Marketing is an important part of your spa business. Here’s how software can help market your spa.
Marketing can be a struggle for spas. Many don’t have the resources for a dedicated marketing team, and even for those that do, marketing can be hit and miss and a lot of work. A marketing solution that integrates with your spa management software system can help you reach larger audiences, maintain existing customers, and increase revenue while saving you both time and effort.
Demandforce is one such solution. Using the examples of Book4Time spa management software and Demandforce, these two systems integrate and sync with each other every hour, meaning that information put into each is automatically shared with the other and does not require separate manual input so you can manage your marketing communications all in one central space.
Taking charge of your spa’s marketing with an integration like Demandforce and Book4Time allows you to do the following, and more:
Take charge of your client communications
A good, cloud-based, marketing integration tool is accessible from anywhere and allows you and your team to send communications from wherever they are. You don’t have to be at your front desk or even at the spa. With the Demandforce app, for example, team members can respond to client messages from anywhere on or off the property, even from their home office. With an app, you can receive pop up notifications whenever there is a communication from a client and respond in a timely manner. In today’s world, it makes little sense to set restrictive parameters to the timing of client communications. A great customer experience means being there to respond and answer questions – even when you’re not in front of a computer. People don’t want to wait and, if they have to, you risk losing their business.
Automate and segment your messaging
Reaching out to clients spas haven’t seen in a while to let them know they are missed has been an integral part of COVID recovery. While many hotel, resort, and destination spas are struggling to attract travellers, a marketing integration allows you to connect with customer segments of people living in your community, so you can reach out to local guests and invite them to return to your spa. Demandforce syncs with Book4Time to see who has not visited in some time and makes those contacts for you. Two-way texting also allows your front desk staff to have a conversation with the client after the message is sent from within the integrated solution, and respond to any replies.
Manage your online reputation
Reviews are one of your most powerful marketing tools as they have the benefit of being user generated. People will only give so much credence to your own assessment of your own products and services. A third party take is another, more reliable, story. Reviews are incredibly important when it comes to building a spa’s brand and reputation and research shows that a vast majority of people look at online reviews before making a purchase decision. A marketing integration, like Demandforce, can ask clients to leave reviews and broadcast those reviews to relevant search engines.
It’s also important to engage with online reviews. If you receive a negative review, there’s an opportunity to step in and perhaps turn it around with a well thought out response and attempt to understand and make reparations. And a good review should receive a heartfelt “thank you for taking the time to write these kind words.” A marketing integration can notify you when you do get a new review and facilitate replying.
Manage your email campaigns
Email is another integral element of marketing and still one of the top strategies, but don’t just blast off mass messages that say the same thing to everyone. That’s called SPAMMING, and everyone hates it. An email marketing platform can make your life much easier, customizing your communications to specific audience segments, and optimizing for mobile. Optimizing for mobile is a must these days, as a majority of people now read email on their mobile devices. Your software integration can pull your existing customer information from your software system to help you send mobile-optimized email campaigns customized to specific audiences.
Increase average tickets and retail sales with customized recommendations
If a guest has tried one of your services but not another, a marketing integration can pull this information from your software and reach out to those people to offer them the opportunity to try another service, increasing your ticket size. Similarly, your software integration can send refill reminders when someone should be about to run out of a product (say, three months after purchase), and promote retail products to specific customers and increase your upsells.
Is a beloved service provider away on maternity leave? Let their devoted customers know about the other wonderful providers they can see in the meantime.
Book4Time works in partnership with Demandforce to bring these marketing strategies to life for you. This is the power of integrated solutions.
Is finding and retaining talent a challenge at your spa? Get insights from industry leaders, including Nigel Franklyn, Lynne McNees, Verena Lasvigne-Fox, and Daisy Tepper when you download our report: What will it take to fix the spa industry’s staffing shortage? .
Spa Executive is published by Book4Time, the leader in guest management, revenue and mobile solutions for the most exclusive spas, hotels, and resorts around the globe. Learn more at book4time.com.