Make an Offer They Can't Refuse: Pain-Free Promos at the Touch of a Button

Make saving fun and easy for your clients with the help of the right tech solution.

Everyone loves a good deal. In fact, a survey from RetailMeNot showed that two-thirds of consumers have “made a purchase they weren’t originally planning to make solely based on finding a coupon or discount.”

Promos are a great way to thank new clients for their business or reward them for their ongoing loyalty. Promos are also handy for keeping cash flow coming in during seasonal lulls. There’s really no question that promotions are good for business, but there’s also no question that they can be a real pain to create and manage. 

Fortunately, as the saying goes, there’s an app for that.

Here are a few of the things you’ll love about using a tech solution for your beauty biz promotions.

Mo’ promo, mo’ clients

Historically speaking, you know that there are specific days or months of the year where your beauty business isn’t rolling in as much dough as other times. Instead of just accepting that as part of the business, why don’t you take matters into your own hands? With the help of software, you can plan ahead for the upcoming slow times and create promotions to drive more clients in. 

Say, for example, that February brings the winter blues to your beauty business, and you don’t see nearly as many clients coming in as you do during the other months. Or, say that Tuesdays transform your salon or spa into a ghost town. Carpe that Diem and create stellar promotions for those slow times that will get clients into your business.

A  tech solution does the job of keeping your appointment calendar full without much effort on your end. Software can help you create powerful limited-time offers (such as value pricing during specific, slow weekdays) that apply automatically at checkout or when clients use the self-booking features. The best promo tech will connect with your client database so you can email or text a deal to anyone who hasn’t visited in a while.

What have we learned?

Getting promotions in front of clients past and present is only the first step. Step two is reviewing the promos to see whether they did well or were a bust. 

You’ll want to use a tech solution with customizable reporting that provides the nitty-gritty details on everything from service count to discount total, client count to the location of the redeemed offer, and more. With this information, you gain insight into the level of success with the promo and whether it’s something you want to continue to offer. Or, if not, what areas need some help when you create the new and improved promo. There’s no need to reinvent your promotions; find what works and stick with it. Scrap anything that doesn’t once you understand why it didn’t do the job.

Try it, you’ll like it!

Another advantage of using software to manage your promotions is that you can customize offers based on clients’ behavior. A promotion is a fantastic way to introduce customers to treatments they’ve been offered as upsells but never purchased. “The first one’s free” isn’t just a common phrase; it’s a sound marketing strategy. Consumers are often reluctant to try something new if they have to risk money on it; once they know they enjoy it, they’re far more likely to keep paying for it. 

Tempt a client who only does all over color with highlights or a balayage. That guest who loves a monthly massage might enjoy a different kind of massage or even just a longer session. Should you offer them something related to services they’ve bought in the past, or tempt them with something completely new? Do both at different times and track the results in your software to begin formulating long-term strategies.

One is good, but two is better

Everyone who’s ever worked a POS has horror stories about trying to calculate a bill total when a client is using multiple discounts. If there’s a promotion and a loyalty discount, which one do you use? The larger one? Both? Or our personal favorite, the third option you never anticipated, but that your fiscal savant client deduced? A solid tech solution solves those headaches for you. Boulevard, for example, lets you apply multiple offers on top of other discounts, all within the same ticket. 

No matter how busy your shop or how loyal your clients, you’re going to be running promos at some point. Why make it harder than it has to be? Let some tech do the heavy lifting for you.