5 Autumn Promotions That Actually Work in Salons

Most salon promotions are just a discount, maybe with a poster, which is why they fill your columns with people who will only ever come back when there's another promo. Today, five autumn promotion ideas, and more useful than that, what makes a promotion work at all? Hello, hello, hello my salon friends, Phil Jackson here, your queen of salons, coming all over the internet, with another dose of my Wise Owl Wisdom. How on earth are you? Achingly well, I hope. Halfway through September, how's it been for you? How's business? Few little patchy results in my group coaching, but we had a very strong August, which I wasn't really expecting. So, you know, maybe that's okay. Generally, I think people are on track for the quarter, but it doesn't mean that we can rest on our laurels, my darlings. It means that we need to make sure that Q4 is going to be an absolute corker. So today, I want to talk about autumn marketing. But before we get stuck in to a few little promotional ideas, and I'm going to keep it very light. I want to talk about how we make a promotion work, how we put it together. What is it that we're actually trying to achieve? And basically, what we're balancing is two things, and they're almost kind of two tracks that run side by side. They're in parallel. And then the promotion is what crosses them over. Let me explain. Get precise in your language, Uncle Phil. Stop waffling. Cut to the chorus. Don't bore us. So the first thing that's going on is what the salon needs. And this comes from your targets, your goals. So you will have set a goal. Let's say for Q4, you'll have set a goal on what you want to achieve profit wise. And that will tell you how much turnover you're going to need. And then what I've always encouraged you to do is map out what's going to happen if you do nothing against what the salon absolutely needs. And then there's going to be a gap. And that gap is what we want our marketing to fill. OK, so we're starting with the gap in pounds or euros or dollars on what it is that we need to achieve over and above what's going to happen automatically. The second thing that's going on in parallel to that is what's going on with your clients. And the easiest, simplest, most effective marketing is when we tap into the conversation that's going on in the client's head. So, for example, and the example I always give and I don't want to talk about Christmas too much. We're talking about autumn, but I'm going to mention it. If you try and do a promotion at Christmas time that isn't a Christmas promo, you're going to have to shout really, really loudly to get that promotion any kind of traction or attention at all. Because the conversation in the client's head is so Christmas themed that the only way we can tap into their psyche at all is if we hook it on what's going on in their lives. So that's why these promotions and they feel a bit trite and they feel a little bit done to death, but that's why they work is because that's the biggest conversation that's going on in the client's head. And then what we're doing when we're putting a promotion together is taking what the salon needs and what's going on in the client's head and tying them together. So what we don't do is get to October and say, do you know, I'd really like to do a massage promo. That's not going to work. What will work, though, is if we say, right, we've got a gap of £3,000 for October. We know that what's going on with my clientele is going to be half term. They're going to be thinking about what's going on with childcare. They're going to be halfway through the term. What's going on in the client's head? How can we bring those two things together and build a promotion? So we don't decide what's going to be in the promo. We figure out what's going to be best for the client and a massage promo might not be what's best for the client. If your client is a mum and they're struggling with childcare, well, coming in for a two hour massage session and a pampering session probably isn't going to work across half term. So we've got to find something that's going to work for them that will yield you much better results. So that's about understanding what's going on with your client. That means you've got to have a deep understanding of what we call your client avatar. If you want an episode on client avatar, reach out and let me know, Phil, at buildyoursalon.com. And I will put one on the schedule. I'll slate it for later in the year. Anyway, I promised you five ideas. These are going to be light touch because I don't know your client avatar. But if we can just get you thinking about promos in a slightly different way, then I've done my job and I deserve that pay rise that's on the cards for October. Very excited. So what are my five ideas? Well, the first one is to take a course of treatments, but we're going to do it in a slightly different way. So instead of saying maybe buy three facials and get a discount. Remember, we only want a discount in exchange for something. And usually when we're looking at courses, it's in exchange for cash flow. So we're saying pay for these facials up front and you can get a slight discount. But what about if we flip that a little bit and said buy three facials, but they have to be used by the end of November. So it could be a course of three facials, three weeks apart. What could you achieve for a client who was coming in three times for three facials, three weeks apart? Suddenly we've gone from a generic course, which they might well, you know, choose one facial in October, one in December and one in March. Suddenly it's going to be done and dusted by the end of November. And it's getting you thinking about the kinds of results that you might be able to get for that client. So it doesn't necessarily even have to be a discount. It could just be an upgrade or the transformation