ready to rev up your weekend sales? weekends are about unwinding and having a little fun, so why not run a promotion that’s entertaining?

create and schedule these promotions ahead of time to drive more traffic to your store on friday, saturday and sunday.

here’s a list of three weekend-embracing promotions that are designed to bring customers through your doors:

1. spin the prize wheel

this weekend, consider setting up a prize wheel in your store. every customer that comes in gets to spin the wheel and take home a prize.

don’t have a prize wheel? you can find a wheel like this online for about $60. it’s a small marketing investment that you can use over and over.

this wheel works like a dry erase board, so you can change the prizes easily and reuse the wheel anytime.

of course, you’ll want to promote this weekend activity. rather than creating a generic “come spin the wheel promotion,” entice customers to come in by advertising the best prize that you’ll feature on the wheel.

maybe you’ll include a 40 percent off coupon, a free service upgrade or 50 free loyalty points. whatever the best possibility is, use that as the “headline” of your promotion.

send the promotion out on the thursday or friday before the event so customers can plan to stop in.

here’s what to enter as a promotion in fivestars, just change what’s in the brackets to emphasis your best prize.

what’s the promotional offer?

get [up to 40% off your purchase]

what’s the occasion?

by spinning our prize wheel. that’s just one of dozens of prizes available. saturday only.

when does it expire?

saturday’s date.

2. friday night flash sale

encourage your customers to get the weekend started right by coming out to your friday night flash sale.

consider inviting your vip customers to a special, limited-time sale on friday. of course, you can tailor the sale to fit your needs. boutiques could offer a 20 percent discount on everything in the store, and service-based businesses could knock 15 percent off their most popular package to any vip that decides to upgrade. you can discount one product or service, or all of them – it’s up to you.

a flash sale should give customers a great deal, but only for a limited time. limit your sale to a few hours on friday.

here’s what to enter as a promotion in fivestars, just change what’s in the brackets to fit your needs.

what’s the promotional offer?

[save 20%] during our friday night flash sale.

what’s the occasion?

get the weekend started right by shopping our vip 2-hour flash sale this friday from 4-6pm.

when does it expire?

6pm on the friday of the sale.

3. sunday scavenger hunt

help customers tour your store on the weekend by creating a scavenger hunt. when customers come in, have an employee encourage customers to participate to get a cool prize at the end. have your employee hand out the first clue, which leads the customer to a specific product that they can check out and gives them the clue to the next stop on the hunt.

you can keep it simple, with three to five clues depending on the size of your store. just make sure the final stop offers a treat like a coupon, a free gift or some company swag.

for your first scavenger hunt, just type the clues on little slips of paper. if the hunt is successful, you might consider going hi-tech. there are apps like actionbound that let you create your own scavenger hunt. customers use their cell phone to get clues and work their way around your store.

promote the event on social media, and invite customers via text too.

here’s what to enter as a promotion in fivestars:

what’s the promotional offer?

win big during our in-store scavenger hunt sunday!

what’s the occasion?

the hunt is on at [name of business] this sunday. participants get a prize for solving all five clues. sunday only.

when does it expire?

closing time on the day of the hunt.

these promotions go beyond the traditional weekend sale, and give customers something to look forward to. these promotions are more of an event than a ploy to get shoppers to come and spend money.

give these weekend promotions a try, and feel free to come back and let us know how they go by adding your comments to the se