Three "Mother's Day" marketing ideas for procrastinators

Right about now, most children of all ages are starting to realize that Mother's Day in the United States (and many other countries such as Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Japan, the Netherlands, New Zealand,  Singapore, Switzerland to name a few) is next Sunday, May 11th.  [If your mom lives in Sweden you still have two more Sundays to go!]

Since we know in the spa industry that Mother's Day is second only to Christmas in terms of gift certificate sales, many of you have already been planning your promotions.  And many of you may have been planning for this for a year now (especially those who are following Smart Spa Marketing).  However, there are a few that have not yet put their full attention toward marketing for Mother's Day.  If that this the case, here are a few last minute ideas to spark some interest in gift certificates to your spa or salon for Mother's Day.  [These will work for the uber-prepared as well, if you aren't already doing these things!]

1. Create a Pay-Per-Click (PPC) ad campaign. This can be an ongoing, or temporary campaign on Google AdWords and/or Yahoo! Search Marketing to link to your website page that sells your gift certificates.  Ideally, folks can order instant gift certificates or pay for gift certificates online.  However, if you don't currently have that on your website, you can describe how easy it is to call or stop by to get their Mother's Day gift.  If you haven't used done PPC before to drive traffic to your site, you may find out that it is easier than you thought.  (This could take an hour to do, but once set up it is completely automated.)

• Simply go to one (or both) top search engines linked above to create your account. 
• Then you'll need to pick your keywords (what are your clients searching for? (Hint: "gift certificate <your city>" is going to be  top search); both Google & Yahoo give you guides on how pick your keywords.
• Set your cost-per-click.  This is what you pay every time someone clicks on your ad.  Due to the short time line here, and the spike in traffic expected this week for folks searching for spa gift certificates, you should consider paying as much as $1.50 per click.  This is on the higher side, but with an average gift certificate sale of $100, this will pay off if more than 2% actually make a sale. [You should expect much higher than 2%, however...25% or more purchasing a gift certificate is considered respectable.)
• Write your campaign headline -- this is the first main sentence and the ad.  This can be very simple such as "Spa Gift Card For Mom" and then the second line describes your spa name and location.  The goal here it to get them to click on the ad to go to your website.  You'll have the opportunity to create more than one headline, which gives you the chance to test which works the best in the long run.
• You can "turn off" the campaign after Mother's Day, or at least lower your cost per click if you want.  This will result in less traffic, but depending on the results and your budget, you can make immediate changes at anytime. 

2.  Send out postcards or cards by Wednesday, May 7 to your top 20% customers with an exclusive offer. The card can be handwritten, or printed with your handwriting.  It can be a generic postcard or personalized postcard.  The point is that you are sharing some exclusive offer to your top clients (and those that give them gifts.)  Keeping this offer simple and flexible means that it can be used by all.  Consider the following bonuses for gift certificate purchases over $100 and $200 made by May 11th.

• a flat dollar bonus (to be used at a second visit);
• a free product;
• a free makeup application;
• a free haircut; or
• any service  / product that has a low cost to provide

Ideally, these bonuses should not be used at the same visit as the gift certificate so that you will have two opportunities to build relationships. [ALTERNATIVE:  If you don't have the time to do this, you can also make phone calls to share the details of this offer as well to your best clients.]

3. Joint marketing with a nearby restaurant. Is there a popular restaurant nearby your spa or salon?  While it is too late to pre-market together, you can offer to gift the Mom's who eat there on Friday, Saturday and Sunday with a 10% off (or flat dollar amount) gift certificate.   You won't see a bump in your gift certificate sales, but it will be a wonderful way to build visibility with locals.  When you approach the restaurant, offer to do everything except hand out the "gifts."  Get creative, too, to make the presentation of this gift to be as memorable as possible.  [e.g., Do not create half-pages of black printing on colored laser paper.] Offer to customize them as if they were from the restaurant.  Or tie a small ribbon around your brochure with the coupon on top.   This type of marketing is more powerful and effective than running an ad in a local newspaper, so if you are concerned with printing cost compare it to the cost of such an ad and you'll see that this investment is much wiser.

I hope these tips helped you, whether or not you have been procrastinating about marketing for Mother's Day!    If you are a Mom, like me, I wish you a wonderful Mother's Day -- whether you celebrate it on May 11th or any other day this month!

Comments

[Gary]

I am a sales rep for a beauty distributor looking for ideas for my salon owners with mother's day promotions.

Any good ideas out there that have worked for you that you are willing to share???