that you're selling. And the benefit is in the cadence and the quality of the treatments rather than offering a discount. So suddenly we've got a course. But by putting that deadline on it, we're building it in a slightly different way, getting a different result for the client. And that gives it a different marketing flavor. As far as the marketing message goes this time of year, we've already talked about getting back on track as an idea. We talked about that a few episodes ago. At the end of summer into autumn, skin in recovery, hair in recovery works really, really well this time of year. Or dare I say it? I mentioned Christmas twice in one episode. Oh my God, dare I say it? That we're getting party season ready. Perhaps it's about that. But think about what we could hook our promotion on as far as marketing message is concerned. And that's all these things are. All half term and Christmas and Black Friday. It's just a hook to put a promotion onto. It doesn't necessarily need to dictate what that promotion looks like. Next up, while we're talking about not discounting, what about looking at some kind of upgrade? Upgrades I love because they cost you a fraction of what the equivalent discount would be. And it doesn't teach anyone to wait for another discount. I love an upgrade promotion. And it also lets people try a more expensive thing that they might ordinarily buy. And that's how we move them up the menu permanently once they start falling in love with these things. And it can work at any time. So we need a great autumn hook. And we're going to go back to what's going on with the client. So we're going to answer problems that your clients actually have right now. What could we do upgrade wise that helps combat hair and skin drying out because we've got the central heating on? What could we do upgrade wise that helps colors look more vibrant because gray skies make colors look flat? Or maybe we've got itchy scalp because we're starting to wear hats again. So we're looking for those hooks to put an upgrade on. We're looking at what's going on with the client. They decide what the promo is. We don't decide at the beginning what that promotion is going to be about. So we're offering more instead of charging less. And that means that we're solving a real problem for our customers rather than just inventing reasons to spend. Next up, our lost client promo. Every quarter, I think we should be looking at a lost client promo, if not every month. Summer is when regulars fall out of cycle. And we talked about this a couple of episodes ago. They don't necessarily mean to, but going through holidays with kids off school, routines are all out of whack. Perhaps they're working more hours because they're covering other people's holiday. September, October is the moment to catch them because life is resetting. We're getting them back to school, back to work, back to routines. And then we can tap into that notion. We can tap into that drive to get something a little bit more settled going on in their lives. So it's about giving it an autumn flavor. We need an excuse to contact people who have dropped off the radar. So how about putting together an autumn collection? And we used to do this a couple of times a year in my salon. I'm going to give you a hair flavor, but it translates to beauty really well. So we used to have a team meeting twice a year and put our collections together. So our autumn winter collection. What would that look like? And we would go through the color chart and select colors that we thought were on trend that we'd like to communicate with our clients about. So it gave us an excuse to send a whole batch of emails. And we would start with stuff that we'd seen in the press, start with celebrity photos on where we'd seen these trends. And then as the season wore on, we could start showing examples of our own work that were tapping into those trends as well. Got the team thinking really creatively, got us looking at what's going on into the greater, wider world of our industry, but also into the fashion industry as well. What colors were the designers coming up with? How could we make what was working with hair work alongside what was working with fashion? And you can translate this into beauty as well. The obvious example is around nails. What nail collection could you put together? And we used to discontinue certain colors as well so that our color chart wasn't a stagnant, static thing like it is in most salons. It was fluid and it was tapping in and it was moving clients on with different ideas. We could take your autumn collection and use that as a reason to invite people back into the salon so they're not getting embarrassed about falling off your radar. What we're saying instead is now's a great time to come back into the salon and try out something with an autumn flavor. Next up, I want to talk about retail. Sometimes we want to maximize profits or we can see a shortfall in takings, but we don't have any capacity. Perhaps you've got a team that's on holiday or maybe you're just fully booked and you forgot that you got your VAT bill in October. That's when we need to look at one of two things. Either we can look at vouchers, which is a great way of getting cash into the business, but be careful there because at some stage people are going to redeem those vouchers. And that does mean sometimes that we end up with lots of capacity and not much in terms of profit again, which we don't want. So sometimes vouchers are just putting that problem off to a later time. The other thing we can look at is retail because retail is not tied to column space. And this time of year, perfect time for our retail offers. We can start looking at things like cozy at home, trying to find something that isn't replacing a salon visit, but absolutely enhancing it. Or maybe it's OK to replace a salon visit. Bear with me. Perhaps it's OK to