within the company. Another motto that they always say…valued staff members = valuable service for your business, and essentially to the end consumer!
Happy planning!
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