General

Why No One Likes You on Facebook

April 24th, 2012 • Posted by Seth Gardenswartz • Permalink

Having trouble figuring our why you don't have Facebook likes?

One challenge of Facebook is understanding a business's role in developing an engaged audience. When you buy radio you basically buy an audience, a known quantity. Radio stations create content and then give it away to anyone interested in what they are broadcasting. This is how they develop an audience. For example, you can buy "time" on a station that appeals to women between 35 and 49 based on music preferences for that "demo." Essentially you buy the right to interrupt the target audience's free music and try to get their attention for your advertisement.

Facebook is different. The traffic on any Facebook page (personal or business) comes from content its owner creates and delivers. If you want Facebook fans you must create a page that is as interesting (or useful) to your target audience as the music on their favorite radio station is to them.  If your Facebook page is not relevant, fun or useful no one (but your blood relatives and BFFs) will "like" it. To put it another way, your posts have to be worth liking.

If I have a shop selling cookies, my very best friends and customers might like my page just because they love me or my product. But if my Facebook page is inconsistent and boring they might keep buying my cookies (or might not if I irritate them) but I will eventually lose them as Facebook fans. There are plenty of other interesting pages to read and only so much time in a day.

What if, instead, I post a picture of a plate of cookies with a kid's hand-written note saying "i luv u momee" or "sory i broc your window" to generate engagement?  What if I invite people to post pictures or stories of cookie apology-worthy moments? Your goal is to create connections with an interesting post that will be "liked" and more importantly shared with lots of "friends" who might wonder where they could get those tempting cookies.

At Spaboom, we have created really clever ways (like Sweepstakes) to build your fan base over time, but these clever tools work best if you already have an interesting Facebook page.  What makes an interesting Facebook page? That depends on your business and your customers. There is one sure measurement of a quality on a Facebook page, the number of likes, comments and shares you get from your posts. If that number is 0 you have some work to do if you want to be liked.

Posted in General, Social Media, Spa Marketing6 Comments »

The Road to Loyalty

April 12th, 2012 • Posted by Janell Loving • Permalink

Have you stopped to wonder what your clients value from your business?

Of course you have – that is what we typically build our service menu and mission statement around – the valuable commodity that we provide to our clients.

Here is the bigger question — Do you know what their perception of value is?

That is the key to developing a loyal client base and maintaining their loyalty over the long haul.

It is easy to get caught up in the mission of the business and forget to check in with clients to see if the output of effort is running in tandem with client wants and needs or if they are widely divergent from one another.

Think about how many loyalty programs you belong to. Now think about how many of them you are actively engaged with (tracking progress, redeeming gifts, etc). I’m guessing the answers are very different to those questions – as is the case for most consumers who participate in loyalty programs.

There are three basic principles to follow when creating an ideal loyalty program, to ensure that your loyalty program works for you and your clients:

1. Make it easy to understand

One of the biggest mistakes we see with loyalty programs is that they are convoluted and take a bazillion hours to understand and figure out. Keep it simple. If your front desk has to look up how it works every time, you can almost certainly be sure that your clients don’t get it either.

2. Give exceptional value as the reward

If your best selling treatment is a one hour massage, then a valuable reward offer would be a 1 hour (or more) massage. They aren’t going to stop getting the one hour massage because you gave them one. Just the opposite in fact – typically clients will use rewards systems to build additional value into their overall purchase budget.

3. Manage the rewards points for your client

In the fast pace of our daily lives keeping track of one more thing is not really an option we entertain unless it is paramount to our overall well being. It is critical to any loyalty program that the burden of tracking be shouldered by the business. This allows for you to enhance the value of your system, making it a no-brainer for your clients and it lets you showcase your exceptional attention to detail through customer service care.

If you don’t have a loyalty program, what are you waiting for? There is no better time than now to get one started!

Join me for our upcoming webinar (Thank You for Being a Friend), Tuesday April 17th 1pm-2pm Eastern, to learn more  on strategically designing a loyalty program to benefit your spa or salon.

