No matter how big or small, every business needs to be thinking about “rising above the noise level.” With a 24/7 news cycle and a steady stream of content from an array of social channels, it is challenging to stand out from the crowd. Not only that, but marketing tactics are not static. They change rapidly as technology continues to evolve. As the owner or manager of a spa or massage practice, you want to keep up with the latest marketing trends to maintain market visibility and to build the strong connection to clients that results in repeat business over the long-term.
As this year wraps up, re-examine your marketing program to determine what has been successful. You also want to look at new marketing trends and incorporate them into the mix of tactics.
HubSpot, an American developer and marketer of software products for inbound marketing, sales, and customer service, looks at 2023 marketing trends. Among the list, consider: [1]
- Influencer marketing will evolve into a common marketing tactic
- Social media will become a customer service tool
- More businesses will leverage SEO to concur search traffic.
- Mobile optimization will be even more important,
- Video will remain the top marketing content format
Let’s look at how they work:
Influencer marketing becomes commonplace for marketing
Word of mouth advertising is golden, and it is especially valuable when it is someone the public can identify with. Historically, influencer marketing was associated with celebrities who for a fee would tout your product or service. But today influencer marketing no longer must focus on celebrity influencers with thousands if not millions of followers endorsing offerings. Micro-influencers on social media have a smaller audience but their opinions and recommendations are trusted. Someone locally whose services complement yours – a local health club owner, for example – with a strong social media presence can be helpful in promoting your spa or massage practice. Likewise, you can support their business in your social channels.
Social media is a customer service tool
Social media provides a highly visible opportunity to communicate with clients. Social media also makes it easier for clients to reach you, rather than sitting on hold on the phone or waiting for an email response. Of course, your client may be raving about you or raging about you, so how you respond to client questions and complaints is critical. By being responsive – that is addressing the comments quickly – you will go a long way in building trust with that client and with the wider social media audience following the exchange.
More businesses will leverage SEO to draw search traffic
SEO is a set of rules or practices to optimize a website so that it achieves higher ranking in search engine organic results. When someone performs a search, search engines comb through their index looking for the most applicable content, which they put in order of relevance to solve the query.
SEO has two main goals. One is to help business create content that will satisfy the needs of users searching for information or content. The other goal is to optimize a website so that search engines will find, index, and understand its content to make it among the best results when someone conducts a search.
With SEO, you do not have to wait for your website to be seen. By applying good SEO strategies, you have a better chance that your website will come up on searches when clients and prospects search for your keywords. SEO boosts likelihood of targets seeing your messages many times.
Mobile optimization will be even more important
If you do not have a website optimized for mobile for your small business, you may be losing out to the competition. More than half of online website traffic comes from mobile devices. Furthermore, millennials and Gen Z clients expect mobile-optimized digital experiences and their buying power continues to grow.[2]
With so many customers and prospects now coming to you from their mobile devices, you want to be sure they stick around long enough to find the information they need and engage. Sites developed for PCs are generally not adequate for smaller screens – pages may not load properly, for example.
Video will remain the top marketing content format
Videos as marketing and educational tools enhance your credibility and build trust to strengthen your brand. Most clients will find it easier to watch you perform a skin treatment or massage than read about it in a brochure or other marketing piece, although they too have their place in your marketing mix. With video, you can talk directly to your audiences as you showcase your expertise and explain the various services you provide.
Nowadays it is easy to create a video and share it on your website and social media channels. Furthermore, you can repurpose video content into text-based content as well as podcasts.
Consider these trends as you develop your marketing strategy for 2023 to keep ahead of the competition.
[1] “The Marketing Trends of 2023 [Highlights],” Hubspot, Accessed December 6, 2022. https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/marketing-trends
[2] “The Marketing Trends of 2023 [Highlights]”