Welcome to this week's episode of Beauty Babble.
Today we're talking about how to pre-plan your marketing strategies around the holidays.
Suzanne?
Hey, Doreen.
That's a great topic.
It is.
And it's really important.
I know you did this a lot in your spa.
So just to kick it off, let us know why it's important to pre-plan your marketing strategies.
Well, I personally on my note why I did it was organization and trying to live my life
with all the hats I wore.
That's just me straight up.
As a communications strategist myself, it's more effective.
You will actually reach your goals and reach your goals better if you pre-plan because
then you're not winging it and you know you're doing it intentionally.
You're doing it with a goal in mind and you can then learn from what works and what doesn't
and every time you'll become better and better at it.
Yeah.
So I mean, I always had the goal in mind and because I was a very busy person, I actually
planned very far out.
The staff didn't know that.
I just had my agenda ready to go, but it was because I was so busy and yes, the goal was,
this was the event or this was the holiday and this is what we're going to do about
it.
But I already knew what that was.
I planned out my year.
That's what I always did.
And of course, I adjusted if I needed to.
But when I look at today and how strategies you can do is you don't need to plan that
far out.
That was, I'll be honest, that's why I had to be that far ahead in my world because I
had very young kids at the time.
I had, you know, I remember at the time, 12 or 15 staff members like, you know, running
this and you know, I was my marketing person.
I was my HR person.
I was, you know, I wore a lot of hats.
And I think most people aren't prone to being super organized like that.
So what you were presenting today, you came up with this plan or idea.
Yeah.
How to simplify it, right?
So yeah.
And really, I think it's attainable.
It is like, and I said, you got to be like, I like, we just talked about that.
Okay, how is your lifestyle?
How much time do you need?
I think there's a minimum timeframe on this, on these things and from some of the, you
know, workshops and courses I've taken, and I think, you know, probably more so than I
do, that's your expertise.
But I think a minimum of three months out is a really great idea because things change
partway through anything can happen.
Economy can change.
Like there's a lot of things that can, your staff changes.
You change something happened in your personal life.
So when you have enough time, you can deal with the bumps on the road, if you wish, on
how to re-strategize or how to do this or what needs to change to make it happen, you
know?
Yeah.
When you're talking three months to, it's really three months out is an internal, it's
your planning.
This is not what you're sharing with your planning.
Yeah, this is you yourself as the...
Exactly.
Yeah, so...
All right.
Yeah, so like if you think you have three months and what our next holiday out ahead
of us, let's pick Black Friday, for example.
It's not three months away.
It's a little short than that.
It gives you an idea.
So just pick a holiday, whatever that date is, and focus on that.
So you've established what date that is, right?
That's the big one.
If you have staff, you need to have a staff meeting.
And you want to have a staff meeting because your staff can be involved.
And this again brings in that team building, but they will have ideas.
And it doesn't mean that you're going to implement them all.
Just take it down, write it down, you know, ask them, okay, what's the goal behind that?
What's the plan?
How do you foresee that?
What's the feature?
What do you guys think we should do this day?
You know, and don't shut them down.
Just write it down.
So I'm not making decisions today.
I'm just going to put it all together.
I'm going to share my thoughts of what I see and they might bounce off of that thought
that you have.
So you start, you know, projecting and working with your team is a big one.
Like a brainstorming session.
Yeah, brainstorming session, exactly.
Or maybe it's yourself in your brainstorming session.
Right.
You could be a solo.
Oh, you're still brainstorming, right?
Okay.
And around that, is there supplies that you need?
Like what's the strategy behind it?
If it's a gift bag winning, well, you need to get the things organized.
So make a list.
Doesn't mean you need to go buy it.
You need to go stop at the dollar store and I'm going to pick this up or you're going
bigger and brighter and you need to go get your logo put on things.
Like I don't know, whatever it is, you've got, you have time to start planning.
Is that feasible to do these things?
Right.
So really looking at that.
And the other thing I think too is that if you, if you have suppliers that you are close
with, talk with them.
They might have, they might know something that's coming up.
Oh, actually, no, there's a promotion coming.
You could tie that in.
It's like, Oh, that's perfect.
I didn't know there was going to be this gift with purchase or this, whatever.
So reach out to your suppliers because sometimes they're planning too.
And you might just kill, as I say, I hate to say that saying, I won't say it, but you
know, two things at once.
And then advertising.
What does that look like?
How are you going to target this?
Is it?
Well, old school mail out.
Is it an email?
Is it a text message?
Is it social media?
What's your strategies and how do you see this happening?
So you just write it.
This is about planning and writing down, right?
Seeing what's feasible.
