Spa Clientéle Marketing Tips

Welcome!

Thank you for visiting Spa Clientéle Marketing Tips blog!  You'll find a wealth of information here that you can use right away to build your clientéle at your salon, day spa or medical spa.  Feel free to post comments and questions by clicking on the comments link at the end of each post.  Or contact us directly with any questions.

Most Popular Spa Clientéle Marketing Tips articles

• The 3 most important things to put in your client e-newsletter
• The 3 worst things to put in your client e-newsletter
• Marketing Strategy 101 Part 1 & Part 2
• Creating a tagline for your spa brand
• How much should you spend on marketing?
• No cost ways to increase referrals
• Why coupons are bad for your business
• 10 reasons to have a professional logo
• For fun: Fresh new trend: Snake Massage

Spa Clientéle Solutions makes your marketing work for you.  With flexible and personalized marketing services, products and teleseminars, attracting new clients and increasing existing client returns is easier and cheaper than traditional spa marketing methods.

Why adopting a charity is good for your business

Let me first say that I am adamantly apposed to adopting a charity for purely financial gain -- that would be a hypocrisy.   However, when you link your salon or spa to a charity that you are passionate about there are many positive things that can happen. 

I have always recommended this as a marketing strategy to my clients, but watching the American Idol Gives Back TV special last night, I was yet again inspired by Bono.  I have been a die-hard U2 fan since the early eighties and have immense respect for what they seek to accomplish in the world.  Bono said that although it is a wonderful feeling to perform in front of thousands of admiring fans, it is probably more wonderful to know that something you have done or given can save a life.  If you have a similar passion -- perhaps it is furthering medical research, or helping at-risk children -- bringing that personal passion into your business is not only inspiring to your employees, but to your clients as well.

Here are some things to consider about adopting a charity with your business.

1. Be sincere. As I mentioned above, if you don't really feel it...don't do it.  Realize that your enthusiasm alone will shine through to inspire your employees and clients to help and contribute. 

2. Be focused.  Just like anything in business, by selecting one main charity, you can make a larger impact on that one organization than smaller contributions to several.  This will pay off in simplicity of communications and in the ease you'll have in working with that organization.  Having a close relationship with the management of your preferred non-profit will help you be a higher priority for their help in any events you may be sponsoring on their behalf.

3.  Be fair. Do not make participation in charitable activities mandatory for your staff -- it needs to be important for them as well.  If you are sponsoring an event to raise funds and offering mini-services -- you must compensate your employees for their work at that event.  Perhaps they will donate their time instead, but that is completely their choice.

4. Be personal.  Share with everyone why this cause is important to you.  You might be surprised how your story will touch your clients and others and tighten your relationship with them.  Having connections like these help increase the friendship and loyalty with your staff and clients. 

5. Be public. It is true that the media loves a "good story" and when people go out of their way to help others, it usually makes a good story.  And when you bring in the media to cover your contribution to these charity -- whether for a major fund-raising event or over time -- the added exposure can increase the contributions you collect for your charity.  Inevitably, it will also lead to free awareness for your salon, day spa or medical spa.

The benefits you'll receive from adopting a charity can be more loyal employees and clients, added publicity about your business and a wonderful sense of knowledge that you have helped make a difference in life of at least one complete stranger.

"To leave the world a bit better; whether by a healthy child, a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition.  To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived.   This is to have succeeded."  -Ralph Waldo Emerson

NOTE: My personal passion is to help eliminate hunger and poverty. Please consider One.org or CARE for your own charitable contributions.

Does direct mail marketing bring in new clients?

I am not a fan of mass mailing direct mail.  I can guarantee that you will not make back the money you spend on the printing and mailing in new business.  While you may accept that marketing is an expense, there are several more effective options for the money you'd spend on a graphic artist, printing, mailing and purchase of the list for a direct mail activity.  Let's see where you will see a higher increase in new clients through other marketing activities.

