Spa Clientéle Marketing Tips

Success in 2012? Make it Happen for Free ! (plus upcoming blog changes)

I am an incredibly fortunate person. I have made some of the most connections over the last couple of years with some super talented people, amazing organizations and reputable companies. A few of my adventures in the last year include:

• Host for the One Concept Radio Pre-Conference Broadcast Series that previews speakers for the American Massage, Chiropractic and Acupuncture Conference and Canadian Massage Conference
• Blogger for Universal Companies and Massage Magazine;
• Video educator with the Massage Learning Network and Oakworks
• Contributing author for four books
• Freelance writer for many massage, spa and skin care trade publications
• Speaker at numerous national and regional conferences
• And let's not forget business/marketing coach for many individuals and groups

So what's next in my adventures and how will it help YOUR success? Two big things...

First, an exciting 3-part webinar series "Good Things Come in Threes" to help you grow your practice or business and be a success in 2012 . The series features myself, Meagan Holub - author of The Magic Touch and Lori Crete - author of The Six Figure Esthetician System and starts this Monday at 10 AM PST/1 PM EST with yours truly on Goal Setting for Success This Year and in Your Career. The other sessions follow on 1/30 and 2/6 (also at 10 AM PST/1 PM EST) with Meagan and Lori.

All three of these FREE webinars will be filled with tips to help you grow your business, improve your sales and profits and succeeed in 2012. There will also be several special offers and bonuses from each of the presenters, but only to those who register.

Visit www.spalutions.com/threes.html for details and to sign up.

Second, with all the different activities, projects and travels planned for this year and beyond, I have decided to combine my two blogs. In addition to this one I also have http://blog.spalutions.com. This change will allow me to be able to share better, more relevant information with all of you on how to promote, market, grow and manage your business or practice more regularly. Readers will also know more about what is going on in terms of upcoming classes, conference appearances and other helpful products or opportunities.

Thus, for the next few weeks, the next blog posts you get from me will be hosted on both blogs but will eventually move to http://blog.spalutions.com. Articles will continue to be posted several times a month and will be aimed at spa, massage and wellness businesses and professionals.

Third, all (email) blog subscribers have been added to my newsletter list. Though at this time I am not certain if I will continue to use the newsletter long-term or if I will further streamline into using my blog AS the newsletter, this is one more step to help me practice what I preach in terms of simplifying and streamlining the time, energy and money spent in communicating with and marketing to one's audience.

However, I want to remind you that you are free to un-subscribe from the newsletter, blog and/or other communications if you ever feel the need.

I hope you will join me for the 3-part webinar series and stay tuned for more exciting opportunities to help you improve your practice or business throughout the year. More group marketing coaching programs are launching in a couple of weeks - and there might just be a special offer for them announced in the webinar that's happening tomorrow:-) Visit www.spalutions.com/threes.html for details and to sign up.

Find Success in 2011 In 6 Steps

Helping people improve their businesses is what I do for my individual coaching clients. Unfortunately, not everyone can afford to hire a business and marketing coach one-on-one despite how much good it can do for their productivity and profits. This fact has saddened and frustrated me because I want to help people in the massage and spa industry succeed in creating rewarding and prosperous careers.

Unfortunately, many massage, spa and wellness professionals get stuck, feel fearful or just don't know what to do in order to get and keep clients - especially when they are feeling financially challenged. So they do little to nothing to grow their business - or do the wrong and often drastic or harmful things - and get no results.

I want to change that for as many people as possible.

That's why I am now offering a 6 Week Group Marketing Coaching Program for a fraction of the price people pay to work with me one-on-one.  I am incredibly excited about this new option in my services and education and hope you can participate in one of these groups. New groups are starting every month, typically Sunday - Tuesday with a variety of morning, evening and afternoon options available.

Click here for details on or to register for this affordable yet effective program.

The groups are be limited to 10 people each to provide an intimate and conversational setting. Each session will last about 75 minutes and will be simulcast by phone and Internet. International members may also participate through Skype. All classes are recorded and made available to group members for download along with all class materials. And, NCBTMB Approved CE credit is available for massage therapists in the US.

