Creating a Promotion Post

Generate a professionally designed, AI-built promotion image in your salon's brand colors — no design skills or outside tools required.

1. What a Promotion Post Is

A promotion post is a professionally designed 1080×1920 image (Instagram Story format) generated entirely by MostlyPostly. It includes:

• →Your promotion details — the service name, discount, and any special text you provide
• →Your salon's brand colors applied to overlay elements, badges, and buttons
• →A background image — either your uploaded stock photos or an AI-generated scene
• →An AI-written caption tailored to match your salon's tone of voice

No graphic design skills are needed. The entire image is built automatically from the information you provide.

2. How to Create a Promotion

From your manager dashboard, click Create Promotion in the sidebar or navigation. You'll see a short form with the following fields:

1. 1

   Product or Service (required)

   What are you promoting? Examples: "Balayage Special," "Keratin Treatment," "Color + Cut Combo."

2. 2

   Discount (optional)

   The offer amount. Examples: "20% off," "$15 off," "Free gloss add-on." Leave blank if you don't want a specific discount shown.

3. 3

   Special Text (optional)

   A short supporting line for the image. Examples: "This week only!," "New clients only," "Limited spots available."

4. 4

   Offer Expiration Date (required)

   The date your promotion ends. MostlyPostly will never publish this post after the expiration date — even if it's still in the queue.

5. 5

   Design Style & Mood (optional)

   A free-text description of the colors, mood, or aesthetic you want for the background image. Only used when no stock photo is available. Examples: "warm and golden, soft bokeh," "clean and minimal, white tones," "moody dark salon vibes."

Once you submit the form, MostlyPostly generates the image and caption. Depending on whether it uses a stock photo or generates a DALL-E background, this may take 15–45 seconds.

3. How the Image Is Built

MostlyPostly selects the background for your promotion image in this priority order:

1. 1

   Your salon's stock photos

   If you've uploaded salon-level photos (not tied to a specific stylist) in Admin → Stock Photos, one of those is used as the background. This produces the most on-brand result.

2. 2

   AI-generated background via DALL-E

   If no stock photos exist, MostlyPostly uses the Design Style & Mood field (or a default glamour salon prompt) to generate a background image using DALL-E 3.

3. 3

   Solid color fallback

   In rare cases where image generation fails, a clean dark background is used so the post is still presentable.

The overlay — including the text, discount badge, and call-to-action button — is styled using your salon's brand colors extracted during onboarding. Your primary, accent, and CTA colors are applied automatically.

4. Uploading Stock Photos

For the best promotion images, upload your own salon photography as stock photos. Go to Admin → Stock Photos and upload one or more high-quality images.

Tips for promotion background photos:

• →Use salon-level photos (not tied to a specific stylist) — these are preferred as promotion backgrounds
• →Portrait orientation (taller than wide) works best for the 1080×1920 Story format
• →Atmospheric shots of your salon interior, products, or tools photograph beautifully as backgrounds
• →Leave visual "breathing room" — the overlay will occupy the center and lower portion of the image

5. After Creating a Promotion

Once generated, the promotion post enters the same approval workflow as any other post:

• →If manager approval is required, it will appear in your dashboard for review before being scheduled
• →Once approved, it's placed in the scheduling queue according to your posting rules
• →Promotion posts are not placed back-to-back with other promotion posts in the schedule

6. Expiration Enforcement

The expiration date you enter is strictly enforced. If a promotion post is still waiting in the queue after its expiration date passes, the scheduler will skip it automatically. It will never go live after the offer expires.

This means you can create promotions in advance and set realistic expiration dates without worrying about a stale offer appearing after the fact.