Start planning your festive pr campaign

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Yes it’s that time of year again, the salon’s crazy busy, columns are full and retail is flying off the shelf but it’s important not to let PR slip away during the festive season.  So here are our top five tips from PR expert Laura Glazebrook of LWPR on how to make sure your PR doesn’t take a back seat.

1. Offer party style advice. Everyone’s focused on work dos, Christmas drinks, family get togethers so make sure you’re helping clients out with quick-fire styling advice.  Tips on how to go from desk to disco in three easy steps, quickest ways to create a simple updo or how to revive your hair the morning after the night before!  Put together a few simple but clever tips and send out to your local newspapers, radio stations and plaster them all over your social media channels.  It’s a great way to dish out some advice and remind everyone who the hair experts are.
2. Offer fast-track appointments.  Time is precious but in the run-up to Christmas everyone will be feeling the pressure so why not offer time based appointments.  Devise a simple menu where clients can book in for a service to suit their time constraints.  Hair up in 25 minutes or a colour refresh in 60 minutes, whatever it may be adding how long the appointment takes will show everyone there’s always time for a quick salon visit and it’s a great PR story to share.
3. Build business for January.  Don’t get so focused on the pre-Christmas season that you forget about filling the salon up in the new year.  Consider offering discounts on all January rebookings made in November and December, it’s a great way to ensure the post-Christmas blues don’t hit the salon.
4. Gifts galore.  Most manufacturers will have Christmas gifts sets for you to offer clients but you can go the extra mile by offering a personalised hair hamper service.  Clients can choose products and with a little cellophane, ribbon and imagination from your team you can create a beautiful bespoke gift that clients will adore.
5. New Year hair resolutions.  It may seem repetitive but you know that magazines, newspapers and radio programmes will be full of New Year resolutions so make sure you’re up there with the best of them.  Put together some really unusual and clever pieces of advice on how to “detox” and care for your hair for all your local press contacts.