replace a salon visit. If we're marketing your at home stuff to people who are not your salon customers. Oh, there's an exciting idea, Uncle Phil. How would that work? Well, if we're not marketing to our salon customers, perhaps we're marketing to the bigger, let's say, UK or even international markets. I've seen people selling a facial in a box with a walkthrough video or sometimes even a live Zoom call where a whole bunch of people are doing their facials together. And they're not selling that to their existing salon customers. They're posting those boxes all over the country. So suddenly we're not tying your column space to the amount of profit you're making can be hugely profitable. Have a think about it. It's going to take some putting together, though, if you're moving beyond your clientele. So don't do it last minute. And then the final thing I want to talk about is referrals. Recommend a Friend season is done for me. That's something we do over the summer. And it's our promotion where people can refer lots and lots of people. So how about instead of recommend a friend in autumn, we turn it into bring a friend. They could bring a friend for free. They could bring a friend for a fiver. We could put a bundle together a bit like we do a couple's massage. We could do that for mates as well, couldn't we? It's a really nice way of filling column space, hopefully getting a new regular through the doors for you as well. And it brings a bit of social into the space as well. It turns it into a salon moment rather than a salon service. And moments are what sells. Moments are what builds loyalty. Moments are what keep people coming back again and again and again. Think about the experience of it. How are you going to make it different than just sitting next to someone else who's getting their hair done? Maybe there's a space in the salon that we can give over to our friends. So them and a friend can come and take a corner of the salon to themselves. Maybe it's even an exclusive time slot where there's nobody else in the salon. They get the whole salon to themselves. Maybe they even get to choose the music then. Or perhaps it's just about making sure they're close enough that they can have a conversation while they're getting their service done. And giving them an Instagrammable moment, an Instagrammable tray with hot chocolates and cookies, maybe even a little take-home gift as well could be really cute. You're not going to get huge numbers taking you up on this. But for those who do take you up on it, it could be a really, really special moment. Now, the one thing I will sprinkle over the top of this is coming up with a whole year of promotions is gruelling. Don't be afraid to reuse promotions. Blow the dust off. Figure out what's worked in the past, which means we need a debrief process. And we'll talk about that in just a second. But if you can look at last year and say, well, that promo worked really well and that one did as well. And that one would with a little bit of tweaking. Well, suddenly we're not looking at coming up with 12 months of promos, perhaps three or four months of that is taken care of already. And we used to do this a lot, particularly after Christmas. There I am mentioning Christmas again. So after Christmas, we would have a team meeting. What worked? What didn't? The opening hours, the cover that we had on certain days, opening between Christmas and New Year, the retail offerings that we have. What worked? What didn't? And then I would write that up as a short document on one side of A4 because you forget really, really quickly. They're the lessons for next year. So that debrief process, basically what I want you to do before you start a promo is figure out what success would look like. So let's say it's a retail promo. How many retail items would have to sell for you to say, yes, tick in a box, that did its job. And maybe, I don't know, 100 items. And then I would set two other numbers. So I would set a triumph goal. So let's say 120. So target is to sell 100 of these packs. If we sell 120, that would be superb and absolutely something to celebrate. And I might bring in a little incentive for the team if we hit that number. And also, I would put a lower number into play, which is where a promotion shows promise, but we didn't quite get there. So maybe we've got three numbers at 80, 100 and 120. 100 is the target. 120 is the triumph. If we sell 80, it didn't quite get to target, but it showed enough promise that we would think about running that promotion again. Below 80, it was a failure. We're not going to do it. And then suddenly we've got a library of promotions that have at least shown promise that we can tap into when we're putting our promotions together for 2027. So there we have it. What have I missed? What are you up to? If you'd like some help putting your marketing plan together, that's one of the things that I promise you in my one-to-one clarity. Head over to buildyoursalon.com. We put together a 12-month pricing strategy for you, a 12-month marketing plan, and a three-year business plan all across 90 days. I'd love to be signing you up, helping you make 2027 the best year it can possibly be. Or perhaps you'd just like to reach out with some feedback. Let me know what's going on in your salon. My email address scrolling at the bottom of the screen right now, phil at buildyoursalon.com. I think that's going to be changing soon. I'm going to have to retrain myself to say something else. But I'd love to hear from you anyway. Also love to be interviewing you on a future episode of the Build Your Salon podcast. My guest roster is very empty right now. I'd love to be interviewing you about your success journey. I want proper salon owners on these podcasts as well. Just a few short days until I'm coming all over the internet again with another dose of my wise owl wisdom. And until then, take care.