Black Friday Prep for Beauty Pros 

[00:00:00] Darine: there's the tier discount, so if a client spends a hundred dollars, for example, they get 10 percent off, or if they spend 200, they get 15 percent off. whatever it is, like just thinking a little bit outside of the box of how you can think of Black Friday,  

[00:00:14] Darine: Welcome to this week's episode of Beauty Babble. Today we're sharing tips on how you can get ready for Black Friday. And Black Friday this year is November 29. Suzanne and I are recording this episode, in September, and our listeners are probably not going to hear this until October. But, We need to get this you need to be thinking about this early, right, which is why we started thinking about this early and that we had to get it out like early October. 

[00:00:43] Darine: So our listeners had time to maybe use some of the tips that we're going to share. Exactly.  

[00:00:50] Suzanne: Preparing and thinking ahead. Yeah, so it's interesting Black Friday because It used to be I think on a different aspect of like great deals. I remember [00:01:00] seeing the door crashing. That would happen. 

[00:01:01] Suzanne: It was just crazy before I'd be like, Oh my God, it's like a slow mo. It's a soccer game in Europe. It's just crazy, right? And now I know some people who have said that they, they feel that they need to do it, but they don't really know if they're really maximizing or getting anything from it. So this is why we brought it up because of course, the strategies change in this, in this industry. 

[00:01:24] Suzanne: And we have to look at things. It's not like people are going out to buy TV, right? This is different in the beauty industry. And I think that's why we wanted to chat about it. A little bit more.  

[00:01:35] Darine: And I think that makes sense. Where do we start? Because a lot of times, you know, like you said it, TV or something, but I think it's starting in like, what, what can you do? 

[00:01:47] Darine: Like is it a product sale? Is it a deal off of your services? Like what is it that you can do for Black Friday? I think that's the first thing they have to decide. Our listeners have to decide what you're [00:02:00] going to offer.  

[00:02:01] Suzanne: Yeah, so I think if they think you know, think of a creative offer, that's exclusive, something maybe you have never done before or maybe you are, you're just in the middle of bringing something new in and a new service, a new, new piece of equipment or new training you've done whatever it may be, would that be the idea? 

[00:02:24] Suzanne: To start with, and maybe you know that that's one way of looking at it. The other is if you okay, so you don't have new equipment. You don't have a new service. So, do you encourage package? Can you be, you know, creative and do a new package idea that you've never done before? Would that be? What do you think, Doreen? 

[00:02:45] Darine: Yeah. So I think I kind of had jotted down like a couple of ideas. And things that I've seen out there, like there's the tier discount, right? So if a client spends a hundred dollars, for example, they get 10 [00:03:00] percent off, or if they spend 200, they get 15 percent off. So you can do that. There's the buy one, like. 

[00:03:06] Darine: You know, get a pedi, buy a pedicure, get a manicure or whatever. The packages, you can create one just for Black Friday. I know you've talked a lot about like, you know, making a new scrub or whatever it is, like just thinking a little bit outside of the box of how you can think of Black Friday, especially for our us listeners, like it's busy. 

[00:03:26] Darine: It's right before their Thanksgiving, I believe, and there's a lot going on. So is there a relaxation approach you can take, more of a holistic treatment that you can offer, something a little bit more pamper y than usual? Right. And then because it's the holiday time, like thinking about gift cards, like maybe if you buy a, you know, buy a, I don't know, It's a 50 gift card, but it's actually worth 75 or whatever it is, you know, I've seen a lot of places do that. 

[00:03:57] Darine: Yeah, those are, those are a few of the [00:04:00] ones just I've thought off the top of my head. But I also think that it could just be, I don't know, it doesn't have to be elaborate either.  

[00:04:09] Suzanne: Right. I think as you said, like in the US, if I'm not mistaken, sorry folks in Canada, so you guys can let us know and correct us. 

[00:04:16] Suzanne: But I know it falls around Thanksgiving and Black Friday, because that's the whole.  

[00:04:21] Darine: It's like a big long weekend for them.  

[00:04:22] Suzanne: Yeah, exactly. Big, big deal, right? So I'm not sure when it falls this year. I know,  

[00:04:27] Darine: I know this from the movies. 

[00:04:29] Suzanne: And the other thing when you, when you are creating that, sometimes it's really good to go for coffee with a colleague or something, take them out, say, brainstorm, I'll come up for something with you and you come up with something for me. Like, I think it really helps. I know you and I do that a lot of times for ideas as we're going back and forth. 

