It’s summer, and your appointment books are full of people booking pre-holiday tans, mani-pedis and cellulite treatments. That’s great, but you haven’t had anyone in for a facial in weeks and you think you might forget how to use the CACI machine if nobody comes in soon. Don’t panic, selling beauty treatments that aren’t seasonal doesn’t have to be hard work – just get a bit creative.
Beauty marketing is an art. You’re not selling an essential product, like toothpaste, you’re trying to convince people that they really need something that’s really just a lovely, indulgent luxury. Selling beauty treatments is about telling your customers how the treatment will make them feel, because your teeth aren’t going to decay and fall out if you don’t book a facial.
Tactics for NOT selling beauty treatments (or anything)
Pressure sales – as if trying to bully people into having a facial could ever work! If you tell someone they have to have a facial because their skin is a mess, you’re just likely to lose a customer and get a stinker of a Facebook review as well.
Make a song and dance about a product, trying to convince everyone it’s the best thing since thongs went out of fashion (and who isn’t pleased about that?). Sorry love, but it just makes you look desperate.
No, you have to be subtle if you want to shift unseasonal products.
Give some thought to what your customers might want – even if they don’t know it yet.
That’s a bit of a long-winded way of saying ‘give ’em what they think they want’. You’ve got people coming in for leg waxes and gel polish that will last them for two weeks while they are sunning themselves abroad. Think about one of the other things they might do while they are abroad…take lots of pictures.
Then…Design new products that give them what you’ve told them they want!
Try adding a facial element into a holiday treatment package, and market it as the ‘Summer Selfie Package’ or offer them the ‘Instagram Facial’
Genius.
Thinking about adding facials and facial products into a summer menu just takes a bit of imagination. Have you got fair-skinned clients? Then you have the perfect opportunity to do them a favour at the same time as increasing your sales. Introduce the Skin Defender facial package that includes a pre-holiday super nourishing facial with protective antioxidants and add in a high SPF facial home care product they can take away to maintain the results.
It’s not all about sunshine and sandals over the summer either. Some of your clients could be stressed mums trying to cope with having kids at home for weeks on end, or organising childcare for the little angels. Wouldn’t they just love a summer holiday stress-busting massage and facial treatment package?
Talk to your customers
If anybody is going to know what your clients want, they are. Start doing a little bit of sneaky research early. Chat to them about summer coming up, school holidays, trips abroad. Mention a skin issue you might have in the summer.
“My skin breaks out when it gets too warm”
“I get sick of my make up sliding off my face in the heat so I don’t wear much in summer, but I think I look pale!”
“I always seem to get sun cream rashes but I burn if I don’t use it”
You’re going to hear women talking about this sort of thing all the time, so listen and remember what they’re complaining about. Then act on it. Design a summer leaflet, add a blog or page to your website and address all these issues, so that your clients think you are a genius because that’s EXACTLY what they need.
Talk about ways to beat summer breakouts and casually slip in that you’ve got an amazing facial that works wonders for oily skin that’s prone to break outs and spots.
Mention the hell of holiday make up, talk about how to get away with wearing less in hot weather without looking ill, and tell people about the gorgeous facial bronzing make up, tanning products and the pre-holiday facial tan you’ve got in salon.
Write a blog post about summer rashes and allergies and make sure that you mention your special offer on hypo-allergenic sun cream, if customers book a summer sun facial before 1st July.
These are all just ideas. Don’t fall into the trap of discounting the less popular services, but make them more attractive by selling them as part of a package that gives your clients what they actually want – even if they didn’t know they needed it until you told them!
PS: If you need help with leaflets, blogs or web pages, contact me for a no obligation consultation.
