Designing an effective spa marketing plan often appears complex to budding business owners and marketers new to the industry. Indeed, traditional marketing techniques rarely appeal to spa clients, causing many salons to lose time and money.

If you’re a spa owner or beauty marketing expert, however, there’s no need to despair. As we will demonstrate via the following 10 spa marketing ideas, implementing a spa marketing strategy that works doesn’t have to be rocket science. It simply requires a little patience, hard work, and creativity.

1. Optimise your website

Your website is the most important tool for convincing potential customers to invest in your brand, so you must look after it and make it as Google-friendly as possible.

The good news is that building a slick website has never been easier thanks to services such as WordPress, Wix, and Squarespace. These intuitive and affordable platforms allow users to build fabulous websites even if they lack coding or design experience.

However, effective spa marketing is about more than creating a pretty website. To secure customer loyalty you must optimise your website to make it as user-friendly as possible. As well as satisfying Google algorithms and increasing the searchability of your website, an optimised site will boost trust in your brand and encourage people to book spa services.

So, how can you optimise a spa website? Here is a quick checklist of essential features to include:

• Clear information: Think about the key pieces of information a potential client will need when booking and make them visible on your homepage. This could include prices, spa location, business hours, a list of treatments, and more.

• Mobile-friendly features: Remember that more people browse the internet on mobile devices than desktops nowadays, so your site must be optimised for mobile. There’s a separate article in our blog on why mobile-first rule is important for search rankings.

• Include clear calls-to-action: This includes obvious booking buttons and options for the client to follow. 

If you need help optimising your site, it may be worth enlisting the help of a professional web developer or a marketing agency like Allsopp Media to ensure it is as quick, intuitive, and attractive as possible.

 

2. Include a blog section on your website

Maintaining a blog is a relatively easy and inexpensive way to engage loyal customers, attract new clients, and boost your search engine optimisation (SEO). Build your brand by posting detailed information about your excellent services, as well as educational content that will help customers in their everyday lives. For example, you could entice readers by writing a guide to maintaining healthy skin between spa treatments or an article about a new wellness trend. Just remember to include well-researched relevant keywords that search engines will pick up and don’t make any unsubstantiated claims. False or unreliable information could seriously damage your reputation.

3. Ensure online booking is as simple and seamless as possible

A complex online booking system could annoy customers and cost you serious money. Your clients don’t want to spend their precious time navigating a confusing website or filling in endless booking forms, after all. To avoid this problem, add an accessible booking feature to your website homepage, as well as your Google My Business profile, email campaigns, and social media accounts.

To prevent double-bookings or administrative problems, it is a good idea to invest in salon-specific software such as Fresha or MassageBook. These platforms allow customers to book their own appointments online and out-of-hours, reducing the administrative burden on your business and potentially boosting your client numbers.

Of course, don’t use your online booking system as a replacement for a phone booking service. Some clients will still want to discuss their appointment with a human during business hours.

If you’re unfamiliar with Google My Business, it is the world’s most popular online goods and services directory. By adding your company name, website URL, and information to its complex ecosystem, you can significantly increase your chances of clients in your area finding your business on Google Maps and gaining quick access to contact information, images of your salon, online reviews, and more. Making a Google My Business account is free, quick and very easy. Simply fill in the intuitive form and watch your follower count grow. If you’re hoping to make the most of Google and boosting the number of visitors to your site, however, it is also worth investing in Google Ads. These are paid advertisements designed to drive customers directly to your site – great for boosting brand awareness if you’re a fledgling business that hasn’t had the time to build up a strong SEO strategy or create an intricate marketing campaign yet.

5. Entice new customers with special holiday offers and discounts

Most regular spa clients book sessions to coincide with public holidays and weekends. Make the most of this by advertising a gift card, special holiday packages or attractive discounts ahead of bank holidays and popular holiday seasons.

5. Entice new customers with special holiday offers and discounts

Most regular spa clients book sessions to coincide with public holidays and weekends. Make the most of this by advertising a gift card, special holiday packages or attractive discounts ahead of bank holidays and popular holiday seasons.

Some of the most lucrative times for salons include Valentine’s Day, Easter, Christmas, Mother’s Day, and the summer holiday season. Other bespoke marketing ideas could include the introduction of special wedding packages and discounts during the summer or winter gift certificates during the festive season. Just get creative and remember to advertise your offers via email marketing campaigns, newsletters, and social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram.

To ensure your giveaway brings about lasting results, the rules for entering should benefit your business in some way. You could, for example, ask that people like and share your business page to be in with a chance of winning. This will help to spread the word quickly among vast networks of people.

7. Send texts to loyal customers and potential clients

Text message marketing is quickly replacing email marketing as the best way to disseminate promotional information, appointment reminders, and educational content to spa clients. While emails are becoming increasingly easy to dismiss and delete, almost everyone reads texts.

7. Send texts to loyal customers and potential clients

Text message marketing is quickly replacing email marketing as the best way to disseminate promotional information, appointment reminders, and educational content to spa clients. While emails are becoming increasingly easy to dismiss and delete, almost everyone reads texts.

Appointment reminders are a particularly important tool as they can help reduce your rate of no-shows and protect your profits in the long term. So, how should you go about sending texts? It is possible to send texts manually if you run a small business. However, this can be time-consuming and is not realistic if you want your business to grow. Fortunately, there are plenty of affordable spa management applications out there with text message capabilities such as Appointfix.

8. Set up a birthday rewards programme

Spa clients love to feel valued on their birthdays, so why not enhance your spa marketing strategy with a birthday reward programme? As well as helping to increase your base of loyal customers, this technique could end up boosting your overall booking rate all year round. To go about it, you will need to collect information about the birthdates of customers when they first sign up for your newsletters or book an appointment (with their explicit permission, of course). With this information, you can use a tool such as Appointfix to send automated emails or text messages to a client a few days before their birthday. In the email or text message, you should wish them the best and offer them a redeemable spa treatment or discount for the entirety of their birthday month. This will give them enough flexibility to fit an appointment into their schedule.

9. Create a listing for your spa on TripAdvisor

Online reviews are fundamental to the success of businesses in the health and beauty industry, as clients often rely on previous customer reviews to make purchasing decisions. With over 490 million monthly active users and 7 million listed attractions, TripAdvisor is one of the most popular review platforms used by businesses in the hospitality and services industries. To ensure you get as much business as possible and build up a buzz around your brand, therefore, you must make your spa reviewable via TripAdvisor.

10. Make the most of micro-influencers

You may have heard of Instagram influencers, but so-called micro-influencers are quickly becoming a key part of social media marketing strategies. In short, micro-influencers are Instagrammers and bloggers used by small businesses to promote services locally. They don’t have huge followings like some of the world’s most famous influencers, but they do have loyal and dedicated fans who are likely to be receptive to paid promotions. Micro-influencers represent highly affordable marketing partners who will promote your beauty business in exchange for free services or small payments. Thanks to the astronomic popularity of Instagram, they are also becoming an increasingly vital part of any spa marketing plan. So you might want to start searching for micro-influencers on social media today to boost your spa marketing efforts.