The festive season is upon us and while clients might not be getting ready for office parties and events, they’re still heading to salons and treatment rooms for their long-awaited hair & beauty appointments.
We know that January is usually a quieter month for hair, beauty and wellness, and although the new year might be the last thing on your mind during silly season, it’s worth planning ahead. There are some simple things you can do now, to help fill those January columns.
Get big on social
If you’re spending time creating epic content for your business’s Instagram, make sure you encourage your clients — new and loyal — to follow along. That way, when you break up for the festive season, you have another way to stay top of mind and keep them engaged.
There are simple things you can do to get your Instagram out there. Firstly, make sure you and your team are regularly telling clients about it. It could be a cheeky plug at the end of an appointment, or you might ask a client to ‘OK’ a picture for your feed. Get their advice — which photo should you upload?
Consider putting up printed cards or posters in the salon, with details on which Instagram account to follow and tag. Now more than ever, people are eager to support their local businesses by shouting about them on social media, so make the most of it.
Lastly, make sure you’re bookable on your Instagram and Facebook, so it’s even easier for your followers to book in another appointment for the new year.
Keep in touch over Christmas
Your clients will receive a lot of different brand communications throughout the festive season, so you need to cut through the noise.
Ensure your communication is smart and well-timed. In the void between Christmas and New Year, many people spend more time searching online for deals — and they need to be inspired on where to spend their Christmas cash. Why not make the most of this behaviour and send a limited-time treatment offer via email? This will incentivise clients to book ahead, so you can start filling up those columns for January.
Make sure your subject line is catchy and the email content is simple, concise and has a clear call-to-action to book. If you don’t know where to start with email marketing, Treatwell Connect does the heavy-lifting for you. With personalisable email templates and automated invites to rebook, you can keep in touch with your clients easily over the festive season. And it’s all GDPR compliant.
Reward client loyalty
Nothing builds trust like a recommendation. Your loyal clients are the perfect marketing tool to help grow your business’s reputation — both online and offline.
Using a busier period, such as December, to push an incentivised referral scheme is a great way to set you up with new clients for 2021. You could encourage loyal clients to refer their friends and reward them with either money-off their next appointment or a free product (should any of their friends book an appointment in January).
You might also use this period to prompt loyal clients to leave you online reviews. That way, you’re ready to start 2021 with plenty of recent and relevant stories from happy clients.
Plan a January sale
If you are planning to run a sale to help boost January bookings — you need to think about your discount strategy (and set yourself limits). The goal of a discount is to go high enough to incentivise your clients, but not to cause a loss for your business.
To find the magic number, go back over the profit margins for each of your treatments, and calculate a price point that works for you. It’s not a race to the bottom.
There’s also no need to apply one discount to every service you offer — different treatments have different values to your business. Look at your current bookings — if you’re seeing a steady flow of demand for a certain treatment but plenty of availability for another, it might make sense to focus on the one that’s less popular, to drive more clients there.
Finally, get smart about timing. You might want to protect your peak times and busiest periods. Clients get that — and they’re used to surge pricing across other industries. Try varying your sale hours to make sure you’re offering the highest discounts at the times you know you make the least money, to act as an incentive to fill those empty slots.