Spa Marketing

It was another great holiday for SpaBoomers, who utilized SpaBoom's Instant Gift Certificate feature to rev-up holiday sales! For the 2008 Mother's Day season, SpaBoomers sold a whopping $3.6M in Instant Gift Certificates, with the largest sales day occurring the day before Mother's Day, Saturday the 10th, which accounted for 18.3% of all Mother's Day sales.

Interestingly, Mother's Day itself was the third largest sales day, accounting for 12.1% of all Mother's Day sales. Not that it bears reminding, but it does bear repeating: Mother's Day is a Sunday when many spas and salons are closed, and more importantly FedEx and the other mail and overnight carriers don't ship. To give your mother a gift on Mother's Day, if you don't purchase an Instant Gift Certificate from a SpaBoomer, you're left with either no gift, hand-delivering something, or sending something on the Saturday before — a day early.

The above graph represents the sales activity of a select group of SpaBoomers, which is representative across all SpaBoomers (almost 2,500 spas and salons in all!). This particular graph represents the accumulated sales activity of those SpaBoomers who signed up just before the 2007 Mother's Day holiday season. It compares their 2007 versus 2008 Mother's Day sales. The differences are noticeable, and highlight an interesting 1-year trend: Sales increased a whopping 96.3% from 2007 to 2008, when using SpaBoom!

Some other interesting Mother's Day statistics include the average sales per SpaBoomer, as it relates to:

• The Top 10 SpaBoomers: $47,500
• The Top 100 SpaBoomers: $14,088
• The SpaBoomers in the top 50%: $3,569

Finally, SpaBoom witnessed a 111.6% increase in Mother's Day sales from 2007 to 2008, across all spas and salons.

If you wanted more sales for this Mother's Day, consider reviewing our Spa Marketing Guide for tips and tricks on how to increase sales and your exposure. We've watched what the successful spas and salons do, as well as watched what works on the Internet, and summarized it in this guide. You owe it to yourself to become familiar with it. If nothing else, scroll down to the bottom of that guide, and review the Don't Forget About the Real World section, which contains pragmatic and easy-to-implement suggestions that will have a quick and positive impact to your business.

Posted in Spa Marketing, General, Spa Gift Certificates • 5 Comments »

Starting in the late 40s and going into the 60s, the "Hollywood blacklist" consisted of directors, screenwriters, actors and musicians who couldn't get work because of their real or suspected political affiliations. Being placed on the blacklist was a death knell for a career.

These days, we're fighting a different kind of blacklist — those managed by companies like AOL, Yahoo!, Comcast, EarthLink and others. Once your company gets on the blacklist, it is almost as hard as a 1950s actor to get off. And, the results are similar: if you're blacklisted as a spammer, your email will not flow. With so much of our lives conducted online now, being blacklisted on the Internet is a serious blow to your business.

It's hard to blame these large Internet companies for being aggressive with spam. With spam accounting for 70.1% of all email in the U.S. in April 2008, consumers get very angry with their Internet company when they receive too much spam. Desperation is one word to describe the actions of these Internet companies — they are responsible for handling billions of emails every day, and every day it becomes harder to combat the spam.

How does your company become blacklisted? It's easier than you might think, if you send email:

• To someone you don't have a relationship with;
• When you haven't obtained permission from the recipient;
• When the person you're sending email to forgets they gave you permission, and reports your email as spam; or
• When the person you're sending email to shares their email account with someone else (i.e. a spouse), and that other person reports your email as spam.

This problem has gotten so bad that the anti-spam measures large Internet companies are starting gobble up legitimate email. For example, AT&T implemented new spam filters that deleted legitimate email, with no warning or notice to their customers.

So, email is losing its effectiveness as a marketing tool because it's easy to get blacklisted. Even if you're not blacklisted, most Internet companies are using aggressive spam filtering techniques which may be filtering much of your email — without telling you or otherwise giving you any clue what's happening on the Internet between you and your clients.