Then you have time now to process everything.
You know, in the next few months, yeah.
And then two months into this, and this is all.
Before you get to that on the advertising, I think picking more than one is really important,
not just relying on one.
So if you are leaning towards social media, pick another one, you know, do an in-person,
do a poster at, on your, in your treatment room, whatever it is.
That's why I meant by what is all of the ideas.
Yeah, not just one.
Pick more than one.
You think of everything, right?
It's like, I kind of sum that into the idea of it.
How do you think you will advertise?
Exactly.
And everyone thinks, oh, I'm going to boost my Facebook ad.
It's not what I'm talking about.
I'm talking about, okay, there's Facebook.
What else is there?
How else can I do this?
Yeah, pushing that.
Yeah.
Think bigger.
Definitely.
There's a few avenues, but at least the thought is there now because you still might change
this and go, oh yeah, you know, I never thought about a TikTok video or like there's a lot
of ways, but it's just getting the brain going, that brainstorming, whether you're with others
or, you know, by yourself.
And then month two, if you do have staff, this year, you're going to follow up and confirm
the plan.
In the end, it's your boat.
You got to make it float.
So it's still yours.
So you still have to figure out what's going on.
Could you implement any of the staff?
If you didn't just say, you know what, I love that idea about the giveaway, but you know
what, I think I'm going to strategize that into the next one, right?
And make sure you follow up with that, by the way.
If you do it, we could just throw that in there.
Gift big winning for this month.
If you like us on social, like, you know, there's ways to still take their idea, but
maybe it wasn't quite where you were really trying to go with this.
Because again, I'm sure you probably have an idea of what you wanted out of this whole
thing, right?
Exactly.
But follow up with them and then talk about the plan.
How does it look?
What does that look like for the next, this next month?
What they're going to do?
It's a new product, you're launching as your big thing for that day.
I don't know.
A new service.
It could even be that an add on service.
How does this protocol look?
So everybody knows, including your front desk staff, including a hairstylist that's not
even involved in it, whatever it may be, make sure everybody's on board so they understand
what's the protocol of what's happening with this, whether it's a product, a service, you
know, everyone needs to know what's going on.
Super.
Yeah, the worst case is when they say, oh, I saw the ad that's on social media was in
there.
Oh, I don't know.
Yeah, that's.
And even if they are renting a room or a chair rental, do yourself a favor and make sure
everybody knows.
So maybe you can't do a staff meeting per se.
You're solo, you're renting a room, then ask the hairstylist, do you have time for a quick
coffee?
I just want to let you know what I'm doing.
So if you get any questions, you can refer them to me.
At least you'd be able to ask me what's going on.
Right.
But I think that's a big one too, to look at who are the people around you, right?
Who's the team, whether it's staff, co-workers, co-contractors, right?
I think that's a big one.
Yeah.
And ensure you're on target with your timing.
Does this look like you can manage this?
Will this actually happen?
You know, start out small when you're doing these things so they're tangible goals that
you can do.
Don't go big.
You know, if you're doing like an in-house open house thing, it's more than three months
of planning.
Yeah.
But if it's a feature and you're just getting your feet wet on this idea of planning, then
start with that and keep your template.
That's another tip that I can give you.
Keep your template, how it worked.
Because when you go back to look at it, you might go, yeah, you know what?
That didn't work the way I thought it would.
So that's another one that at the end I was going to talk about.
What about our promotion, right?
And keep it, yeah, documenting everything you do so that you can, if you like it, you
can recreate it and not try to think, when did I do this?
Yeah, exactly.
Yeah.
So keep that documented for sure.
So now you're going to organize that advertising that you're doing, that word, that word of
mouth.
How are you getting it out there?
What does that look like as you touched on the social medias, pluralizing?
What does that look like?
Is it an email template in-house?
How are you going to show the visual of this as well?
You should have that kind of already planned out.
Now it's like really putting this together.
You have your template set up, because we talked about in month three.
Be consistent with your templates.
I know you love that.
Everything should be the same, including the email, whatever the little parts of it should
look the same.
So keep your template.
I feel like what I hear you saying is three months out, you're planning, two months out,
you're executing.
You're putting that plan into motion so that when we get to the one month out, you're ready.
Exactly, because you want to give notice of what's coming.
The first one a month out is your staff.
And that's when you bring your staff together or your team or the contractors, whatever,
and you might have to do those ones individually.
But just talk to them again, make sure they understand everyone's on board.
If you have staff, do you now need to implement some actual training, some protocols or steps
to what's happening?
I mean, unless there's something specific, then we can get into the nitty gritty of
how to do this.
