Creating Customers | SpaBoom

The Power of Gratitude

November 11, 2014 Kathy Watts permalink

Think about the last time someone really genuinely thanked you for something. Made you feel pretty good, didn’t it? We express thanks all the time to our family, our friends, our employees, and our clients. But how often, especially in our business, do we really show our gratitude. Gratitude in business is often overlooked, but it can be a powerful tool for creating a successful and thriving business.

Customers who feel appreciated will keep coming back and will recommend you to their friends and family. Employees who feel appreciated will be loyal employees who help you grow and sustain a successful business and keep your customers happy as well.

As we head into the traditional season of gratitude, now is a great opportunity to take some time and plan out how you can incorporate more gratitude into your business practices throughout the year. Here are a few ideas to get you started.

Create a Loyalty Program
Clients who feel appreciated and are rewarded for their loyalty to your business will keep coming back. Providing a system for rewarding them for their business is a great way to create a relationship with your clients. It’s also a good way to keep them coming back again and again and spending a bit more. We even have functionality built into your SpaBoom account that can help you run this type of program.

Create Customer Appreciation Events or Specials
Another great way to show your appreciation is to host an event or create special promotions to show your clients how grateful you are to have them. You could do this monthly or quarterly. It could be something as simple as a special reward for clients who make purchases during a certain time frame. Or something more elaborate like a customer appreciation open house with mini treatments for your clients.

Create opportunities for thanking your employees as well
Employees who feel appreciated tend to be more engaged and are more productive at work. So build some opportunities for thanking your employees into your business plan. You could create an ongoing feature such as Employee of the Month or Week, where you feature and reward an employee who has gone above and beyond. Or do something a little more simple such as an annual party to thank your staff for all their hard work during the year.

How about sending a quick message of thanks this time of year?
We all spend a great deal of time and effort on cultivating our clients and maintaining their loyalty. But one of the easiest ways to do that is often the most overlooked in this age of social media and email: the simple expression of gratitude. So think about sending out a message via email and social media this season that simply says “Thanks so much for being our clients.” So many of our communications are about selling or promoting something. This time around, let’s promote gratitude and further our relationship with our clients and staff.

As a business owner, there are so many things to be grateful for and so many ways to express that gratitude. Be sure to take some time out regularly to recognize that and to say thanks to those who help you make it all possible.

Keep Your Eye on the Turkey

October 31, 2014 permalink

Even though the frost is barely on the pumpkin, things are starting to get serious in terms of end-of-year marketing. We’re about to hit the big time in terms of opportunity to generate significant revenue, all while we’re helping our clients choose most excellent gifts for their intended recipients, recipients who may not yet be loyal to your business.

Gift certificates represent a very solid way to boost your revenue stream and bond with those who are new, or at least new to you, in terms of enjoying relaxing, nurturing, stress-reducing services. There is a lovely symmetry to the gift certificate sale that begins with you promoting your services via your website, in house signage, voice mail recordings, and social media interactions and ending with the lucky giftee scheduling time in your establishment.

You reach out via the media that you’ve chosen to the people you’ve nurtured and to whom you’ve provided spa, massage, esthetic and salon services to in the past to do the right thing – gift a wonderful service to a friend or family member on their list – and in return you gain access to new and more potential long-term clients, clients that you will then be able to reach out to with great promotions and service offerings that they can then gift to other lucky people and so on.

Everything that you do to promote your business, and to provide the absolute best experience possible for everyone who walks in your door matters. Every time a future customer becomes a current customer your hard work has made a difference, for those people decide to seek your services for any number of reasons, all of which you have a modicum of control influencing in positive ways – a friend refers your business by straight recommendation or via gift certificate, an article you have written on your blog has impressed to the point where curiosity is piqued and a decision to try out your services is made, or a social media post gets liked by someone whose like is seen on a friend’s wall. The possibilities are limitless; the choice to reach out with compelling and thought provoking marketing, regardless the medium, is one that pays dividends in countless ways. The process builds on itself – that’s the beauty and frustration of marketing, actually. Even if you ask someone how they found your business, sometimes their answer is only part of the equation. After all, in our day and age of being constantly overwhelmed by a daily barrage of messaging and information – much of it designed to make us buy something or try something, or, right now, to vote in midterm elections for someone, actually – the real reason for finally seeking your services may have begun months before when a friend shared a helpful blog article. The fact that your new client has now bookmarked your blog, or is notified when a new article goes up simply reinforces the entire process.

Back to the turkey.

