of those often neglected items. Many times spa
owners view this as an expense rather than a revenue generating
tool. You need to regularly review your current marketing
efforts, and evaluate new options. However, to stay a step
ahead of your competition you need to have the right marketing
strategy.
The first thing you need to do is evaluate your current
marketing program. Evaluate what is working and what is not.
Figure out the actual cost versus the benefit of each type of
marketing you are doing. Did the postcards work better than the
radio ads? Did the free media attention from the grand opening
get you lots of new customers? It’s easy to get sold on a
particular advertising option, and one often forgets to
evaluate the effectiveness of the program. If you signed a long
contract for an advertising option that did not work, cancel it,
if you can.
Don’t Underestimate Email Power
When you take your customers information, you should be taking
not only their mailing address, but their email address as
well. You may want to start a monthly email newsletter about
your spa. Highlight a new procedure. Remind everyone that
summer is coming, and that they need to get in for those hair
removal treatments quickly. An occasional “Daily Specials”
e-mail will allow you to respond to a lull in bookings by
sending out a treatment special for the time slots you have
available that same day.
Cross Marketing
Visit the health food store, jeweler, or the organic store and
create a marketing program with them, offer discounts at each
others stores. Remember, no one has too many customers, they
will be happy you stopped by.
In the past many spas had a lot of success by cross marketing
with hair salons. Just as long as your spa dose not offer any
hair styling services, and the hair salon dose not offer any
spa services, this can me a real great relationship that the
two parties can really benefit from. Also make sure to give all
the hair stylists in the hair salon that you are cross marketing
with really good discounts on your services. This will get the
hair stylists at the salon really excited and enthusiastic and
your spa. Most hair stylists have a long list of clients that
have been loyally coming to the hair stylist for years. These
clients usually have developed a good level of trust with the
hair stylist, so if the stylist makes a positive comment about
your spa services to the client, you can be almost positive
that this client will check out your spa the next time they are
in the market for spa services.
Technology Power
When you opened your spa you most likely purchased a bookings
management system. Are you using it to its full potential?
These systems often allow you to run custom reports where you
can see which treatment rooms are being under-utilized, and
which clients haven’t been in the spa in a while. It may be
time to check out the software vendors website to remind
yourself of other productivity features which can help with
your marketing efforts.
Network Locally
You need to be known in the community where you do business. It
is important to contribute to local charities and events. If
your customers are Generation X, then sponsor a little league
team. If your customers are primarily baby boomers, you may
want to be involved with local charities. Remember, most people
do business with people they like. So networking gives you an
opportunity to connect with many different people in a short
period of time.
By using these tips, you should be able to grow your spa to
that next level. You can’t just hang out a sign and expect
people to run in, you are going to need to actively market your
spa and be constantly aware of which options are working and
which are not. Your marketing plan should be well documented
and should always be analyzed and constantly evolving to keep
you a step ahead of the competition.
About The Author: This article is courtesy of Omlas. Omlas is
committed to providing superior lasers, light-therapy medical
devices and spa equipment at very competitive prices, for a
wide variety of applications. The company is a global leader
in the development of lasers and light-therapy medical devices.
http://omlas.com
Please use the HTML version of this article at:
http://www.isnare.com/html.php?aid=125098
==================