The grooming year: holiday rush, January dead zone and the spring de-shed
A month by month marketing plan for a grooming business: how to sell out December in October, and what to do with the empty weeks in January and February.
Grooming has a shape to its year that almost nobody plans for. December is chaos. January is a ghost town. April and May are the busiest sustained stretch of the calendar and most shops are not staffed for it. August is quiet in a way that surprises people. Then it starts again.
The owners who ride this well are not busier than you. They are working three months ahead. Here is the year, with what to do in each part of it.
September and October: sell December now
The holiday rush is not a marketing opportunity in December. By then you are turning people away. It is a marketing opportunity in early October, when you can decide who gets the slots.
Do this in the first week of October:
- Set the cutoff dates and publish them. "Last appointments before Thanksgiving: November 24. Last before Christmas: December 22. Both weeks book out by early November." Put it on your Google profile as a post, in your bio, on the site, and on a sign at the counter.
- Text your existing client list first. Your regulars should get the December slots before a stranger does, and they will book immediately because they know the panic. One text: "Holiday grooming books out every year by early November. Reply HOLIDAY and I will hold Bailey's usual slot."
- Take deposits on peak Saturdays. $25 or half the groom. December no-shows cost double because you turned three people away for that slot.
- Raise December prices or add a holiday tier. A holiday spa package at base plus $25 with a bandana, a photo and a cologne finish. People buy it in December who never buy it in July.
- Add hours instead of adding stress. Two extra Saturdays and a Sunday in December earn more than the entire month of January. Only 18.3% of grooming listings show Sunday hours, so a December Sunday is genuinely differentiated.
Then stop advertising for new clients in late November. You cannot serve them, and a turned-away caller does not call back. Pause the ads and put the money into January.
November and December: capacity, not marketing
Marketing in December is triage. The two things worth doing:
Confirm relentlessly. Reminders at 48 hours and the morning of. A December no-show is a slot you could have sold three times.
Photograph everything. Every holiday dog with a bandana, every clean-up of a matted rescue. You are generating four months of content in six weeks. Shoot it, do not post it all now. Bank it for January, when you will need it and have no dogs to shoot.
January and February: the dead zone
The phone stops. Everyone spent their money, nobody has guests coming, and coats are long and hidden under the winter. This is where a grooming business loses the margin it made in December.
The plan:
Text the overdue list first. Pull every client who has not been in for ten weeks or more. One text each, personal, with the dog's name: "Hi Dana, Bailey is about four weeks overdue and she was on an eight-week coat. I have Tuesday at 10 or Thursday at 2, want one?" This single list, worked properly, fills more January slots than any advertising.
Sell the winter reason, not a discount. Owners think dogs do not need grooming in winter. They are wrong and they will listen to why: matting under a wet winter coat, salt and ice between pads, nails that overgrow with less pavement walking, dry skin. Write it once and send it to the whole list. That is a message, not a sale, and it books dogs.
Launch the puppy campaign. Puppies given at Christmas need their first groom in late January or February. This is the highest lifetime value client in your book, and almost nobody markets to them. Run a Puppy First Groom package at a fair price, aimed at a 5 to 10 mile radius, on Instagram and Facebook. Details in the social ads guide.
Do the work you never have time for. January is when you fix the website, rewrite the Google profile services, take proper before-and-after photos, and set up the review process. Every hour spent here pays out in April. Start with the profile guide.
Add prepaid packages. "Six grooms for the price of five, use them any time this year." Cash in January, and it locks in the six-week cadence, which is worth more than the discount costs.
March, April, May: the de-shed run
Spring is the real peak, longer and more profitable than December, and it catches shops unprepared every year.
Double coats blow out. Golden retrievers, huskies, shepherds, labs. Owners find hair on everything and suddenly want a de-shedding treatment. Market it in early March, before the shedding starts, not in May when they are already desperate:
- Promote de-shedding treatments as their own service with their own price, not as an add-on line item.
- Post shedding-season content: the pile of undercoat next to the clean dog is the highest-engagement photo in grooming.
- Reach out to owners of double-coated breeds specifically from your client list.
- This is the right season to raise prices, because demand is high and the schedule refills fast.
Spring is also the season to push a rebooking cadence, since owners are motivated. "Bailey should come every six weeks through the summer, want me to book the next three now?"
June, July, August: summer and the quiet patch
Summer brings a different mix. Shorter cuts, more bath and tidy, sanitary trims, flea and tick concerns, paw care. August often goes quiet: vacations, back to school, budgets.
Use August for the second half of the year's foundation work, and to run a modest new-client campaign, because it is the cheapest month of the year to buy attention in most metros. Then start the October holiday plan in the last week of the month.
The one-page calendar
- January: overdue list, puppy campaign, prepaid packages, website and profile work.
- February: puppy campaign continues, senior grooming push, review process running.
- March: de-shed campaign launches early, price review.
- April and May: peak. Rebook everyone forward three visits. Turn ads off if full.
- June and July: summer services, bath and tidy volume, referral push with vets and the pet store.
- August: quiet. New client ads, content bank, plan October.
- September: publish holiday cutoff dates, text the client list.
- October: December sells out. Deposits on. Holiday tier live.
- November and December: confirm, shoot content, add weekend hours, no new-client advertising.
Frequently asked
Should I discount in January? Prefer prepaid packages and the overdue-client outreach to a straight discount. A discount trains your best clients to wait for one.
Do I really need to pause ads in December? If you are turning callers away, yes. Spending on calls you cannot serve is the most avoidable waste in the grooming year.
What if my market has no real winter? The shape holds but flattens. December still spikes, January still dips, and the spring de-shed comes earlier. Track your own booking counts by month for a year and you will see your version of this curve.
Seasonal campaigns, the overdue-client text and holiday booking flows are all in the free 14-day trial, and the benchmark report shows how your hours compare with the field. Text or call (385) 832-6175.