Is your website pulling its weight when it comes to helping your spa or massage practice grow? Today a website is one of the most important marketing and sales tools you have. That’s because the vast majority of today’s consumers — 97 percent — go online to search for products and services, according to a recent.
For starters, your website needs to look good and make searching for your services and retail products easy. From there, it needs to have functionality — online booking, eCommerce capabilities, special events calendar — to begin an engagement with a client or prospect.
As you review your website, ask yourself the following questions:
Does it reflect your brand
Your website may be the first place where prospective clients interact with your spa or massage practice, and clients frequently return for updated information on your products and service. That’s why your website needs to convey your brand — your promise, personality, and industry position — in graphics, design elements, and content elements to assure clients of a consistent experience in dealing with your business.
Does it reflect your current offering
Client requirements for massage and skincare treatments change over time. As needed, update your website to address how your business has evolved with new products and services to meet changing client needs or changes in the marketplace.
Is the content up to date
Fresh content about new product ingredients, the latest research on massage, home skincare tips, nutrition advice, and more attracts visitors to your website and keeps them there. While your social media efforts can help drive visitors to your site, they won’t stay there if the content is old and irrelevant. Creating fresh content — written as well as video and images — is time-consuming but it pays back in attracting and engaging clients.
Does content employ searchable terms
Since reaching prospective clients is a goal of your website, be sure to highly searchable terms and words. Tools such as Google Adwords Keyword Planner can help you understand what words relative to your market your targets use when they are searching for spa and massage products and services.
Is it mobile-friendly
According to the Pew Research Internet Project, as of May 2013, 63 percent of cell phone owners use their phones to access the Internet, and another 34 percent mostly go online using their phones and not some other device such as their desktop or a laptop. With your clients increasingly relying on their mobile devices to access the Internet for activities beyond sending and receiving a text or, your website needs to provide a satisfying experience when viewed from a mobile browser on the smaller screens of mobile phones and tablets.
Does it have a call to action
You want visitors to take action once they get to your site, “book your appointment,” “order this product,” “request more information,” “sign up for this event,” and more. Have several calls to action throughout your site to encourage visitors to act.
Feedback
You may want to add some sections on your site so that clients can provide feedback on your products and services as well as their website experience. Websites are no longer the static business cards they used to be. They are essential business tools that are a critical element of your ongoing marketing and customer service activities. Visitors expect a positive experience when they arrive at your virtual door. Make sure to provide one.