Beauty Salon Marketing Plan: 6 Strategies to Boost Bookings Over the Festive Period

Owning a beauty salon can be a lucrative business in South Africa, especially during the festive period. 

The South African cosmetics and personal care products market industry was valued at USD 3.97 billion in 2025 (R3.97 billion), with over 70% of consumers allocating a portion of their budget to these products.

The data shows that the beauty industry is growing and thriving. If you’re the owner of a beauty business and want to learn how to prepare for the upcoming festive period, apply these salon marketing strategies and boost sales.

With South African consumers taking advantage of the convenience of online shopping, even during the festive period, adapting to the e-commerce trend can give your business the competitive advantage you need to retain existing clients and attract new ones.

 

 

Key Considerations for a Winning Festive Season Beauty Salon Marketing Strategy

There are key factors to keep in mind as a beauty salon owner when putting together a winning strategy in preparation for the festive season:

• Stay ahead of the game: The beauty and wellness industry is fast-paced. Trends are evolving rapidly, and taking advantage of new techniques and technology is crucial for growth. This can include investing in new equipment, upskilling staff to expand your service offerings, or ramping up your marketing efforts to attract new clients.

• Frequently revisit your strategy: Marketing, especially in the e-commerce world, is becoming increasingly important and can impact business growth. Frequently revisiting your marketing strategy ensures your business is visible to the right audience and shows up in a way that meets your customers’ needs.

• Plan for seasonal highs and lows: Every industry experiences seasonal fluctuations. Identifying your peak seasons will help you optimise your marketing strategy to take advantage of sales spikes and prepare for slowdowns.

Understanding your target market and defining your marketing objectives are an important part of setting up a winning beauty salon marketing plan.

Six Beauty Salon Marketing Strategies to Boost Bookings

We’ve compiled a list of six beauty salon marketing strategies to help boost your bookings in the upcoming peak sales season.

Maybe you’ve already got a winning strategy in place, but it never hurts to revisit and re-evaluate to adapt your current plan. Innovation often leads to great breakthroughs in business.

1. Optimise your online presence for search

Every day thousands of potential new clients are searching on Google for beauty services in your area. You need to be as visible as possible.

Research shows that 69% of people conducting a Google search will click on one of the top three results first. 

Optimising your website to appear at the top of Google’s search results page is a win for your business. SEO (search engine optimisation) is the most impactful and sustainable long-term strategy you can use to grow your business.

Get started by setting up your Google business profile here. You will then need to publish relevant content on your website like blogs and pages that include keywords that people might use when looking for a beauty salon.

After doing this you can get other relevant and trusted websites to link back to your website, building your online reputation.

 

 

2. Use social media marketing to attract new bookings

Create a content calendar and start posting regularly on social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram to build a strong online presence. This will put you in front of potential customers actively searching for beauty services.

A consistent social media presence helps build brand awareness and trust, and positions your business as being on the cutting edge of the latest beauty trends. You can also use the platforms to inform and encourage customers to make appointments through a convenient online booking system.

3. Run seasonal promotions during peak shopping periods

Craft seasonal promotions to attract new clients and boost bookings when shoppers are most active. Here are a few ideas to try out:

• Offer a complimentary or add-on service.

• Tailor promotions around special holidays and shopping seasons like Mother’s Day and Black Friday.

• Create seasonal packages that your competitors don’t offer to drive bookings and build lasting client loyalty.

• Create a gift card that includes a service bundle.

Promotions can drive sales during your salon’s busiest periods, attracting new clients and retaining existing clients.

4. Use email marketing and referral programmes to retain clients

Email marketing can be used to stay in touch with your clients, and it can all be automated. For example, you could send out a regular newsletter to new and existing clients, highlighting personalised offers, exclusive discounts and referral and loyalty programmes.

Consistent email marketing helps build stronger relationships, keeps your salon top of mind and increases client lifetime value over time.

5. Partner with local influencers and use targeted ads

Influencer marketing is a powerful way to build an online audience and boost your brand’s popularity. Partner with local influencers who would best represent your brand. 

This approach can boost your beauty salon’s visibility online and build trust with a broader audience. You can also combine influencer partnerships with targeted Google ads to extend marketing campaign reach to ensure your promotions are being seen by the right audiences at the right time.

6. Monitor marketing performance and adjust strategies

Make a habit of regularly monitoring your marketing performance to understand what is driving bookings and repeat business.

Through tracking key performance indicators like client acquisition, client retention rates and booking frequency, you can gain new insight into how well your efforts are translating into revenue.

Analyse your performance data to identify successful tactics and areas that need improving and make informed decisions to optimise your marketing budget and future campaigns.

You can then adjust your strategy based on this data and respond to customer behaviour and market changes, using your learnings to drive growth and profitability.

 

 

How to Fund Your Marketing Strategy

Once you’ve put together a strategy, you might need to invest in running paid ads, launching a new campaign or investing in tools to track performance.

You may also need to hire new staff to create social media posts and ensure your marketing efforts are running smoothly or outsource these tasks to a marketing agency.

For the funding boost you need to implement your new marketing strategy, look to Lula. Our Lula Fixed-Term Funding and Cash Flow Facility can give you up to R5 million in business funding within as little as 24 hours.

Lula Business Funding Requirements

It’s easy to secure and you can apply online in minutes to see if you qualify. Here are the basic requirements to apply: 

• Your business must be actively trading for at least one year.

• Your business should have a minimum annual turnover of R500,000.

• Your business should have a minimum monthly turnover of at least R40,000.