26 marketing strategies and tips for your spa

Marketing is key to business success no matter what your industry. Let’s take a look at 26 marketing strategies, tips, and tricks for your spa. 

Marketing is key to business success no matter what your industry. Spa is no exception, but sometimes in this world marketing can fall by the wayside, behind other, seemingly more pressing duties. But it is necessary. Because, no matter how wonderful and exquisite your service offerings, people will only come try them if they know about them.

Spas rarely have dedicated marketing teams, so the job of brand building falls to already stretched managers and directors, which can be the case even if they’re part of a larger organization and located in a hotel or resort. Budgets are also often small, if they exist at all. Fortunately, the current world of available social channels and free to occupy online space means a lot of marketing is free or fairly inexpensive these days, with no real need to buy expensive ad space. Social media provides the opportunity to market your spa, raise your brand awareness, and stay connected to your guests after they leave.

Amy Chan, Assistant Group Director of Spa & Wellness at Langham Hospitality, recently told Spa Executive, “We need to follow the world trends where the use of technology and social media are the new norm. This is one instance where the world of spas and modern technology can enjoy a happy marriage to enhance the customer journey and offer a holistic experience from the first click to the final touches in the treatment room.”

Let’s take a look at 26 marketing strategies, tips, and tricks for your spa. 

Be informative and educational

Where possible marketing should provide value to a target audience. This means sharing valuable, educational content that people will appreciate and relate to rather than hitting them over the head with the constant message that you want them to buy your product or service. They already know that’s what you want them to do. Sharing educational and useful content showcases your brand while bringing value to your audience by teaching them something new.

Don’t worry that you’re going to give away all your secrets and that people will think they don’t need you anymore. That’s old school thinking that serves no one. You’ve got plenty of secrets with knowledge and expertise to spare, and if what you have to offer is worth it, people will always need you.

Get busy on social media

If your spa doesn’t have a social media presence, create one, or a few, on the platform(s) that work best for you. Instagram and TikTok are good platforms. Facebook tends to be more used by older audiences but is still the largest social media network. Find out where your target customer hangs out and meet them there. 

Post about your products and services

Post about your amazing services and products. Share how much you love them and why. When you truly love something people can feel that and will respond accordingly. What makes your spa amazing? Talk about it. Remember these are bite-sized and situational pieces of content, so they can be a picture and a short message. You don’t need to write everything in one post, nor should you. You need something to post tomorrow.

Post about your team

People in the spa and wellness industry are fond of saying that our people are everything. So, share that with the world. Share what they’re doing, what products they’re using, the stories that make them interesting. Share stories and pictures of what’s happening around you and make it compelling so that people want to be a part of it.

Leverage video content

Instagram reels, Facebook reels, TikTok videos, YouTube videos, all of these can be used to market your spa. A lot of people want to see video content, and statistics suggest this number is growing to a large majority and that video content is a major driver of sales and engagement.

Create tutorials 

Help your audience learn how to massage their own shoulders or feet; do a mini body wrap or facial at home; use singing bowls; make their own bespoke lotion; treat their own hair (if your spa has a salon component) … the possibilities are endless. Video tutorials can engage your audience, showcase your expertise and products and services, and raise awareness for your brand. What can you and your team teach people?

Encourage team members to get in on the social action

Your team members who are active on social media should be eager to post about their work if they love what they do and where they work. What can they tell the world about your brand as a company and as a workplace (employer branding is important too!)? It’s never a good idea to make social sharing mandatory for team members, as not everyone has the same comfort level with online media, but it should be encouraged for those who would like to do it.

Encourage customers to share their experiences (user-generated content)

Your customers can be your greatest ambassadors. If they are pleased with a product or service, encourage them to share this on social media. Small gifts can often be a motivator for this and you can say something like “If you enjoy it, please share that with your network!”

Set up a selfie station

A selfie station in your spa where happy guests can take blissed-out post treatment photos to share on their own social channels. Make it an inviting place to stop for a bit on the way out. Make sure to ask guests taking selfies to hashtag and @ tag your spa!

Share posts about your customers

You can also take pictures and videos of your willing customers and share them yourself with a little comment or story about your experience together. Remember to focus on the guest and not on yourself – how great your experience with them was, and what they brought to your day rather than what you brought to theirs.

Be interactive and engaged

Aside from posting on your own social media channels, don’t forget to interact with other people’s. Comment, like, and share other people’s good content from your online network. And keep the conversation going on your own pages by responding to comments.

