Salon Marketing | SpaBoom

Partner Up to Grow Your Clientele

October 23, 2014

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.

What Will You Do In 2015?

October 22, 2014

We’ve all been there. It’s Friday afternoon and suddenly you realize that the end of next week is the start of the Valentine’s or Mother’s Day season and you’ve been too busy to plan anything yet. So you spend the next several hours rushing to prepare some sort of promotion or special, creating stress for you and your team and ending up with what is probably not the greatest campaign. Plus, by then, it’s probably too late. Your competitors have been advertising their promos for days or weeks by now and probably have an effective plan in place that encompasses email marketing, in-store signage, and social media interaction. By waiting until the last minute, you’ll have to rely on your loyal clients to hopefully remember your business and choose it as their gift option. Or settle for a less than stellar campaign and poor market penetration.

Let’s make 2015 different. Why not schedule a bit of time in the next couple of weeks and get your 2015 marketing plan in order now? Not only will it set you up for success in the new year, but it will reduce stress, and help you plan out your promotions and stay within your marketing budget for the year. By planning it all out now, you’ll also be afforded the time to look at what has worked and what hasn’t this year and last year. And you can make more effective marketing decisions for the future.

Here are some things to think about when planning your marketing strategy for 2015:

First, some Analysis
The first thing to do is to analyze what has worked for you (& what hasn’t worked) in the past. Take a look at your promotions and numbers for this year and 2013. You should be able to look back and see what worked and what didn’t work. Your staff is a great resource to look to for feedback as well.

Here are some things to look at:

What promos were successful in the past year? in 2013?
What promos were unsuccessful in the past year? in 2013?
What did your revenue numbers look like by month?

From here, you want to really look at why certain promotions resonated with your clients, while others just didn’t seem to hit the mark. Were all the successful promotions during certain times of the year or for certain types of specials? What about the unsuccessful promotions?

This can also be a good time to do a SWOT Analysis to really take a look at your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats as you begin to plan out the next year. Even if you don’t have time to do a SWOT Analysis, you can still do a less in depth analysis of your current situation and your goals for the future. Here are some things to consider:

Who is your current demographic? Are you effectively reaching them? If so, where?
Do you have a different demographic that you would like to target in 2015? If so, who?
As a business, what are you doing well? What could you be doing better?
Have there been any major changes in the marketplace?
Are there any new opportunities that you would like to pursue?

Now that you’ve completed an analysis of what worked and didn’t work in the past and where you want the business to be headed in the future, it’s time to start thinking about what you want to do in 2015.

Time to Lay Out a Plan
Start off with just a short calendar list of the promotions for the year. I like to break mine down by quarters and then by months. Lay out on the calendar when you will start and end promotions, along with a general description of what the promotion will be. But don’t stop there. You want to make your marketing plan more in depth than that.

Take some time to think about your social media and what sort of posts you want to share on there during the course of the year. Be sure to consider when and how you will post to social media and your blog. Keep in mind that while social media plays an important role in informing your customers of specials and promotions, that should not be its primary role. Social media is a place where you can create a community and use it to inspire and engage. If you do that well, then sharing news such as upcoming specials and promotions becomes an organic part of the communications.

Be sure to consider where other forms of communications, such as email marketing and newsletters, fit into this plan. Give some thought to what sort of information you want to feature in your newsletters and blog posts. Taking the time now to plan out what the overall year of posts or newsletters will look like will make it much easier down the road.

Make sure all of this gets onto your marketing calendar. And be sure to leave some room for flexibility. You want your plan to have the flexibility to make changes or shuffle things around based on the changing needs of your business and the marketplace throughout the course of the year.

Schedule Time to Implement Your Plan
Now that you have a plan in place, marketing in 2015 will be so much simpler. But there is one more key element of your marketing plan that you need to put into place. Regular attendance. A plan is only as good as the people who implement it. So make sure you schedule time regularly (once a week or so) for someone on your team to take a look at the plan and take care of the tasks that need to happen next to keep things running smoothly. If you make this plan a priority, and everyone knows what they need to do (& when they need to do it), then nobody will be running around in a panic at the last minute trying to get things done.

So now you have a plan in place and your team is ready for 2015. Be sure to revisit your plan regularly. Ask for feedback from your staff and clients. And don’t be afraid to make changes throughout the course of the year to make your plan even more effective. By putting a plan together in advance, you’re making it much easier to analyze and improve your business practices throughout the course of the year. That will lead to far less stress and a healthier business.

*** This article concludes our “Time for a Tune Up” series. We hope the series has helped identify ways that you can tune up your business practices, and carve out time to think about your business and marketing strategies for 2015.

