Monthly specials are an important part of any tanning salon’s marketing strategy. These limited-time offers are an excellent way to attract new customers to your salon and encourage existing clients to make another booking.
Not to mention, the right monthly special will tempt patrons to spend more while they’re in your salon, boosting your sales and revenue. This can be particularly useful during slower months when you might not get as many bookings.
At ActiveSalon, we’ve been running tanning salons since the ’90s – so if you’re looking for ideas, you’ve come to the right place. In this blog post, we’ll share seven tempting tanning salon monthly special ideas, all designed to help drive traffic to your business. Let’s get started!
1. Monthly Prize Draw
Monthly prize draws are one of our favourite tanning salon promotional ideas. Every client who books a sunbed session this month gets entered into a raffle, and at the end of the month, a winner is randomly selected.
Crucially, the more sessions a client books, the more entries they get. This is an excellent way to encourage customers to book multiple appointments and increase traffic to your salon.
The prize could be almost anything – for example:
- A free sunbed session for you and a friend
- A voucher or gift card for a local business
- A beauty hamper filled with lotions, toiletries and cosmetics
You can use tanning salon software to advertise your prize draw through email and SMS marketing.
2. Buy One Month, Get One Half Price
Offering a deal on tanning courses is an excellent way to encourage customers to commit to a regular tanning schedule. This type of monthly special can help increase your revenue and keep past clients loyal to you, rather than trying out a competitor.
“Buy one month, get one half price” is one example of a limited-time deal you could offer. Alternatively, try a “Buy 60 minutes, get 12 free” format, or a percentage-based discount (such as 20% off when you book a 100-minute course).
Tanning salon offers like these should have an expiry date to motivate customers to take advantage before time runs out. This might coincide with a particular date, such as Valentine’s Day (and you could work this into your marketing campaign).
3. Social Media Contests
When it comes to tanning salon specials ideas, you can’t afford not to take advantage of social media. Platforms like Twitter, Instagram and Facebook are valuable tools for reaching new customers. Setting up a month-long social media contest is perfect for generating a buzz around your business. To enter, you could have your audience:
- Like and share your post
- Comment on your post and tag two friends
- Post a picture of their tan and tag your salon
- Tag someone who deserves to win and explain why
The prize for your contest could be anything you like. Pick a winner at the end of the month, and don’t forget to tag them in an announcement post!
4. Lotion of the Month
“Lotion of the month” is one of the most popular types of tanning salon monthly specials. Every month, highlight a different tanning or moisturising lotion and offer a limited-time discount (such as 30% off). You could even include a free sample with every purchase.
Not only is this an excellent way to boost your retail sales, but it also encourages your clients to try a wider range of products. They may find a new favourite and keep coming back for more.
Use social media and signage to advertise the lotion of the month or include it in your email and SMS marketing campaigns. Software such as ActiveSalon can help you understand the impact of your monthly specials by tracking your sales history – as well as many other useful features.
5. Retail Bundle Specials
Another way to encourage your clients to buy retail products is with monthly bundle deals. For example, put together a gift set including a tan accelerator, UV-safe tanning goggles and after-tan moisturiser. You could then sell this at a discounted price – perhaps 10% or 20% off the RRP.
These types of tanning salon specials are ideal for encouraging customers to spend more than they would have otherwise. You could even create personalised bundles for different skin types. Make sure to advertise your bundles and place them near the till so they’re impossible to miss.
6. Refer a Friend Freebies
The referral marketing strategy is simple: offer freebies to your loyal clients when they refer friends and family to your salon. To be eligible, the person must sign up as a new client and tell you who referred them. This type of offer is an excellent way to encourage word-of-mouth marketing and grow your business.
Referral schemes are easy to set up. Tanning salon software such as ActiveSalon can be programmed to award clients with credits for each new customer they introduce. The comprehensive client database will automatically keep track of each patron’s remaining credits.
The scheme can be in place all year round, but you could also work it into your monthly specials. For example, offer a free bottle of tanning lotion for every referral in December.
7. Newsletter Sign-Up Discount
Another one of our favourite tanning salon promotion ideas is the newsletter sign-up discount. This is a great way to encourage new clients to try your salon. To qualify, they simply need to provide their name and email address and consent to receiving email and/or SMS marketing. In return, they’ll receive a discount or deal, such as 50% off a sunbed session or 20% off retail products.
You can promote your newsletter sign-up discount in a number of ways, including:
- In-store signage
- Social media posts
- Letterbox leaflet campaigns
- Your website
Ensure you make it clear that this is a limited-time deal. This way, people will be encouraged to sign up sooner rather than later.
Boost Your Tanning Salon Business with ActiveSalon
At ActiveSalon, we’ve been part of the UK tanning industry for over 20 years, so we understand what it takes to run a successful tanning salon. Our cloud-based system is designed to make your life easier, streamline your operations and give you more time to focus on running your business.
With our tanning salon software, you can easily track sales, create discount codes, implement a referral rewards system and much more. Plus, our comprehensive client database makes accessing customer details a breeze – and everything is stored securely in accordance with GDPR.
To discover all of ActiveSalon’s incredible features, sign up for a free 3-month trial today. Simply fill in our enquiry form or call us on 0161 507 1598. Alternatively, email us at support@activesalon.com.
Loukas has been a part of the tanning industry since 2013; what he doesn’t know isn’t worth knowing! As a Director of SolarTrack Systems, his responsibilities don’t just include ActiveSalon, but a variety of different tools and packages.