But you just want to have an idea of what's left so everybody knows what's going on.
Everyone knows the process or the protocols of how this is going to go.
And then it's organization comes out really well when you are.
This seems like it's a well run ship.
You know, there's going to be hiccups.
Be prepared.
Absolutely.
There'll be hiccups.
It wouldn't be if it wasn't that case.
It's just kind of part of it.
But you have enough of an understanding what's happening that you probably have an answer
for it right away.
That's another thing to keep in mind.
So don't panic if there's hiccups.
So at this point.
You have time.
Yes, in the time.
Yeah.
So you have to close the visual inside your treatment room if that's what you have.
If it's outside and you have the it's a whole spot, it's yours or whatever it may be.
Do you have a place that you can put it up?
Can you depending on the stylus you work with or the other rooms that are rented out
or who you're working with because studios are big now, right?
You're dealing with other people.
You could have a tattoo artist down the hall.
Can you put a nice little framed thing?
Where do you need to put the visuals?
What are the potentials of where you can put it?
If it's your own place, do not post them everywhere.
Sometimes I've seen it where it's at the door when they come in, it's at the front desk,
it's in the bathroom, it's down the hall.
It's just like, whoa, it looks like balloons everywhere, right?
And that's what happens when they see a balloon.
They're just going to, oh, it's just a balloon.
It's another balloon.
And when they're going to look that you did a different color or something different,
they're just going to see it's the same thing.
So just be mindful of that visual simplicity is sometimes I think better, but you might
have a better take on that too, right?
No, I agree with you.
I think your high traffic areas, you want to have it.
And I think in documentation, like everything when it comes to advertising, it's you have
to test it to see what works because what works for one person might not work for the
other.
And I would say, make a note of where you put your signs and see how it was received.
Next time you do another special, maybe change something and see if there's a difference.
It's in person, online, those strategies, it's a, what's it called for you?
You test it.
You have to test out and see what works best for you, your audience.
Yeah.
And if this is your first time trying this, then definitely you need to, I always followed
up after, but that's what we're going to talk about a little bit afterwards.
But I think too, as you can even you're posting your visual, let's say at that main busy area,
that's definitely where the information will lie.
The details to what it is, let's just say it's that way.
But maybe in the washroom, you have a posting.
Have you seen what's coming for Black Friday or Black Friday is coming?
You know, there's little things like that.
You can do the carrot idea.
Yeah.
And it's always about, right?
So you're not putting the same poster that seemed visual up everywhere.
Like think about it just a little bit as that little carrot, right?
And even I think on social media is another aspect of that is you build that suspension,
like that suspense and excitement.
And I think that's part of the strategies behind when you set up your social media.
I think that's something you've mentioned a few times through our conversations, right?
And then still have what's coming because you still need to know what's happening on
that date, especially because if it's a one day thing.
Exactly.
Yeah.
I mean, I knew people who wrote it down or put it on their phone when there was something
happening.
And that's like with dangling the carrot or whatever with social media, your first post
can be a save the date.
You know, we're happy.
We have specials coming.
Make sure you check in with us on if it was Black Friday, whatever the date of that, then
you know, your next post about it can be a little bit more explanatory, a little bit
more information.
Yeah.
Then after that, a little bit more information.
So every time you're giving a little bit of information and enough to entice that return
to get more information.
And then within like maybe you're two week out, then you're banging out your info hard
on all the details and following up with it.
Right.
Yeah.
And you have to look at there's clients that don't come in every month.
They don't come in for three months.
They didn't even know this was going to be beginning.
Exactly.
Right.
So you have to think about who hasn't been in, who may come in just for that day, whatever
that promotion may be for Black Friday, for example.
Right.
So it's, it would run a little different if you had the November as your Black Friday
month promotion.
Again, this changes slightly for sure.
But if it's a one day, you really need to make sure you're targeting because it's a
one day.
So get that information out there and think about the clients that don't come in.
Yeah.
And that's, that's why it's good to have that.
Like we talked about the multi multiple modes of promoting it because that client might not
come in.
So they're not going to see the in person.
They might miss it depending how the algorithm is.
Post.
So you could send a newsletter, your email contact and emailing, maybe you're reserved
in your emailing so that when you do email, it's for those really promotional, like important
things where you're really offering value to your, to your clients.
That's the one that was last on this list was one month out.
I would send an email at the beginning of the month.
And then a week before, and then maybe a day before reminder, kind of idea just spreading
it out and let them know what's coming.
And it could still be like a teaser idea, save the date.
Exactly.
Right.
At the beginning of the month.
And then, you know, a little bit more in or tell them, save the date because you will
be saving.