 

How much should you spend on marketing?

Wouldn't it be great if there was an easy answer to that question?  The reality is that what you spend on marketing has so many variables.  Too often the biggest part of that decision is how much money is left over after you pay your employees, rent, utilities and loan payments.   [Hopefully you are also paying yourself in there somewhere!]

While there are industry norms for the "biggie" expenses like labor costs and rent, the percentage of sales that should be spent on marketing is all over the board.  I've heard of some poor souls spending over $200,000 on marketing during startup and also see businesses spend nothing on marketing.  [Neither is a good idea.]   I read a statistic on a spa consultant's website advising that your rent and marketing expenses together shouldn't exceed 10%.  Since that seemed illogical to me, I asked the opinion of an expert.  Wellness Capital Management does budgeting, bookkeeping and real estate services for wellness businesses.  Monte Zwang, principal at Wellness Capital Management, had this to say about that 10% statistic:

Rent and marketing have little to do with each other.  I suppose if you have a  location that you pay nothing for, you have to advertise the heck out of it to get someone to find you.  So, I guess what they are saying is that you pay top dollar for a class one retail space, you won’t have to advertise as much. 

However, in our industry especially, it is difficult to find a space that is going to rent for less than 15% of gross sales if you are signing a new lease. So, let’s do the math; 2000 square foot space, $35/square foot rent equals $5,800 per month rent. No advertising and you will automatically do $60,000 per month?  Probably have to spend at least an additional $1,000 per month to bring in that level of business. Hmm.  Fat chance, I don’t believe in advertising anyway.

Thanks Monte! I have to agree with him about the advertising...the success of your ads are nearly impossible to measure and rarely pay for themselves in sales (much less profits).  [You can read more about that in the e-book you'll receive when you sign up for my weekly newsletter.]

How to set your marketing budget.  If you have one at all, you are ahead of the curve.  If not, don't worry as is it never too late to start!

1. How much have you spent on average per month for marketing?  Just tracking this can open your eyes to how much (or little) money is going out in order to bring in business. Marketing expenses include advertisements, signs, brochures, business cards, newsletters, post cards, customer appreciation events, graphic design and paid directories.
2. Calculate what 5 - 10% of sales would be per month.  This is your target range for marketing, but this can be too much for smaller practices. Monte advises, "$350-$500 (3%) per month should work for business doing less than $200K annually if there is a well defined program."
3. Set a target dollar amount to budget for marketing. Using the numbers in step two, pick a dollar amount that is right for your business. If you are starting out you may spend more, if you have established clientele you may spend less.  There is truly no right answer...only what is right for you.

Once you have a monthly budget for marketing, you can then start planning some regular marketing activities that fit that budget such as email newsletters or quarterly direct mailings.  It is much better to start with a plan and then know that you can easily say NO to any pushy magazine advertising sales people!

June 28: Grab a Facebook URL for your spa or massage business

Within 15 minutes on June 12, 500,000 Facebook users created user names which now allow them to have an easy to remember web address. An example is the Facebook Fan Page for Day Spa magazine: www.facebook.com/dayspa.  This options was (and still is) a first-come-first-serve registration for a web page address that could lead to your personal or business web page.   If you have a Fan Page already set up on Facebook for your spa business, you are already ahead of the game.  However, if you have less than 1000 fans, you may have been frustrated by the rules that prevented you from claiming a vanity URL for your Fan Page.

Well here's some good news! June 28 you can get one no matter how many fans. Mark your calendars.

Not sure what I'm talking about?  That's okay, here's the what you need to know:

Facebook Fan Pages--sometimes referred to as Product Pages, Company Pages or Business Pages--are the only way to promote your business on that site. Creating and promoting Fan Pages can put you miles ahead of your competitors who don't know about these powerful tools.

Because Facebook doesn't limit the number of Fans you can attract, but limits you to 5,000 Friends, you'd be crazy not to create a Fan Page for your business.  

