How to hit turbo on Christmas gift card sales

Scott Dance, founder of Salonrevenuegrowth.com, shares his tips on implementing your Christmas gifts strategy

With December typically being a busy month for salons, adding the November lockdown to the equation should hopefully make it a busy, prosperous time. Christmas presents a golden opportunity not just to increase revenue, but to win new clients for the New Year also. Investing some time implementing these simple steps in the final few days of lockdown will help maximise your salons intake over the next five weeks, when people have spending on their minds!

Create irresistible pre-paid Christmas gift card offers

Do you run an ‘Introduce a Friend’ scheme, giving new clients 30% – 50% off their first visit? Let’s turn this or something similar into pre-paidChristmas gift cards.

Most salon booking software systems have a ‘gift card’ function that not only allows customers to buy gift cards, but also for you to add free extra credit to them. Don’t have a booking software that does this? No problem. Just create your own simple gift card PDFs that include logo, offer info, user T&Cs and contact details. Add these gift cards to your ‘offers’ webpage if you have one, including the terms and how customers can buy them.

Offer two different price options, with specials you’re happy providing. Then give them sexy names to add appeal. For example, buy a £40 “Luxury Hair Gift Card” and get £60 – £80 worth of hairdressing services, or a £60 “Ultimate Salon Experience Card” and get £90 – £120 worth.

State on your messaging the key user T&Cs such as:
*Valid to new clients only (or perhaps you’d prefer making them open to current clients also, with less free extra credit)
*Valid from January, with time restrictions if it’s a big discount (e.g. not valid Saturdays)
*Selected stylists only

Now shout about your offers with inbound marketing

Now where to market your Christmas gift cards? Let’s start with inbound:

• Social media
• Email subscriber lists
• Text message subscriber lists
• Website homepage
• Reception
• Salon window

DON’T be content advertising your gift cards through your various channels only once or twice before Christmas. Even your most loyal clients are currently getting bombardedwith Christmas marketing, everywhere they look. Hence even your best offers can be quickly forgotten.

So, to maximise sales, you need to get your offers in front of your followers several times. Post on social, email and SMS your offers 2 – 3 times per weekuntil Christmas. Make your gift cards more desirable by using some scarcity on your messaging: “Limited Gift Cards available and they’re selling fast!”

Don’t forget outbound marketing – first up, digital ads

If you’re experienced in Facebook, Instagram or Google advertising, there is no better time to put these skills in to practice. And if digital ads aren’t your forte, don’t despair. Taking your best Facebook post about these gift cards, then boosting it to a new audience, is the next best thing. Regardless of the platform, make sure the offers are clearly stating in the headline. Include scarcity and how customers will get an amazing first hairdressing experience in your salon.

Outbound Marketing – next comes local business targeting

This is perfect while you’re in lockdown and costs you nothing. Follow these 5 simple steps to get maximum effect from this strategy:

1. Draw up a ‘dream list’ of 10 – 20 organisations in your town or around you, that you want new clients from
2. Reach out to your list by email or phone call (phone call will always get the quickest results)
3. Tell them you’ve created Christmas offers for their staff and are hoping to email the details to the best person there. (Most people will be happy to help)
4. Email your new contact the full info: what the promotion offers are, the Terms & Conditions, and how they order and buy.
5. Once you’ve emailed your offer info to as many contacts from your dream list as possible: two weeks later follow up with each contact, reminding them your gift card offers are closing soon.

If that 5-step process sounds like hard work, it really isn’t. You can fly through the first 4 steps in half a day…. and have your offers viewed by thousandsof potential new clients in local businesses, for both themselves or as gifts.

And don’t be put off because people are working from home. They’re still using email! This local-business targeted 5 step strategy alone has regularly sold 30 – 50 Christmas gift card offers for salons we’ve worked with.

To find out more, visit www.salonrevenuegrowth.com