Yeah.
Or whatever, build the excitement.
If you want to tell them what it is you can two weeks out, no, no harm because people
are like, why would I save the date?
Yeah.
What am I saving?
Yeah, you have to give enough info to have that appeal.
Exactly.
Yeah.
But I mean, nothing's wrong with giving it all out at the month, month mark.
That's okay too.
But do send out a friendly quick reminder a week before and then the day before at least.
And if I can't remember what, for example, if that falls on, if it's a different holiday
and it falls on a Monday, right?
But you know most of your clients are Tuesday through Saturday, but you're hosting something
Monday or Black Friday weekend special, right?
And they're not going to be able to see you Sunday because you're closed.
So think of the dates too of how you're doing these things, right?
Yeah.
That's kind of the things that I kind of did.
And the big thing after is after it was done, I sat down and I went from the beginning
of three months out and said, okay, what did I do then?
Did that work?
Because then I made notes of what happened in month two.
Could I push that to month three?
Would it have been better, for example?
So I really did strategize and hone in on it to make it better every time.
I think that, and not you can apply that to your social media and your newsletter so you
can look at your analytics for your posts that you did for your specials.
Which ones performed better than the others?
Why?
So was it a type of post?
So was it a reel that did better than a post?
Or maybe you had a carousel and that did really well.
Whatever it is, I would go back and do an analysis of your social media for that special.
So that might be a little bit more manual work than actually relying on the analytics
that each platform provides for you because you want to pull out that special, those specific
posts.
And then with your newsletter, what was your open rate?
What was the click rate?
What's working?
What's not?
So everything can be looked at to exactly like effectiveness.
If you're using MailChimp, the free, it's still there.
Right?
Even if many of these things are limiting you on how many people you can have and how
many you can send out, but you can still get your analytics from it.
Another thing I actually used to do is follow up with staff because I had staff.
If you're doing, and I included my contractors in this, this is why I mentioned it before,
massage therapists, like, and how did you find it?
Did you get any questions that should be aware of?
How did you feel about this?
I'd really like your input on that.
You will learn from everybody.
I picked the top, you know, five, 10 clients, depending on how big this promotion thing
was and how many clients it affected.
So if it only affected, you know, 10 clients, and I mean positively negative, well, however
you want to look at it.
And I just plucked out a couple and I made a phone call, a hard call call, or I saw it
when they were coming in the booking system next and say, Hey, did you have a second to
chat?
I just wanted to talk to you about, you know, last month I noticed that you purchased the
product or how did it go?
What did you think?
What did you think about?
When did you first notice the advertising?
How did you hear about it?
I asked them how they found out.
Oh, my massage therapist told me actually, right?
So you want to know how they found out.
That's invaluable market research because really your goal is to reach your clients.
So how do you know it worked?
Talk to your clients and ask.
Absolutely.
Oh, I love that's my favorite one.
Yeah, that's the one that, well, that's they're the ones that helped me build my business.
And that's the one that takes the most work intentionally, you know, reaching out and
connecting with them, but it serves two things.
It serves to give you feedback for your marketing strategies and it also serves to make your
clients feel like their voice matters and that they're being heard in what they are
feeling and sharing with you.
Right.
Because in the end, why are you doing this?
Exactly.
You know, you're doing this, isn't it for your client and you love what you do?
Probably I would hope so.
But it's really about the clients you're building, the relationships you build.
I mean, some people ask me, what's the biggest thing you miss about your spawn?
I said, it's the clients.
I don't know what they're up to anymore.
I don't know how they're doing.
And, you know, it's all those things, right?
It's like, because I really did build a lot of relationships with them.
I didn't have them as friends because I, some, somewhere I would say my client friends for
sure, but that was years and years and years and years and years and years and years of
it.
But still, I don't know where majority of them are, what they're doing, how they're doing,
unless I run into them or I run into someone else.
But yeah, that's, I think that's the big part.
But, you know, if you care about people, that's the one side of it that they will tell you.
Absolutely.
And the more trusting that relationship is, the more they're going to tell you.
And recognizing that they're being valued for their opinion, then they're more likely
to be more honest and open with their opinion too.
Yeah.
And it might actually serve you because they would probably approach you with something
if you didn't ask, if there was something of concern.
They know you're open and willing to listen.
There's endless positive feedback on all of this.
Yeah, exactly.
So I mean, that's, this is just a general idea because I do have people, how do you
even begin?
What do you do?
You know, right now we're, say, it's October.
If you have not figured out Christmas yet.
Get on it.
Yeah, you're behind.
However, just to give you an idea.
Not to be discouraging though.
