As a salon owner, you want to make your salon a place of tranquillity and where your clients can de-stress, be pampered and relax just as they would when they’re on vacation. As we approach Mother’s day there are many different services that your salon can provide, many of which are ideal for use in your salon marketing for mothers day.
Whether it’s getting a manicure, pedicure, waxing, haircut or blowout; there are plenty of options available for you to use in your salon marketing for mothers day to help grow your beauty business on one of the most important days of the year for sales.
But if you are a salon owner who wants to change things up a little, how do you package your mothers day offers to help you differentiate your salon, but will still appeal a mother. What can you do differently to everyone else and to stand out?
In this article, we look at how you can market your salon to mothers on Mother’s Day but with a little twist to shake things up.
What Most Beauty Business Do
One of the more common ways to use your salon marketing for mothers day is by having a special offer or discount. This could be something like a free manicure with the purchase of a pedicure, or 10% off any service. You could also offer gift cards and packages as Mother’s Day gifts.
But while they are good suggestions, they are all things that any salon can do without much imagination, what we want to do is look at something which can differentiate your beauty salon and will get noticed this mothers day.
let’s take a look
Avoid the biggest mistake most salon owners make.
A lot of business owners think their promotions don’t work because they make too many assumptions and don’t plan well enough in advance as well as using cookie-cutter types of promotions that every other salon uses.
As a result, most owners will revert to the lowest common denominator as the trigger they think will get people through the door, which is price. Discounted offers have their place for sure, but as part of a larger promotional strategy, but not as an arbitrary of the cuff decision that is taken on a whim for a poorly thought out promotion and without a business decision backing it.
This is a bad way to run your beauty business and only serves to reduce your margins to the point that the price reduction cancels out any benefit you may have from the additional business you get. As an entrepreneur, you have to look at different ways to approach it and have a strategic plan.
If you look at a lot of other beauty brands you’ll find that they all fail on the same thing which is targeting, they make the mistake of targeting the actual person who will receive the gift rather than the person that will buy it, though in most cases the concept of targeting is not even considered at all and the business owner will just reverts to type and do the same as they have always done, regardless of whether its worked or not.
Think about your own actions, if you’re a mother, you won’t buy a mother’s day gift for yourself, but you will buy a gift for your mother. I know it sounds obvious, but it amazes me that most salon marketing for mother’s day actually doesn’t take this into consideration.
If you think a little deeper about how you are going to promote this type of offer and think about who to target, you will find that, not only will you get a better return, but it’s likely you will find more new customers because of it.
I am not saying to ditch discounted offers completely, just yet, but instead, I urge you to start thinking a little more outside the box and don’t be afraid to experiment.
Get in touch with local newspapers and magazines
If you want to make a splash and you want to advertise something different this mothers day you can always try contacting your local newspapers or magazines. You can offer to do a story about how wonderful mother’s day is and why mothers are so important, and you can even offer to give out gift certificates or special packages as prizes and make a buzz in your community.
This is a great way to use salon promotions for mothers day and by getting it out to a wider audience, The key thing to this approach is to have an angle of some sort that will appeal to the journalist. If you have a twist with a public interest angle, they are more likely to use it as a story.
Ideas for this is if you’re doing something which aligns with a charity fundraiser or perhaps you have a personal story of one of your customers overcoming a personal challenge which has a link to mother’s day, or perhaps a good new story that will resonate with the readers of the publication.
On the flip side, if it’s just a blatant attempt at self-promotion they will see right through you and will disregard the story and it won’t be featured and may try to get you to run an ad in the paper instead.
The reason this works is that journalists and editors are under pressure to fill their pages, so if you can give them something on a plate for very little effort on their part, it makes it a no brainer for them in many instances. For that reason, you have to make sure you have your pitch right and have any assets in place ready to go, don’t just make it up off the hoof and expect them to be grateful, many journalists are very experienced and they have seen most things, so don’t waste their time if you haven’t got a great idea.
Create Mother’s Day packages
Another great way to use mother’s day to appeal to more people is to create special mother’s day packages, one of the most obvious is to have a mother and daughter package at a special price, this type of promotion always goes down well with people as it’s a way to encourage someone to visit your salon with someone they know rather than having to visit alone, which sometimes puts people off.
On the other hand, you can also be more creative and come up with unique ideas, like a package that includes a mani/pedi, a massage and a facial. This will appeal to more people as it offers something different and also potentially introduces treatments they may never have had and could rebook if they enjoyed it.
One of the keys with this type of promotion if you’re a salon owner is to make it profitable, to do this, the key is to build the package using one treatment which is one of your best sellers, but maybe a lower margin treatment and then add on a few treatments which have a higher margin, but not as popular, so you’re able to balance out your margins while still giving good value to the customer.
Offer Free Consultations To Mothers For Mother’s Day
If as part of your normal operation you provide initial consultations as an introductory offer, you can do the same, but this time only for mothers. This is a great way to get mothers in the door and to also find out what services they are interested in, from there you can then tailor your Mother’s Day packages around the services that mothers are most likely to be interested in and perhaps get their contact details so you can nurture them with marketing campaigns specifically tailored to them so they will be encouraged to return at a later date.
provide mother’s day workshops on your popular Treatments
Workshops are a great way to show off your skills as a stylist or beautician and great for a promotional event. Using workshops as a different angle might be a great way to get mothers in the door, especially if it’s billed as a social event, if they are new to your business, they might be a bit apprehensive about going to a salon and getting treatments for the first time, more especially if they don’t come to your salon normally.
