Salon Specials Ideas That Could Work For Your Salon in 2024

Trying to find good salon specials ideas? Zolmi Salon Software have put together some easy to implement ideas for you to put into your business.

One of the most important things is to make sure that the promotion in your salon delivers profit!

Running promotions should always be part of wider salon marketing strategies to drive acquisition, salon awareness and client retention.

If you are not careful and think about what you want your outcome to be you could be making a business mistake.

What You Will Learn in This Article

In this article, we've put together a list of great and effective salon special ideas that can lead your salon to success.

Quick Links To Our Salon And Spa Specials Ideas

  1. Salon Specials Ideas For Spring
  2. Salon Special Ideas For Summer
  3. Salon Special Ideas For Fall / Autumn
  4. Salon Special Ideas For Winter
  5. Conclusion

How To Run Successful Salon Specials Promotions

 

  1. Understand why you are doing salon specials in the first place
  2. Is it going to drive profit and not just revenue?
  3. Set a target! Is it profit, add-ons sold, certain number of new clients etc?
  4. Set your budget for print and online marketing
  5. Don't discount - add value (unless filling low appointment spots)
  6. Remember to put an end date on the promotion and state you can stop it at any time
  7. Promote something that clients actually wants to buy
  8. Work with your suppliers to take part in promotions
  9. Ensure you are promoting on social media channels & your website
  10. Try to develop promotions that will enable sharing on social media or word of mouth
  11. Segment your email database, do not promote promotion to all clients
  12. Always add that it cannot be used in conjunction with any other offer
  13. Don't offer new client discounts as it will loose loyalty from existing clients
  14. Make sure your promotion is legally compliant
  15. You should be able to track the promotion
  16. Review your promotion at the end and see if it hit your goals

When To Use Salon Promotional Ideas

 

salon specials ideas promotions
When To Use Salon Promotions
  • Fill Quiet Times
  • New Opening Of A Salon
  • Re-Opening After Refurbishment
  • Reward Clientele For Their Loyalty
  • Change Of Salon Ownership
  • New Hairstylist or Beauty Therapist Joins Salon
  • Launch Of New Products Or Services
  • Give Something Back To The Community

Check Out These All Year Round Salon Promotion Ideas For Your Salon

 

1. Happy Hour

Have a low appointment period, say in the afternoon prior to the afterwork rush? Start running your promotions from say 2pm through till 4pm or whatever suits you.

2. Birthday Appointment

Get your client to have their hair appointment on their birthday.

This can do two things, you can make them feel special on their birthday but the secret is to add their birthday to their client record for future marketing! Give them a free gift for their birthday.

3. Refer a Friend

The true champion amongst salon specials ideas is to get loyal clients to refer a friend.

Your loyal clients will be best your best advertisers, so make sure you look after your most loyal clients and give them something back to promoting your business.

It's a great way to offer a chance at a discount or a giveaway for your current clients. This idea will reward both their loyalty and will get new clients through the door of your salon.

4. Nurses Appreciation

Is your salon located near a hospital? Why not have a promotion to show you care for those people who care for others.

5. Random Acts of Kindness Month

You could promote that you randomly pick a client coming into your salon and give them an envelope with a prize within it.

6. 3 for 2 on Products

This is a simple specials offer that most of us are familiar with.

It offers your clients no risk as they are getting the new product for free.

Make sure you have enough margin to cover the third product and always make the lowest cost product the free product.

7. Salon Specials Days

Pick a day of the week when you are particularly quiet. Then arrange a variety of offers to celebrate the day.

For example, why not have a special offer for lunchtime treatments on Mondays when bought with another service?

Or offer extra value for all relaxing treatments with a box of goodies on a Friday.

This is to boost quiet time and not discount, so try to add value where you can.

8. Military Appreciation

Run an promotion for those in or veterans of the military / forces.

9. New Semester / New Term

Make sure you run a promotion for your local college or university students. Hundreds of new students attend a college or university every year and these could be your clients.

You can offer a discount per new client referred, so for instance bring one client 10% of your next purchase, two clients 20%, and so on.

10. 65 & Fabulous

Never forget the gray market! We are living in a world with an aging population and these clients have free time and promotion could be used to fill quiet parts of the day within your salon.

11. Monthly Specials

In January you can publish a special offer for each month for the rest of the year. This also allows a monthly email newsletter to be sent to clients to keep them informed.

12. Wife Care Day

This is a salon promotion idea that you can target your male clients. Why not get them to pre-buy a package for their wife to show their appreciation. Make it fun by telling your male clients you can go to football, fishing, or have a day off from the wife.

13. Hen / Bachelorette Party

What better way to start a client bachelorette or hen party then having all your friends come to the salon for a girly makeover, blowouts, nails painted, etc. This is a great way to get new possible clients into your salon.

14. Big Blow Out Sale

Allow clients to buy a bundle of blowouts, although you may discount slightly, there is the client retention benefit to your salon.

15. Style With A Purpose

What can be more kind-hearted then instead of discounting your product, that you offer a % of revenue for a month to charity.

Clients like the way of easily donating money to charity and in turn can provide you with good social media content and also PR content for local newspapers.