Sometimes Credibility Comes From Outside

October 16, 2014

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.

‘Tis The Season (Almost) ~ Are You Ready?

October 14, 2014

Yes, I know. The kids just went back to school and football season just started. It’s still warm outside and Halloween isn’t even here yet. But the holidays – they are looming on the horizon. And NOW is the time to start thinking about them.

The holidays are a busy time for everyone. Not only are you trying to run a business and promote it as a gift choice during the holidays, but you’re also trying to manage your personal life, with parties, shopping, and your own holiday preparations and celebrations. Planning for the holidays now gives you the time to really think about what you want to promote and accomplish this holiday season. It also gives you the time to create good packages and effectively promote your offerings and your business as a gift option. By having a plan in place now, it makes it easier on you and your staff to effectively carry out that plan. It also makes it easier to market your promos and events to your clients with enough advance notice for them to make the time in their schedule to shop or attend. Your clients are busy during the holidays too.

Here are some things to start thinking about and putting together before the holidays are upon us. Take the time to plan these things out now, while it’s still a bit slow. You’ll thank yourself come November.

Think about your holiday packages
The time to start thinking about your holiday packages is now. You want to make sure that these packages are attractive and offer good value to your customer, while also not putting your bottom line into the red. What will you be featuring? Special holiday-themed packages & products? Tried and true offerings? Take a look at what did well, and not so well, last year and then start designing your packages from there.

Don’t forget to think about creating a few offerings for your stressed out clients during the month of December – maybe some mini-treatments to help them rejuvenate, de-stress, and spoil themselves a bit during the busy shopping/party time of December. A quick 15 or 30 minute mini-treatment could be a great quick break for your clients while they are rushing around running errands and getting their holiday shopping done.

Plan out your Holiday Campaigns!
What will you be promoting and when will those campaigns go out? It’s better to decide this now and start putting your holiday promotions schedule together. Once you have your holiday packages and offerings put together, start creating your holiday promotions and get them on your calendar and entered into your SpaBoom account.

Think about how you want to use your social media outlets to keep your followers engaged during the holidays. This could be as easy as creating posts that encourage interaction, such as “What is your favorite holiday tradition?” or What is your dream holiday destination?” or you could create a set of holiday mini-tips to post that offer your clients advice on managing the holidays while still looking and feeling great.

What about all the other holidays?
Don’t just think about Christmas – Consider all the other holidays to celebrate in the final quarter of the year and all the different ways your clients celebrate (from Thanksgiving and Hanukkah to celebrating small businesses on Small Business Saturday or Cyber Monday offers). There are so many different holidays to celebrate during that time of the year. Find out what are your clients celebrating and market your holiday offerings to those holidays.

Are you Having a Party?
Do you want to host a holiday event (or multiple events)? Now is the time to start planning and promoting that event. The Saturday after Thanksgiving (Small Business Saturday) or a Holiday Open House in December are great opportunities to promote your business and offerings, while also saying thank you to your loyal clients. But you will need the time to plan out and market this so don’t put it off. Get started on your party planning now!

Consider Holiday Logistics
Take some time to think about some of the unique logistics that the higher traffic and sales of the holidays create. Do you need to stock up on extra product for the holiday? Or need to order decorations, signage, extra gift wrap supplies, or holiday collateral? Now is the time to think about getting those orders in. It’s better to think about these things now and get them handled before the rush starts. Nobody wants to be rushing around at the last minute trying to get more supplies in. That only creates stress and extra expense. Give some thought to whether your staff will need additional training on new services, packages, and products that you plan to feature during the holiday season. That training should happen before the holiday madness starts. Make sure you get that scheduled.

Will your staffing needs change during the holidays and the month of January?
As holiday traffic and business increases with gift packages and rising demands for regular services (during this festive party season), will you need to increase staffing or extend your hours? Consider how you will staff your business during the holidays and into January to ensure that you can effectively provide the regular services your clients expect as well as the demand for additional services that gift packages and increased gift certificate sales generate.

By taking some time to plan out the holiday season now, you’ll be ahead of the game when November rolls around. And that will mean you can focus on delivering the best possible experience to your clients and providing amazing gift ideas and options rather than running around trying to pull your holiday campaign together. It will make everyone’s holidays a lot more joyful.

*** 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.

Tune Up Your Social Media

October 1, 2014

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.

Celebrate Your Clientele!

September 29, 2014

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

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.

What Is a SWOT Analysis?

September 17, 2014

As a small business owner, you are often so focused on the day to day activities of running your business that you don’t take the time to sit down and really evaluate how your business is doing and how it compares to other businesses in the market. In order to help your business grow, it is key to get a clear idea of what your business does well and how it fits into the marketplace. A SWOT Analysis is a great tool for helping you focus on your business’ place and purpose.

