9 Valentine’s Day marketing ideas for beauty & hair salons

Are you sure you’re squeezing the most from St Valentine’s Day for your hair and beauty business?

It comes hard on the heels of the festive holidays which can leave you unprepared. But Valentine’s has the potential to be lucrative salon marketing opportunity.

Let me explain:

This recent survey reveals a spa treatment is third on the list of ideal Valentine gifts women would like to receive. Given the top two on the list are a holiday and a car, I guess most men will opt for the cheaper treatment option, which opens up tremendous opportunities for salons, spas and aesthetic clinics.

Need more persuading…

The same survey shows the majority of men and women believe the main purpose of Valentine’s Day is ‘to show your loved one how much you care’.

It’s easy to be cynical about Valentine salon promotions and marketing. But they really don’t have to be cheesy, tacky or fluffy. As a hair and beauty business owner you are on a winner.

Here are my top nine Valentine salon marketing ideas to attract new clients to your business, show loyal ones they are loved, and boost your average sales ticket:

1. Valentine salon social marketing ideas

2. Thank loyal clients on the 14th

3. Attract new clients with a Valentine’s offer

4. Retail ideas for Valentine’s Day

5. Get a Valentine’s (marketing) partner

6. Promote treatment & retail packages

7. Celebrate Galentine’s Day 13th February

8. Support a local charity for Valentine’s

9. Valentine email marketing tips

#1. Salon social media ideas for Valentine’s

Try these salon social ideas:

1. Visuals matter for salon social

Choose a strong visual look and keep to it throughout your Valentine campaign for brand consistency, both on social media and offline. And of course use relevant #hashtags.

But don’t use #ValentinesDay as it’s currently banned by Instagram (I know it seems mad!) and can lead to your account being penalised or blocked. Learn more about #ValentinesDay and other seemingly harmless banned Instagram hashtags here.

2. Make it engaging

Inject some fun into your social media marketing in the lead up to the 14th – people don’t want to be sold to in every post.

Try:

• giveaways
• quizzes
• makeover competitions
• Valentine inspirational or funny quotes

all with a ‘love and hearts’ theme.

3. A sales mistake

I get that you want to promote your gift cards, treatments and retail as ideal Valentine gifts, but constant ‘sell, sell, sell’ messages are a big turn off on social media.

Instead, ‘show, not tell’ as it makes it more fun, engaging and, well … social. A Story or Reel explaining why a retail product would make the perfect gift or showing a pampering facial, doesn’t come across as hard sell. And works brilliantly.

4. Be creative

Be creative with your V-Day imagery and snap your own for an authentic social feel.

This format and styling from Selfridges catches the eye with its collection of pretty pink makeup gifts.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Selfridges (@theofficialselfridges)

Or for something ultra-simple, yet effective, you could recreate this Maybelline image with nail polishes or lippies.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Maybelline New York (@maybelline)

#2. Thank loyal salon clients on the 14th

Continue the love theme and thank your loyal clients.

It’s too easy to overlook them. Yet one of the chief reasons loyal clients leave a salon is because they feel unappreciated. So show them some TLC this Valentine’s.

Here are a few Valentine marketing ideas for your loyal clients:

1. In-salon

Give loyal clients a Valentine’s gift. How about a goody bag of free samples, an upgrade treatment or a hair or beauty gift card for your top clients? Or surprise clients on the 14th itself with complimentary chocolates and fizz during their appointment.

Remember to choose your Valentine salon playlist with care too. Or go one better and make a statement with some romantically themed live music.

2. A Valentine offer for loyal clients only

Email loyal clients thanking them for their business and offer them a Valentine discount for the quieter days of the week throughout the month. February can be pretty quiet in salon, especially early week. Just think carefully about terms and conditions – which team members you include and what hair services/beauty treatments.

Or give triple rewards on your loyalty scheme:

• on St Valentine’s Day itself OR
• on retail purchases during February OR
• on selected hair or beauty treatments.