It is also important to note that Google indexes these pages, so they can show up in the organic search results on the left side of the screen when somebody searches Google for keywords like "day spa" and your local city or zip code. So be sure to include relevant keywords when you create the name of your Fan Page.  This may mean the title of your Fan Page is a bit longer than you might think is natural, but having a long title helps folks see your page and is not going to prevent anyone from scheduling an appointment.  If your business name is Chrysalis Salon and Spa in Oswego, IL your fan page user name could be "chrysalis" or "chrysalissalonandspa" and the name you enter when you first create the page could be "Chysalis Salon and Day Spa serving Oswego and Montgomery."

Some quick links for you to get started now:

• Create a username for your personal page (which may be your business on Facebook right now): www.facebook.com/username. 
• Create a Fan Page
• FAQ about Facebook Fan Pages

So get a head start today on creating your fan page so you will be ready on June 28th to grap your own Facebook URL!

And by the way...facebook.com/spa and facebook.com/massage are suprisingly not reserved yet!

When it is too good to be true...

Regularly answering your email questions! Just click banner above, or to the right to submit your questions!

Dear Heather,

I attended one of your marketing classes last year and I found it very very useful. Implementing a yearly marketing plan has been working very well for us. Since you have been in the spa industry for a long time, I was hoping that you could offer me some advice about a particular situation that I find myself in:

At the end of last year I partnered with a company called SampleSpa (name changed). This is how the program works: they put together these nice looking cards/ gift certificates that includes a sampler of spa services (a 30 min massage; a 30 min facial; a manicure; and shampoo & style). They print the cards and incur all the costs associated with creating and printing. They then send out sales people out to neighborhoods and businesses and sell these cards for $40 each. Basically, one can get those 4 services (a total value of almost $150) for $40. This is a great value. SampleSpa keeps all the money. We, the spa have to redeem the cards. Each service can be upgraded (to a full hour, or other additions) and the price difference is kept by the spa. In addition, only one service can be used per visit, per week, so it would take someone a full month to redeem the card. The good thing about this partnership was that it brought us A LOT of new customers. SampleSpa sold 400 cards in 2 weeks and then we told them to stop. The bad part (which we didn't really think through initially) was that if customers didn't upgrade, we ended up incurring great losses. Here's how it turned out: a lot of customers did end up upgrading, so in the end we maybe lost $2,000 from this campaign. In return, we got our name in front of more than 300 new people that didn't know we existed (our spa is located in the back of a strip mall, with limited road side exposure, and a lot of people don't even know we are there). From that standpoint, it was good that we got our name out there. Another bad part is that most people that bought the cards were just looking for a great deal and that will probably not come back for regular priced services. (we only realized that once we started redeeming the cards and noticed that 80% of the SamppleSpa clients, even though they leave very happy and satisfied, don't tip!).

Here comes the problem: the gift cards expired on June 1. There are about 100 cards out there that never made it to our spa, basically 100 people that have expired cards. They are now starting to call and want to redeem them. We've been telling then that the promotion ended and that we no longer accept the cards. In an attempt to be even fairer, we agreed to give those people a $40 credit to use in the spa (this is the price they paid for the cards, money that SampleSpa got, not us). We are not in any way obligated to do that, but we've decided to go that route to appease some of the people that are getting mad when we tell them we no longer accept the cards. Still, there are some customers that get very mad. I was hoping that you might have some suggestions as to how to best handle this. I obviously don't want a bunch of unhappy people talking bad about us, but on the other hand, this promotion has already cost us a lot of money and I really don't want to extend it. Plus, these people had more than 6 months to redeem them, but they waited until the last minute to do so.

Heather, please help!!!!!

Thanks so much,

Corina (the eternal people pleaser!)

Do you need to Man-Up your Spa Menu?

With Father's Day right around the corner, many spas and salons are already in full-swing promoting specials for men.   Top services are massages and manicures for men who make up 30%+ of spa goers and should be the primary focus in packages and promotions.  However, how well do men connect with your services or respond to your promotions?

Some easy to implement, limited-time-only massage series promotions include:

• Buy three and get the fourth at 50% off
• Sign up for a series of four or more massages and receive a free post-workout care package (e.g., soaking salts, tension balm, MSM joint balm, massage oil)
• Purchase a six series massage and receive two free manicures, a $40 value!
• Laser hair removal offer: Purchase a full-back package and receive shoulders for free.