Posted in GeneralComment »

77% Want Promotional Offers via Email

April 9th, 2012 • Posted by Spa Kat • Permalink

Marketing Land says you'd better use email to send promotional messages to your spa or salon clients.

New research reveals that even today, an overwhelmingly majority still prefer to receive marketing via email and there’s no close runner-up.

ExactTarget asked almost 1,500 US online consumers (age 15 and up) about how they prefer to get permission-based marketing messages and a whopping 77 percent said email — a number that dwarfs all other options in the survey. Direct mail was second at nine percent and text messaging was third at five percent.Marketing Land

This same survey reveals that email marketing delivers more conversions than any other medium, which means more purchases and higher revenue with each email promotion.

So you know that email marketing is the definitive promotional marketing tool, now make sure you have the right offer and timing.

Your promotional offers should piggyback on life cycle events, like holidays and birthdays, to ensure your emails are more timely and relevant to clients.

This new research emphasizes the importance of your email-marketing list to your business, make sure you use it wisely.

Posted in General, Spa Marketing2 Comments »

Thank You for Being a Friend – Webinar

April 9th, 2012 • Posted by Spa Kat • Permalink

One of the most innovative and effective strategies for growth in small business is the ability to develop deeper relationships with your clients.

Join us as we discuss the proven ideas for creating effective loyalty programs, along with the best ways to implement and manage the program to maximize the potential of your spa or salon.

Reserve your Webinar Seat Now!

Title: Thank You for Being A Friend – Webinar
Date: Tuesday, April 17th, 2012
Time: 1:00 PM – 2:00 PM EDT

Posted in GeneralComment »

Facebook Timeline Goes Live Today

March 30th, 2012 • Posted by Spa Kat • Permalink

Facebook Timeline goes live for brands today.

Early results are in with some interesting revelations that you can apply to your spa or salon business right now. It’s important to proactively make these changes to leverage the enhanced look and to increase engagement with your fans.

Here are 2 key insights so far:

Photos and videos increase engagement.

Wildfire Interactive conducted a study by looking at 43 brands, ranging in fans from 20 thousand to 40 million, and analyzed key engagement variables (21 days prior to and 21 days after the change). They found that the new Timeline layout enhanced engagement because images and videos are displayed more prominently on the page; videos and pictures have been shown to garner more attention and with the new format, they are getting more comments as well.

New pinning feature increases engagement

Pinning is a new Facebook timeline feature that allows your spa or salon to "pin" a particular post/promotion to the top of your Facebook page where it will remain for up to 7 days.

Search Engine Watch reports that timeline’s new pinning feature has helped lift brand page engagement, as analyzed by Simply Measured. Pinning allows your fans to clearly see important content and gives you the ability to tell your story more effectively.

Think about what your fans need to know about your business first and then pin that item to the top. It could be a video about your latest service, a new promotion or an event going on in your spa or salon. Your fans will take a look at your cover photo and then directly to your pin to see your latest news.

Make sure your cover photo is attractive and represents your brand. You can now add key dates and milestones to your page so take time to fill it in completely. It's important to use the new pin feature effectively by changing it out on a regular basis. Finally, manage your page by adding photos and videos that increase engagement for your business.

Take a peek at the webinar we did this week, going over everything: Facebook Timeline for Brands.

Posted in General, Social MediaComment »

Why Facebook Power Users are so Important

March 28th, 2012 • Posted by Spa Kat • Permalink

Facebook may hit 1 billion users this summer, but overall social market share is becoming more diluted which should emphasize the importance of focusing on the needs of your most engaged fans.

Marketing Land has outlined a new study from Pew Interactive that gives new credence to the 80/20 rule. In the study, Pew surveyed 269 Facebook users and obtained information on their Facebook account to confirm the responses.

One of the most prevalent themes in the data is the minority existence of “power users” that drive the majority of activities. This niche power segment makes up 20-30% of all Facebookers and is the lifeblood of Facebook interaction.

