How to Keep Marketing Christmas in Your Salon Despite Lockdown

Noel Halligan and Corey Taylor, business partners and founders of NOCO Hair sit down to discuss their Christmas marketing strategy, despite the setting being very different this year.

Christmas time is notoriously the busiest time of the year for hairdressers – and this year is going to be no exception, as many clients missed out on their November appointments thanks to lockdown.

We’re all used to it being a mad rush of back-to-back appointments, making it through the day on mince pies and biscuits as everyone desperately squeezes in to look fab for work events and family gatherings.

Obviously, things will be quite different this year – there may not be office parties or family gatherings, but clients still want to look and more importantly, feel great! Our marketing strategy is based on rewarding existing guests and the law of reciprocity – do good and good will come to you.

We will be releasing a gift card sale later on in the year where we will top up the value paid on to the gift card with an extra bonus:

Buy a £200 gift card & receive £50 bonus

Buy a £400 gift card & receive £100 bonus

Buy a £750 gift card & receive £250 bonus

This is a great way for our guests to pre-pay for their appointments. They get a saving on their appointments for the following year and it’s a great cash injection for the business – win win! We trialled this last year and it was really successful so we are excited to relaunch it again this year.

As well as using the gift cards for their own hair, we are also encouraging gift cards as Christmas presents. Everyone needs a little pick me up right now and with experience packages being a little limited, a trip to the salon is a great treat.

We will also be communicating with local businesses, suggesting a gift card as a ‘Trivial Benefit’ for their employees. There is a tax-free allowance on gifts up to the value of £50 for each member of staff providing certain criteria is met.

We are working closely with local businesses. It’s even more important right now to support one another. We are in contact with another company that shares a similar target market to us and looking at ways that we can introduce clients to one another through referrals and rewards. This is something we hope to build upon and create a real community between the businesses in our area.

We have just launched a Refer A Friend scheme whereby both the existing and new guest receive £15 off of their next appointment with us. This is actioned through our NOCO Treat Card. Every guest receives a Treat Card where they build up loyalty points on every visit. Each has a unique code, all a guest needs to do is pass this number on to their friends and family to quote when they book their appointments. Guests can build up to five referrals giving them £75 off of their visit. Other Treat Card rewards include money off vouchers, treatments, complimentary blow dries and other goodies.

As well as rewarding our existing guests we are also looking for new ways to spread the NOCO Love by giving back to the world. In August we launched 100 free haircuts to local charities. Penny Brohn is our chosen charity and we are always looking at ways to support them. Charities need help more than ever and it’s a great way of offering our services and giving something back at the same time.