14 Sep 7 Tips for a Successful Holiday Spa Event

The holidays are upon us, and ‘tis the season for gifting and shopping. A spa event is one of the best ways to introduce your holiday offerings and to get clients and prospective clients into your spa to purchase retail products and schedule spa services for themselves or their loved ones.

The holiday season can be the chance for your spa to hit your revenue goals for the year, and hosting a holiday event can help you do just that. But a lot of work goes into planning and executing a successful event so if you haven’t already started, now is the time! Successful holiday events can take months of preparation and it is common to spend about 15% of your total marketing.

Food for Thought…

Before we dive in to our top 7 tips for a successful holiday spa event, we wanted to share some food for thought. The numbers show that millennials are the ones that not only love gathering groups, but they make spa visits as part of their lifestyle. Millennials also love sharing their experiences with their friends and in social media, making them an idea target to increase your spa public awareness. Holiday spa events are a great way to attract these millennial clientele into your spa. Hosting holiday events not only will generate an increase of income but will also bring excitement and new customers into your spa.

Here are 7 tips on creating a successful holiday event:

1. Define your clientele: One of the easiest and best ways to understand your customer is by getting social. Talk to your customers, get to know them on social, see who is following you and engaging in your posts. Create an analysis of the age group that comes most regular into your spa and their location. Do they live in a luxurious area of town? Are they mainly from your neighborhood? What are their age groups? Interests? By understanding your customer, you can come up with great event ideas that their generation and lifestyle would enjoy.
2. What is your spa objective? Before any spa event, holiday or not, the most critical piece is defining your objective. What is your end goal? Is it to grow clientele? Book more spa services? Sell-through of retail products? Having a clear goal will help you choose what kind of event you need to create to hit that target.
3. Plan ahead and be organized: This step is so important. A holiday event should start getting planned at least two months in advance, if not more! That’s because you should be thinking about the entire marketing plan, pre, during, and post event. The most successful holiday spa events requires planning of your digital advertising and social media marketing efforts, email marketing, mailers, in-spa/salon marketing, local advertising, mailers, PR, etc. You should also create excitement among staff members. Create incentives for the spa members that work the event to get them excited about the possible extra commission they can get by being involved in making the event successful. Make sure you are fully staffed for the event and have rooms available if providing free mini-facials or discounted services.
4. Ensure attendance & sales: How do you do this? Make sure you put in place a small booking fee to discourage no-shows for the event. Having customers put down a small $50 or less booking fee to hold their event appointment in place assures they will attend, and you can apply that fee to a discounted series of treatments (if that is your end goal) or towards retail they purchase during the event (if selling retail is your end goal). You can apply the booking fee to whatever defines your holiday event goal, which will increase your success rate and attendance!
5. Get your customers to bring a friend: Let your clients help you by giving them an additional discount if they bring a friend and they sign up for a service during the event or purchase some retail. Your client is your best advertisement! Give them an incentive to bring a friend and have their booking fee waived. Those are just some ideas to get more people into your event.
6. Advertise on social media beginning 4 weeks prior to the event: You want to get the crowd excited! Add some behind the scenes in preparation for your holiday event, show what kind of prices, raffles, or specials you will be offering to those who attend. Don’t forget, urgency is important! Add a sign-up deadline to the event or limit the number of bookings. You can also offer a special sign-up gift to the first 10 clients who RSVP  to encourage people to take action. Create buzz and show the world your excitement!
7. Create Exclusive offers for the event only: This one is a must. If you are having an event, you need to offer something unique during the event that you won’t offer any other time. This creates interest and excitement. Consider creating social-media only promo, a raffle, or a peel series special. New-client specials are a sure way to get new guests in your door. Mini facials or hands-on events are also a great way to encourage retail and service purchases. You may also want to consider offering free mini facials and then offer a discounted deal on the retail items you are promoting.

During the Spa Event and Post-Event

Now that you know the basics for creating a successful holiday spa event, don’t forget to create your to-do list for the event itself and post-event follow up. During the event, make sure you have someone responsible for posting on social media and taking photos. You should also consider doing an IGTV live. Create flyers to put around the spa for the event, encouraging attendees to post on social media using specific tags and hashtags. Make sure you are getting guests names, phone numbers and email addresses. An easy way to do this is to have a sign-in form when they enter the spa.

Arguably one of the most important steps for a successful event is the post-event follow up. Send an email the next day thanking them for attending, consider one last promotion (like refer a friend), and ask them to follow you on social media. Create a drip campaign with multiple touch points so your spa stays top of mind for all the guests who attended your event. Finally, have fun with it! Holiday spa events should be fun and should make your client feel excited and welcome!

Contact Us

The team at Edgeless Beauty Pro is super passionate about hosting events to help grow your business. If you’re interested in learning more about how we support our spa partners with special spa event planning and execution, contact us.