By now we’re all painfully aware of the Black Friday idiocy ridiculousness chaos tradition. Most of us have participated at one point in the rush to get the best deal on a down comforter or TV or home appliances or….to be met with extremely long lines full of people suffering from serious turkey hangovers. It’s not fun, and often the object of your original desire is gone by the time you actually get into the place that’s offering up the deal. It’s fundamentally unfair, blows a perfectly good morning to sleep in and relax, and is so not how you need to do things.

You offer the perfect, elegant solution with your instant gift certificates for your services. Use the convenience factor, the elegance piece, the ‘they are absolutely right for so many people on your list’ aspect, and promote them like crazy.

Starting now. Because it’s about to get ugly out there, and you are in the perfect position to make the lives of gift givers a whole lot easier, once again.

Go forth and promote. And go easy on the stuffing – it’ll make you sleepy.

Partner Up to Grow Your Clientele

October 23, 2014 permalink

As children, our parents always encouraged us to make friends. It wasn’t always easy, since society is complicated and not everyone gets along famously, but, over time, we ended up with quite a posse. Grade school through high school, many of us were friends through the travails of childhood, adolescence, then young adulthood. Having a close group of like-minded cohorts made us feel stronger and a part of something, which was a good thing.

As professionals within the spa, massage, esthetics and salon industry, following our parents’ sage wisdom would be a very very good practice. For some reason once we’re adults, and practicing in various areas of expertise, the bonds we enjoyed in our youth seem less important. As members of a community of businesses that serve the needs of clientele seeking relaxation, rejuvenation, hair care, and beauty, we need to look around and become friends with businesses in our local area. Developing business relationships with restaurants, florists, B&B’s, golf courses, yoga studios, and others makes very good business sense.

Referring to others in your community provides an entre for your clients to enjoy that new French Bistro down the block, perhaps at a discount, or maybe with a lovely glass of wine added to their meal, gratis, because you sent those diners to try the cuisine. Conversely, offering up a special perc or add on to services for customers of that same Bistro who visit for the first time demonstrates your desire to spread good will within the local business community as well as grow your client base in the process.

I have seen many partnerships develop between small businesses that make me smile and believe in the power of collaboration and professional support as a way to engender positive feelings within a mutual client base, and, ultimately generate referrals which are really opportunities to form relationships with new clients.

Who within your business community could you strike up a referral relationship with? If you sit down and make a list of possible complementary partnerships you might be surprised at the potential just waiting to be tapped.

Sometimes Credibility Comes From Outside

October 16, 2014 permalink

Fortunately for the spa and salon industry, many people fully understand the benefits and enjoyment around receiving regular massages, facials, manis/pedis, and hair treatments. These people have either learned from friends in the know, or simply appreciate the value of care delivered in serene, well-designed settings by professional practitioners.

There are some out there, though, who need a nudge in the right direction. These people may have perfectly good reasons for reticence, but mostly they may feel like they need science to justify spending on themselves (spending time and/or money). I have friends who never ‘got’ how healthy massages are for us until they heard a spot on Oprah or read an article in a health magazine outlining the benefits. After that, they were converts…

The good news is, there is more literature than ever espousing the benefits of massage, foot care and skin care. Using articles (referencing them on your blog, or linking to them from a resources page on your website, for example) to add credibility to ‘tangible’ benefits of your services can help convince those who just haven’t quite figured out what the rest of us embraced long ago – regular care by gifted professionals means feeling and looking better no matter what!

A quick search just netted two articles worth a view on the benefits of massage:

MASSAGE: GET IN TOUCH WITH ITS MANY BENEFITS
The Mayo Clinic published this piece, which is simple and straightforward, and provides some general information that may help the uninitiated feel more comfortable with massage as a beneficial addition to a healthy lifestyle.

MASSAGE
The University of Maryland Medical Center published this overview, which contains definitions of the various modalities of massage we tend to encounter, as well as the health benefits imparted by same.

Foot care also falls into the realm of ‘seems like an indulgence’ until the health benefits are listed at which point pedicures move into the realm of the possible, and not just for aesthetic reasons. Everyone’s feet can use a professional assessment from time to time, particularly if there is concern, as there may be in the case of diabetes or extreme athletics, that the feet are less healthy than they could be. From a diabetic perspective, keeping one’s feet healthy is a very serious matter as the consequences of blisters, sores, fungal infections or other breaches of the healthy skin layer can present concerns, and a need for medical oversight and treatment. From an extreme athletics perspective, the feet take a beating, and the results can include damaged toe nails, significant callous buildup, as well as strain and stress on the toes and feet structures themselves, all of which can be identified by a professional pedicure.

PEDICURE
Foot Vitals’ Dr. Kelsey Armstrong has outlined the importance of regular foot care in overall health, as well as the benefits of professional pedicures to help identify and relieve potential issues.