[00:04:46] Suzanne: It's so helpful when you have someone else. You know, sometimes there's that special client that, you know, has such great ideas. I've done that. I've asked clients, what are some things like, especially my, my I don't want to say top clients, but they know, you know what I [00:05:00] mean? The ones that have been with you a long time and they know your business, they, they know you, they're committed and loyal to you, you know, those types of people. 

[00:05:08] Suzanne: And they also know you have to make money. Like, Oh, you should just give away free pedicures. Like, well, you know, like that's not the people you need to brainstorm with. Right. But what, what could come to that idea? I think.  

[00:05:20] Darine: And the other thing is a great idea because it's market research. You're asking your target audience. 

[00:05:26] Darine: What is the market  

[00:05:28] Suzanne: research?  

[00:05:29] Darine: Aren't you proud of me? I'm listening. Absolutely. But I think, you know, there's the idea, right. But like. Having the ideas is the first step, but the reason we talk about this early is because after the, after you get the idea, then you have to think about, okay, now what do I do? 

[00:05:50] Darine: How do I get this out there? And that's where you need time in advance to really get that information out there, reach your people How do you market your [00:06:00] special or your offer, whatever it is, and, you know, how, how can, how can we do that?  

[00:06:08] Suzanne: Well, I think they have to let them know by their website, if they have a website. 

[00:06:12] Suzanne: If you know, email marketing, if you've got an email address, social media, of course. Find up  

[00:06:19] Darine: in your salon,  

[00:06:20] Suzanne: spa, up in your salon, yeah, or outside your door, if that's possible, depending where you are. Yeah, it's getting people out there. I know some people do a lot of direct messaging. So if that's your way and you want to try to reach everyone, I do suggest try to get email, emails. 

[00:06:36] Suzanne: It's a, it's a. A much more efficient and faster way to get your message out than text messaging, but you know, sometimes you have those, I don't want to say top 10, 20 clients and you want to directly message them from you. That's a special thing too. So I get that mail is a little expensive, but if you feel again, I, I used to do mail outs to some exclusive clientele.[00:07:00]  

[00:07:00] Suzanne: So they had their own card with the message and signed off and whatever it was because they felt it was very personal to them. So there's, there's ways to do things. And of course the big general, you know, email list as well, but yeah, nothing says you can't speak to your, your clients specifically and talk to them, but you have downtime, phone, text, whatever you're doing with them. 

[00:07:25] Suzanne: But I think you really need to step it up. Right, and really get out there when we say it's a hustle, it's a hustle, and this is part of the hustle, right? Absolutely. And being ahead of it. Yeah.  

[00:07:36] Darine: Don't rely just on social media is my, my big note here. Yes, you should be posting it on social media. And I think you can tease it out. 

[00:07:47] Darine: You can tease it out with your clients in person too. Like, you know, maybe you're starting mid October and you're like, Oh, I have some great deals coming out. I'm just working on putting them together, but they'll be ready in November. I just wanted to let you [00:08:00] know. And that direct message, you know, select clients, maybe, you know, they're early, you know, because they are the clients you get, you get first access to your specials, whatever it may be. 

[00:08:12] Darine: Right. I think it's, it's using all the different channels that you have available to you. And if you do, you work with a team if you have other staff with you, it's just getting them on board as well and letting them know exactly what it is, very informed on all the details and then having them relay it to the, to every client they interact with as well. 

[00:08:34] Suzanne: Mm hmm. Like you said, dangling that carrot is big. I remember it wasn't Black Friday, but it was promotion with the product line. I use them every year. They did like a dual cleanser and it was the big size and really reasonable pricing. Pretty much the same price of a retail size. And they gave it, which is double, I think it'd be about double the size. 

[00:08:54] Suzanne: And I remember telling the front desk, if anyone's buying it. A cleanser [00:09:00] toner, see if they can wait till their next one or till September to whatever it was because it's coming. If you can't wait, don't worry, right? Like let them know because they're like, Oh, we have a promotion coming. Can you hold off? 

[00:09:16] Suzanne: Like, what do you think? Yeah. That type of idea. So that's kind of actually one of the steps I would do is that now you're really taking in account your client. Nothing like walking into a place. You just bought whatever it was, and you go there a week later, and now it's on sale. So think of that side of the customer. 

[00:09:39] Suzanne: And I think you can go above and beyond that. That's the specialty of service, right? Is, is doing that different level of customer care. I guess, I guess is what I could call it, customer care.  

