Everyone is talking about content marketing these days, and telling you that you should be doing it better and more often. But what is content marketing and why is it so important anyway?

Content marketing is the creation and sharing of valuable content (or media) that is relevant to your target audience in order to attract and keep customers. It could be anything from a blog post on your website to an infographic hanging in your waiting room; or anything from a video demonstrating a popular technique to a Pinterest board you maintain with useful photos/links/information for your clients. The key is that it needs to be valuable to your clients and relevant for their lives and your business’ expertise.

Okay, so now we know what content marketing is. But why is it so important to your business?

Well, you want to be a resource for your clients and potential clients. Providing your readers and followers with valuable content is a great way to establish a relationship with them and set your brand up as an expert resource to look to when they have questions. It allows you to communicate with your clients without always trying to sell something to them.

Benefits of Content Marketing

1. Content marketing is a great way to build your brand and voice. In order to build your brand and your voice you need to communicate with your clients. Content marketing allows you to establish a relationship with your clients and allow them to get to know your brand and your voice.

2. Content marketing sets your brand up as an expert resource. By providing content to your readers that is relevant and valuable to them you are setting your brand and business up as an expert resource. Done well, this will eventually mean that people will seek out your brand when they need information or guidance because they trust your brand. It is a great way to build a relationship with both current and future clients.

3. Content marketing allows you to communicate with your clients outside of selling services to them. You don’t want all of your communications and interactions with clients to be about selling them something. Content marketing allows you to interact with people and establish a relationship with them by sharing information that they find useful. Once you’ve established a relationship with them, they are much more likely to come to you when they’re looking to purchase a service.

 Types of Content to Create & Share

Content needs to be valuable and relevant to your clients. It needs to be something they find useful, interesting, or relevant to things going on in their lives. It should set your brand up as an expert resource for them to turn to. And it should not be selling anything. If you can create content that meets these criteria, then you will be very effective at growing your brand through content marketing.

Content marketing should not just be an afterthought of your marketing strategy. It should be the most important component of your marketing strategy, and should touch all other aspects of your strategy, from social media and blog posting to marketing and promotions. Done well, it is the most effective means to grow your business.

You’ve put a lot of work into building your brand and it is an important part of your business identity. But you can’t just neglect your brand now that you’ve created it. It needs a bit of regular maintenance in order to keep it healthy. You do such a great job of helping your clients look their best and maintain their health.

Here are a few key things to do in order to keep your brand and your business happy, healthy, and growing:

Keep offering all those amazing services (& think about adding a few new ones)

Your clients come to you for a reason: You’re good at what you do. Keep up the good work. Make sure your services menu is up to date and that your staff is still receiving the necessary training to continue to offer consistent services. And take some time to talk to your staff and clients about any new trends or treatments that they’d like to see you offer.

Keep providing excellent customer service

Your clients are loyal to your brand for a lot of reasons. And one of the biggest ones is your fantastic customer service. They know that whenever they have an interaction with your company it is going to be a positive one, especially if they have a question or a problem. Excellent customer service not only helps you maintain loyal existing customers, it also helps you bring in new clients due to your stellar reputation. So keep up the good work!

Put Your Strategic Marketing Plan into Play   

Remember that marketing plan you put together last year? You know, the one we talked about way back in October of last year, in preparation for 2015?  Well, have you implemented that plan yet? If not, pull it out and get started. A strategic marketing plan makes it easy to plan out your marketing calendar and allows you to create more effective promotions throughout the year. Didn’t have time to put one together yet? Check out our post: What will you do in 2015? and get started.

By doing a few key things on a regular basis, you can easily maintain the health of your brand. Plan out some time on a weekly basis to pay attention to what is going on with your brand, evaluate what is working and what is not, and then be ready with a plan in place for your marketing and planning needs. By maintaining the health of your brand, your business will keep on thriving.

Valentine’s Day is coming up fast! And with only two weeks to go before the big day it’s time to make sure you have everything in place. Don’t let Cupid shoot you down this Valentine’s Season. Be sure to let your clients know that you’re here to make their Valentine’s so much easier with all the wonderful gift ideas you’re offering.

From romantic couples massages, to indulgent skin and body treatments, or breathtaking hair styling or makeup services for the big night out, show them all the different ways you can help them with gift giving this Valentine’s season. These days, giving someone an experience is so much more popular than just an item. Make sure you remind your clients and followers of all the wonderful experiences you have to offer. And, of course, there is always the gift that is perfect for everyone’s special someone: Instant Gift Certificates so they can pick their own experience.

No matter what love potions you’ve created, now is the time to let your clients know what you’re offering and make it easy for them to purchase it all online. Here are the things you should already have in place for this Valentine’s Day. And if you don’t, then it’s time to get started.

You should already have your Valentine’s packages and promotions created. Make sure your service menu is up to date with your Valentine’s offerings so your clients can easily purchase them for their special someone.