This specialty group tags photos, messages and likes content regularly. They do so at an astounding rate as well. For most users it is more common to be liked, be added as a friend than to be the one spurring the interaction.Greg Finn, Marketing Land

Most of your Facebook fans don't interact very much but the ones that do are vital to overall engagement. They are sharing your content, liking your pictures and commenting on a regular basis. Understanding how they interact with your brand can help you develop strategies that improve overall fan engagement moving forward.

Facebook power users are adding more friends, averaging about 8 per month, with men sending out more requests and women receiving more of them overall.

In addition, power users "like" more Facebook content than the majority of users. According to the study, approximately 1/3 of respondents used the like button once a week and 37% of respondents had their own content liked. The most engaged 5% of users link content over 100 times each month.

There's a reason Facebook might be testing private messaging between Fans and brand pages. According to the Pew Interactive study, the frequency of Facebook messaging use meant almost double their application of the "like" button.

This new messaging feature would make a Facebook page even more powerful for brands as the ability to directly communicate with customers would exist. Instead of having all conversations view-able to the public, sensitive items and personal issues could be worked out behind the scenes.Greg Finn, Marketing Land

About 20% of users in the study commented on a post every day and about 55 commented 100 times or more per month. The average Facebook user commented on posts much less often.

Perhaps the most important revelation in the study concerned the social reach of the average person on Facebook.

The average user has 245 friends and their average friend has 359 friends (12% of which is interconnected). The average user would then reach 77,400 people through friends and ‘friends of friends.’ Additionally, some rough calculations show that within 2 degrees of separation (one more level of friends) a user can reach 7,821,772 people. Greg Finn, Marketing Land

Posted in GeneralComment »

New 2012 Mobile Predictions

March 26th, 2012 • Posted by Spa Kat • Permalink

Jason Spero, Head of Global Mobile for Google, has developed his 12 mobile predictions for 2012 based on a recent research report, Our Mobile Planet: Global Smartphone Users.

Smartphones and tablets are changing the dynamics of everyday life and are impacting how spas and salons communicate with clients online. Our love affair with mobile devices creates tremendous opportunities as well as new challenges that local businesses must face head on. Spas and salons that take a proactive approach to mobile will be far ahead of the pack by years end. SpaBoom's dynamic websites automatically detect a mobile device and show an optimized mobile version, which is better for SEO. Your address links to Google Maps so clients can find you, and your phone number becomes a link so they can call you.

Don't wait, changes are happening quickly and your ability to adapt your mobile strategy will be a critical component for effective client engagement. Start by checking out Jason's predictions and then take a look at some of our recent posts about tablets and optimizing your website for speed and mobile.

Here are Jason's 12 predictions for significant developments in mobile in 2012:

  • More than 1 billion people will use mobile devices as their primary internet access point.
  • There will be 10 days where >50% of trending search terms will be on mobile
  • Mobile’s role in driving people into stores will be proven and it will blow us away
  • “Mobile driven spend” will emerge as a big category
  • Smartphones will prove exceptional at driving a new consumer behavior
  • Tablets will take their place as the 4th screen
  • New industry standards will make mobile display easy to run
  • 5 new, mobile first companies will reach the Angry Birds level of success
  • The ROI on mobile and tablet advertising will increase as a result of the unmatched relevance of proximity
  • The intersection of mobile and social will spark a dramatic new form of engaging consumers
  • 80% of the largest 2,000 websites globally will have an HTML5 site
  • One million small businesses globally will build a mobile website

Posted in General, Social Media, Spa MarketingComment »

How Does Your Spa Look on a Tablet?

March 13th, 2012 • Posted by Spa Kat • Permalink

Almost 5% of global online traffic (U.S., U.K., Japan, Australia and Singapore) came from mobile phones and tablets in 2011 and that number will grow exponentially in 2012. According to ComScore, tablets saw a huge rise in popularity in 2011, in less than 24 months the market has grown to nearly 40 million tablets here in the U.S. Tablets are quickly changing how consumers work and play online, and that evolving interaction should compel you to consider how your spa brand looks on tablet devices.

