Successful promotions and events play a pivotal role in every salon or spa's bottom-line health. The added influx of service clients and retail/gift certificate sales — not to mention the often deeper-discounted purchasing opportunities presented by manufacturers and distributors — are simply a "no brainer" to take advantage of. The good news is, most salons and spas do offer promotions throughout the year. The bad news is, many of them are often poorly planned, and do not take full advantage of the opportunities presented to them.

But lets get back to the good news. Executing killer promotions in your salon or spa doesn’t have to be daunting. All it takes is some effective and creative planning.

Here are six ways to help you get the most out of your salon/spa promotions:

• What’s your plan? It seems like every year, we’re hit with more and more promotional opportunities: Mother’s Day, Valentine’s Day, Breast Cancer Awareness Month, Back-to-School — these are just the tip of the iceberg. In order to make sure that you and your staff are ready for each promotion, it’s imperative that you get your plan down on paper. You need to define what supplies are needed, who does what and when it needs to be completed. All that information then needs to be transferred to a main promotional calendar that the entire business lives by. Better yet, enter the dates into your computer or smart phone so you get automated reminders!

• Make a date out of it! Promotions don’t just have to be centered around holidays and distributor/manufacture deals — make them an event! Schedule special dates throughout the year that will appeal to different demographics within your client base. Ladies night, mom’s night, guys’ night, or even a Super Bowl night — get creative and get your staff involved in the planning.

• Don’t forget to sweat the small stuff: Remember we mentioned how critically important it is to get everything you need for a successful promotion down on paper?  Dedicate a quick meeting with your team to brainstorm each and every item needed to ensure upcoming promotions or events are a success.

• Budget, budget, budget! That last thing you want to do it is put time and effort into a promotion or event, only to find out that it actually lost money for your business. Yes, there are times when it does make sense to chalk one up as a “marketing expense”, but at the end of the day, the name of the game is driving increased revenue. With that said, the most critically-important step for any promotion is to plug it into your cash-flow plan to see if the business can afford it — and to forecast how much return you will get on your investment.

• Who pays for it? Although it can be sore subject, it’s one that needs to be addressed beforehand. If you are on a commission-based compensation structure, your staff needs to be made aware how they are going to be compensated if the business is promoting discounted services. Will their commission be based on the standard full-price (thus costing the business even MORE money to run the promotion) or will they be expected to invest in the promotion by taking a percentage of the lower promotional price. Luckily, if you are using a Team-Based Pay or salary/hourly model, this is a moot point.

• Get staff involved: One of the best ways to get your team members excited about upcoming promotions is to involve them in the planning process. They’re creative — use that resource!