Salon promotion ideas that protect your margin

The margin test, before you pick an idea

Margin here means what is left of a service's price after the stylist's pay, the products and the other costs that come with each visit. Rent and other fixed costs stay the same whether a chair is full or empty, so leave them out of this test.

A discount cuts the margin on every visit, so it has to bring in more visits just to stand still. Divide the margin you keep per visit now by the margin you would keep at the promotion price. The answer is how many times as many bookings you need to earn the same.

Take a hypothetical service where 4 parts out of every 10 parts of the price are margin. Give away 2 parts and the margin falls to 2, so you need twice as many bookings. Give away just 1 part and the margin is 3, so you still need a third more bookings.

These numbers are invented to show the arithmetic. Use your own margin per service, which your accountant or booking system can help you work out.

The test is kinder to slots that would have stayed empty. A discount on a time nobody was going to book costs you little, while the same discount on a busy Saturday simply hands money to clients who would have paid in full.

Two rules every idea must pass

• Never trade anything for a review. Google's content policy prohibits offering incentives such as payment, discounts, free goods or services, and it prohibits selectively asking only for positive reviews, so ask every customer or none.^[1] Google's tips say you can ask customers to visit a Google link or scan a QR code, and they prohibit incentives, so keep any offer out of the ask.^[2]
• Never put a promotion inside a reply to a review. Google's reply tips say not to use replies to offer deals or promotions.^[2]

For wording that stays inside both rules, see our Google review reply templates and the guide to responding to a negative Google review.

Seven promotion ideas, with the margin check for each

1. Slow-slot offer. A modest, time-limited reduction on your quietest weekday slots only. Check: run the formula above, limit the offer to named days and hours, and set an end date.
2. Add-on instead of a discount. Include a quick extra, such as a conditioning treatment, with a colour service. Check: your cost is the product and the minutes, not the price, so pick extras that are fast and cheap to give.
3. Bundle. A cut plus a treatment at one combined price, a little below buying them separately. Check: work out the margin on the whole bundle and make sure it still passes the test.
4. Rebooking gift. Something small for the client who books the next visit before leaving, such as a sample or a priority slot on a busy day. Check: the cost is tiny, and it fills a chair later.
5. Introduce-a-friend thank-you. A gift for a client whose friend completes a first visit. Check: give it only after that first visit, and keep it apart from reviews, never tied to one.
6. Prepaid set of visits. Clients pay in advance for several visits at a lower price per visit. Check: the lower price per visit must pass the test, and the terms for unused visits must be clear in writing. Rules on prepaid packages differ by place, so check yours.
7. Partner offer. A joint offer with a neighbouring business, such as a bridal shop, where each side promotes the other. Check: agree in writing who pays for what, and you may not need to cut your own price at all.

How to announce an offer

Put the offer where clients already look: the front desk, your booking confirmations, your social posts and your Google Business Profile posts. Write the dates and conditions into the text, and give the same terms to everyone who asks.

To reach people who do not know you yet, you may want paid reach. Our guide to Instagram and Facebook ads for local businesses covers what that takes. For more on salons, see marketing for salons and parlours.

Check whether it worked

Before you start, write down your normal bookings for the slots you are targeting. When the offer ends, compare them with what the offer actually filled.

Then look at who came. A promotion that fills chairs with clients who never return has cost you margin and bought nothing lasting. Count how many of them booked a second visit at the normal price, and keep the ideas that do that.

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