Black Friday - The Salon Social Media Game!

The Black Friday Game

What is the Black Friday Game?  It is a game I created for my salon clients 10 years ago when black friday started to become popular in the UK.  I wanted to created some excitement that we could all enjoy while giving my loyal clients a great bargain and some Christmas gift ideas.  It helped me thank my regulars with a great discount, meet new customers who joined the game for a voucher for themselves to try out my services, it was also a way to sell vouchers as christmas gifts.

The best part of the game?  It filled up my quiet spaces in January and February keeping me busy with work and bringing in some income during these quiet months.  Win Win! 

Each year I fully booked out my January white spaces with this Black Friday Game so I really recommend you try it.  My customers loved it and to this day still talk about it.

How it works

Terms of the game

There are 8 treatments that will be posted on social media throughout Black Friday.  One day only.

You do not know which treatment will be posted and when it will be posted.

You need to be following the salons facebook page and set your notifications on so that you know when a post is posted.

When the post is posted - the treatment will have a limited amount of vouchers available to purchase and a maximum of 2 x vouchers per customer.

Vouchers are not valid for December and only valid from January - March (3 months)

Winners will only have 1 week to claim their vouchers and pay for them.

Vouchers will need to be paid for before being issued (no exceptions).

Any vouchers not paid for by winners will be offered to other customers who played the game and commented on the post.  

Terms to be made clear to customers before they play the game.

Rules of the game

When you post your offer on your page - your customers will have to comment that they want to purchase a voucher - the first 10 (or 5 you set the rules) comments get to have the offer so clients need to be quick and quick to reply on the page.  This is why they need to have your page notifications on and set to alert them on their device whenever you post.

They can only comment on the post not private message you as you need the game to be fair.

There is also a wild card so out of all the comments - two customers who are not in the top 5 / 10 comments on the post are chosen at random to have the offer too just by being in the comment list.

The treatments are all seriously discounted so either 40 - 50% off. This is so your can fill your white spaces during your quiet times in January and February, so that you can meet new clients who are buying the offer to try your services or clients who are given then offer voucher as a Christmas gift. The crazy discount also creates urgency and excitement .

The vouchers need to be paid for before being issued to make sure you have the funds and are not let down in January / February.

The Game - how to get ready

Choose how many treatments you will put on offer.  Limit to six or eight to keep interest.

Choose the prices for these treatments and any other extras you may add in (free aftercare or sample with treatment etc)

Choose the order in which you will post these treatments.

Create a marketing image for each treatment including your post description - keep these on a document for you to use as you post your offers so this is easy for you on the day.

Start 2 weeks before Black Friday telling your followers about your Black Friday game, explain the rules and explain how it works. Get them ready so that they can join in the fun.  Keep reminding them over the two weeks with a 24 hour countdown the day before.

Create a sense of excitement around it all, encourage new followers and show followers how to set your page up on their notifications.

Create your gift vouchers so you can send these straight to your winners when they pay.

Create a payment link / details with a script you can send to all winners so they know how to pay, where to pay, the payment deadline. This will help them pay as soon as they know they have won and you can then send them their voucher straight away. (I kept all this information on a spreadsheet so I knew I was keeping it all organised)

Example of an offer post.

Don't over complicate your posts with too much information you want to keep people engaged and interested showing them the offer clearly and price straight away.

Black Friday Day!

Send out your first post at 6am so it is on your followers page when they wake up. Then spread the posting throughout the day randomly posting without any structure so your followers will not know what or when you post next, that creates an excitement to it.

The next day choose your winners on each post, choose your wild cards and send out details of their win and how they can pay to claim their vouchers.  Do this the next day while they are still excited or you may lose the sale do not leave this until the following week.

Thats the Black Friday Game! Now you have your New Year white spaces filled with your page getting some incredible engagement and your followers happy to have had some fun and bargain Christmas Gifts Gifts.

I hope you enjoy this game in Salon as much as I used to!

Leigh Blackwell