Consider ComScore's report that 35% of tablet users access their emails daily from their device. That means you need to think about creating visual interest and compelling copy in your email campaigns to take advantage of the tablet's enhanced resolution capabilities.

You can use color to attract attention and engaging content that gives tablet users precise steps to take action in order to increase your email conversion rates. Test your emails on a tablet device before you send them out so you can see for yourself how they look.

Nineteen percent of adults in the United States own a tablet, and 29% own either a tablet or an ereader, according to the latest study from Pew Internet. What’s amazing about these findings is that the share of U.S. adults who own tablets nearly doubled from 10% to 19% between mid-December 2011 and early January 2012, and almost the exact same thing happened to ereaders, which grew from 10% to 19% over that same time period.Stan Schroeder, Mashable

Litmus.com has put together a great Infographic that outlines the Tablet’s target audience and usage trends all of which can be used to help you reach these sought-after tablet owners.

According to the Global Technology, Media and Telecommunications Equipment Team at Morgan Stanley, consumer tablet demand is still under-appreciated. The key takeaways:

  • Tablet shipments could hit 100 million by end of 2012
  • Tablets are accelerating the adoption of the mobile internet
  • 2/3 of companies expect to allow tablets on their networks within a year
  • Users are moving beyond web surfing, email, games, video, and applications to content creation
  • Tablets should reduce PC market growth by 3 percentage points in 2011—maybe more over the long term
  • Tablet growth is likely to benefit the established leaders while challenging legacy technology
  • The impact on printing companies may be the most under-appreciated cannibalization story, and we highlight AMD, Dell, Lexmark, and Ricoh as potentially challenged from tablets

So what can spas do to enhance their online brand for tablet users?

  • Make sure your website views appropriately on tablet devices so your business can take advantage of the unprecedented growth
  • Most spas and salons won't need a dedicated tablet version of their website
  • Keep your site design crisp and clean so online visitors can maneuver around and actually use your navigation
  • Stay away from Flash, since iPads don't support it

Posted in General, Spa Marketing2 Comments »

Your Website Better Be Fast

March 1st, 2012 • Posted by Spa Kat • Permalink

Your website literally has a millisecond (thousandth of a second) before losing a visitor to your competitor. If you want any advantage online, your clients better nickname your website “speedy.”

Two hundred fifty milliseconds, either slower or faster, is close to the magic number now for competitive advantage on the Web,” said Harry Shum, a computer scientist and speed specialist at Microsoft.Steve Lohr, New York Times

Consumer expectations have changed dramatically in the past few years, we feel deprived if we don’t get it fast enough.

Our computers and mobile devices have become an extension of our brain to the point that delays feel jarring and reduce our thought flow. It’s an amazing contrast to the 1990’s when we'd click our mouse and then have time to bake a pie, rake the yard or knit a sweater before anything would come up on the screen.

We have forgotten the decades-old trauma, the insufferable buzz sound accompanying a dial-up, 300-baud modem on a Commodore 64 computer. It was that interminable wait, eclipsed only by the time devoured bringing up CompuServe or AOL content, that ultimately brought us to our knees in submission.

Tech-hungry smart phone and tablet users are downloading videos, news updates and maps to your spa or directions to that just-opened restaurant at an exponential rate, creating a virtual traffic jam. It's very important for you to understand that a slow website diminishes the user-experience and directly correlates to a less engaged visitor who rarely digs into your website, leaves quickly and will not book an appointment, purchase an Instant Gift Certificate or read your spa blog.

The performance of Web sites varies, and so do user expectations. A person will be more patient waiting for a video clip to load than for a search result. And Web sites constantly face trade-offs between visual richness and snappy response times. But speed matters in every context, research shows. Four out of five online users will click away if a video stalls while loading.Steve Lohr, New York Times

Optimizing your website for speedy delivery is expected, and not paying attention will cost you dearly. Ironically, consumers have a completely different set of expectations for load times on mobile devices, but that is also changing quickly.

The state of mobile load-time today according to econsultancy.com:

  • 74% of users will abandon after waiting five seconds for a mobile site to load.
  • 57% have experienced problems when accessing a mobile site.
  • 46% would not return to a poor performing site.

