How Smart Spas Level the Playing Field on Facebook
August 12th, 2011 • Posted by Spa Kat • Permalink
Big brands may have large marketing departments, teams of copywriters and media buyers, but you have an equal (or better) opportunity to promote your brand where it really counts; via the friends of your current customers on Facebook.
There is no better or more powerful way to promote your business and develop your brand and, like Dorothy, you have access to all you need right now. No doubt, for spas and salons, an integrated approach to online marketing is vital to business and investing time and effort will pay off long-term.
Among all surveyed US small business owners (1-249 employees) who use social media for business, Facebook is the most popular platform (19%), followed by LinkedIn (15%), and Twitter (4%). marketingprofs.com
For good reason, Facebook is evolving as a perfect complement to more traditional advertising and SpaBoom's online platform is leveling the marketing playing field for local spa and salon brands. Just about any online marketing tactic a large beauty brand executes on a national scale can be replicated locally. Add to it, the power of being a local business and suddenly your spa or salon has an advantage.
Cross-Channel Marketing
Using Facebook to promote Instant Gift Certificates before gift giving holidays makes good sense for salons and spas. Your business is providing fans with a quick fast solution that drives them to your website for a purchase. When this is used in conjunction with email marketing it can extend your reach beyond social media and increase your revenue during these critical holidays.
Being Local Makes Engagement Powerful
All large beauty brands agree that Facebook is a platform for engaging with their own community of like minded fashionistas. What local spas and salons can do is take that engagement to the next level by adding layers of interaction. L. Spa is a local business in Sarasota Florida. They have combined fashion with spa to create a refreshingly bright and glamorous take on spa that truly celebrates luxury and relaxation.
Share Spa and beauty tips with their community.
Valuable content for your fans will build engagement over time. Bella Sante very consistently delivers information that is interesting, valuable and fun. They have their fans full attention and when they post to Facebook their fans look, read, listen and often respond. Their sophisticated and well-executed online marketing strategy is among the best.
Drive customers to your spa or salon website
Big brands are always driving customers to their websites. They use valuable content, offers and promotions to give their community good reason to click that button and check out their brand online.
Create strong promotions that drive fans to your website as a way to increase awareness and revenue. Take it a step further and create a special offer for Facebook fans only. Also, make your offers bit sized so fans will more readily take action. Facebook is valuable if fans engage with your brand. If your Facebook feed exclusively posts about your deals or offers you are like that person only talks about themselves at a party. Savvy guests will quickly ignore and abandon them. Instead you want to be the fascinating and engaging person that everyone wants to be around and know more about. If you don't know how your doing on this front just see how many comments you get on your average post. If its little or none you need to change the conversation. Any opportunity to provide something valuable that is easy for your customer to take advantage of is a win-win for everyone.
Special Rewards for Facebook Fans: Sweepstakes
SpaBoom has made setting up and running a sweepstakes on Facebook super straightforward. We know that growing your Facebook fan base is key to your spa, salon or massage therapy practice's social media management and SpaBoom gives you a super easy way to do it.
Facebook is such a valuable medium because it's built around social communities, a foundation that businesses can use to extend the reach of their brand and engage with fans. The very fact that clients become fans of your Facebook page validates your business to their friends just by interacting with you.
Customer Relationship Management
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) on Facebook is a tool for building community and enhancing your brand. It means monitoring your Facebook page and responding to questions and concerns within a reasonable time-frame. Creating a plan to monitor your Facebook page will reveal those ideal opportunities to engage and support your customers.
I have been using Facebook to reach to my clients for a while now, but haven't had much luck. As I read the example posts I could feel the excitement in the posts which got me excited. I also like the links to the spa's website. I am going to try doing those 2 things and see if that makes a difference.
Thank you for this information.