Skin care is also a hot topic, and from a very simple and practical standpoint, regular skin care means someone other than you is assessing the health and well being of the largest organ on the body. Professional estheticians see what we might not – changes that may indicate a need for a visit with a dermatologist for follow up, as well as signs of health concerns or aging that can be addressed with any number of modern approaches.

While we can’t win everyone over into the land of consistent spa, salon and skin care, we can use the power of information and the media to make the argument for us when all that’s needed is just that little nudge to venture into a beneficial and rejuvenating place.

Tune Up Your Social Media

October 1, 2014 Kathy Watts permalink

These days, just having a Facebook page and Twitter account is not enough. They shouldn’t just be an afterthought, or something you signed up for because you thought your business should have them. They also shouldn’t just be a place to advertise your specials.

People spend more time on social media than they do watching television, so making sure your business is not only present but offering interesting and engaging posts is more important than ever. People are looking for engagement and benefits from liking your page. Social media should be a place where you create and foster a community. That community then becomes a captive audience and a strong contingent of your regular customers.

Now is a great time of the year to tune up your social media pages & rethink your social media strategy. Here are some things to consider:

First, Do a Bit of Housekeeping
Here are a few initial places to start off the housekeeping on your page:

Is your contact information (phone number, address, & website) correct? Have you entered your business hours and are they accurate? Is your About section filled out and up to date?
Make sure your Facebook page is a business page and not just a profile. Not only is it more professional, it also doesn’t violate Facebook’s policies. If someone can “Friend” your page, then you have a profile. A Business page can only be “Liked”.
Do you have a cover photo and profile picture? Studies show that users are drawn to pages with photos. Make sure your page has them and they are sized to fit properly.

What makes a good post? Trends in Posting
More and more people are spending more and more time on social media, and they aren’t just on there to watch videos of cats. They are there looking for inspiration, engagement, and to feel like part of a community. So make your page the sort of place that provides that sort of experience, rather than just a spot to check out your specials. Inspire them with tips and information about how to achieve a more beautiful and healthy lifestyle. Engage them with questions that encourage interaction. The trend in posting to social media is moving towards shorter, more frequent communications, with a focus on visual. This is the perfect place to test out your brand voice and personality (two topics we’ve covered recently here on the blog). The best posts create and foster a sense of community and initiate conversations.

Think Visual!
Consumers continue to become more and more visual, and they are drawn to posts with images. So think about incorporating more visuals into your posts. All of the social media platforms are set up to incorporate photos or videos into your posts, so posting with photos is now easier than ever.

Consider using Video
YouTube has more viewers than cable television. Used effectively, video is a great way to connect with even more of your clients or prospective customers. Plus, with the Facebook algorithm, users who watch videos will start to see more videos in their feeds, which means your posts will show up more frequently if they include photos and videos. Video can be a great tool for sharing tips with your followers or introducing them to your staff.

Create a Series
Series are a great way to generate interest and also a way to bring followers back again, to check out the next installment. It’s also a great way to set your business up as an expert, or to help foster your brand identity online by helping your followers get to know your business better.

A great idea for a series is to answer your five most asked questions in little videos. Then share them on your social media outlets in a weekly series & make a landing page on your website that features them as well. Or create an Ask the Expert series where followers can post questions and you post a video response/tutorial once a week.

Should you add another outlet?
Facebook and Twitter are still the kings of social media. But there are lots of other platforms out there that continue to grow in popularity. Now might be a good time to think about adding another to the mix. Consider Google+, the fastest growing of the social networks. Experts predict that it will only continue to grow and its users are very active. It could be a great third social media outlet to add to your marketing plan.

There are also quite a few social media platforms that are a bit more specialized, such as LinkedIn for business contacts, Pinterest for pinning fave photos and links to websites/articles, Instagram for posting snapshots, and Vine for posting short 6 second videos. It’s worth evaluating these to determine whether any of them will provide added benefit to your social media strategy.

Now more than ever, having a strong social media marketing strategy is one of the most powerful tools in your marketing plan. Make sure you keep it up to date and invest the time and effort to make it useful and interesting for your followers. You’ll see that commitment reflected in your bottom line.

*** This article is part of our “Time for a Tune Up” series, designed to help you tune up your business practices, get ready for the holidays, and think about your business and marketing strategies, both for the rest of this year and heading into 2015. It’s not too early to start thinking ahead, and now is the time to start preparing for even more success.

Celebrate Your Clientele!