Don’t try to control the conversation

Getting people talking about your brand on social media means letting go of control over the conversation. You can encourage positive talk but can’t force it. This means not deleting comments you don’t like from your own pages, for example, or arguing with people who are negative or with whom you don’t agree. Be prepared for negative comments as things happen naturally. The best way to avoid this is to provide exquisite customer experiences and be above reproach, but there is always going to be someone with something negative to say. You can’t control that and you shouldn’t try.

Partner with micro or nano influencers

Influencer marketing is common these days but might be out of a business’s price range and often doesn’t deliver as much bang for a buck as hoped. Micro influencers, or nano influencers, have smaller followings (somewhere between 1,000 – 100,000) cheaper rates, and often  higher engagement rates.

Partner with other businesses

Partner with another business like a clothing boutique, flower shop, chocolate shop, or restaurant to sell, promote, and share each other’s offerings in packages or bundles or to sell or give away each other’s gift cards.  

Spa packages and bundles

Packages of several treatments or a selection of mini treatments are a great way to promote your services and introduce customers to experiences they might not otherwise try. Bundle products and services together to showcase how these things work together for the ultimate experience. Packages and bundles are great ideas for customers looking for the perfect gift.

Market your memberships with “bring a friend” perks

Membership packages that allow unlimited use of your facilities and a certain number of treatments per month are an excellent way to fill up your spa during downtimes and bring in a steady revenue stream all year round. Allow and encourage guests to bring a friend once a month to sweeten the deal and introduce new people to your spa.

Send out subscription boxes

Another way to diversify revenue and attract new customers is to launch a subscription box program. Home deliveries of your products once a month keeps you top of mind and makes an amazing gift for existing customers to give their loved ones.

Sell your gift cards

Gift cards are a marketing tool as old as time. OK, maybe not as old as time exactly, but they’ve been around for a while. Gift cards get your brand name out there and are a tried and true way to attract new customers and retain existing ones. Digital gift card sales make it all the easier these days to get those precious gifts into the right hands.

Email marketing

Stay in touch with your network by email. Send out welcome emails to new customers, birthday emails to existing ones, a newsletter updating your customers on events and product and service updates, thank you emails, and customer satisfaction surveys. Be sure to always collect customer email addresses — but don’t bombard people with too much messaging. Find a nice digestible pace, or people will just find you annoying.

Host events

Host private events to introduce loyal customers to new products or services or to celebrate holidays or milestones (like your spa’s one year or 10 year anniversary). Pour tea or wine, offer samples of your new product and give mini facials or massages. Encourage customers to bring a plus one. Don’t forget to take pictures and videos and to post these online to showcase what a great host you are and how compelling and lovely your clientele is.

Create referral programs

Incentivize referrals from guests by offering a gift of a discount, upgrade, or free product or service when a new person comes in for a treatment or signs up for a membership at their recommendation.

Place signage in the hotel or resort

It seems like an obvious idea. If your spa is in a hotel or resort, post signs throughout the property. Include a QR code with your menu and a link to your booking site. 

Manage your online reviews

Reviews are a major element to boosting brand awareness. A vast majority of people look at online reviews and many won’t even try a business with fewer than four stars. Encourage guests to leave good reviews, and always respond to all reviews, good or bad, with a “thank you” or an “I’m sorry your experience didn’t live up to your expectations.” Read more about handling online reviews here. 

Build your SEO 

SEO stands for search engine optimization and it refers to where you rank on search engines (mostly Google) when people search for particular key words or phrases. So, for example, if someone is looking for an “Austin spa,” will they find you or your competition first? Learn about keywords and how to improve your rankings then apply this to your website to improve brand visibility.

Donate to charity auctions

Charities often hold big events with silent or online auctions where people bid on items and the money they pay goes to the cause. These items are also donated by the businesses themselves. Donating spa products and service packages to these events is not only a great way to increase occupancy and expand your reach but also an opportunity to support the causes you believe in. It’s win-win.

Optimize for booking on web and mobile

Enable an online booking page on your website and make this accessible for mobile also. Post these links prominently on your page and all your social channels so no bookings fall through the cracks. Capture all possible bookings and leave no money on the table.

 

Spa Executive is published by Book4Time, the leading cloud-based spa management software for the world’s top hotels and resorts, used by more Forbes 5-Star rated spas than any other vendor. Learn more at book4time.com .