“Relaxed” and “Christmas” are two words that don’t usually go together in salon life (unless you are a client!). However, if you start your marketing plan now (t-minus 110 days until Christmas at the time of publishing), it can be done!
Assuming you have already set up your strategy. Now, it is time to put it into action. We’ve prepared a checklist and timeline to help you stay on track. This way, you won’t forget anything or have to rush right before Christmas. Future (relaxed) you will thank you in December!
Here’s your ideal timeline if you want to spread out the work and keep a level head.
September
- Define your Christmas season marketing goals
- Set up new salon software functions with these goals in mind
- Decide your leading marketing messages in line with your goals
October
- Set aside your Christmas marketing budget
- Select your ideal communication channels for your goals
- Create design and content for marketing material
November
- Train staff on the plan for Christmas and discuss personal goals
- Send off any marketing materials that require printing or publishing
- Launch your online and offline campaigns
- Remember, Black Friday is the 29th of November
December – You Got This!
- Monitor and adjust campaigns based on performance
- Daily morning briefings with employees
- Keep the Christmas magic alive in the customer experience
3-4 Months Before Christmas
1. Set targets (according to the SMART principle), e.g:
- Increase sales by X%
- Acquiring new customers
- Customer loyalty (e.g. through special offers for regular customers)
- Increase social media reach
2. Set up new software functions with your goals in mind, e.g
- Online booking tool
- Online vouchers
- Reserve With Google
- App for employee motivation, such as PhorestGo
- Customer communication tool (to avoid no-shows & marketing purposes via SMS and email)
- Loyalty program for your salon customers
3. Definte marketing messages in line with your goals, e.g
- Set discounts or bonuses (e.g. for your vouchers)
- Put together service or product packages
- Determine the rewards for regular customers
2-3 Months Before Christmas
Preparation
- Budget planning
- Determine overall budget
- Allocate budget for different channels and measures
- Select your ideal communication channels for your goals
Online channels
- Website (consider a banner on your homepage, a landing page for your seasonal offers, or highlighting it in a blog)
- Email marketing (a special campaign or a mention in your newsletter)
- SMS marketing
- Organic social media posts (Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, etc)
- Social media advertising
Offline channels
- Flyers and posters in the salon
- Local newspapers and magazines
- Partnerships with local businesses
Create Marketing Material
- Design: Create Christmas designs for websites, social media, flyers and posters
- Content
- Include your Christmas offers and packages in all your marketing materials
- Create and schedule blog posts and social media posts
- Prepare email newsletters
The Phorest Marketing Suite and Phorest Ads Manager are helpful shortcuts for your email, SMS and social media posts, as they come pre-loaded with hundreds of seasonal templates. Alternatively, you can create your own designs with the free version of Canva.
1 Month Before Christmas
Employee training
- Inform employees about Christmas promotions and offers
- Train sales techniques for gift vouchers and additional sales
- Integrate seasonal flair into the client experience (e.g. small Christmas treats)
- Set sales targets for all employees
- Determine incentives for achieving targets (e.g. bonuses, prizes)
Produce any physical marketing materials
- Book advertisements
- Print flyers
Schedule staggered launches for online campaigns.
- Website and blog posts
- Newsletter
- Social media (paid and unpaid)
- Communicate partnerships
Bonus Tips
- Try a social media advent calendar: Daily posts with offers or tips around Christmas.
- Collect customer feedback: Collect customer feedback after each promotion to improve future campaigns.
- Stay flexible: Respond to market changes and adapt campaigns.
- Follow-up: Analyse your campaign and measure success. Document successes and opportunities for improvement.
With this checklist, nothing stands in the way of you and a thriving business at Christmas.
Looking for a growth partner for Christmas? Now is also the best time to switch software.
Book your no-obligation demo with Phorest to chat through your goals and how Phorest can help you tackle them.