In other words purchase domain names to support your marketing effort. You should also make sure your Home Page is full of key words to enhance your placement on search engine results. When someone searches using the words “Spas in Indiana”, you want your spa to appear within the first two pages. This can draw in more customers.
Create an Attractive Web Site
A properly designed web site can jump start your spa’s income and create a cost effective means of new customer acquisition. The main components of a web site should include 1) The Home Page 2) Service Menu Page; and 3) Spa Contact Page. Make the Home Page visually attractive and easy to visit. The first page is your customer’s initial glance to your spa or salon. Use it to clearly convey your spa’s image and market position. The home page is also an ideal location to post your latest spa news and/or promotional announcements. The service menu should include quality photos. Professional photos are essential to communicate a visual image of your spa and salon services. The Spa Contact Page is critical to your clients being able to get a hold of you. Important information such as phone numbers, e-mail links, locations, hours of operation, policies, and staff info are designed into the Contact Page.
E-mail Newsletters
This is an inexpensive way to regularly communicate your spa news, product promotions, and specials to your customers. Design a monthly e-mail newsletter to your customers. The e-mail newsletter can contain your latest news, product promotions, coupons, photos, logo, etc. This can reach thousands of clients for a fraction of the cost of a traditionally printed and mailed newsletter. In order to establish an e-mailing database of customers start with your own point of sale software. Most spa software includes a database that provides you an entry field for customer e-mail addresses. You can continually grow your e-mailing database by programming an e-newsletter sign-up box on your web site. This feature provides your web site visitors with a means of easily subscribing to your newsletter by directly submitting their address to your personal e-mailing database. The e-mailing list is automatically maintained, thereby saving you time and money.
Using Yellow Pages Ads to Market Your Salon
Hair and beauty salons are one of the top 10 categories people look for in their Yellow Pages. Yellow Pages can be a powerful way to reach your clients. Larger ads give you room to convey the benefits of your salon and persuade clients to call you. However, use your budget to guide you in your choice of ad size. Larger ads cost more money. Make your ad headline capture the reader’s attention. Ad graphics are an effective means to attract customers.
Hire a freelance writer to promote your spa
Magazine editors are constantly looking for new ideas, both in writing and in photography. You can increase business by 80-90 percent by printing a feature article in health and beauty magazines. Promoting your spa in magazines is a great way to increase spa business. Some magazines feature a special section called “Spa/Salon Profile” which showcases a particular spa or salon every month. Getting your spa or salon into one of those issues is a sure way to market your business. The key is to enlighten readers about spa life and how your spa can provide that service for them.
Hiring a freelance writer is probably the easiest and cheapest way of promoting your spa in magazines and newspapers. Their prices will vary according to the writer. Find out which magazines he/she has been published in before, study the tear sheets, and make a wise decision about hiring a freelance writer/photographer.
Quality professional photographs always enhance an article. This is not the time to take mediocre photos with a disposable point and shoot camera. The visuals speak a thousand words about your spa or salon. Make them attractive. Consider hiring a professional photographer. The most sought after names are not necessarily the photographers you should always consult. Besides they charge a great deal of money. Sometimes the lesser known photographers can perform a better task at the job, for a cheaper price too. They have more time, energy, and enthusiasm to make their work more recognized.
Embrace an aggressive direct mail campaign package
Developing a client list is an effective way of connecting with your clients. Identify and clarify your marketing objectives and work at developing a promotional strategy for attaining them. Maintaining and building consistent relationships with your existing clients is easier than constantly trying to bring in new clients. A properly developed direct mail campaign will prove your most effective way of spreading the word. Create postcards, brochures, or catalogs and mail them quarterly or monthly. An aggressive direct mail campaign can convert a customer to a sale, thereby building your image.
Join the Better Business Bureau (BBB) www.bbb.org
The Better Business Bureau is an excellent way to promote your spa and salon. For a minimal membership fee each year, the Better Business Bureau places radio ads and printed brochures throughout your area to promote your business. It is almost a status symbol to have your business name appear in the BBB Business guide. The Better Business Bureau is a non-profit 501 c (6) organization supported by business and professional members who are committed to the BBB principles of ethical business practices. In joining the Better Business Bureau your spa or salon makes the commitment to conduct business in an ethical manner, adhere to the BBB Code of Advertising, and to receive and respond to any customer complaint brought to your attention through communication with the BBB.
Gift Card Strategies
Plastic, electronic gift cards are becoming popular. The credit card sized gift card has an intoxicating consumer appeal. They are stylish, small, and a welcomed gift, especially at holiday time. When a guest exhausts the credit card balance it can be recharged on the same card. An aggressive gifting strategy is vital to your spa and salon business. Gift card strategies should be added when managers develop their business plans.
Show Community Involvement
Community involvement shows to the people that you take a genuine interest in their well-being outside your business parameters. It provides your salon with more exposure, which will increase client loyalty, profits, and sales. Donate a complimentary skin treatment/make-up session for actresses participating in a community film festival or sponsor an event. Display a local photographers artwork in your premises for a limited time frame. All these are ways of showing community involvement.
I hope that if you put these tips to work, they will boost your sales like I have seen them work for others.
Preethi Burkholder is a freelance grant writer and Ayurveda researcher. She works as a consultant with spa owners; multi service salons, massage therapists, aestheticians, and skin care professionals to submit grant proposals and other related services. Those interested in seeking her services may contact Burkholder at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Those who know Jan Marini refer to her as a visionary. While Jan might agree in principle, she sees this characterization as both a strength and a weakness. She envies those who are able to savor the moment. Where others view life in snapshots that capture real time, Jan sees broad borderless landscapes and endless possibilities. She does not see a product, she sees a business and in that same instance her mind is flooded with the business plan and all the accompanying details. Even when she is not envisioning empires, she is never satisfied with the status quo.