16. Mini-Treatment Days

Perhaps pick a day when you concentrate on mini-treatments.

This is perfect for the first week of school or of your local university term.

Salon specials ideas like these are a chance for those with a little less money to test your treatments.

University and college students could come and sample your salon by not breaking their budget. Remember this is about mini-treatments and not full treatments.

You never know when they might become a loyal client will finish their studies and have more money to spend on extra treatments.

17. Welcome Back

You have paid to acquire a client in the first place, then it is important that you don't lose them forever. Why not run a salon promotion to clients who have not been to your salon for 3 or 6 months and win them back to try you again.

18. Email Address Capture

One of the most vital things in marketing these days is to get your client's email addresses, this allows you to send marketing communications to them and help you market to them directly via Facebook Custom Audiences.

Offer clients an incentive to give you their email address by offering them a $5 / £5 gift card towards their next service.

Just make sure their email address is correct prior to give them the gift card.

19. Choose Your Deal

This is a promotion where you have three different packages at the same time, with them being the same value so it makes it easier for the client to find one that is correct for them.

20. Name Your Price

This can be a risky promotion and not recommended to run for the whole salon as part of your salon promotion ideas strategy.

This could be used to win old clients back to your salon, coupled with a new stylist who has no clients and wishes to build their client book.

21. Suggesting The Next Booking

This is one of the easiest salon specials ideas.

It just involves training your staff and receptionists to suggest making the next appointment.

Ideally when your client is paying at the end of their treatment, you could offer them a discount on their next booking only at this point. If they go and book later the offer doesn't stand.

This is sometimes better than any loyalty program and gets you a guaranteed appointment.

Make sure you have built any cost relating to this into your pricing.

22. Buy A Service Get A Product Or Service Free

This is a good example of added value. Have a premium product where you could add something extra on top for a promotional period.

23. Spend X Amount & Get A Free Product Or Service

This works well to give away products. Your promotion could be spending over say $100 / £100 and get free shampoo, this can be an ideal opportunity to upsell them to the conditioner as well.

24. Book Your Appointment For January Or February

Is January and February quiet months for you? Run a promotion to get clients to book their January and February appointments in December or early January and they could go into a prize draw to win their next haircut for free.

25. Free Blow Out & Head Massage

Looking to add value during quiet times in your salon and enables you to spend more time with clients? Why not offer these two products which are free to deliver witih your salon.

26. Buy Two Retail Products & Get Discount On Next Haircut

Looking to increase your retail and get clients into the buying cycle?

Why not run a promotion that if clients buy a full-price shampoo and conditioner they get a discount on their next service or add-on service. Once clients find a shampoo they like they will stick with it for a while.

So longer-term this promotion provider you will an increase in lifetime value.

27. Blowouts Package

There are many apps out there that offer all you can eat blowouts for a fixed fee, so don't miss out on this and let your clients walk.

Why not bundle together say 10 blowouts for a fixed amount.

28. Color Promotion

Why not get your clients to change their hair color, in January or the Fall? Ensuring that clients know about your color services is important and also makes sure they don't go to the nearest drugstore!

29. Add on such as book and get product or service for £15 or $15

Promotions can also be upsold as well. Why not sell a service and get another product or service for a fixed price.

30. Loyalty Card By Product

Instead of offering a loyalty card on your core services, why not offer a loyalty card on products, such as shampoo and conditioners. This provides extra value to clients and drives improved lifetime value.

31. Selfie Promotion Tag & Comment

As the growth of Instagram continues, why not take advantage of it and get your clients to promotors for you.

Why not run self-promotion that if they take a selfie and tag the location as your salon, that you can DM them with a link to get their discount voucher for use at their next appointment.

Getting clients to share their selfies with their new hairstyle on social media is a great marketing tool for your salon.

Don't forget clients must tag the location and mention your salon in their description of the pic to get the voucher.

32. Facebook Check-In

Facebook is still the king of social media for those above 25 (Snapchat is where the younger one's hangout). Get clients to check-in and offer them a voucher to spend on their next appointment will show up on their Facebook feed and will be seen by their friends.

33. Thanks For Your Loyalty

Want to reward your most loyal clients?

A great way is to offer only truly loyal clients a special offer on a service or product.

You can send them an email or message them on Facebook using a custom audience and Facebook Messenger ads.

This is about creating a WOW experience for those clients who keep coming back to your salon time and time again.

Salon Specials Ideas For Spring

 

salon specials ideas spring
Salon Specials Ideas For Spring

34.March Madness

Create some fun around your salon special offers.M

Why not do something based on the Mad Hatters Tea Party for your salon.

March should not be a quiet period for you in your salon, as always add value and not discount.

35. Mothers Day

Mother's Day marketing opportunities are often overlooked by salons when they are developing promotional ideas. Why not do a mother and daughter makeover with a glass of champagne or sparkling wine to make it an experience?

36. International Women's Day

In the past few years this event has got bigger and bigger around the world. Don't forget to embrace girl power and use this to drive footfall into your salon.

37.Spring Forward

Spring is traditionally a slow period in the salon, so base your campaign around Spring, maybe a pedicure or a blow out promotion to give 'bounce' to their hair.