Tips from SpaBoom Website Design Experts:

  • Every element of your dynamic website must rank high for speed.
  • Never overlook end-user load times when designing your website, its their experience you must satisfy.
  • If you are infatuated by the idea of flashy visuals on your website, if you demand unnecessary clutter resulting in an overly complex website then you will diminish the load speed of your website.
  • Less is more. Keep your website design clean and avoid flash at all costs.
  • Reduce image file sizes to make pages load faster.
  • Avoid music and unnecessary distractions on the homepage.
  • Avoid all auto play including ads, music or video.
  • Don’t put too much content or unnecessary media on your website.
  • Most website visitors are using a decrepit, 5-10 year-old computer so the load-times must optimized for those delicate machines. It will minimize crashes caused by too much data.

Posted in General, Spa Website Design2 Comments »

6 Tips to OWN Your Online Reputation

February 28th, 2012 • Posted by Spa Kat • Permalink

It has never been more critical for spas and salons to go beyond “managing” their online reputation and “own” it. Owning your local brand means being proactive online to ensure the real you shines brightly, especially in Google search results.

Both the volume of reviews and the sentiment of those reviews have an effect on how visible a business is and businesses that can successfully encourage their users to leave positive reviews will benefit from reaching a wider audience. With 70% of local consumers now using the Internet to find good local businesses, greater visibility on search engines and local directories could put a local business in front of thousands of potential customers each month. Myles Anderson, Search Engine Land

Need some tips you can use to actively protect your online reputation and dominate search results?

Think about how your target spa or salon client will find you online and then create an action plan that focuses on those key elements.

Google Places

All spas and salons should be listed on Google Places and any local or spa industry directories. You can also do a Local SEO Check-up that searches top local directories looking for information about your spa or salon. You can identify where your business is listed and key information including the name, address, phone number of your spa. It also shows your Google rank and can provide helpful information to enhance your business listing with more content, videos and images.

Online Directories

Join any directory that will help customers find you. SpaBoom offers spas and salons the free Joy of Spa Directory. Anyone looking to purchase a gift certificate can use the directory to find spas and salons within a specific city. If they see your spa they can click directly onto your website and purchase a gift certificate or book an appointment. Adding your listing to online directories also enhances your Google search results.

Social Media

Your spa’s Facebook Page and Twitter presence are increasingly impacting your Google ranking. It’s never been more critical to actively manage your Facebook page by sharing ideas, cultivating followers and evangelizing your local brand.

Google ranks your spa's Facebook comments, the content you provide and looks for specific keywords that your target customer will use to search for spa products and services. In a recent San Francisco Chronicle article:

Search engines like Google and Bing are increasingly integrating social signals into their organic search algorithms." says Krista LaRiviere, Cofounder and CEO, gShift Labs. "Building a social community can be a big investment in time and resources, so marketers are always looking for ways to better connect with their audience and other influencers. Krista La Riviere

Write Great Content

A key ingredient to success in building your overall online presence is really good content. We have blogged about creating great content and how spas and salons can use industry data and their own expertise to educate and inspire their website visitors, Facebook and Twitter followers. Your spa can add events, promotions and videos to your Facebook business page to get the conversation started.

Best advice for negative reviews:

  • Give clients a method to provide instant feedback on their spa or salon service experience. If they don't like something, don't make them search for an email address or phone number. Spa clients typically click on the "contact us" tab to send complaints so make sure your staff is ready to respond quickly to problems so they don't escalate. It's much better to address issues fast before a client has a chance to think they are being ignored by the staff. You will be able to stop and resolve the issues quickly if clients feel their grievances have been heard.
  • Google Alerts allows you to search the online universe and track information being written about your spa or salon. In addition, Twitter allows you to search the Twitter-sphere for tweets about your business or your competition. If you find negative comments about your business you can manage them proactively and resolve it head on.
  • Many spas follow-up with their clients after their spa or salon experience. If there is an issue, they will appreciate your proactive approach.
  • Train your spa staff to collect feedback throughout each client's experience. Many times a problem can be resolved during the actual appointment and engender loyalty in the long-run.
  • Don't take negative reviews personally. It will open you up to listening to their complaint and can provide valuable feedback you can use to enhance your spa's customer service.

