Creating a Spa Marketing Plan

Growing your spa or wellness business is not a case of “if we build it, they will come.” Prospective clients are bombarded with thousands of daily marketing messages today; your spa business needs a well-designed marketing plan in order to attract their attention.

Creating a Plan

Unless you have an unlimited budget for marketing the business, you’ll want to begin by creating a specific plan, which helps you to narrow your options and follow a budget. The first component of creating this plan will be to revisit your spa branding and core values. You’ll want to ensure that any marketing messages you create clearly communicate these elements of your business, which helps to set you apart from your competition. After all, it’s possible to get a massage or facial in myriad places, but the special nature of YOUR business has to stand out in the crowd.

Next, consider what you want to accomplish with this marketing plan. More revenue dollars, for sure, but you should be more strategic. Do you want to attract more new customers, or get more dollars out of customers that you already have? Do you have enough customers, but need them to come more frequently? These are important distinctions which will affect your plan and spending. Speaking of spending, a mature spa should budget 5% of annual revenue for marketing and advertising. You can calculate that amount and divide by 4 for quarterly budgeting, or perhaps allocate more spending in busier quarters – typically Q2 and Q4, and less in the others.

Advertising

While paid advertising is shrinking as a percentage of the marketing budget, it can still be an effective path to expanding your reach to new clients. If you are located in a city, there may be a monthly magazine that new residents and tourists rely on to find local businesses. You would not necessarily need a monthly ad, but perhaps a larger quarterly ad. Smaller towns often have a community-based weekly newspaper which can also be a good source of new business. Just make sure your print ads include a CTA (call to action), such as “Call now to book our renowned Rejuvenation Retreat by September 30 and receive a free upgrade to a Hot Stone Massage.” Just listing your name, address, phone & URL with a nice photo won’t bring you any clients. A comprehensive advertising plan would be an important part of any efforts to gain new clients.

Email Marketing

Yes, email boxes are on overload, and yet email marketing is still one of the most effective ways to stay in touch with your current clients. Make sure your e-blasts look professional by using a software program such as Constant Contact or MailChimp to create a template and send the blast. Monthly newsletters should combine sales-oriented messaging with some useful information such as healthy food or smoothie recipes or new product highlights, which will encourage your clients to actually read them! Experts advise a subject line of 50 words or less; this is likely the most important factor in whether or not your email gets opened. Almost half of all emails sent are now opened on a mobile device, so make sure that both your email template and website feature responsive design, which will adapt to the device on which it is viewed.

Social Marketing

There is really no better marketing tool for building rapport with your clientele than social media. If you are not technology-oriented, you may feel overwhelmed by all of the options, but the important thing to remember about social media marketing is that you are only relevant in the minds of current and potential consumers if you participate. Don’t let your overwhelmed feelings keep you on the sidelines – the good news is that there are really only four channels that are of importance for spas, which are as follows:

Facebook: Your business Facebook page will be a more vibrant communication tool than your website, and as such needs regular attention. Experts recommend posting at least 3-5 times per week.

Pinterest: This photo-driven channel has a largely female audience, and spas certainly lend themselves to beautiful imagery. You could create several different boards that are evocative of moods, or that address the various modalities that you offer. Include professionally done photos of your services in action, especially signature treatments. Pinterest is also a popular site for recipes, so spa-at-home concoctions or healthy spa cuisine ideas will likely lead to new viewers.

Instagram: A photo-driven platform that is meant to be viewed via mobile device, this platform is useful for product or treatment of the week type of shots, as well as spa cuisine and treatments in progress, and is especially popular among Millennials, if you are interested in building that audience.

Twitter: This is an action-oriented channel, so spas get more out of it by broadcasting promotions or last-minute openings.

Remember, social media is a conversation; while it’s okay to mention sales or promotions, be sure to sprinkle your posts with education and entertainment as well.

Listing Sites

Not technically social media, but just as important, are listing sites such as Yelp, CitySearch, and Trip Advisor. Be sure to “claim” your page on these sites and monitor them closely for postings. Negative posts should be responded to immediately, but even positive posts are worthy of a thank you from spa management.

On the issue of budgeting, both social media and listing sites should be assigned to a member or members of your staff, if not outsourced. Consumers today find your spa on the web but they immediately visit listing sites and Facebook to learn more about you, and if the information posted is not positive or recent, it can harm you more than help you.

Partnerships

Another component of the marketing plan should be partnering with other businesses, especially those that share your target client. Examples include boutiques, restaurants, hotels, wine shops or jewelry stores that your clients frequent. Identify potential businesses, and plan some activities together, which could include events, or even just coordinated marketing offers. You could exchange vouchers for $35 off a treatment valued at $125 or more with the top 20-30 clients of each of these businesses; that amounts to a 28% discount for the client, and is more likely to result in a visit from these qualified leads.