Is Your Marketing Failing to Deliver?

Are you feeling frustrated that business is not picking up the way you hoped? You thought you invested the right time and effort – and dollars – into marketing to reach prospects and current clients to keep your spa or massage business in the forefront of their minds. But the uptick in appointments you hoped for has failed to materialize.

There could be several reasons why your marketing is not working both at the strategic and tactical level.

Key reasons marketing is missing the mark

Lacks strategy

To turn your marketing around, you first need to take a one thousand foot view of your marketing campaign. Step away from the tactical aspects of your program – social media, text marketing, newsletters, and more – and ask yourself what the driving strategy behind your marketing is. If you cannot identify one, you are bound to make marketing mistakes.

 

Without a clear strategy, marketing can be unfocused and ineffective. The solution is to develop a marketing plan that identifies your target customers, sets goals, and determines which marketing channels will be most effective. Your marketing plan helps you understand your target clients and what they need to hear about your services that aligns with their needs and preferences. A marketing plan is particularly critical when the competition heats up.

As part of your marketing plan, assess the competition, including both long term players and new market entrants. Research social media and review sites to find out what the marketplace is saying about other spas and massage practitioners. Assess your advantages and disadvantages against the competition so that you know what opportunities and challenges lie ahead.

Does not understand target audience

To be effective, you need to understand what is driving clients to your business. The answer factors in the needs of clients for your services as well as your value proposition. It may be one of your key marketing mistakes that you fail to understand these things about your target clients so that your marketing messages fail to resonate.

 

As part of developing your marketing strategy, ask clients directly or through a direct mail or online survey how they feel about your business. Use Google Analytics to find out how users engage with your site while monitoring your social media with platforms like Sprout Social, which enables users to pre-schedule posts across various platforms, ensuring a consistent content flow. You gain key insights into audience demographics and growth trends across platforms. Hootsuite is another social media management tool.

Fails to differentiate your business

In a competitive market, failure to stand out is a serious yet one of the common marketing mistakes you can make. Clients and prospects have options. That is why you need to clearly differentiate your offering.

What makes your spa or massage practice unique from the competition? Is it the type of massage therapy you offer or the special skin treatments you have created? Whatever it is that you stand for and that sets you apart from others in your market is your ‘unique selling proposition’ or USP. Your proposition must be something that the competition cannot or does not offer. It’s not merely a benefit; it’s something that truly makes your business or service offering stand out. Also, the USP must be so strong that it attracts new clients. The steps to determine your USP include:

 

·         Step 1 Profile your target clients: Create a profile of your target customer.

·         Step 2 Analyze your marketplace: Consider the current trends in your market?

·         Step 3 Identify client needs/preferences: Ask yourself what are the needs of your clients? What will make them come back to your spa or massage practice repeatedly over the competition?

·         Step 4 Identify your qualities: Make a list of the qualities of your spa or massage practice relative to meeting the needs of your clients.

·         Step 5 Get feedback: Ask long-term clients, business associates and even vendors, if you can interview them about your service compared to the competition.

·         Step 6 Create a USP statement: Start by creating a paragraph that describes your USP. Include your differentiation and key substantiating points. From there, produce one or two sentences summarizing what sets your spa or massage practice apart.

Lacks consistency

Consistency in marketing is another one of the major marketing mistakes. Inconsistent marketing confuses target audiences and weakens brand recognition and client trust. It can jeopardize potential business because it confuses or alienates prospective clients. They cannot connect with a business when they cannot determine its differentiation or value proposition.

As you develop your campaign, look at each piece of social media, online or print ads, and community activities as one piece of the large pie. Your messaging needs to be consistent across all your campaigns. The goal of each marketing project is to tell your story not just gain attention.

 

Tries to do too much

A big marketing mistake is spreading your efforts – and yourself – too thin so that your effort for every marketing project is minimal.  It is far more effective to focus on a few key activities and execute thoroughly and flawlessly.

Other common marketing mistakes

 

No website: You must have a website so prospects can find you. In today’s marketplace, 97% of consumers search online for products and services, and more than half of the searches are local.^[1] So, the bottom line is you must have a website, and it must clearly explain who you are, your expertise and credentials, why you are different from other providers, what services you offer. Your site also should employ Search Engine Optimization (SEO) so that search engines will find, index, and understand its content to make it among the best results when someone conducts a search. And finally, it helps if you incorporate appointment scheduling software into your website, so clients can conveniently book appointments or change them if necessary.

 

Overlook mobile optimization: We use Smartphones for everything now—from shopping to engaging on social media. If your website is not optimized for mobile use, it can seriously affect the user experience and conversion rates.

 

Being inauthentic: Failure to be authentic is a big social media marketing mistake. Social media marketing campaigns must match your core messaging. Social media audiences recognize and reject hollow marketing efforts. Avoid controversial topics if your business cannot add meaningful value.

 

Lack content marketing goals: Superior quality content on your social channels is indispensable. Value-driven content is essential for engaging with customers. Avoid content marketing mistakes by ensuring that the articles you write, blog posts, case studies, and any other content you feature on your social channels are of value to your clients and that they like and share it. A product description may be of interest; but an article or post about massage trends will help clients decide what is best for solving their unique problems. Avoid content marketing mistakes by making sure you provide quality information and/or tell clients a strong story that will resonate with them.

 

Good marketing means more business. If your marketing campaign is not providing revenue driving results take time to review your strategy and make sure they align with your tactics.