Special Promotion Discounts

I generally don’t discount my services. There have been two key times in my career when I did a promotional discount. The first discount was when I had moved into my beautiful salon space in Lincoln Park, Chicago. I didn’t have many clients and this space was also a new location for me. The discount I gave was generous and gave me clients who I enjoyed for years until I moved from Chicago. And for every person who remained a client from this discount, they in turn referred many more clients in for treatment. If you are a new salon, I highly recommend thinking about offering a promotional discount.

I’m sure you have all found neighborhood coupon booklets in your mailboxes. This discount was such an item. I consulted with the company and decided what zip codes I would have my coupon distributed in. Along with the discount I was giving, I supplied them with my logo and a photo of my book cover. I think they did a nice job of designing the ad.

New Chicago salon discount from coupon book

Closeup first coupon

Closeup second coupon

As I said, this was a significant discount, but it was worth it. It got people in to my salon and since they went home with my book, it cemented my qualifications in their minds even after they had gone home.

The second discount I gave was after I moved to Boulder and had again moved to a new location. My business was healthy, but I really wanted new clients—more clients. The discount I gave through BOCO (bocodeals.com) was a bit painful for me (I rarely discount and here I really slashed my prices) but the results have given me fabulous, regular clients even years after the promotion was over. I couldn’t find the original ad in the paper, but below is the actual “deal” and the text that was in the ad. At $40, this facial really was a deal!

BOCO facial promotion/discount

By the way, prior to this hour-long $40 facial promotion, I only had one facial offered in my salon(s). It was and is all-inclusive, so there was never a need for a menu in my business. I decided I couldn’t offer this facial at discount so I devised a slightly shorter version that cut out the second exfoliation (peel) and the full facial massage. (Note: I have carpel tunnel issues so cutting out the massage was essential for me due to the volume of facials this promotion brought to my business. I saved myself by cutting this step. However, I don’t use any machines in my facials so the entire time the client is being worked on it is all manual, therefore there really is a lot of secondary massage that occurs with my facials.)

Below is a promotional postcard I had printed at vistaprint.com. I send this to all the 102 participants in the BOCO deal 6 months earlier. In other words, even for those BOCO clients who had become regulars, they too received the discount card.

On the front, there is an expiration area where I gave a three month window for them to come in. I find that people who really are going to come in usually do so immediately. Three months is plenty of time to give a client to call and come in. (This is not how I handle regular Gift Certificates, however.)

Discount postcard for promotion clients

Without sending a followup to these special discount clients, you run the risk of never seeing them again. When you have your own business you want to help your client remember you’re around and give them an incentive (discount) to come back to see you.

New client discount postcard

Here is another small discount I had out for a while. Having recently moved to Boulder and moving into my 2nd office space, I wanted to do a little promotion for my business. Using postcards like this is an easy way to promote your business.

I went to several businesses, related to skin care and not, and asked if I could put these cards in their shops. I wasn’t asking for something for nothing—I had gift certificates with me and offered a facial to the owner or the manager as a thank you for letting me advertise in their shop. Not only is that a goodwill gesture, but it is also strategic. Since the GC recipient works at the business, once she’s had the facial she will will most likely give it high praises to all who ask about the postcards. A win win if there ever was one! If the owner was a man and he didn’t want the facial, I would offer it to his wife or a female co-worker or employee.

Although I usually use vistaprint.com for my postcards, I was having some things printed at my professional printer, and since they had the colors “up,” I had them make these for me as well.