Salon Promotional Trends for 2020: Gifting Experiences and Self-care
Over the past few years, the “Buy a $100 Gift Card and get a $20 Gift Card for Yourself!” holiday promotion has been sweeping through salons with increasing popularity. After all, who doesn’t love to give and receive?
The benefits of this promotion not only come with rave reviews from the clients purchasing the gifts, but also for the businesses that see an uptick in return traffic from the purchasers.
It’s a total win-win when done right, and here’s how to do it.
Don’t let it be an accounting nightmare
In the clients’ eyes, they are getting a $100 gift card to give to a loved one and receiving a $20 gift card for themselves from your business. In reality, that $20 isn’t really a “gift card” because there’s no payment attached to it. Think about it — you’re accepting $100 and giving $120.
To prevent this from being an end of the year cluster, contact a local print shop (a great way to support a fellow local small business) and get $20 vouchers printed. On the vouchers, note any stipulations (see below) and add this as a promotion to your POS system.
The gift card itself is associated to a gift number — there is a payment for it and it will be tracked per usual. However, when the “voucher” is used, it’s noted as a promotion because it’s not technically a form of payment, it’s actually more like a coupon.
Get special vouchers printed to give to clients who take advantage of your BOGO deal and avoid POS confusion.
WARNING: Your accountant may give you a really big hug for not trying to issue all those $20 gift cards.
Self-care + gifting experiences = holiday gold
There’s nothing more popular this holiday season than promoting not only self-care, but gifting experiences. Make sure you don’t get swept up in the holiday rush and forget to mention your gift promotion on social media and in email campaigns to all your clients. Also, for Black Friday maybe consider doing double $20 vouchers for all Black Friday sales.
If you’re worried about being too busy, use the scheduling feature in your marketing software to schedule promotional emails in advance, or utilize the “Scheduled Post” feature on Facebook or using an app like Later to schedule posts for multiple platforms.
On social media, your team could really take marketing to the next level and encourage customer engagement, e.g. “Tag someone you’d love to get a <Your Business> gift card from!” Plenty of people use this as an easy way to tell loved ones, “Here’s what I want, here’s where I go, here’s a link to their page to find out where to get it.” Bonus: It boosts activity on your social pages!
If you plan to use online gift sales this holiday season, you could email an image of the voucher to those who purchased a gift card, too! Don’t make it all about in-store traffic — promote your online traffic, too!
Channel your inner Tim Gunn and “Make it work”
While the customer typically drawn to this type of promotion is of the “Treat Yourself” mentality, there are perks for the business to see growth from this promotion.
Here are a few optional items to consider adding to your promotion to make it work for you, too.
Services Only — When the voucher is used, it’s likely going to bring guests back for more services or introduce them to new ones they might not have considered without this promotion. Maybe they’ll add a conditioning treatment or upgrade a pedicure with it; that’s its intended purpose. The good news is that they were already coming in for a paid color service or pedicure, anyway. The promotion is giving away time, not dollars, and therefore products, gifts, etc., should not be available for purchases with this voucher.
One Voucher Per Visit/Service — It is important to note that this voucher cannot be used with any other vouchers or promotions, and that the voucher may only be used one time. For example, if they get a $14 polish change, you won’t be giving them a $6 voucher, or if they get a haircut, treatment and color service, but have three vouchers, they can only use one at a time.
Expiration Date — The voucher should expire within a few months. The brains behind the promotion were looking to improve their client visits during January and February. Traditionally these months are slow because clients have just visited mid-December and aren’t due again for several weeks. However, by limiting these promotions to be used by a deadline of early February or March, you’ll see a strong return of clients during a typically sluggish time for your business.
Following these simple recommendations will make for a very profitable holiday season as well as high client retention in the stagnant months of January and February. Your clients will love introducing their friends and family to your business, and hopefully you will generate some new business going forward into the new year.
From all of us here at Inspire, we wish you a holiday salon season free of hair in your coffee, pain in your toes and endless profits.
Cheers!
Shannon Wojtkowski began her salon career almost 20 years ago by sweeping hair at 14 years old. She worked her way up the salon ladder by working the front desk, assisting and eventually behind her own chair.
Shannon spent many years living a double life, attending cosmetology school while also working at a salon nights and weekends and maintaining a full-time career in project management in the marketing and technology field. She’s the trifecta of awesome, combining her knowledge of salon life, marketing and technology.