Promote to clients raising their hands.  A major problem I have with direct mail is that you no idea whether the person you are mailing to is interested in visiting your spa or salon.  Sure, you can narrow down your guess by gender and household income, but you are still blind to their interests.  You will have more success by sponsoring links on key directories where prospective clients are already showing interest.  Citysearch.com, Yelp.com, Spafinder.com, Spaemergency.com, etc. and the major search engines like Google, Yahoo, and MSN all have programs where you can pay for more prominent listings when prospective customer enter in keywords in their search.   The beauty of the Internet is that is all measurable -- if your listing is not generating the results you need you can modify or eliminate the cost.

Put your best home page forward. Be sure your website provides the best possible impression of your business so that you don't waste your money in bringing traffic to it. There is nothing like a poorly designed website to turn off clients looking for a high-end service.  You should also invest in the services of a search engine optimization (SEO) company to design or update your website to increase your search engine ranking in the non-paid listing areas.  Companies like Campaign Mojo provide affordable Internet marketing and SEO solutions for the aesthetic industry.

Build buzz with a customer event.  By having a low-cost customer appreciation event, you can generate some free and interesting press and community coverage.  While you shouldn't expect a front page article, you now have the opportunity to do a press release, post your event on community calenders in your local newspapers, post the event on CraigsList or send an email to known clients.  The goal here is to get awareness for your business and get to know your customers outside the treatment room.  It is a good idea to make the event more interesting with some entertainment or education component.  Consider partnering with another business that markets to your clients -- they can provide the free talk on their area of expertise and you can provide the location.  Consider offering exclusive deals for that event only like bonus gift certificates (buy a $100 gift certificate get additional $10 for you), discounts on product inventory you want to move or a raffle for non-product related prize. Giveways are fun, but be sure every discount is still profitable business for you.

If you need the tangible satisfaction of mailing physical postcards in the mail, keep the list to interested clients or prospects.  Twice a year mail promotions can boost traffic from previous clients during slower seasons, but should not be your primary marketing focus for attracting new clients.  There are many other, and more effective, ways to spend your marketing dollars.

If you haven't already, be sure to read my free e-book "Seven questions to answer before you spend money on marketing" for more ideas on profitable marketing promotions.  You'll be granted access to download it when you sign up to receive Spa Clientele Marketing Tips in email.

Why coupons are bad for your business

Offering coupons are a common and easy way to attract new or old clients to your salon, day spa or medical spa.  But what kind of client are you really attracting?  And are you profitably providing that service once the coupon is redeemed?

Your ideal client is not a coupon-cutter.  While everyone loves a great deal, those that ONLY come to your spa because of your promotional coupon are not likely to come around the second time.  Sure, you tell yourself that you provide an outstanding service and if they like you, they'll come back.  And that is logical thinking -- but it is a tad flawed.  And doesn't often come true, sadly.  If you are retaining more than 10% the clients that first see you with a coupon, you are way ahead of the rest of us.  [To calculate this percentage, divide then number of clients who came back a second time to pay full-price by the total number of clients who used that coupon.]  If you don't track your retention rates, or how many coupons are being redeemed, you should be.  Measuring the impact of your marketing is the only way to can be sure that money spent on marketing is growing [and not hurting] your business.

Every single service you do should be profitable. If you are offering a 20% or 30% off coupon, do you make any money? My guess is no.  While offering a $10 or $20 coupon might seem like a better choice, they too need to be calculated whether you are profitable.  The simplified calculation for service profitability is PRICE minus LABOR COST minus SERVICE COST minus OVERHEAD equals NET PROFIT BEFORE TAXES.  Labor cost is what you pay your staff (or you) to perform that service. Service cost is the cost of the products used in that service [your product supplier should be able to help you with this.] Overhead is everything else like rent, utilities, insurance, marketing expenses, etc. that you have to pay even if you don't do any services.  To calculate the overhead by service, you could simply guesstimate it as 40% of your price. But to a bit more accurate, you would total your average monthly overhead costs and divide it by the average number of services you provide in a month to reach your average overhead cost per service.  You'll probably find that your profit margin is 10% or less for your services -- which doesn't give you much if any wiggle room on offering motivating discounts.

