How to Run Tanning Salon Promotions That Actually Work

Running promotions in a tanning salon sounds simple. Knock a few quid off a package, stick a poster in the window, and wait for the rush. Except it rarely works like that.

Most salon promotions either attract bargain hunters who never come back at full price, or they sit there quietly doing nothing because existing customers don't even know the offer exists. The promotions that actually work are the ones that are structured properly, targeted at the right people, and — crucially — easy to manage so you're not drowning in admin every time you want to run a deal.

Here's how to run tanning salon promotions that genuinely grow your business.

Discounted Packages With a Purpose

The most common promotion in tanning salons is a discounted package — and it's common because it works, when done properly. The key is giving the discount a reason and a time limit.

A package that's always discounted isn't a promotion — it's just your price. Customers learn to wait for it, and you've effectively lowered your margin permanently. Instead, tie discounts to specific events or seasons. A summer launch deal that runs for two weeks creates urgency. A January "new year" offer gives people a reason to come back after Christmas. A birthday discount feels personal.

The best tanning salon software lets you schedule discount codes that activate and expire automatically. You set it up once, and the promotion runs itself — no need to remember to turn it off at midnight on the last day, no accidentally leaving a 30% discount running for three extra weeks because you forgot.

Structure matters too. Discounting your smallest package barely registers — customers save a pound or two and you've cut your margin for nothing. Discounting your larger packages, or offering bonus minutes on top (buy 100 minutes, get 20 free), pushes customers towards higher-value purchases. The discount feels generous, but you've actually increased the average transaction value.

Loyalty Programmes That Reward Regulars

Loyalty programmes aren't technically promotions, but they're one of the most effective tools for increasing repeat visits — which is ultimately what every promotion is trying to achieve.

The stamp card approach (buy 10, get 1 free) is simple but limited. Digital loyalty programmes are far more flexible and harder to game. Points-based systems let you reward every purchase proportionally, and you can set different earning rates for different products or packages. A customer buying a premium unlimited package earns more points than someone buying a single session, which reinforces the behaviour you want.

Tiered loyalty takes it further. Bronze, silver, and gold tiers give customers something to work towards. A customer who's close to the next tier will often top up their minutes just to get there — that's revenue you wouldn't have had otherwise. The tier status also creates a sense of exclusivity that makes people less likely to try a competitor.

The critical thing with loyalty programmes is that they need to be automatic. If your staff have to manually stamp a card or remember to add points, it won't happen consistently. The programme needs to run in the background, adding points at the POS without any extra steps.

Gift Cards: Let Your Customers Do the Marketing

Gift cards are one of the most underused promotions in tanning salons. They're not just a product — they're a customer acquisition tool. When someone buys a gift card, they're essentially paying you to introduce a new customer to your salon.

Physical gift cards still work well for walk-in purchases, but digital gift cards are where the real growth is. A customer can buy one at 11pm from their phone, and it gets emailed directly to the recipient. No trip to the salon needed, no waiting until opening hours. For birthdays, Christmas, and last-minute gifts, digital cards remove every barrier to purchase.

You can also use gift cards as a promotional tool directly. Offer a bonus — buy a £30 gift card, get £35 credit — during key periods like the run-up to Christmas. Existing customers buy them for friends, and you've now got a new person walking through your door with credit to spend.

Make sure your gift cards are available through your online portal or app as well as in-salon. The easier they are to buy, the more you'll sell.

Gamification: The Spin Wheel

This one might sound gimmicky, but it works surprisingly well. A spin-to-win wheel — either on a screen in the salon or through your customer app — gives customers a chance to win free minutes, discounts, or bonus loyalty points after a purchase.

The psychology is simple: people love the chance to win something, even if the prizes are modest. A customer who wins 5 free bonus minutes feels like they got something extra, and the cost to you is negligible. But the goodwill and the "I won free minutes!" conversation they have with friends is genuine word-of-mouth marketing.

The key is controlling the odds and the prizes. You should be able to set exactly what's on the wheel, the probability of each segment, and cap the total prizes given out. Done properly, a spin wheel costs you almost nothing but creates a memorable experience that differentiates your salon from the one down the road.

Email Marketing: Reaching Customers Who've Gone Quiet

The most valuable promotion is often the one that brings back a lapsed customer. It costs far less to re-engage someone who already knows your salon than to acquire a brand new customer.

Built-in email marketing — where your POS system can send targeted emails to your customer base — makes this straightforward. You can email customers who haven't visited in 30, 60, or 90 days with a specific offer to come back. "We miss you — here's 20% off your next package" is simple, but it works because it's targeted and personal.

You can also use email to announce new promotions, seasonal offers, or new products. The advantage of having email built into your salon software rather than using a separate platform like Mailchimp is that your customer data is already there — no exporting, importing, or syncing. You write the email, pick the audience, and send. Five minutes, done.

Don't overdo it though. One or two emails a month is plenty. More than that and people unsubscribe, which means you've lost the channel entirely.

Online-Only Offers

If you have an online store or customer portal, online-only promotions are a smart way to drive adoption. Offer a small discount or bonus minutes that are only available when purchasing through the app or website.

This does two things. First, it gets customers used to buying online, which means they start purchasing outside salon hours — evenings, weekends, bank holidays — when they'd otherwise have to wait. Second, it reduces the workload on your staff during busy periods because customers are self-serving.

Once a customer has bought online once and seen how easy it is, they tend to keep doing it. The initial promotion is just the nudge they need.

What Makes Promotions Fail

Most failed promotions share the same problems:

No expiry date. If the offer runs forever, there's no urgency. Customers think "I'll do that later" and never do.

Too complicated. "Buy a gold package on a Tuesday before 2pm and get 10% off if you've spent over £50 this month" — nobody's doing that. Keep it simple enough to explain in one sentence.

No way to track it. If you can't see how many people used a promotion, how much revenue it generated, and whether those customers came back, you're guessing. Your software should give you this data automatically.

Too much admin. If running a promotion means manually adjusting prices, remembering to change them back, and hand-counting redemptions, you'll stop doing promotions. The whole point of using proper salon software is that this stuff runs automatically.

Putting It All Together

The salons that run the best promotions aren't doing anything revolutionary. They're using a combination of scheduled discount codes, a loyalty programme, gift cards, and occasional targeted emails — all managed through their POS system so the admin overhead is close to zero.

A typical promotional calendar might look like this: a January comeback offer for lapsed customers, a Valentine's gift card promotion, a spring package deal, a summer loyalty bonus, an autumn new-customer referral push, and a Christmas gift card campaign. Six promotions across the year, each running for a couple of weeks, each targeted and time-limited.

The difference between salons that grow and salons that stay flat is often just this: a handful of well-structured promotions that run automatically, instead of ad-hoc discounts scribbled on a whiteboard.