Holiday Q&A: The best Black Friday, Christmas, New Years salon ads and promo advice you'll get this year
It’s your first or second year in business at your salon or studio.
You’re starting to get a fun bunch of regular clients, but you know that the holiday season is your chance to really step things up and get a whole new bunch of people buzzing with holiday cheer and anticipation in your chair or on your table.
But how do you reach these new clients? How do you get their attention above all the noisy holiday promos of other beauty businesses in your area?
And once you get their attention…what do you say to get their booking?
Whether you’re a hairstylist, barber, nail artist, esthetician, waxer or spray tanner, you know that now is the time to get as many bookings as possible for all the parties ahead during the holidays.
During one of our recent weekly coaching calls in The Ad Lab, my students were on fire with questions about how to get consistent bookings over the holidays and into the New Year.
The Ad Lab’s Beauty Business Coach Leah Nichols Florez provided incredible insight and tips from her own experience as a salon owner and esthetician. I gathered the most frequently asked questions and Leah's answers from that coaching call for you to pore through.
Leah has been working as an esthetician since 2008, and over the past 16 years she has gone from beauty sales, to the treatment room, to becoming the proud owner and operator of Maverick Esthetics - a thriving spa serving the good people of Lexington, South Carolina.
Leah has seen it all in the beauty industry. Her wealth of experience and genuine care for the health and wellbeing of her clients and fellow beauty experts is why I HAD to bring her on as Beauty Business Coach inside The Ad Lab.
If you’re anxious to nail those holiday bookings and create loyal clientele who will keep you buzzing with bookings into the quiet months of the New Year, Leah's advice will guide and comfort you that you can do this!
And if you have more burning questions about how to get your books filled before the holidays, check out my FREE CLASS right now: How to Build a Full Appointment Book Using Facebook and Instagram Ads.
You can find Leah on Instagram @ Maverick Esthetics.
Q: When should I run my first ad promotion for Black Friday or Christmas?
LEAH: I've seen it done a few different ways.
I have personally worked at a very large spa in my state, and they had a sale day - the Thursday before Black Friday. They did 25% off everything.
So 25% off gift cards, 25% off retail, 25% off services that day.
We had people lined around the block. It was an annual thing.
The location that I worked at, the first year that I worked there (and this was 2008 - the beginning of the recession) did $150,000 that day, and that was one out of 10 locations. It was the flagship location.
We would have companies come in and buy $10,000 in gift cards to give to their employees for the holidays. Some people would budget all year long and put money away to buy a $5,000 gift card on sale day, and they would use that gift card for their services for all of the next year.
So you could do that. You could have a sale day or a sale week if you want to give people plenty of time - but scarcity goes down. You could [run an ad] for a few weeks, Black Friday to the week before Christmas.
Q: How should I promote gift cards in my ads before the holidays?
LEAH: If you've got some gift certificates printed, you could take some really nice photos of the gift certificate in front of or on a Christmas tree. If you've already got some Christmas decorations, you could do a little pre-Christmas photo shoot kind of thing.
You can also run an ad that's just swipeable photos, or a tour of your business and all the services that you provide, and an unboxing video of [your] gift certificate.
A week before you launch [your] gift card campaign, you do an ad that [says] “November 10th, we're launching a huge surprise that you're going to love. If you're looking for great gifts and great deals for the holiday season, mark your calendar!”
Q: How can I sell more retail products during the holiday season?
LEAH: Retail reversal.
What I have done before is [to] buy a specific amount of retail in one session, [and promote] “You get a complimentary microdermabrasion upgrade to your facial in January.”
[But you have to let clients know,] it is only good for January. It is only good for X service and they have to add it onto an existing service. So it's like [the client] is going to spend $200 on retail and I'm going to give [them] a service. Now that service, because it has to be added onto a facial, it's not going to cost me any extra time. I'm probably not going to do a double exfoliation where I microderm and then enzyme or peel or whatever. So I'll probably just use that as the exfoliation step. [To a client] it's a $50 value, but to me, it costs a cent for the filter.
You don't want to discount retail if at all possible because you have a very specific profit margin. I mean, you can [try] 10, 15%, but that's not enough to get people excited anymore. People want 50% off.
If you do a retail reversal, they're paying full price, but they're getting something else [for free].
You’ve got to make it measurable for them and make it make sense [for you].