There is another way.  You can still attract new clients with promotions that do not require you to pay them money when they receive a service.  Upgrades and add-ons are great solutions here as they don't have to add time to the service, or much cost.  Some examples:

• Free skin or hair consultation with first service
• Free deep conditioning with hair coloring
• Free eye creme with Botox injections
• Free lip or eye treatment with facial
• Free brow wax with your high-end facial
• Free shoulder massage with mani/pedi
• Free foot reflexology with 60 minute massage

Notice the word "free" is common in all of these promotions.  Free has to be one of the most powerful marketing words you can use (but that is just my opinion).  Do be careful with the giveaways however.  As a general rule, they need to cost you less than 10% of the price of the service in order to maintain your profitability.

So the next time you are thinking about how to attract new clients with a promotion, be sure to determine if you are paying them or if they are paying you.

Finding Balance

I've been blog-tagged by Jaya of Inspirational Business on balance!

[If you're reading this because I tagged you, post the answers in your own blog or leave a comment here.]

Q: How do you achieve balance in your life?
Balance does not happen by chance.  If left up to 'when I have time,' focusing on the more enjoyable things in life would not happen.  I have to schedule balance in this season of my life.  I have a hard stop for working in the evenings, which my husband gladly reminds me of and I stay out of the office on weekends unless it is really necessary.

What is your biggest challenge in balancing your life?
Setting aside time just for self-care -- exercise, meditation or simply going to sleep early are often secondary to work or family needs. With three small children, a husband and my own business there is easily something else for me to do other than go to the gym.  But when I am able to put myself first, even for 45 minutes -- it makes everything else better.

What are your priorities?
My family is my top priority and greatest gift.  Everything I do has to be somehow connected to them to be considered important in my life.  Even my battle with finding time to exercises relates to my family as a higher priority -- I want to be healthy enough to keep up with them and also be happier when I am around them.

How have your priorities changed over time and why?
Well, certainly when I was single I didn't place that much importance on children who didn't exist.  My priorities then were more about adventures and learning -- which I am looking forward to seeing more of as my children get older.

What advice can you share to help all of us balance our own lives?
Well I'm not sure I am the expert on balance, but I would have to say to you what I keep telling myself.  At the end of the day, no one really cares how many hours you work or what career accomplishment you made -- but how you make people feel will be remembered for a lifetime.

OK -- Tag, you're it!
Drew McLellan of The Marketing Minute
Stephanie Quilao of Back in Skinny Jeans
Joan Stewart of The Publicity Hound
Cord Silverstein of The Marketing Hipster

Impulse buys that benefit your bottom line

It is a tried and true retail business strategy to sell a few items that aren’t core to your business, but that you know your clients would be interested in buying on an impulse.  The traditional earrings, hair accessories, candles and gift bags can seem almost cliché, especially when they don’t sell.  Yet there are ways to keep your boutique inventory fresh and benefiting your bottom line. 

1.  Avoid clutter. Just because you got a good deal at the tradeshow, it doesn’t mean you need to display it all at once.  Pick a few items at a time to display in a creative fashion that draws attention of your client waiting to check in or check out.

2.  Obey the weird law of odd numbers. I really don’t know why this true, but try to keep an odd number items on a shelf as this encourages customers touching and feeling items.  Just make sure the odd number isn’t one – having one product alone will ensure a long shelf life.

3. Provide a variety of prices.  If all your boutique items are less than $20, and your average service is $90 – you are leaving money on the table.   Be careful not to purchase your inventory with your own budget, consider it with your clients’ budget instead.  For the higher priced items, consider some really inspiring or celebrity/trendy items like an Energy Muse necklace.  Each piece is designed to balance the body through the healing properties of gemstones and crystals.  Celebrities from Tony Robbins to Hilary Duff to Annika Sorenstam have been spotted wearing their jewelry. [Even I bought my first necklace on impulse, but then became such a fanatic customer they highlighted my testimonial.]