[00:09:50] Darine: I like the idea of that consistency. Like you knew every, And this came out. Like, if you think this is something I want to offer and this [00:10:00] is something I will offer every Black Friday or, you know, just thinking about it that way, that can be something your clients look forward to as well. 

[00:10:08] Darine: Like, Oh, this I'm going to do. I can't wait till this offer, this special comes about. So thinking about it that way. And you always bring this up, contacting your distributor. Yeah. And seeing if they have any special coming  

[00:10:23] Suzanne: up. Exactly. So start planning ahead. You know, if they have anything, then you can plan ahead. 

[00:10:29] Suzanne: It's, it's so hard to plan when all of a sudden the week before your distributor gives you the information. How do you get that to your clients? That's just not enough time, right? The other thing on there, a really good thing to remember, depending on what you're offering is what are your refunds? 

[00:10:44] Suzanne: policies like what or returns or anything like that specific to a product or service or what, what is, is it a timeframe? If you've got a service deal, is that expiring by certain date to be used? Like be very, [00:11:00] very clear. Very clear. On what you're, Those types of things. So this is why we always you guys hear us talking about planning, planning, planning. 

[00:11:08] Suzanne: Think about all it's so important. And if you do have a loyalty program, how does it affect your clients? Can they do it right? Or what are they getting from that? You know, like you mentioned, I think you said VIP early access is really Important. Yeah, I used to do exclusive. I did because it was just, it just felt they were important and I, I thought they were important and, and my staff felt the same way because then we, we put that forward right and it's, it's your own little familia. 

[00:11:41] Suzanne: That way.  

[00:11:42] Darine: And I think to like. Thinking about, this just came to me, like, maybe on Black Friday, like, if a client books for that day, and those could be the early access clients, that is a special, its own special thing, like maybe you want to go shopping, come pamper [00:12:00] yourself, or something like that, right? 

[00:12:02] Darine: And that is a limited spot, because you only have so many spaces in that day, so that can be a different approach as well, just keeping it very specific to that day.  

[00:12:11] Suzanne: Yeah, if you're not booked up, then that's a great way to look at it. But if you've got regular clients coming all the time, You want to warn them that this is coming, do you want me to pre book you? 

[00:12:23] Suzanne: Yeah, exactly. Because that's another aspect that if, if I always came in on Friday at two o'clock and now my appointment, what do you mean I can't get in that day? So make sure you're really planning this all out. Because now you've disappointed someone, right? So keep that in mind. And the other thing after Black Friday is Cyber Monday. 

[00:12:41] Suzanne: So I mean, they go hand in hand. So be creative of what that means, because why are they going to go to you? Yeah. Why they, why you, right? So I think that's another one. You know, with the being so like late in November, will it correlate with Christmas? [00:13:00] Like, is that something like you can play on that? 

[00:13:01] Suzanne: It's right around the corner. It's a month before like, you know, there's a lot of ways you can play with it. And I know, I know people want, maybe, maybe our listeners are looking for more direct ideas. Those come in workshops. And that's kind of like a business consultation, right, that we're working with people. 

[00:13:21] Suzanne: If that's something that you need, like, reach out to us. We do work with beauty professionals on these things. Exactly. Exclusive to their business, and we keep it exclusive and confidential. We don't say, use this deal, and then we tell everyone the same deal. It really has to be What is your business? 

[00:13:39] Suzanne: What are you looking for? What do you need? And it's really an analysis of your business so that we can bring something unique to your establishment if you're stuck on ideas. But it really, if you just talk to someone else in the industry, I think people come up with some great ideas. Or like you said, market researcher, a few of your clients, bring them in for tea [00:14:00] time. 

[00:14:01] Suzanne: Right? And you can also visit events with them to say, Hey, love to join. I'm planning out next year. What are some thoughts that would make your visit at blah, blah, blah, the name of the company, what would make you want to keep coming back here? And I was, I just asked, it's like, they're coming all the time. 

[00:14:21] Suzanne: I want to keep them coming. So tell me what you need. Right. So I think that's a big part of it too, but you have to be confident in that side. I think, I don't know, to hear it.  

[00:14:31] Darine: Well, and I think also, like, think about what appeals to you, like, what has worked on you for Big Friday? When have you been compelled to take advantage of a deal? 

[00:14:41] Darine: Because a lot of times, that's probably a good idea to implement. If it's working on you, it'll work on somebody else.  

