The holiday season presents unique opportunities for tanning businesses to increase sales now and build momentum for busy season. That’s particularly true with sunless, which is likely the most event-driven service in most salons.

Use these strategies to increase your holiday spray tan sales and help ensure that they will lead to recurring customers and revenue.

• Get them to buy early and buy more. Get customers to buy their spray tans early with a special package. New spray tanners will appreciate the opportunity to do a test-run. Or a four-pack could be viewed as a way to get through all of one’s big holiday events. With new spray tanners, it’s important to make sure you have more than one opportunity to impress. Or, alternatively, send out a follow-up offer for new clients, offering an incentive to come back. Also, make sure to present EFT options that provide better value. While some might take advantage of the good deal and lapse after the holidays, others will appreciate the ability to spray tan regularly for an affordable price and stay on long-term.
• Optimize results. Event tanners are particularly viable targets for bigger sunless sales. When they’re already investing time and money in the occasion and getting the perfect look for it, they’re not likely to pinch pennies when it comes to their tan. Make sure to present all your upgrade options and complementary products and outline how they benefit the process. If you guarantee satisfactory results or else fix it or refund, but only if they’re using your full prep, session, and post routine, they’ll be even more likely to get it.
• Get social. It’s also one of the best times to utilize social media to promote your sunless services. With all the different holidays, you don’t have to think too hard about what to post. Posting about holiday-related themes is a no-brainer, but also make sure a good portion are dedicated to sunless.
• Parties. Incentivize clients to prep for their events with other attendees at your salon with discounts for groups. Scale the discount based on the size of the group to motivate them to get everybody involved. Consider providing snacks and drinks to make it an event in itself. If you get a group of five, surely some or most of them are new to your salon, so the benefits go beyond the large one-time sale. Consider additional offers you can send them home with to make sure they come back.
• Referrals. When compared to other forms of client acquisition, offering an incentive for new customer referrals is almost always a good idea. Reward your VIPs with cards or codes that give new clients a small discount and earn the referred credit.
• Gifts. Customers probably won’t think of buying spray tans as gifts, but they will if you present it as an option. Put together a package of spray tans and all the products they’ll need as an alternative for people that find gift cards to be too impersonal.
• Retail. Along with promoting sunless prep and care products as gifts in the salon, take your efforts outside your immediate circle with paid digital ads. Paid Facebook, Instagram and Google ads will help you reach new customers who won’t see your posts organically.