4.  Don’t put it on sale, put it on a pedestal! This sage advice is from my friend and mentor Douglas Preston. To create interest in a product (any product) that isn’t moving, display in a prominent location with some exciting display treatment.  Freshen your staffs interest in the product by role playing and sharing what you like about.  Find some other tips to win the retailing game in a January 07 article I co-wrote with Douglas in Dermascope Magazine.

5. Stay focused on your core business. Don't lose sight that your main source of income is your expertise.  Whether that it in skincare, hair, massage, Botox injections or nail art -- they should all be your primary focus for your time and your money.  Wrapping up too much money in boutique inventory can be easy to do, but is not the best thing for your business bottom line.

Bottom line, be creative and whimsical in your boutique offerings while balancing it with some ol' fashioned practicality. 

Creating a tagline for your spa brand

POP QUIZ: Can you name the brands that go with these taglines?

• It gives you wings
• Breakfast of champions
• Two all beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions on a sesame seed bun
• The happiest place on Earth
• Don't leave home without it
• Friends don't let friends drive drunk
• Raising the bar
• What's in your wallet?
• A diamond is forever

While you may not have recognized a few, my guess is that you recognized most. [Answers are at the bottom of this post.]  Take another look...do you sing a little song with any of them?  Do you have a particular image or picture in your head when you think of that brand?  If so, those smartie pants brand managers did their job creating a memorable brand.

What is a tagline anyways?  Simply put, it a very short sentence or phrase that describes your business.  It is an opportunity to attach an emotion to your business beyond your logo and business name.  Here are some strong taglines I have found in the day spa and medical spa industry:

• An oasis of tranquility
• Your body and soul sanctuary
• For everyday well-being
• Feel great now
• Medical skincare and apothecary
• Where medical technology meets luxury spa

Some of these are trademarked, so don't go using them willy-nilly for your business.  Speaking of which, a great tagline isn't a plug-and-play kind of thing that can apply to everyone.  It does need to uniquely reference you or your business. Here are some guidelines for a good tagline.

1. Short and sweet. It needs to be less than 7, but ideally 3 to 5 words in length.  You want it to be easy to say and read -- since you will be saying it a lot and using it in all your marketing materials.
2. Interesting or emotional. To be memorable, it does need to have some spark to it that creates motion or action.  If not, it should remind your clients of an emotion or feeling that they will have when at your business. 
3. What makes you so special?  Referring to the above examples, you can glean what type of business they are simply by the tagline.  Even without knowing the name of the business or anything else you can tell that "an oasis of tranquility" will provide a quiet and intimate retreat.  "Feel good now" is more of an in/out place for people in a hurry. 

How to find your tagline. I like to work backwards to find those 3 - 7 words that best represent you. [This exercise is best done with one or two other people as your ideas can build on each other.]

1. Start by brainstorming the adjectives you use most to describe your spa, describe why clients come to you and your philosophy for care.   
2. Once you have a list of small sentences and phrases, pick out a few that really stand out -- that you are passionate about -- that truly represent the core of what your business provides. 
3. Then play around with the order of the words, the tense, the modifiers.  Come up with two or three options and then let it marinate. 
4. Take break and come back in a few hours or days and narrow it down even further.  In time, and by testing the tagline with others, you will find that tagline that best fits your business.

With your new tagline in hand, add it to the obvious places-- your website, your products, your phone greeting, your brochure, your front door or signs. Perhaps you want to add it to your logo.  Do whatever feels good to you...but know you now have an excellent marketing tool at your disposal.  Don't be afraid to use it.

POP QUIZ ANSWERS: Red Bull, Wheaties, McDonalds, Disneyland, American Express, US Department of Transportation, Cingular, Capitol One, De Beers