Grow Your Online Reviews

According to Search Engine Land, local consumers like to read up to 10 reviews before making a decision about which local business to use. It means that you need to actively increase your online reviews each month. Your goal is to stand out from the competition so take a look at their reviews and set your sights on beating them with a stellar online reputation. Ask your happy clients to post a review and find special ways to make them more inclined to leave a great online review.

Your spa or salon's reputation is a critical asset that must be nurtured and protected so you can see it grow in value. Managing your local brand has never been more important. Your target audience is using social media and online reviews to share their feelings about brands and make purchase decisions. Take a proactive approach online by building your social influence and activating a strategy to resolve unhappy customer issues before they get beyond your control.

Posted in General, Spa Marketing, Spa Search Engine Optimization (SEO)Comment »

New Email and Event Campaigns Await You

February 22nd, 2012 • Posted by Spa Kat • Permalink

We've added a series of email campaigns that are segmented by organizational type to include: Day Spa, Salon and Spa, Salon Only, Massage Therapist, Medical Spa and Aesthetician.

Emails are now tailored for your business with more exacting content, allowing you to utilize default emails that are specific to your target client type. In addition, we have created both relational and transactional emails for you to send to your client list.

The email campaigns begin with Spring and span through Summer.

Please go and review the new event campaigns. You can still tailor the message to fit your specific needs. If you have a special promotion that you would like to add, now is the time to do it!

If you feel that the email content does not fit your business, please call SpaBoom Support at 800.940.0458, we would be happy to take care of that for you.

If you use Events and don't make changes, the Events will automatically appear on your website for the range of dates listed.

Events and Email Campaigns:

Get Your Skin Ready for Spring (relational email) 3/20/12
Embrace Your Health Event runs 3/20/12 – 4/16/12

Mother's Day #1 (transactional email) 4/17/12
Mother's Day #1 Event Runs 4/17/12 – 5/7/12

Mother's Day #2 (transactional email) 5/8/12
Mother's Day #2 Event 5/8/ – 5/13/12

Graduation (transactional email) 5/15/12
Graduation Event 5/15/12 – 5/28/12

Wedding #1 (transactional email) 5/29/12
Wedding #1 Event 5/29/12 – 6/11/12

Father's Day (transactional email) 6/12/12
Father's Day Event 6/12/12 – 6/17/12

Wedding #2 (transactional email) 6/19/12
Wedding Event 6/18/12 – 7/9/12

Summer (relational email) 7/10/12
Summer Event 7/10/12 – 7/31/12

If you've opted into our Email Marketing and you don't make changes, they will automatically fly, on the dates listed.

Posted in General, Spa MarketingComment »

How to Create Great Blog Posts for Your Spa

February 16th, 2012 • Posted by Spa Kat • Permalink

When I saw this New York Times article by Nicholas Bakalar, "How Massage Heals Sore Muscles", it struck me instantly that it had all the fertile ingredients for a great Day Spa blog post.

Why? The article touts all the advice and valuable information regarding the health benefits of massage that you and your staff have been relaying to clients for years and its backed-up by new research on the subject.

It's easy to see why it would make a quick and easy blog post and would give you a chance to provide valuable information for clients, but easier said than done right?

The secret is to keep those KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid) principles in place while you write. We know that for hard working spas and salons, time is money so keep your post short to just a few paragraphs.

Create a short introduction about your knowledge on the subject, as a thought leader, and apply your direct experience in providing these benefits to clients every day. Next, give readers a short synopsis of the article and research followed by a quote from the article. It's always important to make sure you give credit to the original author and link directly back to the article as well.

There’s some theoretical concern that there is a maladaptive response in the long run if you’re constantly suppressing inflammation with drugs,” he said. “With massage, you can have your cake and eat it too—massage can suppress inflammation and actually enhance cell recovery.

