Today, if you want to stand out from the competition, your spa or massage practice needs to be “front and center” online. While there still is a place for traditional advertising and other offline marketing activities, the fact is that consumers are going online to compare vendors, ask questions and get input from others.
As you review your digital marketing strategy, keep in mind that your website needs to be at the heart of your campaign. In addition to making sure that your site is visually appealing, easily searchable and strongly conveys your brand and positioning, you’ll want to include relevant, educational and engaging content to draw and keep visitors to your site. You might want to start your own blogs, feature videos of your treatments, include appealing photos of retail products and boldly feature special, discounts and seasonal offerings.
Others components of your digital marketing campaign should include:
Online reviews: Online reviews are important because they let you know what areas of your spa or massage practice may need improvement. By monitoring reviews, you learn what customers are seeking from your products and services and how well you are their meeting expectations. Because of an online review you may find that clients don’t like a particular skin treatment or aren’t getting the desired results from a massage.
Enable online bookings: With so many ways consumers use online bookings these days, your spa or massage practice will want to extend clients the same courtesy. Today there is a wide range of offerings for online booking software, many of them that are cloud-based – that is, you don’t need to acquire any software to run on your computers. You access the booking software from a browser and pay a subscription fee, which varies between providers. Some of the offerings start out as a free trial so you can decide if you are satisfied with the service before you buy.
Email marketing: Email marketing is a powerful way to reach consumers with messages about your treatments, retail offerings, special promotions and loyalty programs. Just make sure you get permission. No one likes spam. You earn the goodwill of your contacts by asking them first if they can be added to your email outreach list. Also consider one size doesn’t fit all. Know your various customers so that you can tailor your email messages.
Social media: Social media can help your spa or massage practice in a number of ways. You can invite prospects and clients into your spa virtually by posting pictures and videos of your spa. Feature a treatment on a video and interview some of your staff talking about what they do. Highlight your retail section. Offer followers a product sample of a new retail offering by booking a treatment. Or reward your followers/fans with a special deal or discount on a product or treatment. It shows them you appreciate their support and at the same time helps you boost sales
Search engines: Use local search marketing to get your spa or massage practice to rank higher in search engines. Search marketing includes both search engine optimization (SEO) in which web content (web sites, videos and other content) is shown and ranked based on what the search engine considers most relevant to users. Search marketing also involves pay-per-click advertising (PPC) or cost-per-click (CPC)).
Directories: You’ll want to be sure that your spa or massage practice is included in online business directories - Yelp, Google or Bing, for example – to make it easier for prospects to find you. (Here’s a comprehensive list). Make sure that your business information is up to date.
While word of mouth and local advertising and marketing continues to be an important part of business building, you also need to have a strong presence online. It may take some time to complete all the components of your digital marketing strategy but once implemented, you’ll see the difference in the traffic coming through your door.