While the "limited-time-only" option is intended to generate action, massage series are often great year-round sellers as gift certificate options or a standard upsell option for your front desk staff to recommend.

Beyond a seasonal approach to attracting male clients to your spa or salon, it is important that your services menu communicates that it is a safe and welcome space for masculine energy.   This can be tricky to do without becoming so generic that neither men or women feel your services are designed for them. [I talk more about this in Smart Spa Marketing.] Here are some things to consider whether you need to "man-up" your menu of services.

Does "cost effective advertisting" exist?

Regularly answering your email questions! Just click banner above, or to the right to submit your questions!

Dear Heather,

My spa is three years old and I'm still establishing myself in the marketplace. I currently do 6" x 8" postcard mailings to 25,000 households every 3 months along with monthly email blasts. What other cost effective forms of advertising would you recommend?

David

Dermage Aesthetic Center & Spa
Danbury, CT

Three "Mother's Day" marketing ideas for procrastinators

Right about now, most children of all ages are starting to realize that Mother's Day in the United States (and many other countries such as Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Japan, the Netherlands, New Zealand,  Singapore, Switzerland to name a few) is next Sunday, May 11th.  [If your mom lives in Sweden you still have two more Sundays to go!]

Since we know in the spa industry that Mother's Day is second only to Christmas in terms of gift certificate sales, many of you have already been planning your promotions.  And many of you may have been planning for this for a year now (especially those who are following Smart Spa Marketing).  However, there are a few that have not yet put their full attention toward marketing for Mother's Day.  If that this the case, here are a few last minute ideas to spark some interest in gift certificates to your spa or salon for Mother's Day.  [These will work for the uber-prepared as well, if you aren't already doing these things!]

Selecting the right artwork to support your brand

Simple Power Flower, Feng Shui silk panel by Ellen Brook

The brand of your spa is communicated in many ways via a logo, brochure, website, answering machine or pre-treatment protocol.  Don't overlook the powerful emotion and memory that artwork can inspire in your guests by being another subtle and beautiful communicator of your unique brand.  Today's guest blogger, Ellen Brook is an artist writes about how to use and select art to create that sense of retreat for your clients.

Is your spa truly a sanctuary from the outside world?  You are undoubtedly doing your best to make your spa beautiful and welcoming. To truly evoke what your clients most need - a refuge from their busy lives – your challenge is to transform an ordinary space into an extraordinary transcendent experience.

This, of course, includes designing a space with attention to everything that embraces the five senses in gentle and calming ways. It also means choosing elements that delight your clients’ physical senses… then transports them beyond. Original artwork is one of the rare treasures of the world with this capacity. While offering balance to a room, color for a wall, or a general treat for the eye, it’s like a vessel brimming with the potential to instantly conjure up warm memories, make us break into song, recall a dream or evoke something magical – a moment apart from our ordinary lives.

So art in the spa adds a beautiful visual element, but more importantly, it can help create the experience you most want to deliver. Does your spa’s artwork have this emotional power? Can it capture a client’s fancy and connect her with life on the inside? Ultimately, does this ambiance set apart your spa from the others?

If the answer is yes, then you have a powerful differentiator.

"Now what?" you’re wondering.

First, tap in to feelings. Start by asking yourself…or your employees….or better yet, your clients…‘how does this artwork make you feel?’ Good? positive? calm? Or down? cold? indifferent? Trust your gut. What else comes to mind? Does it have any of the following characteristics - haunting, magical, soft, peaceful, joyful, ethereal? For a retreat, these elements are more important than just ‘liking’ a piece.

What are the best tools to get clients in the doors on a limited budget?

Regularly answering your email questions! Just click banner above, or to the right to submit your questions!

Dear Heather,

I have a small spa with 3 massage therapists, and I am looking to always keep them booked up. We have our great days and we have our slow days.  If I could even them out some how where we don't get slammed for one day and dead the next. Also we sell a lot of gift certificates, what are some of the best ways to get these one time clients to return or remember us for the next time they want to come in or get a gift for someone?

Thank you,

Jarrett
Owner, Europe Spa
Lafayette, LA