SWOT stands for Strength, Weakness, Opportunity, & Threat. Through a series of questions and analysis, a SWOT Analysis can provide you with information on the strengths and weaknesses of your business, the opportunities it has in your market, and the threats it might face in that market. From there, you can use that information to better understand the strengths and weaknesses of your business, but also to uncover new opportunities. A SWOT analysis can also be used to evaluate how your business compares to similar businesses in the marketplace, which can help you craft a more effective business strategy to help your business grow.

So how does a SWOT Analysis work?
It can be as easy as sitting down with your staff and going over the following questions. It can also be helpful to involve some of your clients as well, maybe by asking them to fill out a simple survey. Here are some of the things to consider and ask from each of the four categories:

Strength – characteristics that give your business an advantage over others

What do you do better than anyone else?
What advantages does your business have over others in the area?
What do your clients see as your strengths?
What factors help you make sales?

Weakness – characteristics that leave your business at a disadvantage over others

What could you improve about your business?
What should you avoid?
What do your clients see as your weaknesses?
What factors cause you to lose sales?

Opportunity– instances or areas that your business could develop as an advantage

What opportunities do you see in your marketplace?
What trends are you aware of that could affect your business?
Weaknesses can also often open up new opportunities. How could you improve or eliminate your weaknesses?
Threats can also often be turned into opportunities. How can you take advantage of the threats and turn them around into new opportunities for your business?

Threat – instances or circumstances that could have a negative effect on your business

What obstacles is your business facing?
What are your competitors doing better than you?
Do you have a cash flow problem, or debt?

Once you have all these answers, it’s a good time to sit down with your team and evaluate what those answers mean to your business. By identifying not only what you do well, but also what new opportunities there are out there, and how you will handle threats and weaknesses, you will come up with an overall big picture of your business. From there, you can start to discuss and plan out strategies for taking advantage of your strengths and opportunities and managing your weaknesses and threats. In the end, what should emerge is a business plan based on all of this, with ideas on how to leverage this new information to strengthen your business and bring about growth.

A SWOT Analysis is a simple but powerful tool for evaluating your business. By taking time on a regular basis (at least annually) to ask yourself these questions and evaluate what the answers mean for your bottom line, it can help you not only streamline your business practices but can help you better understand where your business currently is and what it will take to get it to where you would like it to be. It can also help you come up with effective strategies for distinguishing yourself in your market.

Which Social Media Platform Is Right for You?

September 15, 2014

Social media platforms are appearing like wildflowers after a summer rain. Each promises reach into the psyche (and by inference ‘the wallets’) of their target audience. Each requires a learning curve to adopt, time to manage, and, possibly most important, each should prove its worth to you before you commit precious resources to participate. This means, of course, that jumping on the newest, shiniest, most promoted social media platform in ever isn’t really necessary. In fact, there’s time, and you should use the time they’re spending proving themselves to the world (and you as a business) to focus on what’s working for you already. All new businesses will attempt to create a sense of urgency for you, that’s how they grow. In this case, waiting a bit and then deciding if there’s a good fit is simply prudent and a good idea.

That said, modern marketing definitely includes social media in the mix. The definition of social media has broadened to include blogging, which also supports the idea of creating consistent, quality, content for SEO and general marketing purposes. You want to be seen by the search engines; you want to build a relationship with your audience – two birds, one stone, and thy name is good content.

The content piece continues into the Facebook realm. Facebook provides an opportunity to generate referrals, to nurture relationships with your audience, and to demonstrate your commitment to the art of online conversation, which can require planning and thought. People come out of left field, sometimes, and having a well-planned strategy for responding when the topic gets tricky is key. Consistency is also key. Managing a Facebook presence means you’ve dedicated resources to planning your social media marketing, to participating in the conversations that are generated by your compelling marketing, and to getting the best results possible in that particular medium. Facebook posts with less words and a really good image garner much more response, so a piece of your strategy should include capturing cool images to use. The audience here has begun to skew slightly older now that teenagers are fleeing due to their parents’ participation (and surveillance…), which means users with some disposable income are increasing – always a good thing.

Twitter provides a venue for the like-minded to exchange thoughts on a given topic, like, for example, the benefits of therapeutic massage for postpartum health. It’s a very trendy, up-to-the-minute medium, and cycles very quickly. If attention focus is your goal, you’ve only got a very small window using Twitter. It is, however, a great place to build credibility within your audience – the exchanges can be opportunities to plant a seed for a very stimulating conversation in the Twitterverse, while creating a venue on which to share expertise.

