Each time Halloween approaches, US salons experience a massive influx of customers with unique makeup requests. As a salon owner, you’ve probably prepared for this increased footfall by crafting enticing deals. But are you doing enough to promote them?
As it turns out, there’s a lot to gain from marketing holiday-specific promotions. Last year alone, customers spent over $12 billion on products and services during the season, making it America’s second-biggest holiday after Christmas.
So, how do you make the most of this staggering figure? In this blog, we’ll outline some crucial, doable strategies.
- Optimize Offers and Deals
Halloween is always one of the busiest times of the year for a salon. So, if you have too many available appointments, you may need to sweeten the deal.
An early-bird discount, for instance, is a great way to increase bookings on specific dates, while a bring-a-friend-along discount helps spread the word about your services.
Many salons also craft special Halloween packages such as offering discounted rates for vampire costumes, including hair, make-up, and nail services.
To make the most of these bundles, ensure your theme is in line with the latest trends. If you aren’t up to date on the latest in pop culture, don’t worry. Simply check out this Google Trends prediction which lists the most popular outfits for 2024.
- Distribute Flyers and Posters
Once your themes and promotions are made, promote them to local audiences through a targeted flyer campaign.
A well-placed poster is cost-effective to create, significantly increases bookings, and enhances the visibility of your brand to audiences who matter most.
To enjoy all these benefits, however, there are some considerations to take into account. For instance, a successful poster should always:
- Grab attention in a matter of seconds
- Clearly convey your promotional deals along with essential information like contact details, opening hours, and locations
- Be visually enticing
- Have a clear call to action such as, “Book Now!”
- Create tension with phrases like, “Limited slots left”
- Be distributed across various local areas of interest, including cinemas, coffee shops, and—if possible—directly at the doorsteps of homes
The better your design, the less likely your poster will end up in the trash. In fact, some of the more appealing posters stay on walls and in homes for years. Check out some of these salon flyer templates for examples of designs that work.
- Implement Local SEO Strategies
As you may be aware, search engine optimization refers to a set of practices that help your website, social media profiles, and business listings pop up when customers look for related services. The more optimized your offerings, the more likely you are to rank higher on search engines like Google.
To optimize a website advertising Halloween promotions, you could:
- Research and sprinkle relevant local keywords, such as “Halloween makeup deals near me,” or “best salons this Halloween” across your website.
- Consider creating a special landing page for your seasonal discounts and offers.
- Update meta titles and tags to include new, more relevant keywords.
Since almost all internet activity starts on Google, it’s worth implementing similar keywords into your Google business listings page. Beyond that, ensure all contact information, location, and store timings are up-to-date and consistent across listings.
- Content Marketing
Make-up and hairstyling are visual art forms that are incredibly successful across social media platforms. In fact, the most prominent make-up influencers on TikTok and Instagram command followings in the millions, if not tens of millions.
Before Halloween, it’s worth creating fresh content and building a loyal community of your own. You could, for example, use your salon to film makeup tutorials, design posters that recommend hair and nail products, or craft infographics that outline the benefits of visiting a professional over DIY makeup.
Many salons also offer makeup tips or highlight new trends in blogs, while others collaborate with influencers, or start YouTube channels to share their expertise.
- Email Campaigns
As a salon owner, you’ve probably collected hundreds if not thousands of emails over the years, leaving you with a massive subscriber list. This information is considered marketing gold as it enables you to implement several email campaign strategies.
Businesses can automate emails to welcome new customers or send personalized emails to request reviews once an appointment has been completed. But in the run-up to Halloween, the most effective tool for attracting customers is the humble newsletter.
A well-crafted newsletter updates your audience on upcoming deals and offers, generates excitement for the season, and reminds old customers that you exist. Here are some tips to craft better newsletters:
- Ensure your emails are personalized and address customers by name.
- Experiment with subject lines to find one with high clickthrough rates.
- Make it as visually appealing as possible.
- Never spam your customers.
- Include clear and concise CTAs.
- Provide value and only include information that a customer needs to hear.
Several online resources can help you along the way. One prominent example is PosterMyWall. On our website, you’ll find over a million customizable social media and email-ready templates that are guaranteed to boost a promotional campaign’s performance.
As you plan your grand window displays and craft Halloween-specific deals this year, don’t forget about these cost-effective ways to promote your salon.