38. Valentine's Day

Ensure your clients are looking their best for that Valentine date, promote, promote make-up, new hair style or blowout prior to their date.

39. Eggstravaganza - (Easter)

Easter has lots of salon promotional opportunities. A nice promotion to do is an easter egg lucky dip, where you could buy some plastic easter eggs and put a message in each one, so win some don't.

Please be aware: Some countries and states consider a lucky dip as a lottery and therefore you need a license. We have found before to ask them a simple question to allow them then to choose an egg, thus getting around the legal issues...

But check local legal requirements and don't our word for it.

40. Prom Season

Prom season is another global event these days. Make sure you run a promotion to get your clients' kids to get their hair done prior to their prom ball.

One advantage for this is that you could end having this young client for life!

Just think of the lifetime value!

41. Fathers Day

Still not as big as Mothers Day for a salon but could be. If you run a spa then you could be doing a relaxation promotion for Fathers and offer them a massage or something similar. Don't forget Dad's like being pampered too.

Salon Special Ideas For Summer

 

42. Summer Sizzler

Summer is coming so get that look for summer with a bikini wax or spray tan.

43. Back To School

Whether it is for the mothers of the kids, don't forget to run a promotion for back to school. Mothers have been too busy to look after themselves during the school holidays and the kids need a haircut ready for their new term time.

Salon Special Ideas For Fall / Autumn

 

44. Fall into Fall

As the Fall (Autumn) nights draw in, so people are wanting to get home and less likely to come out.

Run a promotion around hair color, or some nail treatments relating to Fall colors.

45. Teachers Appreciation

This promotion could be carried out in two ways

Carry out your salon promotion direct to teachers and offer them a benefit for using your salon.

At the end of the school year, many parents purchase presents for their kids' school teacher, and this another ideal opportunity to promote gift certificates as a gift for the teacher.

Salon Special Ideas For Winter

 

salon specials ideas winter
Salon Specials Ideas For Winter

Ensuring that you have all your salon promotions ready for one of the busiest times of year within any salon. You really should not be discounted during this time as you should be busy with paying clients.

You have the busy Thanks Giving period (if you are in the USA) and the Christmas season, so make sure you have planned all of your Christmas marketing campaigns early to get those appointment slots filled.

46. Black Friday

Black Friday has turned into a huge global event, whether you are in the US, UK, Germany, or Australia everyone knows Black Friday. Check out our recommendation salon promotion ideas for Black Friday.

47. Cyber Monday

Cyber Monday is becoming just as big as Black Friday for many people.

Do you have online booking with your salon software? Get your clients to book their January appointment. Remember to exclude those clients who have already booked for January from your marketing campaign is sending out an email.

48. Get Ready For Halloween

Well this is now one of the biggest party nights of the year around the world.

You could have a halloween promotion to get their make up or hairstyle ready for their party.

49. Winter Warmers

Winter is coming so use it to your promotional advantage. Have promotions based around hair color, blowouts or hot stone treatments, etc.

50. New Year Makeover

January is always known to be a quiet time in salons. Why not bundle so services and products together to create a 'makeover' product to get clients to think of a new look for the new year.

51. Gift Certificates Promotion

Looking to sell more gift certificates or cards?

Thanks giving and the Christmas season is a great time Run a promotion to sell more gift cards to new and existing clients.

Why not off those purchasing a gift card to have a voucher for themselves to use in January and February against a service.

You could use something similar to the scale below. Research has shown that people always spend more than their gift certificate they are given.

Spend $100 receive $25 gift card good for salon services (give or keep for yourself).

Spend $150 receive $50 gift card good for salon services (give or keep for yourself).

Spend $200 receive $75 gift card good for salon services (give or keep for yourself).

Spend $250 receive $100 gift card good for salon services (give or keep for yourself).

52. 12 Days of Christmas

Using the lyrics for the famous Christmas song '12 Days of Christmas' create a promotion for each of the 12 days prior to Christmas.

It could be around service or products, don't forget people will be looking for Christmas present ideas so this is an ideal way to sell more retail products.

53. Christmas Tree Baubles

What could be nicer for clients to get invited to take a label or ball ornament off the Christmas tree to open it and see if they have won a prize, a small Christmas gift to clients, and a thank you to them for being a client.

You will need to check local laws, as this type of salon specials idea can be seen as a lottery.

Learn more in our post on Unique Salon Grand Opening Ideas.

Conclusion

 

What everyday or seasonal salon ideas for salons do you have?

Marketing is essential for a successful salon business, so work out what ideas will work best and then execute them with efficiency.

If you choose to add any of the above ideas into your marketing mix, stay aware of your goals and keep things cost-effective.

If you got any other salon specials ideas that you have tried and worked on, why do you share them with our reader below......

Citations

Make your salon a home for the holidays
https://search.informit.org/doi/pdf/10.3316/informit.159228556007184

E-marketing
https://down.documentine.com/3fb089ca7dbbc62ac3efef5fb74a23a5.pdf

Developing marketing: Case hair salon Lumo
https://www.theseus.fi/handle/10024/133477

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