Check your Instant Gift Certificate links (on your website, social media, and in email campaigns) to make sure they are working properly. And while you’re at it, take a minute to look at your gift certificate designs and make sure you have the right ones for Valentine’s Day in your offerings. If not, you can log into your SpaBoom account and add a few more.

Make sure your email campaigns are generated and scheduled, ready to be sent out over the next couple of weeks. Let your followers know that you’re here to provide them with the perfect experience for their loved one’s Valentine’s gift.

Social media is always a great place to talk to your clients. Use it this season to share your specials and promos, or to provide last minute gift options. You can schedule all of your social media posts from your SpaBoom account. Make sure they’re scheduled and ready to go out. And remember: people are more likely to click on posts with photos, so make sure you attach a photo to all those posts as well.

Now that you’re ready to go, be sure to promote the convenience to your clients and followers, both online and in person at your location. After all, what you have to offer is definitely the right gift for your clients’ loved ones.

Valentine’s Day is almost here. Make sure you’re ready for the Season of Love.

You’re in the midst of the last significant revenue generating opportunity of the year, so you may not be thinking yet about 2015 planning, but you should begin the process. Marketing is dynamic, which doesn’t mean that change for change sake should be your goal, but instead that adapting to fluctuating audience preferences makes solid business sense.

There is no place for rigid thinking when it comes to promotion, even if your preferred premise is simplicity and consistency. Flexibility and simplicity are not mutually exclusive, in fact, they complement one another beautifully!

Points to ponder as 2014 winds down and 2015 waits in the wings:

• What worked for you in 2014?
• Did one or more of your marketing promotions produce particularly good results? What element of that campaign did the trick, in your estimation?
• What seemed like a good idea but didn’t work so well?
• Have you added new products or services that deserve promotion?
• Have you dropped products or services over the last year?
• Do you have a vision for 2015? A theme, perhaps? A desire to reposition or reinforce your marketing messaging?

No doubt you’re getting the drift of what I’m saying, here. Between juggling client appointments, ensuring great services continue to be delivered in your spa, salon, massage therapy or esthetics practice, allow your mind to wander into the marketing realm and begin the assessment, adjustment, and planning you’ll need to lay the foundation for a successful 2015.

In this day and age, with so many different places to interact with your clients, it can be difficult to maintain consistency. Email, social media, your website, the telephone, and your actual physical location – you interact with your clients in so many different ways and it can be difficult to maintain consistent branding and messaging across all these platforms. What can you do to not send mixed messages? And why is consistency so important anyway?

Your brand is the representation of your business, and any communications you send on its behalf are representing your business as well. It’s fine to have varying messages or versions of your voice, depending on who your specific target audience is. You want to make sure you tailor things to match the audience. But you want to make sure that all your communications have consistency and fully represent your overall brand and voice.

Consistency helps breed trust in your brand. And that positive gut feeling that your potential and regular clients have about your brand is what will drive their purchasing decisions. So using consistency to create and maintain a positive feeling about your brand will ultimately help build your business. It’s also comforting to clients for them to know what sort of experience they will have when they deal with your company. Make sure it is a positive one.

So what are some things you can do to maintain consistency?

Make sure your branding is consistent
Your clients should be able to recognize your brand across all platforms. Logos and color schemes should be consistent whether your client is receiving an email or visiting your Facebook page.

Keep your voice and message consistent across all platforms of communication
Maintaining a consistent message across all social media platforms & email communications make your message even more powerful. This is not to say that every single outlet should have exactly the same format or exactly the same message. Obviously, your messages need to be specifically geared towards the channel you are using (whether it is email, print, or social media). But you want your overall message to be a consistent one that supports your branding, and it should be in a voice that is recognizable as your brand’s voice.

Provide Excellent Customer Service
Make sure you are providing excellent customer service to your clients. It establishes trust and cultivates loyalty. Consistency means that your clients will always know what to expect when they deal with your business, whether it is online or in person. Consistency here also means that your clients will feel comfortable recommending you to family and friends, because they will feel confident in the experience and level of service they are recommending.

Create Clear and Standardized Business Policies
Consistency in your day to day operations makes your business run smoother. It also makes your business more easily scalable as you grow. So make sure you provide consistency to your employees through clear and standardized policies. They should always know what to expect and how they will be treated. Maintaining this sort of transparency with your employees increases the level of trust and engagement. Employees who are secure in their position and know what to expect (and what is expected of them) are much more engaged in growing the business and providing a high level of service. Clear business policies also help you and your employees provide the best customer experience possible, because they have consistent guidelines to follow. This helps inspire trust and loyalty.

Consistency is the key to building a strong brand that your customers will come to trust. By properly implementing it into your business and communication practices, you will find it much easier to not only run your business, but to create a strong brand identity. Both of these things also translate into more regular sales growth.