September 29, 2014 permalink

Marketing your spa, salon, massage therapy or esthetics practice requires a very clear picture of your ideal target. Painting a picture of that target means listening to your clientele and remembering (noting) key points about them. These points provide marketing opportunities, and will further strengthen your relationships which engender client loyalty, which in turn helps you succeed. It’s a beautiful process, really it is.

Birthdays immediately come to mind as key points to remember. Everyone has one, even the timeless, ageless clients who appear to be untethered to the same laws of physics as the rest of us. Why not offer up either an extended service for the price of a regular session, or throw in a complementary lovely lotion or potion with a service to commemorate their event? The actual cost to you as the provider can be carefully managed to be minimal, and the good will you build in the process will be considerable.

Another example? Anniversaries. Some years back my husband and I decided to celebrate ours each year with indulgence in the form of side-by-side massages. We have two spas we love to frequent (very different, both amazing, both staffed with very skilled practitioners), and alternate between them for these annual events. After this year’s lovely indulgence, we were escorted out to a lovely sitting area and offered champagne to help celebrate our event. We enjoyed the cool, sparkly beverages as we chatted about our massages, and both felt that this final touch was lovely.

Start simple by designing a couple of options for birthdays, then making a point of asking clients when their special day is each year, then mentioning your special treatment of the birthday celebrant. They’ll be happy to give up the info knowing that when theirs rolls around they’ll be getting an email, postcard, text or phone call letting them know that you know that it’s time to celebrate.

The Power of Storytelling

September 22, 2014 Kathy Watts permalink

We’ve talked a lot lately about how to build your brand, through creating a personality and voice. And one of the most effective ways to do that is with storytelling. The best brands are good at telling stories, both about their company history and their clients’ experiences. But why is storytelling so effective as a marketing tool?

Storytelling is an ancient form of communication, one in which we all have a long history. From the time we are small we are told stories as a way to inform, educate, and entertain. We are wired to crave stories and to feel like we are a part of them. At some point we’ve all been completely mesmerized by a good story.

With the popularity of social media, and the personal connections and stories that we are addicted to having daily, storytelling is even more important. Storytelling allows you to connect with your clients. But more importantly, a story allows your clients to feel a more personal connection to your business. It allows you to build a persona for your brand, to set your brand up as a relatable commodity and as an authority that your clients can turn to when they are looking for advice.

So how can you start incorporating storytelling into your content marketing? Here are a few ideas to get you started:

Tell the story of why you decided to open the business or how you went about becoming a small business owner
Talk about challenges you have faced and the successes you have had, both personally and as a business
Talk about your staff – share their stories so that your clients will start to feel a more personal connection to them
Engage your audience – ask them questions about their life, what they want to see from your business, or what sorts of activities they are interested in
Share stories from events or volunteer activities that your business or staff are involved in
Tell the stories of your clients and their interactions with you, your business, and your community

Incorporating more storytelling into your content marketing sounds like a hard task. But in reality we are all storytellers already. It’s just a matter of writing our stories down and sharing them with our communities.

The power of storytelling can help you establish your brand identity and voice. By building a more personal relationship with your clients, you’ll solidify their connection with you. And you’ll see that reflected in growing brand loyalty and increased sales. After all, people tolerate a good pitch, but they love a good story.

Are You Ready for The Holidays?

August 28, 2014 permalink

Take a deep breath, you still have plenty of time before the winter holidays arrive, but now is when you need to plan, plan, plan!

Yes, school is just getting started, which reminds me…now is a great time to promote a relaxing and rejuvenating service or package to all of the Moms in the world who spent the summer entertaining and hanging out with their kiddos! Reward them, they’re amazing and could really use a treat right about now.

But you need to think about what you’d like to accomplish for the rest of the year in terms of your marketing promotions. You’ve made it through Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, and various minor (but not necessarily gift-driven) holidays since, and now it’s time to look forward to your last big revenue-generating opportunity of the year.

Thoughts to think:

What great services and packages can we pre-devise to best meet our clients’ expectations this year? Wallets are loosening up a little, which means including some slightly more robust services may be just the ticket this season. Remember that creating great seasonal offerings will solve gift givers’ desires to provide the perfect spa, salon or massage gift, which will help generate that precious holiday revenue that can help finish out the year in a very positive way.

How should we promote the cool services and packages we’ve created? Your service menus need to be updated in time for your seasonal promotion push, you need to be sure your website reflects that information as well, you should talk about your offers both in store (w/ scripted/directed copy) and on your blog, and definitely include social media in your mix. Always.

What do you want to do in-house to spruce things up and create an environment in which clients will embrace receiving treatments AND purchasing gifts for families, friends and coworkers? Creating ambiance is a skill you already have; translating that skill to the upcoming holiday season will ensure you and your clients get the most out of their time with you.

