Holiday Marketing Ho Ho Ho



     The holidays are a time of tremendous opportuity in every salon business. Making your salon a one stop gift giving shop can have your business booming November through December. Clients are rushing around trying to pick out the perfect gifts for family, friends, relatives and co-workers. One sure fire way to get their attention is through targeted holiday marketing. One strategy? Create wish lists out of a simple word document. I will post example text at the end of this post. Offer them to each and every client that walks your doors these next few weeks. Offer to make their holiday shopping one stop, stress free by giving everyone on their list the gift of beauty. Have tabletalkers and posters strategically placed throughout the salon offering gift cards. Have reminders on your stations to make sure they have extra gift cards on hand for the unexpected guests that you don’t want to wind up leaving empty handed. Ramp up your retail efforts with special holiday items. Pre-Package $10 15 25 and 50 dollar grab and go gifts. Have them wrapped up in a beautiful basket or gift bag and keep them up front by the cash/reception area. These are impulse purchases, much like other area retailers. How may things have you bought that caught your eye when you were done shopping?

     Get creative with your holiday retail. Like Cream and Coffee gift sets that maybe have a few packets of Starbucks VIA ready brew and a hand cream. Or maybe cream and sugar with a hand cream and body sugar packaged with a nice fluffy from the dollar store. Or a holiday trimming gift set that has toenail clippers with a gift card for a pedicure. Or maybe a sugar and spice gift set with a body sugar and apple cider milingspice packets? Packaging a retail item like a foot cream with a pedicure is always nice so they have a little something extra top open up in addition to the gift card. Offer to make up Spaliday gift baskets with personalized content. Maybe they have a new daughter-in-law with a favorite scent. You can be a resource for all their holiday shopping so they can spend the rest of their free time getting services at your salon. Don’t forget gift cards. I always went big at the holidays. I didn’t bother discounting small gift cards,think about it, they sell themselves. Quit feeling guilty amd worrying about their money. I swear sometimes we worry about their money more than they do. Quit operating in scarcity mode and start operating in abundance mode. It makes all the difference. Think bigger like 500 gift cards that have 575 dollar value. Or a thousand dollar gift card that has a 1200 dollar value. The highest I sold was a 2000 dollar gift card with a 2500 dollar value. Think big and you will reap the benefits of a prosperous holiday season!

My Holiday Wish List

Let us take the stress out of Holiday shopping for your loved ones! Give us your name, Santa’s name, the best way to get in touch with Santa and what you want for this Holiday Season. Then leave the rest to us! We will contact your Secret Santa and let them know what you want, gift-wrap it and hand deliver it to them the week before Christmas. It’s a win/win for both of you. You get what you want and they know you’re going to like what you get.

Your Name _______________________________ Today’s date ________________Email___________________________

Cell # __________________________ Work # _______________________________Home # _________________________

My Secret Santa’s are: (list anyone here that is going to buy you a gift this season)

((The wish list wouldn't print in a second column and printed at the end. It should be right next to the Contact info. Print 2 or 3 contacts per sheet))

1. Santa’s Name_________________________________
Best place to contact Santa _____________________
Cell # _______________________________________
Work # ______________________________________
Home #______________________________________
Email _______________________________________
Santa’s relation to you, or message to Santa: _____
_____________________________________________


Wish List: ________________________________
_________________________________________
_________________________________________
_________________________________________
_________________________________________
_________________________________________
_________________________________________
_________________________________________

Grand Ideas

This week we have a special request for some marketing advice. Libera Stoner just opened her spa, Medi Pedi’s and Nails in The Villages Ocala Florida. She is an ER nurse with 22 + years experience and a nail tech trained as a Certified Master Pedicurist looking for grand opening ideas to draw a crowd. Well Libera. You said your spa has a Roman theme so I suggest a Toga Party theme. I googled Toga Party recipes’ and allrecipies.com suggest a wine inspired punch with toga friendly fare that isn’t too drippy to turn your togas into giant napkins. Try

Bacon and Date Appetizer
Coconut Shrimp I
Garden Veggie Pizza Squares
Cocktail Meatballs I
Chicken and Sun-Dried Tomato Bruschetta
Marinated Grilled Shrimp
Make sure the presentation is lush as well, Gold and silver colored platters will give you that plush look you are shooting for. Music should be light and instrumental or go all out and hire a harpist. Next you’ll need to drum up a crowd. Check out other area businesses that would like to be included in your Grand opening festivities. Their databases could quickly add up to a crowd in a hurry. Visit as many area businesses as you can with business cards, menus and an invite to participate in your grand opening. I did this for a grand opening and many companies donated gift certificates to their business that I gave out as door prizes all night. I sold chances at $5.00 per ticket and chose a charity that would receive these donations from the event. Contact your local chapter of that charity and they can send out a newsletter to their database about your event. The Arthritis foundation is a good one considering many people with foot pain never realize it is arthritis, they just assume it is from years of the wrong shoe choice. Make up flyers and post anywhere and everywhere they will let you. You can have a costume contest and even a Roman mythology quiz awarding winners gift cards to your salon. Create an event on Yelp, Facebook and Twitter and get the social marketing muscle flexing on your behalf. Have menus ready and maybe tied like ancient scrolls to go along with the theme. Last but not least out together a few of your own specials including the grand prize of free foot care for a year. Sounds extravagant but in reality is only 8-10 pedicures depending on how often you book them, I recommend every 6-8 weeks. Tie in with some local podiatrists and/or foot clinics and leave invites as well as menus and business cards. See if you can talk one of the podiatrists into speaking for a few minutes on Foot health during the event. Last but not least make sure to write a press release and send out to your local press including an invite to your event.
I also wanted to mention that I am holding a webinar next Monday at 3pm eastern standard time November 21st on Holiday Marketing. It is free to listen, and only ten dollars to download and listen at a later time. Make sure to join me for a ton of holiday cheer.