#3. Attract new salon clients with a Valentine’s offer

Word of mouth remains one of the best ways to find new hair and beauty clients. So put a Valentine’s Day spin on your usual ‘Recommend a Friend’ marketing and drum up some new business. Throughout February hand out romance themed cards to your clients and ask them to give the card to ‘someone you love’.

The cards offer a salon discount to new clients and reward the loyal client – so just the same as your usual ‘Recommend a Friend’ offer, but with a sweeter approach. It feels less hard sell to be asked to give someone a chance to save money, rather than be asked to recommend.

#4. Salon retail (therapy) for Valentine’s Day

Valentine’s is the second largest retail sales opportunity for beauty and hair businesses after Christmas. Don’t waste it.

1. Get your windows marketing

Make the most of your free advertising opportunity. Your windows.

I know I bang on about it. But just think what it would cost for a billboard that size in town to market your retail and advertise your Valentine promotions.

2. Promote throughout your salon

Continue the passion theme with a basket of red and pink impulse buys on your reception desk. Lipsticks, nail polishes and coloured hair accessories hit the spot.

Don’t forget to display your Gift Cards prominently too. You’ll find more ideas for selling salon Gift Cards here.

And why not offer complimentary gift wrapping on retail purchases? Men in particular love this.

#5. Find a Valentine’s (marketing) partner

Team up with like-minded local businesses and market jointly using social media competitions, giveaways, in-salon raffles, leaflets and offers.

Why? Because:

• The prizes are bigger and more enticing.
• You split the promotional costs.
• You piggy-back on each other’s customer base.

Look for local businesses that serve the same target audiences as you. Florists, card shops, cake retailers, photographers, restaurants and jewellers – they all make great Valentine marketing partners for a hair or beauty business.

So you’ve lined up some local partners. Now what? How do you get the word out on the street?

Easy. You promote their offer on your salon social media and on your salon website. Then ask them to return the compliment to make sure it’s win-win for both of you. You hand out their offer cards/promotions to each of your clients at your till, and they do likewise to their customers.

#6. Promote treatment and retail packages

Create tempting Valentine packages. Don’t just stop at ones for partners as people love to show their wider family and friends they care. I’d always go for service upgrade offers for this Valentine promotion rather than discounts. These are already loyal regular clients – you don’t need to give away profit.

And don’t forget to add an enticing ‘thank you’ element for the buyer too.

#7. Galentine’s Day 13th February

Galentine’s Day originated from a US sitcom in 2010 and soon spread over the pond. It’s on the 13th – the day before Valentine’s – and is a celebration of womanhood, your besties and independent women whether they’re single or not.

The idea is to shower them with love and attention. Think along the lines of pampering events, gift card offers, retail promotions. Let’s face it, there’s nothing like some serious retail therapy and a glass of fizz to lift the Valentine spirits.

#8. Support a local charity for Valentine’s

Show you have a heart by fundraising for a local charity for Valentine’s. This creates loads of marketing opportunities to promote the fundraising events in salon, on your website and social media, in the local press and your e-newsletter.

#9. Endless (email) Love on February 14th

Running a Valentine’s contest on social media? Then always collect email addresses (rather than likes, comments or follows) so you gain a new bank of potential clients to market to, and attract into your salon.

Building your own email database is one of the most valuable salon marketing activities you can do.

Here’s why:

• Organic (unpaid) Facebook posts only reach a teeny-weeny proportion of your followers. Whereas with email marketing your Valentine message pops straight into everyone’s inbox. It eliminates that hit and miss element.  You know exactly who has read it and what action they’ve taken.
• Google and the social platforms constantly change the rules, which affects how many people your marketing messages reach. But with email marketing you’re calling the shots. You’re in control. You know when you hit ‘send’ that your Valentine marketing message will be delivered.
• Email is a more targeted and effective marketing tool for delivering your Valentine marketing messages than social media. While salon social is best for engagement.

Play Cupid. Put the two together for a Valentine marketing partnership made in heaven.

Wrap up

St Valentine’s Day will come and go. But keep marketing to your hair and beauty clients across all your marketing channels throughout February to make the most of Cupid.