Q: How can I get clients to come back to my salon after the holidays, during the slower months, without discounting services?
LEAH: There’s a very specific promotion that you can do - client buys a hundred dollars gift card, they get five $20 gift vouchers.
You have to make sure not to call it a gift card. Say a gift voucher.
Because a gift card, as you know, you can't put any stipulations on because they have paid for that. But a gift voucher is a promo or a bonus that you can put stipulations on: can only be used for services, not retail; has an expiration date, is non-transferable, not valid for cash, the whole deal. And you have to make sure you put those stipulations on there.
On the voucher you're going to stipulate, “$20 off one hundred dollars or more”. So they can't use the $20 voucher off a $25 brow wax because that's not beneficial to you.
It’s good to do a 3-month expiration date that covers you for January, February and March. There’s only 3 months to use them, so the client can either give them away or come back in for more services.
As Stephanie teaches in The Ad Lab, discounting your services just devalues your services. And personally, it makes me think that people are going to think my services aren't worth a hundred dollars. They're worth $50. Especially when you're first starting out, you don't want to attract the deal hunters. You don't want people to expect discounts because you've been giving them in the beginning and reeling in “discount people”.
So you want to attract people that are willing to pay the price you want. So if you want your $150 facial to be your most popular, then market that $150 facial. Don't market a $75 facial where you're attracting $75 clients.
Q: How do I interest holiday deal shoppers in my higher-priced services?
LEAH: Promote a 75-minute luxurious facial, name it something cute, and throw in those couple of bonuses, as Stephanie teaches in The Ad Lab.
I come up with super cute names like Golden Glitz Facial or Red Carpet Facial or something like that where I'm getting everybody in the party spirit. I run the promotion for November and December where it's all holiday, it's all glam, it's all “Become your best self, put your best face forward this holiday season.”
Stephanie coaches us to make a package that is specific to whatever you want it to be. You just pile it all into 75 or 90 minute treatments for the holidays.
But you can always have the quick option, too.
One of my clients is a public defender. She doesn't have time for nonsense. She needs in and out, but she wants results. So one time she said, “I need this facial to be 10 minutes shorter today. Can I have the $150 facial in 30 minutes?”
I said, “You sure can. I'd love to give you the $150 facial in 30 minutes. Are you kidding me?”
Market what you want to provide. Make it a 90 minute treatment if they want to be bougie or a 30 minute if they need to be in and out. I have a Basic Witch Facial right now that's 45 minutes. It's $99. I have a Bougie Witch Facial that's 75 minutes and it's $170.
I like to lead up to these promotions, letting people know they’re going to want to get something done in November and December to really be amped up and ready for the holidays.
I also promote illuminating hand treatments or chest treatments because people are going to be wearing things where their chests are going to be out. Hand and eye treatments are easy to add on to a package; anything that will really smooth and tighten.
And do Before and After pictures always!
Q: What’s a good place to get “stocking stuffer” retail for my salon over the holidays?
LEAH: With Faire, you can get terms. They have a 60-day net term where you have 60 days until they charge you for what you bought, which allows you to see if it's going to sell well. If it doesn't sell in those first 60 days they allow you to return it. Most companies will do that for you. I buy eye gels, lip masks, all that stuff from Faire.
They have so many brands that are eco-conscious and sustainable. You can search for “women-owned companies, Pacific Northwest”, and find what you want. You can align everything you order with your salon’s brand.
Be strategic about your retail. Think about your favorite stores, or think about really high-end luxury stores. They don't have a lot of stuff and it's very curated. You can still have a fair amount of stuff on your retail shelves if you want. Try and have some breathing room - like the fridge, it's got to be able to circulate.
You could have a little section where you just show off what's special for the month or what's special for the season and decorate that differently. You can just have a few different things on risers. You really want to merchandise it and draw people in.
The holidays are an amazing time to take your books from *boring* to BUZZING in just a few weeks. Need some help pushing yourself to get out there and grab the attention you deserve?
You can join The Ad Lab today and be part of a growing, bustling community of beautypreneurs just like you learning how to advertise their salons, suites, and home beauty businesses with Facebook and Instagram Ads.
Check out The Ad Lab now and hear about how other hairstylists, waxers, and estheticians are bringing in new clients all the time with a simple, proven formula for FB and Insta ads!