Dr. Tarnopolsky

Finally, follow-up with a short conclusion that encourages your clients to experience the health benefits of massage.

Once your have posted using your spa's blog, you can add it to your Spa's Facebook page using SpaBooms handy social media feature. When you post to Facebook, ask fans a question relating to the research and you have just added instant engagement. Relevant articles also gives you a nice set of relevant keywords to play with while you write your post.

Remember its all about taking an interesting and relevant information and putting your own spin on it with the expertise and experience that will make it more beneficial to your readers.

Posted in General1 Comment »

A 30-Minute Marketing Makeover for Salons – Webinar

February 15th, 2012 • Posted by Spa Kat • Permalink

Have you perfected your salon's marketing image to take advantage of the first 2 biggest and busiest seasons in the industry — Mother's Day and The Wedding Season?

Join us as we demonstrate how to craft perfect multi-media campaign messages, utilize interesting and expert tips, and broaden your message reach while creating convenience for your clients — all in less time than a color treatment takes!

Reserve your Webinar Seat Now!

Title: A 30-Minute Marketing Makeover for Salons – Webinar
Date: Tuesday, February 28th, 2012
Time: 1:00 PM – 2:00 PM EDT

Posted in GeneralComment »

New Valentine's Day Email Design

February 8th, 2012 • Posted by Spa Kat • Permalink

SpaBoom's graphic design team has delivered a sweet new email design just in time for Valentine's Day.

The new email design highlights Valentine's Day as well as your message and can include current offers and blog posts to engage your readers. The new email design is truly gift-inspired and perfect for showcasing your spa or salon's Instant Gift Certificates and positioning them as a last-minute gift solution.

Like all SpaBoom emails, they can be automatically generated and sent with your existing offers and promotions or be as customized as you like. All the email templates are professionally designed and included as part of the overall cross-channel marketing integration features we offer SpaBoom clients.

To access the Valentine's Day email design simply select it in the design tab as you create a new targeted email campaign for the holiday.

Posted in General, Spa Marketing2 Comments »

Market the Love for Valentine's Day – Webinar

January 27th, 2012 • Posted by Spa Kat • Permalink

 

Valentine's Day and spas are a natural fit, so lose the Hallmark holiday blues and boost your first quarter bottom line!

Join us as we outline effective, easy marketing strategies that generate gift certificate revenue and effectively promote your brand this Valentine's Day.

Reserve your Webinar Seat Now!

Title: Market the Love for Valentine's Day – Webinar
Date: Wednesday, February 1st, 2012
Time: 1:00 PM – 2:00 PM EDT

Posted in General, SpaBoom WebinarsComment »

Joy of Spa News: The Power of Love

January 18th, 2012 • Posted by Stephany Toman • Permalink

Joy of Spa News: The Power of Love edition is now ready for you to customize. It is complete as is, but you are always welcome to make it yours by playing with the introduction, which follows:

"Don't quit before your miracle. When you're in the trenches of a transformation it is hard to see your miracle coming." –Karen Salmansohn

We've dedicated our Valentine's edition of Joy of Spa News to the power of love, and to believing in your own ability to manifest love in its many forms. The key? Belief, and perseverance. Happy Valentine's Day from Joy of Spa!

This edition will launch over a three day period, January 31st-February 2nd, unless you've opted to change the date it goes out. Be sure to make any changes prior to that date! (And be sure to send yourself a test email after making any edits, and remember that Events that encompass the date on which your email is sent will be included in the email as well.)

Note: The new articles that accompany this edition of the Joy of Spa News will appear magically before it goes out to your clients, even if you can't see them in their entirety when you send yourself a test email. No worries, they'll be in place! We promise!

We highly recommend creating Valentine's-related events and relaxing, soothing, service packages to accompany this edition of Joy of Spa News. Helping people choose a great spa gift package for the occasion provides them a perfect gift solution while increasing the average amount of the gift certificates — a win win!

Remember, the Joy of Spa News is branded with your spa's logo and when your client clicks to read more, the website is branded with your logo, too!

