Sell-A-Brate This Holiday Season

You know that feeling…the one you get when you walk into Walgreens the day after Halloween: All of the costumes are picked over, the candy is on sale, and the other half of the “Seasonal Aisle” is already filled with red and green. Every year, it seems like the holidays start one day earlier. The next thing you know, all of your local retailers will have Christmas trees in the windows, holiday music crooning through the speakers and if you’re lucky, hot cider and festive cookies served on your way in.

For many salon owners, the end of the year is one of the busiest times. It’s not just the time of year that you’re guaranteed to see majority of your clientele who want to be beautified for family reunions, high school reunions and unannounced grocery store reunions with old flames. It’s the time of year when people are shop, shop, SHOPPING to fill their stockings, pile up gifts under the tree and make people smile on all eight days of Hanukkah.

Every small business is gearing up to capitalize on holiday merriment, so don’t let the holiday bustle get the best of you. Invite your guests and loved ones to sell-a-brate the holidays with you in your salon studio! ‘Tis the season of spreading cheer that will keep your guests coming back for more in 2019….

Get in the Holiday Spirit

From festive decorations to a signature holiday scent, turn your studio a winter wonderland. In addition to the obvious décor, stock a cookie jar with holiday cookies and serve up a warm drink like hot cocoa or a hot toddy. The holidays are a total frenzy, so create a relaxing and festive environment for your guests to take a load off and enjoy a bit of downtime while you pamper them.

Don’t forget to add some eye-catching décor to your retail display, too! Draw attention to special product offerings like holiday gift sets and gift certificates, and don’t forget the stocking stuffers. Consider retailing items just during the holiday season that you may not typically carry year-round. There are so many people to shop for around the holidays, make it easy for your guests to check a few shopping stops off their to-do list.

Timing Is Everything

You might have a few minutes to spare today, but things are only going to get more hectic as we get closer to Thanksgiving. If there are certain days you want to focus your promotions around, make a simple calendar to remind yourself to get the word out.

You won’t want to focus on all of these in one holiday season, but you may want to pick one of two of the options below to build your calendar around. Here are a few promotional ideas to get your wheels turning:

General seasonal awareness marketing: Create a sense of urgency to get appointments booked! There’s no better time than now to send a simple reminder to book pre-holiday appointments. Send out a simple text blast or email reminder using SolaGenius and your clients will be scrambling to their calendars to make sure they get on yours! Last year, Sola’s Culture Ambassador Kimi sent out a text reminder to 110 of her guests right around the first week of November, and she booked over $1700 of business in just a couple of hours! Here’s a pre-written text just to make things easy for you: Holidays are around the corner and I want to make sure you look and feel your best! Book soon, my schedule is filling up fast: kimbennettstudios.glossgenius.com.

Thanksgiving: ‘Tis the season of giving, and leading up to Thanksgiving is the perfect time to invite your guests to give back alongside your salon. Host a clothing or canned food drive and reward your guests for contributing with 10% off retail. You’ll not only give them the joyful experience of giving, but you’ll also give them an opportunity to try a product they soon won’t be able to live without. And don’t forget on Thanksgiving (or the evening before) to send your clients a note of gratitude and post an image on social media. Tell them how thankful you are for their business.

Black Friday: Invite your guests to stop by on Black Friday to shop ‘til they drop! Create a fishbowl filled with awesome retail discounts and prizes written on folded pieces of paper. Invite shoppers to choose from the fishbowl to win anywhere from 10-50% off retail, add-on services for their next appointment, free travel size samples and more. It’s the perfect day for your guests to stock up on holiday gifts in a no-stress environment like your serene salon studio.

Small Business Saturday: Remind your guests that when they are supporting a small business, they are supporting a dream. Customers often forget that in addition to making them beautiful, as a small business owner, you are contributing to their community in such a deeply impactful way. Invite them to stop by for a glass of hot cocoa and a sweet treat and host fun demos throughout the “party.” Perhaps offer some awesome shopping opportunities and for each $5 spent, you can enter their name into a drawing to win a grand prize like a giant gift basket or a free deep conditioning treatment.

Cyber Monday: Blast off an email or text blast to remind your guests to take advantage of your greatest cyber offering: 24/7 ONLINE BOOKING. With a special offer like 25% off retail or an extra 15-minute consultation or education session, you may see the holes in your schedule fill up quickly. And if you offer eCommerce for your retail, this is the biggest day of online shopping so make sure to include a link to your site!

Help Them Plan Their 2019 Beauty Calendar: It’s not too early to start thinking about 2019! You’ll be seeing majority of your guests during this holiday season. Don’t miss the chance to ask them what big events they have in 2019 and work backwards to help schedule all their appointments. It’ll take the work off their plate and guarantee you the pre-book! Reward your guests as they check out to book an appointment by December 31 for the New Year to receive awesome prizes like product discounts or a deep conditioning treatment.

Tactics, Tactics, Tactics

Now that you’ve got a few ideas on your calendar, let’s talk about a few ways you can get the word out on your promotions.

Text Marketing:

In a world of constant promotions being served up to us all day, did you know that 97% of all text messages are read? In less than 3 minutes, you can get a text blast out to all of your guests, or maybe only a select few. GlossUp is SolaGenius’s text message marketing feature. Send personalized, individual text messages to ALL of your clients in a few simple taps and guarantee that your message is seen!

Email Marketing:

While the open rate might be a little bit lower than your average text message campaign, an email message can have more content and contain beautiful images as well. You don’t need to be a graphic designer or copywriting expert to create a newsletter using SolaGenius. Make sure to communicate all of your awesome holiday offerings to your clients while reminding them to schedule their next appointment. Don’t forget to include a warm and fuzzy note of gratitude…it’s that warm and fuzzy time of year.

Social Media:

In addition to your obvious holiday promo messages, make sure to simply post pictures of your holiday décor, sweet treats, and your best before and after shots of the season. Your guests will love to follow along in real time in your Instagram stories to see what you’ve got going on this season. Keep an eye out for Sola branded graphics for easy to share content!

Snail Mail:

We’re living in a digital world, which makes people that much more excited about a visit from the good old-fashioned postman (or post-woman!). Consider sending a holiday card with love from your salon studio – include a picture of you in your fully decorated space. You may reach some guests who haven’t seen your studio yet and for those guests who put their holiday cards on display, you may even reach some of their friends and family!

In-Salon Marketing:

As we mentioned above, the experience you provide in your salon is EVERYTHING around the holidays. Make sure your guests have visibility to all of the special product offerings, gift certificates and special services you are offering during the holiday season. And for pre-booking their first appointment in 2019, send them home with a special gift of your favorite travel size products.

Community:

Your guests are going to need to have multiple beauty services done leading up to the holidays, so share the love with your Sola family! Create a partnership with the nail tech down the hall or the esthetician across the way to offer seasonal packages or even gift offerings­. Community is such an awesome benefit to owning your business inside Sola Salon Studios. Imagine the possibilities with a little bit of cross promotion!

Be Everywhere and Be Consistent

As always in marketing, multiple touch points are KEY. If you’re selling special holiday retail items, consider posting an image on social media and then follow it up with a text blast just in case your clients aren’t online that day. When they arrive at your studio, make sure to have shelf talkers and signage on your mirrors reminding them about your promotions. It’s all about consistency – with multiple reminders, it’ll be hard for your guests to pass up your awesome holiday offers!