[00:14:48] Suzanne: Exactly. It could even be, oh, it was a great deal on a TV. Well, what if you picture the TV, the item, as your service or as your product? What's the difference? Right. The approach is the same. 

[00:14:59] Suzanne: So [00:15:00] and that's what people I think you got to understand that marketing is marketing. Of course, it's an industry based one, but all of its applies to the same kind of protocols and steps. It's just unique to your service or product that you're offering. And the other thing to please, please set up some way of tracking. 

[00:15:19] Suzanne: So that you can analyze what worked and what didn't work. So then you're prepared for your next one or what you're going to do next. It's so important to do. And it's not, it's not that hard. Right, Doreen? Like, can you give some ideas of some simple things that people could do on a spreadsheet or write it down? 

[00:15:37] Darine: I think, like, I work a lot in Google Drive and with Google folders, but I think keep track of everything you do. So if you have How are you jotting down your ideas like I would start a document and write down all my ideas, save them all into one folder. And then keeping track of how many I would keep track of how many hours it took me to, to plan it, [00:16:00] how much. 

[00:16:02] Darine: What I'm exactly am I doing for promotion and then tracking your analytics on each of the promotions that you've done a lot of times you can't track like the in person one, but maybe if it's a service or a package, you're asking every client the books, how did they hear about it? And then you can document it that way. 

[00:16:21] Darine: I just think. It's going to be a little, it seems like it might be a little additional work, but that's going to save you work next year when you want to come back. And if you want to redo the same thing and have like a consistent offering every year, then you know exactly what you need to do. You just got to update those documents and you don't have to redo them from scratch. 

[00:16:41] Darine: You know exactly what you did for marketing. And if something you did didn't work, don't do it again. Try something else, but just keeping track of it. But yeah, I would do a spreadsheet. If, if you're not familiar with spreadsheets, just write it down in a document, but keep it all together. Like all the images you've used, if you're doing like any [00:17:00] kind of design, I would just keep the templates, keep it all together. 

[00:17:03] Suzanne: Mm hmm. Well, that's what the marketing person does, right? But if a person isn't like I even did, you know, before really understanding spreadsheets, and I'm going back a long time ago, you guys. I can remember when it all came out paper pen and I just wrote it down and said, okay, my facial is going to be, I don't know, say by four, fifth one free. 

[00:17:28] Suzanne: I'm just throwing a rambling. So I tracked how many did I sell? How many were given away? What did it cost me to run that staff equipment product and you can just really simple Simplify it and see oh, wow. I only got four people who purchased this package, but last year when I did this other promotion I had 50 people buy it. 

[00:17:56] Suzanne: Oh, well, what was different about that? Let me look back. So [00:18:00] now you can look, oh, I missed this, or I could have done this better, or I forgot to add that value to it. It's so many different things, but you really just need to put that hat on and wear it and do it. And it gets better. Like, yeah, I went from paper, pen idea into, okay, I need to organize this better. 

[00:18:19] Suzanne: So yeah, I went into Google and I did my sheets and planned it that way, a spreadsheet. But And then I looked at Googling how to make formulas because I didn't know anything about them. So then, oh, how do you add, subtract, divide, blah, blah, blah. All those things, percentages, and it's like, oh, this is interesting. 

[00:18:36] Suzanne: It made my life so much easier because I just had to put in the numbers and jot it out. And then I looked and said, you know what, that promotion with that product did so well on hydration. Oh, I'm going to do it for the anti age treatment. It's, you know, you just flip, use the same concept with a different item or a different service per se and see, but you have to watch [00:19:00] what are your costs in it. 

[00:19:00] Suzanne: So like if you went from this great promotion worked on a pedicure. Will that will that work for let's say a massage treatment probably because you're not using a lot of product, right? And the overheads low on that but if you do it into I don't know Equipment and new facials now your cost of that has gone up the cost to provide that service. 

[00:19:26] Suzanne: So you have to allow that in there too, right? Especially if you have staff, you got to allow that extra hour and a half with the staff versus the pedicure was one hour. Like it's things like that to think about, but it's a learning experience. And, and you know, as you do, you get better at it and you fall down and guess what? 

[00:19:43] Suzanne: You get back up.  

[00:19:45] Darine: I also think that, you know, because there, you're going to need to do some digital stuff, like if you have a social media, you have your website, you're going to be posting on that, you should be saving everything that you post, because then if it's the [00:20:00] words, you don't have to rewrite the caption, you don't have to rewrite the header, like all these things take a really long time to think about but if it was effective, and you did sell a lot, then you can just reuse the same stuff. 