Not yet signed up to send a beautiful, branded newsletter to your clients on a regular basis? Now is your time to get onboard! Go to Setup, Basics to put Joy of Spa to work for your spa!

Posted in General, Joy of Spa News, Spa MarketingComment »

Pure Salon & Spa

January 9th, 2012 • Posted by Spa Kat • Permalink

Pure Salon & Spa is on a mission to soothe the senses, renew their clients vitality and restore the body and mind to a more beautiful state. Their knowledgeable staff specializes in a variety of relaxing beauty and body treatments including: manicures and pedicures, therapeutic massages, facials, body scrubs and body wraps, and hair services. They truly want to pamper clients and create an unforgettable salon and spa experience every time.

Pure Salon & Spa wanted an updated, modern and fresh website that incorporated crisp lines and sharp, bright colors. They also have a large spa and salon product inventory so they wanted to make it more accessible to online customers. Pure specializes in weddings and needed a section of the website dedicated to bridal and wedding services as well as an image gallery that would give potential clients a sense of their expertise.

The solution was to create simple navigation that carried through the modern theme and resulted in a decidedly crisp and beautiful aesthetic for their website. Our graphic design team used sub-menus for more complex pages, which made the website extremely easy-to-use for online visitors and also added an accordion menu for their wedding and bridal gallery. This new design also streamlined the project development process and kept the implementation running smoothly, yielding a faster result.

Pure Salon & Spa came into the website design process prepared with professional images from one of their partners, Great Lengths. Superior images often inspire a compelling website design, a synergy likely to produce a beautiful and effective website. In this instance, we used these fantastic images and then incorporated movement to draw the eye in and encourage visitors to linger. Pure Salon & Spa was extremely organized throughout the website design process, providing all the critical information in a timely manner and that made for a wonderfully effective partnership.

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3 Trends You Can't Afford to Miss – Webinar

January 5th, 2012 • Posted by Spa Kat • Permalink

There are 3 types of promotions that encourage consumer confidence and facilitate spending — Do you know what they are?

Join us as we discuss the mechanics and psychology of marketing trends for 2012 designed to drive loyalty and increase revenue for spas and salons.

Reserve your Webinar Seat Now!

Title: 3 Trends You Can't Afford to Miss – Webinar
Date: Wednesday, January 18th 2012
Time: 1:00 PM – 2:00 PM EDT

Posted in General, Spa Marketing, SpaBoom WebinarsComment »

SpaBooker credit card processing no longer works

December 22nd, 2011 • Posted by Bill Bice • Permalink

Yesterday afternoon, credit card processing for Instant Gift Certificates through SpaBooker stopped working.

In talking with SpaBooker, it was evidently their plan to stop supporting credit card processing for SpaBoom clients on January 3rd.

It actually stopped working yesterday afternoon, right before the three highest selling days of the year. The SpaBoomers we've talked to so far had no warning from SpaBooker (and obviously, we didn't either).

If you were using SpaBooker credit card processing, we have switched you to manual and our Client Services team is reaching out to you right now.

UPDATE: SpaBooker says it was a technical issue and credit card processing is back on, temporarily, until January 3rd.

UPDATE 2: SpaBooker credit card processing is now failing again for some accounts, for a new reason, as reported by their system: "network problems".

UPDATE 3: See comment below from SpaBooker support: "Please note that one of our payment interfaces, SkipJack was having processing issues today that may have affected your interface. In addition, the SpaBoom interface is no longer officially supported and any SpaBooker users that utilize this interface have been notified of this multiple times. Please use it at your own risk."

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SpaBoom Holiday Hours

December 20th, 2011 • Posted by Spa Kat • Permalink

Happy Holidays, SpaBoomers!

A couple of announcements about our customer service team hours of operation this holiday:

SpaBoom will be closed all day on Monday, December 26, 2011 (Day after Christmas)

On Monday, January 2, 2012, SpaBoom will have limited support hours of 8:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m. (MST)

Wishing you joy and peace, warmth and relaxation, and all the eggnog you can possibly enjoy!

Team SpaBoom

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