YouTube continues to grow at an astonishing rate. The audience loves to see people demonstrating services or creating ‘tutorials’ on topics germane to the audience. I could certainly have used a lesson in flat iron technique when I realized upon growing my hair out after many years of short locks that I had become wavy/curly, and seriously needed to tame those tresses! Fortunately I have a helpful daughter who stepped up and instructed me at a time I was just about to ask my stylist to ‘cut it all off!’ due to extreme frustration. My point, though, is watching something is much more helpful than reading about it for most people, and watching something that’s been created with the medium in mind, in short segments (less than 5 minutes, if possible), will generate more interest for the occasional longer piece.

LinkedIn has historically provided a venue for professionals to network. The site tends to be used for professional networking, for employers to find potential employees, and for potential employees to find potential employers. It provides a place where credibility within a given industry can be established, over time, and where the comradery feels akin to that of offline professional organizations, in my experience. From a priority standpoint, I’d be inclined to choose one or more of the first three social media options listed before spending too many resources developing a strong LinkedIn presence. It’s ideal for B2B’s, and slightly less so for B2C interactions, based upon the usual traffic and content that’s generated.

The key players in the social media arena remain, overall. The key for your business is determining which make the most sense for your goals and social media presence. Regardless which you choose, you’ll need to commit to the experience. The most successful in the social media game are those who respect it as a potential referral and, ideally, revenue generator, and develop a strong following over time. Consistency, clarity, creative content and commitment to the effort will take you a long way to garnering success within the new media culture.

Pumpkin Spice Lattes Are Out, It Must Be Fall!

September 11, 2014

On my way to class the other day I stopped at Starbucks, something I rarely do anymore in an effort to avoid too many extra calories and because I seem to be running late most of the time (I tend to over commit and then end up rushing…ahem…). Anyway, as I pulled up to order I saw that Pumpkin Spice Lattes are on the menu and I did a little happy dance because that means it must be Fall, right??

As strange as that reaction is, from a marketing perspective it means they’ve trained me, using seasonality (scarcity), thereby ensuring I will find a way to get back there again for yet another of those sinfully delicious, spicy lattes. The strategy is simple, brilliant, and one that many businesses have used, with great success, through the years.

Remember the McDonald’s Shamrock Shakes? I’m pretty sure there was nothing in them that even resembled wholesome, Irish cream, or even anything from nature as we know it, but we didn’t care. As kids, when those popped up on the menu we were super excited because a.they tasted good, and b. it meant St. Patrick’s Day was right around the corner. And while we had a broad ethnic representation in my neighborhood, as far as I know there wasn’t a soul from the Emerald Isle in sight. But we didn’t care.

And then there were the seasonal flavors at Baskin Robbins – Baseball Nut. Fresh Peach. Black Cherries Jubilee. Yumminess by season primed us to pounce when the favorite flavors arrived, consume until we were (almost) satiated, then bid them adieu for another year.

As an adult, it’s been my pleasure to enjoy seasonal foods from different local restaurants, a pleasure not unlike enjoying childhood treats around seasons or holidays. With seasonal foods, of course, it’s about availability for a short time, then the item disappears until this time next year when we’ll welcome the return of said dish and enjoy it to its fullest once more.

Seasonality translates beautifully into our spa and salon marketing efforts. Through my years with SpaBoom I’ve seen an amazing number of really wonderful spa service menu items. And then we started working with salons and realized how many options there really are for hair styling and care services, something someone not natively of the business wouldn’t have immediately understood.

A few services have stuck in my mind as particularly compelling, not always for the service itself, but often for what product the service may have incorporated. There have been blue corn scrub wraps, which are about indigenous ingredients. There have been pumpkin avocado facials, cranberry salt scrubs, seaweed wraps, cucumber facials, spicy chai pedicures, coffee scrubs and creamy, milky options designed to create suppleness.

And who doesn’t appreciate a hair treat to prime for the next season, as well? Lovely deep conditioning oil treatments help repair Summer’s havoc, and amazing, rich colors manage to capture the light and infuse the hair with depths of hue that please the eye while creating softness and health in the process.

I have a point, here, and it’s really this – What is your Pumpkin Spice Latte? Do you have one? If nothing jumps immediately to mind, consider adding a seasonal option to your service menu, one (or more) that add variety while creating a sense of anticipation for your clientele. Ideally, creating four of these, one for each season, makes the most sense, and then promote them in all of your content areas – your blog, email newsletters, on your website, social media, text messaging, and, yes, as in-house signage.

Catch the eye, capture the imagination, satisfy the craving you create, then gently remove the option at a predetermined time until next year. What’s not to enjoy about setting, then exceeding, client expectations year after year?