The festive season is always a busy period, but how do you keep your appointment book full once all the Christmas fun is over?
Invest a few minutes now and pick one or two of these ideas to fill your salon, spa or clinic’s appointment book for 2021. They’re easy to implement and you’re sure to see results!
1. Offer gift voucher specials
One way to ensure you get plenty of new customers after the silly season is to run a promotion on gift vouchers. For example, a free gift with every voucher purchase, or bonus value on every voucher purchased in December.
Encourage your existing clients to purchase gift vouchers for their loved ones as Christmas presents, and then see a whole new client base once the New Year arrives!
You can sell physical gift vouchers or digital gift vouchers though your online booking site. Find out how to set up online vouchers in Kitomba, and tips for selling more gift vouchers online.
2. Utilise email marketing
Use email marketing to remind your clients about your festive season promotions and any future promotions to keep an eye out for in the New Year.
Schedule an email or text message to go out wishing your clients a New Year, with a quick reminder to book their next appointment. This is a great way to secure bookings when things quieten down.
Find out more about email marketing: 10 key elements of successful emails
3. Donations and sponsorships
If you want to keep your brand in the front of people’s eyes and ears over the festive season, why not consider making donations to Christmas raffles or sponsoring an event or sporting team in the New Year?
Donations and sponsorships may cost your business a small sum of money up front, but they create invaluable brand awareness that will keep on giving back over time.
4. Run rebooking promotions
There is a pretty good chance that your regular clients are going to squeeze in one last appointment before Christmas. This is the perfect opportunity to offer them a rebooking special for the New Year to guarantee that they come back after the festive season is over!
Are you ready for the New Year?
Taking a moment now to add these ideas to your Christmas marketing lineup could make all the difference to your appointment book in January!
If you want to step up your marketing for the New Year, visit our marketing guide for industry expert tips for marketing salons, spas and clinics.
Read next:
- Keep your salon, spa or clinic on track with a strategic marketing plan
- Make this Christmas your most profitable yet
- 8 ways to get more referrals
Editor’s note: This article was originally published on 5 December 2019 and has been updated for 2021.
Hey Martin, great idea about the gift vouchers. Kitomba doesn’t send an alert when a gift voucher is bought online so any tips on how to keep track of them?
Also, a simple feature like a waiting list (which has been promised for years and has now been culled) would keep businesses full and steady for the new year. No mention of that though.
Hi Adrian, thanks for your comment.
To answer your question, Kitomba records and tracks all voucher sales automatically, whether they’re sold online or in the salon. You can see all the details of your vouchers including remaining balances using the reports in Kitomba 1. Check out this support guide to learn more about the reports. If you’d like to learn more about managing vouchers, including creating promotional vouchers, you can check out this helpful guide.
To chat further about how to run a voucher promo in your business, please feel free to give our friendly support team a call as they’ll be able to provide a more personalised response.
In regards to the wait list feature, rest assured that this has not been culled and remains on our plan for the future. Unfortunately as it’s not at the top of our priority list right now, we’re not currently able to share a timeline for when it will be completed.