Workshops are also a great way to show off your skills as a stylist or beautician and they can be really fun for both the participants and the people running them. If you’re thinking of running them remember that you’ll need to be strategic too so as the owner you need to provide your technicians with instructions or guidance about what you want them to do and align that with your business goals, such as collecting information such as email addresses or to book a follow on appointment etc.
This could also be a great way to get referrals which are a wonderful way to get new customers. You should, however, be aware that as a business you must consider how to expand your client base by finding new consumers, and if you can attract additional people in through a promotion like a mothers day workshop at a discount, you should look for methods to convert them into brand-new customers.
Gift top samples as a goodybag On The Day
Whether you do this as a one-off promotion or as part of a mothers day promotional package, you can often work with your supplier reps to see what they can provide samples for you to give away.
This could be in the form of a goody bag that all mothers receive when they book or visit on the day of the promotion.
This type of promotion works on so many levels but is often overlooked. As the salon owner, you don’t have to spend too much money on promotional items, so it costs less, for the suppliers its great as they normally have loads of samples they are only too happy to give away and it’s going into the hands of a new audience. and finally the person who receives the goody bag is going to like it, because, well…. who doesn’t like free stuff!
Have offers on all of your services and products
This might seem like a little overkill and a recipe to lose lots of profit, but not necessarily. if you’re clever with it you can instead use it as a way to clear out any old stock that you might have, and doing so at the same time as Mother’s Day is a great way to get people in the door.
often when we think about sales we focus on big-ticket items, but by having a sale across your entire product range you can attract mothers who are looking for affordable items that they can buy for other family members which will then get them back into your salon if you focus on including some treatments.
New Mum or Mothers to be
Don’t forget to help this section of your audience to celebrate, it’s likey to that if they are mothers-to-be or new mums you may want to include them too.
But, how do you find them if they are not already visiting your salon? Facebook is at hand to help you in this quest. You can run some ads in your local area where you can target these cohorts and offer a special package based around mothers day, this is an imaginative way to get new clients into your salon from mothers who probably feel they could do with being pampered for a few hours.
Targeting new mums could be a lucrative angle for your salon as it’s a gift that a thoughtful partner might be looking to buy which can mark a new experience in a mother’s life and how she might appreciate a beauty or hair treatment which could be a relaxing experience amidst the stress she might be experiencing in her new role as a parent.
Partner with another local business
This is a great way to achieve greater reach in your local market with another business that shares your audience but is not a direct competitor. An example of this would be a restaurant or a florist or maybe a fashion store.
The idea here is that you work out some sort of cross-promotion deal with them, where each business offers the other’s customers a discount or a free gift when they spend a certain amount of money.
This type of promotion is mutually beneficial as it helps to drive more foot traffic to both businesses and can create a sense of community amongst local businesses.
Target Partners, Husbands and Sons.
Men often struggle to do something imaginative when it comes to mothers day and are notorious for leaving things to the last minute, so why not target them with social media ads and give them some inspiration with a few ideas.
As an idea, you could run ads that appeal to their sense of humour and show your brand’s personality with a tongue in cheek type of ad, you could say something like, “what if the garage runs out of forecourt flowers this mother’s day?” “looking for the perfect mothers day gift? This is what your mum would choose…”
I am sure you get the idea, but get your creative juices flowing with a couple of ideas and run the ads side by side with a small test budget and see which is the winner.
In Conclusion
If you’re looking to do something different this year for mothers day in your salon marketing there are lots of ideas you can use to shake things up and to be different to what everyone else is doing. All you need to do is give it a little thought and maybe talk to your staff to get their input if that is an option.
If you’re a salon owner, Mother’s Day is a great opportunity to do something different and creative. It doesn’t have to be expensive or complicated – just think outside the box!
I hope that some of the ideas above have given you some inspiration so you can take them and put your own spin on them or generated your own ideas for how to stand out on this special day.
FAQ’s
How do I advertise my salon?
There are many different ways to advertise your salon, but one of the best methods is to use direct mail. You can send postcards, letters, or even e-mails to potential customers, and this is a great way to reach out to them directly.
Another great way to advertise your salon is by using social media. You can create ads that target potential customers on platforms such as Facebook and Instagram. This is a great way to reach a large number of people quickly and easily.
Is mother’s day a marketing strategy
No, Mother’s Day is not a marketing strategy.
However, it may be used as an advertising opportunity to drive qualified foot traffic and sales. If you are looking for ways to market your salon on Mother’s Day I suggest using the below resources and the ideas that have been given in this article.
– Social media, specifically Facebook Ads or Instagram Ads; – Direct mail
How do I write a marketing plan for a salon?
Here’s 6 easy steps to make a salon marketing plan for 2022.
1. Define your target market
2. Research your competition
3. Determine your unique selling proposition
4. Create a budget
5. Plan your marketing activities
6. Measure and analyse results