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Holiday Marketing Tips for Beauty Professionals
Posted on October 7, 2024
Sola Salons
The holiday season is here, and we wanted to offer you some holiday marketing tips that will help you maximize the cheer and minimize the stress. These tips may also help you to bridge the gap on any year-end financial goals. Don’t let the pumpkin spice lull you into winter hibernation - let’s make these last three months your most profitable (and fun) yet.
Plan Ahead
The holidays tend to creep up on us. All of a sudden, the calendar has never been more full, clients seem stressed, and on top of all of that, you are planning your own holiday happenings with friends and family. To avoid the last-minute panic, plan ahead by putting these dates in your calendar, and deciding early which ones you’d like to capitalize on this holiday season:
- Halloween: Thursday, October 31st
- Daylight Savings Ends: Sunday, November 3rd (Remember to adjust your sleep schedule and set your clocks back!)
- Thanksgiving: Thursday, November 28th
- Black Friday: Friday, November 29th
- Small Business Saturday: Saturday, November 30th
- Cyber Monday: Monday, December 2nd
- Hanukkah: Evening of Wed, Dec 25, 2024 – Thu, Jan 2, 2025
- Christmas Eve: Tuesday, December 24th
- Christmas: Wednesday, December 25th
- Kwanzaa: Thursday, December 26th
- New Year's Eve: Tuesday, December 31st
- New Year's Day: Wednesday, January 1st
Set End of Year Goals
Once you have mapped out the holiday season with regard to your time in and out of the salon, we recommend working backward from a goal. Make sure to be realistic. It's more than okay to reassess your goals from the beginning of the year and make new ones for the end of the year. What are your year-end goals for the last 3 months of this year?
Some end-of-year goals to consider:
- Bring in X new clients
- Publish 3 pieces of content - TikToks/Reels, videos, blogs, or photo series - showcasing your artistry
- Sell X service to 10 clients
- Make X dollars via retail product sales
- Sign up for one continuing education opportunity
- Make your business plan to start 2025 on the right foot
- Run X holiday promotions to raise X # of dollars
Also, when your books are filled, almost too filled - that is a good indication that it may be time to level up. If you are overbooked, it may be time to raise your prices on services to bring you into the New Year with business growth. If you plan on raising your prices for 2025, the last two months of 2024 are a good time to announce this to clients. We recommend letting them know via email and perhaps in person for some of your most loyal clients.
Plan Promotions
When it comes to holiday promotions, there are infinite ways you can go. Figure out what works best for you and your clientele, and determine the details of the specific promotions you want to run.
Include information like:
- What: What are you offering?
- When: Promotion start and end date
- Channels: Where you will promote the offering? Will you post on social media, create in-salon signage, post to community boards, send emails or SMS blasts?
- Marketing Collateral: What literature, graphics or images do you need to create to advertise the holiday promotion?
Maybe you are a makeup artist offering spooky Halloween looks; a color expert crafting fried summer hair into the latest fall hair trends; a nail-tech offering sparkly New Year’s nails. What works for your salon will be unique to you! Get creative and go with what makes you feel motivated and inspired.
Remember that your promotions can, but do not have to, include discounted services. Holiday specials are special because they are time-limited offerings. Your time and artistry does not need to be discounted in order to attract more traffic during the holiday season. The promotions can instead draw attention to awesome seasonal offerings, packages or services that bring you and them joy to give and receive.
Holiday Flash Sales
If you have retail products that you have been wanting to get rid of, the end of the year is a great time to say out with the old and in with the new! A great way to move products quickly is to create a holiday-themed flash sale - discounts that highlight products and get them sold.
10-20% discounts are often enough to catch a client’s eye to a holiday display. Don’t forget about sample sizes - these can make great stocking stuffers and can turn clients on to a product line for life.
Holiday decor can bring attention to retail promotions and reframe standalone retail products into cute holiday bundles that double as good gifts and self-care steals on discount for a limited time only. Move that product before 2025 to keep things fresh and your clients trying new things.
Stock The Walls
When it comes to the holidays, your schedule gets packed with appointments and personal obligations, so the last thing you want to worry about is your backbar and your retail products running low with all the increased salon traffic. Not only will your backbar and retail products be in higher demand, that is also happening for every other salon business, so expect low stock levels and shipping delays from the get-go by planning ahead now.
During the holidays, we know that you'll be flying through your supplies. No matter where you are sourcing your magic, from hair products to candy canes, make sure to stock up early to avoid the holiday rush!
Deck the Halls
While decor may not seem like the best return on investment, it can actually turn up the vibe in your studio enough to attract customers to the holiday promotions and retail displays highlighted throughout the holiday season. When your decor is suited to an eye-catching product display or signage about your sweet holiday deals, the extra spirit can convert a client into a shopper faster than you think.
Beyond the capital gains, the reality is that YOU are in your studio, day in and day out, and YOU deserve the holiday spirit most of all!
Huge fan of Halloween but not the biggest Christmas gal? Go for mini pumpkins and ditch the wreath. Love ringing in the New Year but stressed by Thanksgiving weekend deals? Offer metallic fairy hair from Christmas to New Year’s Eve and skip on the Gratitude Giveaways. Remember that you don’t have to do everything - a little goes a long way.
As always, it’s your salon - your choice! Honor the holidays that make you feel good to celebrate, and decorate accordingly.
Set the Vibe
The heart and soul of your salon is ultimately your clientele, and it can be a stressful time of year for everybody. Think of one small way that you can ring in each holiday period that will touch clients and make them feel the holiday spirit while in the chair. Some ideas:
Halloween: Put out a decorative bowl of mini candies, or if you are too tempted to eat the whole bowl yourself, style a few mini pumpkins and squashes into your salon decor for a no-frills holiday glow-up.
Thanksgiving: Give gratitude notes to clients - write one sentence of gratitude on slips of paper and hand it to clients on their way out after appointments; try to do it for as many clients as you can in the week leading up to Thanksgiving and feel your heart swell.
Christmas/Hanukkah: Spruce up your space with a bouquet of flowers, holiday-scented potpourri (think cinnamon spice) or Poinsettia. Holiday-themed plants and planters can transform a space instantly into a winter wonderland.
New Year’s: Offer champagne and/or sparkling soda in champagne flutes between Christmas and New Year’s Eve to make appointments feel like trips to the glam spa. It is hard to turn down an indulgent beverage during the time period between December 25th and January 1st... and for good reason... bottoms up!
Offer the Gift of Beauty
We’ve all been there: rushing around just before the holidays, trying to figure out what to gift friends and family members while the general holiday swirl has your hands tied up at social gatherings and in traffic jams. Give your clients the option to purchase your amazing services as holiday gifts for their loved ones.
Through SolaGenius your clients can purchase gift cards from you online - any time, anywhere! Let clients know that they can easily purchase a gift card directly from your SolaGenius booking page or from your unique booking link.
For clients who love what you have to offer, gift cards from your salon will be an incredible option to share the love. This brilliant move relieves their stress of what to gift and provides an opportunity to expand your client base. One nail appointment with your favorite client’s BFF or a hair blowout with one of your top client’s moms may turn into a loyal monthly client. This is like a holiday promo/referral program two-for-one!
Honor Yourself
Whatever you decide to do or not do, the best thing you can always do is be good to you! The holidays can be a stressful time of year for anybody, especially busy beauty professionals. Practice self-care and boundaries while striving toward your end-of-year goals to maintain balance and serenity - because it’s your holiday season too!
(Photo by Maddi Bazzocco on Unsplash)
Happy Holidays, Sola Fam! We hope that the holiday spirit brings you joy and abundance.