I think that even in October, if you haven't done the three months, that's okay.
You might have to shorten your, your timeframe in terms of like planning might only be two
weeks and then your execution might only be two weeks, but still try to implement it as
much as you can because it's going to be more beneficial than you two weeks before Christmas,
trying to figure out what it is you want to do for Christmas.
I think if you can lessen the stresses as a business owner or solo entrepreneur, whatever
it is, you know, maybe you're the manager of the spa.
Like it could be endless to what it is.
So if you, if you find it overwhelming to have those things and the farther out ahead
you get on doing the preliminary, the better will be on you.
I have banged out last minute things within a month, but I already had my strategies in
place.
So I knew exactly what I needed to do.
I think that's a big part of what you said, shorten the strategies, but make sure that
because the last minute things, they don't, they don't work as well as they could.
You know, I think you, another positive to pre-pawning and this might be, this isn't
something that we've touched on before and it could be its own episode, but when you're
doing marketing to be conscious of being inclusive in your marketing, so not just looking at
major holidays, like Christmas, but what are their holidays?
Do your clients celebrate?
Can you recognize those holidays?
So I would be a little bit more intentional when you're buying to make sure that you are
inclusive for your clients or who your clients are and what it is that they are going to
be celebrating and only, you can only do that with planning.
Right.
And actually, you know, talking about that is interesting because I had, when I was living
in Vancouver, I did work for someone, but because I was the only esthetician and ran
the esthetician side of it, her and I would go back and forth.
And electrolysis was a big component of that business at that time.
Being me being there is what brought the aesthetic side of it in.
That's where that happened, long story short.
But we had a big clientele of East Indian and the different Asian parts of the world,
if you wish, because then if my sister went, that sister went, cousin went, sister, the
aunt, it word of mouth went out.
So then we looked at what's going on in their worlds as well.
And we did do that then.
We looked at the different things that would happen.
Or another one is, you know, in the Muslim community, when do they do their fasting?
When do they have to understand who your clients are?
Right?
And what's going on in their world?
So you're right.
Being inclusive to everything around you and who your clients are is really important.
And there's a lot of areas now.
Totally.
And that can come from just conversations that you have with your clients.
Maybe it's your, if you're just by yourself, but if you have staff and asking your staff,
what are your clients celebrating?
Like having that intentionality behind it, then your staff would know to come to you
and be like, oh, my client celebrates this holiday, whatever it is.
It's something that you can build up to.
For sure.
Like I did that with clients that I knew Ramadan was coming.
Exactly.
I didn't know the date.
I said, oh, can you refresh my memory?
When is that this year?
Oh, more or less the date.
Because of course they don't know the date right away.
It changes now.
Right?
But again, you have an idea.
It's coming.
It's like, oh, and how does that look for you?
Like how does that change your life this year?
I have a tip.
Oh, yeah.
Google Calendar.
You can actually set up different holidays on Google Calendar.
So if you have Google Calendar, you can go in and set up holidays for, I think there's
like, well, there's like Christian holidays, right?
Christian holidays, so the different holidays based on different religions and faiths.
And then you can have it in your calendar so you're aware of what's coming and then
you can maybe ask your clients or staff.
Well, you look at me.
Everyone has a different aspect of their new year celebration.
Exactly.
Yeah.
Right?
So that's all.
Google can do it for you.
That's awesome.
And when you're planning out your 2024, start with your Google Calendar.
Start with your Google Calendar.
And get overwhelmed.
You don't have to do it all.
Pick the top three.
You know, if, and if you feel you can take on more than, than go ahead, right?
But you know, if you want to look at the next six months out, like the January to June segment
and start looking at what does that look like and make it target dates of when you would
start considering these things, right?
But doing that doesn't happen overnight.
No, and it's unrealistic to actually target every holiday because I have built out the
inclusive calendars for different organizations and there's something every day basically.
So I would say being recognizing that there are holidays coming up and then recognizing
and understanding your client base so that you're able to connect.
So you really are serving your clients and knowing your clients, then knowing the holidays
that they would celebrate and you leave those two together.
Exactly.
Yeah.
Nice.
Awesome.
Whoa.
Some great tips for pre-planning.
And as always, you know, if any of our listeners have something that they've used that's worked
for them, let us know.
We have our email in the description and we are always available to chat on social media
on Instagram.
It's at Beauty Cult Canada and on Facebook as well.
Awesome.
Thanks, Doreen.
Nice chatting with you today and we'll hopefully hear from our viewers and listeners soon.
Exactly.
Thanks so much for listening.
We'll be back next week.
Thanks for listening to Beauty Babble.