Drive Black Friday sales on your salon social

Have you thought about using Black Friday as a marketing hook? Salon marketing specialist Alice Kirby looks at how to use it to boost cashflow and keep you fully booked into January.

“I’m not usually a fan of flash sales but on Black Friday most of us are looking to snap up a bargain so why not give one of these mini campaigns a try…”

Offer One: Shift retail. Improve cashflow

Clear your storage space and free up valuable cashflow with a retail sale. Black Friday is a fabulous excuse to discount and shift discontinued, slow-moving or seasonal stock which would otherwise hang around.

If you’re in a dash your sale can be as small as a basket of Black Friday bin-end bargains on your front desk.

Offer Two: Boost January salon bookings

Help fill those new year gaps and improve your cashflow pre-Christmas with a Black Friday ‘one day only’ promotion on gift cards - along the lines of ‘buy a £50 gift card and we’ll make it up to £60’.

The marketing trick here is to be clear in the terms & conditions that these particular gift cards can only:

be spent after 1 January 2023 andonly redeemed for hair or beauty services.

Your team may well be standing around in January with time on their hands so you can afford to incentivise clients to get your staff busy.

But don’t just keep it to gift cards. You can add value to any treatment to create a tempting Black Friday flash offer. For example, adding a complimentary blow dry to a colour or extending a massage with an extra free 15 minutes.

Just make sure your marketing is super clear that these ‘specials’ are only available to purchase on Black Friday and relate to January services.

Offer Three: Thanks for your loyalty

Loyal salon clients love feeling they’ve been rewarded and thanked for their custom. Black Friday is the ideal marketing opportunity to show your appreciation.

Offering exclusive deals and discounts to these clients is a smart marketing tactic that can help to build customer loyalty and drive repeat business.

As they are loyal clients there is no need to discount and hurt your bottom line. Instead, give them a free gift – I like to give an added value bonus on any January appointment to incentivise them to book. And it creates a warm feeling of goodwill that can keep clients coming back.

Market Black Friday on your salon social

Create a buzz

Tease your Black Friday promotions on your salon social from early November to create a buzz. Get your team involved with videos, reels, stories and multi-image posts such as Insta carousels.

And remember to stress your offers are time limited to create a sense of urgency to encourage clients to take action.

Black Friday gift guides

With Christmas around the corner, I love gift guides for marketing on salon social. And for Black Friday you can always add in a little extra bonus for those looking for a deal.

Create your edit of a selection of your products that makes it easy for clients to understand and shop. For example, ‘vegan gifts’, ‘gifts for your BFF’ or for ‘the man in your life’.

Create an Instagram Highlight for gift guide Stories and pin feed posts to the top of your salon social feeds.

All of these marketing jobs can be prepped well in advance and your posts scheduled to avoid a rush around the Black Friday weekend.

Use hashtags to reach new local audiences

Black Friday is an opportunity to reach out locally to potential new clients on social media. Always add local hashtags to your posts for example, #blackfridaydealsLiverpool to help you get found rather than the very competitive (and national) #blackfridayshopping or #blackfridaydeals. After all, the local area is where your new clients will come from.

Get ahead of the competition

I like to start the Black Friday sale early and get ahead of the local competition. So, I suggest kicking off Wednesday evening or early Thursday morning.

As well as on your salon social, promote your offers on your email marketing and consider a second e-news broadcast on the Sunday if your sales are open through to Cyber Monday.

Don’t forget in-salon marketing too. Just because most Black Friday sales are online don’t ignore the face-to-face opportunities. Promote your offers with strut cards, wall and window graphics, on your voicemail and caller waiting messages, and at your reception.

Word of mouth marketing for Black Friday

Don’t miss out on  word-of-mouth marketing in the run up to Black Friday.

• Build trust in your expertise and skills by posting glowing client reviews on social.
• Showcase your skills with before & after photos – remember to get consent.
• Encourage clients to post photos on their personal social and tag you in.
• If a retail product has a celebrity endorsement, then use it. Research shows they boost sales.

Members:  Remember to celebrate and promote the outstanding quality you offer by regularly posting about your Good Salon Guide star rating on your social media. Your independent star rating demonstrates to potential local clients that you ‘walk the talk’ and builds that all important trust and credibility in your expertise and outstanding client care.

Whether you love Black Friday, or hate it, don’t miss out on the chance to fire up your marketing and get your till ringing this 25th November.

Hair & beauty marketing specialist Alice Kirby can be found at the Salon Social Club and Lockhart Meyer Salon Marketing.