Do you need to secure holiday staff in order to support your holiday clientele? Creating promotions directed at encouraging existing clients to visit during the nuttiness of the holiday season in addition to focusing on generating new clients makes sense. Assume your promotions will succeed, and line up enough staff to support the effort.

Pondering, then acting on your upcoming holiday marketing plan will minimize last-minute, stress-filled planning, and allow you to ease into the season knowing you’ve covered your bases.

Building Brand Advocates

August 20, 2014 Kathy Watts permalink

Successful marketing is, first and foremost, about building relationships. Building a good relationship with your clients can turn them into advocates for your brand, increasing your reach and helping you to build a solid reputation and business through referrals.

But creating brand advocates takes time and effort to not only build that client relationship but to nurture it. Here are some effective ways to build a relationship with your clients and help turn them into brand advocates for your business.

Deliver Good Customer Service
I say it all the time. Good Customer Service is the foundation of every successful business. Every experience your clients have with you should be a positive and well delivered one. From the moment they first visit your website or Facebook page, call to make an appointment (or book one online), or walk through your front door to receive their service, every moment is an opportunity to deliver a positive, and consistent, experience to your clients. That should always be the first step in building a relationship with your client. Before a client can become a brand advocate, they have to be happy with their personal experiences with your business. And if they are happy with your business, they’ll go out and tell all their friends about you.

Keep Your Clients Engaged
Keep your clients engaged on a regular basis via social media, your blog, or in email. Different people want contact in different ways, so make sure you are covering all the bases. Give them content that is interesting to them (and most definitely more than just promos or specials). Offer them expert advice, ask them questions that encourage feedback and interesting discussions, or share information about what is going on with your business and your staff. If you set yourself up as a trusted resource, your clients will start to view you as an expert, and they’ll tell all their family and friends about you as well.

Focus On Your Clients
Your clients know what they want and need from your business. So take some time out regularly to focus on what your clients need or want from your business. Regularly ask them for feedback and really listen to what they have to say. Then act on it in whatever ways work best for both your business and your clients’ needs. If your clients feel like you really care about what they think and what their needs are, they are not only going to be happier, but they’re going to go out and share that with their network of people.

It’s not a huge leap from happy customer to brand advocate. Many of the things you do everyday to help grow a successful business are the same things that can help turn happy clients into advocates for your brand. But it does require a concerted, genuine, and focused effort on your part. Building and maintaining good relationships with your clients is key to creating a successful brand, and satisfied clients who are happy to advocate on your behalf with their family and friends.

Creating A Personality For Your Brand

August 7, 2014 Kathy Watts permalink

Brand Identity and Personality are distinct but closely related. Your brand identity is the visual image you create to communicate with your clients, including your logo, color scheme, or other repeating visual details. It is anything that your client (or potential client) sees that allows them to visually identify your business as distinct from your competition. Your brand personality is the emotional association that a client (or potential client) experiences when they think of your brand or see your logo. Personality helps create the emotions your client (or potential client) feels when they think of your brand or see your logo, as if they are thinking of a person rather than just a brand.

Knowing your brand personality can help determine how you communicate with your clients and how your business stands out in the community, especially compared to your competitors. Brand identity makes you recognizable. Brand personality makes you relatable.

Having a brand personality ensures that your communications will all look and feel like they are coming from the same place. It also allows you to be a storyteller and to become a business that people want to get to know better. People will always be more eager to speak about “a someone” rather than “a something”. By giving your brand a personality that comes across as more authentic in communications, you’ll get your clients excited and they’ll want to talk about you with their family and friends.

But how do you figure out what your brand personality is? Here are a few questions to consider when creating (or discovering) your brand personality.

Describe your business or brand with one adjective. Is it luxurious, trendy, hip, upscale, contemporary, etc?
What is the spirit of your brand? If you had to define the essence of your business in one word, what would you choose?
If your brand was a person, how would you describe him/her?
Who is your audience?
How do you want people to feel about your brand?

These questions should start to give you an idea about what the personality of your brand looks like. From there you can start to craft a personality to represent your brand.

Once you have created your brand personality, now is the time to cultivate it through your social media interactions, your blog, and your email marketing. It is a powerful social media tool for creating a relationship with your clients and for attracting the type of clients you really want. Don’t forget that brand personality is about the emotional association your clients feel when they see your logo or think about your brand. It is more about fostering a relationship with your clients rather than them just being able to identify your logo.

By having a strong brand personality, your clients will start to feel more like they have a personal relationship with your brand rather than just recognizing and liking your business. It gives your clients someone to talk about rather than just a brand. And that makes it much easier for them to become an advocate for your brand.