THOUGHT PROCESS
Sometimes the best and most effective way to “market” your Salon Suite is through non-promotional marketing activities.
ACTION STEPS
Find out how to use contests as part of an engagement marketing strategy to expand your social reach, increase your email subscriber list, encourage referrals and boost sales.
1. The Bring-A-Friend Summertime Event
But wait – it’s an event? I thought you said this was going to be about contests?
It is – or more precisely, it’s both. You can use contests to incentivize clients to attend events where you hope to increase referrals, educate your client base and grow retail product and service sales. Hold a summertime event where attendance is incentivized by a must-be-present-to-win (or at least must have attended to win) door prize including a Salon Suite gift card, retail products and themed additions (for instance, if your party was to promote a summer makeup palette your door prize could include makeup items and a makeup mirror, set of brushes, or some other related items).
The bigger and more desirable the prize, the more people will be incentivized to attend and to bring a friend. Give clients an entry for attending and give them one or more additional entries (chances to win) for everyone else they invite to the event.
2. The Summertime “Caption This Photo” Contest
Caption contests can be especially engaging to your audience since it gives them a chance to contribute content. Contests that facilitate user generated content give those who enter a vested interest in the outcome and in helping to promote the contest to their own networks via social media and email. For this contest, you just need to post an interesting summertime photo (bonus points if the photo somehow relates to your Salon Suite’s products or services) and invite social followers to add their caption in the comments below. You can choose your favorite, draw a name from all who entered, or use comment “likes” and popularity to determine the winner.
3. Guess How Many Minis are in the Jar Contest
You’ve probably seen these contests before – a large glass container is filled with some type of smallish item and people enter the contest by guessing how many pieces are in the container. You can do these with anything from candies to manufacturer samples to minis (like sunscreen or summertime SPF product mini!) or bobby pins or curling rods or makeup brushes or …? Give social followers a reason to share your contest by giving them an additional entry for sharing the contest with their followers in addition to the entry they get for placing a guess.
4. Salon Client Selfie Contest
This is another great way to encourage clients to add their own content and become ambassadors helping to promote your Salon Suite. For this contest, you would invite clients to post some kind of selfie – this could be at their appointment in a great “after” photo, using your retail products, or a selfie where they simply say what they love most about being your client. Since you’re asking clients to do some work here, this contest will work better with a bigger prize (you’re more likely to get clients to make this effort if the prize is more substantial).
5. Which Back to School Style is Better? Contest
Create a Facebook photo album or an Instagram photo collage showing several back-to-school trend styles and invite social followers to like/comment/share (Facebook) their favorite photo in order to vote and enter the contest or (Instagram) to tell you which collage image (helpful if you number them on the photo collage) is their favorite in the comments below.
6. Vote for New Services Contest
Here, again, you are getting clients and social followers into the game by letting them tell you what type of services would be most enticing for them. If you’re not thinking of adding new services then you can use retail products as the basis for voting, or even seasonal point of display impulse buy items. Once you’ve brought in the new addition based on their votes, reach out to everyone who participated by letting them know it’s available and giving them “first dibs” on purchasing with a time-limited offer.