[00:20:12] Darine: But if it didn't sell a lot, then maybe thinking of like, how did you promote it? Was it appealing enough? Enticing enough? Sometimes the words that you use really do make a difference. And if you do decide to change it up, then change up the language too. But you have something to look back on, say, okay, well, maybe that didn't work. 

[00:20:29] Darine: How would I change it up? It is a little bit maybe outside the regular way that our listeners might approach their work, but unless you have the budget to hire a professional in the space, you're going to have to get used to doing some of this stuff. I know it sounds mean of me to say, but I'm going to say it. 

[00:20:50] Darine: You just, you have to do it or you're going to. Always end up in a place where you're not getting, maximizing [00:21:00] your profits because you're not doing all this other stuff that needs to be done.  

[00:21:04] Suzanne: And you know, on that too, I mean, I remember sitting at my desk pondering all this going, Oh my God, I can't, I'm, I'm dying. 

[00:21:13] Suzanne: I can't do all this. I'm melting away. And I had to really consider, okay, if I hired someone, what would it cost? What can I actually do? And then I just grew the budget. And I bit the bullet and it cost me to run this to start with, I didn't make money to start with, but slowly it got there and I had to start to think, okay, I'm going to allot a certain percentage to go towards this. 

[00:21:40] Suzanne: And it literally started off really small. And I'm not talking like Google ads or Facebook ads, I'm not talking, I'm just talking about someone who helped me run promotional material because that's the cost outside of your advertising, right? And. You know what, and I was committed to making it work, and I [00:22:00] worked with them, like I didn't say, here you go, you come up with everything, I was very involved with it, for ideas, I wanted to understand it all, and I'd say, because I knew my clients, I knew my business. 

[00:22:10] Suzanne: Your marketing person may not know your business and they need to know it. So the more they get to know you and what you want and what you're looking for and what the goals are, hopefully that person will understand you better and then boom, they come up with them. Hey, I got a great idea for you. And that's, that's how it went for me, but it took time in that relationship. 

[00:22:31] Suzanne: It's not, you hand it over. I don't know how you feel about the string. Cause you do do it for a living. If I came to you and just handed it to you, say, okay, do it. And now my expectations are come on, like that. Nothing works, Jermaine fair. That's not fair to you and not fair to me as a business. But I think at the beginning, if we work closer together and start you understanding my business and what I want. 

[00:22:52] Suzanne: It helps you do your job more efficiently and the outcome is a lot better.  

[00:22:58] Darine: Absolutely. 100%. [00:23:00] Yeah. And I think, I think you said it like you just got to try things and then see how it goes and always think in advance. That's why we're doing this episode. Like, so in my mind, cause I'm usually doing things last minute, not going to lie in my own life, not for my clients, but in my own life. 

[00:23:19] Darine: So a lot of times we give our best to others. And then for ourselves, we fall behind for our own business and our own, you know, especially, people in this industry like we're givers and we care and we want to do for other people so think about yourself early and promote your special early because then you're gonna, you're gonna get a little bit more in return than doing it last minute to  

[00:23:44] Suzanne: less stressful. 

[00:23:45] Darine: Yeah.  

[00:23:46] Suzanne: Oh, yeah. And then you're actually ahead of the game. Because if you think of Black Friday, and then maybe you're correlating, oh, how would Christmas work with this? Could I somehow bring this all together? You've just done two major events that are coming up. And then you can just [00:24:00] focus on doing service and then plan for your New Year. 

[00:24:04] Darine: Yeah. And if any of our listeners have a really good idea that's worked for them that they want to share let us know, we're always interested.  

[00:24:13] Suzanne: Or what, maybe it was the relationship, like how I shared working with my marketing person at the time, right? It's I think it's really important that that's what this is all about is, is giving out information and trying to help people be successful. 

[00:24:26] Suzanne: There's room for everybody.  

[00:24:29] Darine: Absolutely. Awesome. Well, hopefully this has been So I hope you found that helpful, at least as a reminder to get it, get on it. Exactly. And  

[00:24:38] Suzanne: can't wait to hear what you, please share, like, you don't have to share what your promotion was, but tell us if you tried it and tell us what, what your experience was like. 

[00:24:48] Suzanne: I think it'd be really interesting to share that too.  

[00:24:50] Darine: Thanks everyone. Thank you.