SpaBoom is trying to do its part by helping you stay off the blacklists. When a consumer purchases an IGC from you, they can "opt-in" to your email marketing. This "opt-in" is unchecked, and requires the consumer to check this box to actually opt-in. If you are using SpaBoom's newsletter feature and you import email addresses into the database (or you add new clients manually), SpaBoom will send a confirmation email to all imported email addresses, asking the recipient to verify they wanted to be added to your mailing list.

Yes, these new measures are aggressive and may reduce the overall size of your email lists contained within SpaBoom. They will, however, help ensure your business stays off the blacklists and that your email is more effective overall.

Posted in SpaBoom New Features, Spa Marketing, General • 3 Comments »

In this age of nearly out of control spam (you have noticed how large your junk mail folder is in Yahoo or Hotmail, right?), taking steps to make sure that your own marketing practices are friendly and sustainable is a necessary part of online life.

The best way to stay in touch with your customers and prospects is to send them targeted messages letting them know what you're up to and what new benefits you can offer to them. However, sending those messages to recipients who really want to get them is the key to your success.

How do you make sure that your email list is full of great customers and leads? Simple — you ask them.

Here at SpaBoom we've made it easy for you to import your client list into your account so that email marketing is a snap. To keep your life simple, we did not — until recently — send confirmation emails to those imported contacts, but in reality they might not have known they would receive marketing emails from you. Spending your time on the smaller group of contacts who are truly interested will grow your spa's business wisely, creating your best customers both now and in the future.

Being great 'Net citizens means doing occasional spring cleaning on mailing lists, and that's what we are doing on Wednesday. We will send an opt-in email on your behalf to your imported clients, giving them a chance to voluntarily be included on all the best you have to offer.

Just to be clear, SpaBoom's free email newsletter feature is:

• A service to help you send announcement of promotions, events and special occasions to your client list.
• Not used for SpaBoom to market to your clients. SpaBoom never markets to your clients.
• Available to each client that SpaBoom can verify has "opted-in" to receive your mailings.
• Secure, in that SpaBoom always protects your customer data, even when a particular customer hasn't opted-in to receive your email newsletters.

Have a great rest of the week, and here's to finding — and keeping — valued clients!

Posted in Creating Customers, SpaBoom New Features, Spa Marketing, Spa Business Management • 26 Comments »

Malcom Gladwell wrote about e-commerce nearly 10 years ago, and the insights he offers are still startlingly fresh. He speaks of the interconnectedness of business and how innovation drives creativity drives need and back around again… just shuffle the three words in any order and the linkage still works. One business will invent a product solely because they have to have it, and that product transforms an industry, almost as a side effect.

Take for example, commercial jets. They are run with sophisticated navigation systems, but not so long ago you could have been stranded at the airport due to the slightest hiccup of bad weather. Federal Express, who doesn't have an interest in making passenger travel more streamlined, needed their planes up and running around the clock with nearly no weather pattern able to stop them. In his article, Gladwell wrote,

And because of that need to be more efficient, your trips to visit family over the holidays are made less time-consuming and more delay-proof. The trickle effect is both logical and yet so amazing.

So what's the hook? What is our "anti fog technology"? You might be the ones to tell us, frankly. We've built a way to offer instant gratification to your clients, and when you needed a website to offer to them, we built that capability, too. Perhaps our contribution is yet to come — a new way to market through SEO strategies, or innovative ways to redeem GCs on the spot… the future is limitless.

Have a great week, everyone!

Posted in Spa Marketing, General • Comment »

It recently occurred to me: SpaBoom is more than just selling Instant Gift Certificates (IGC's) on the Internet. Our platform is very robust, and provides a very complex (but easy to use) system our clients can log into to access a variety of tools, reports and features.

Unfortunately, if you have a business to run, you're probably not reading our documentation or spending much time getting a feel for the robust SpaBoom platform. Over the next few months, I'm going to briefly introduce some of the more powerful–and less documented–secrets of SpaBoom.

Print Retail Gift Certificates for Free

SpaBoom is a gift certificate management tool. Typically, when a sale is made over the Internet for an IGC, SpaBoom records all the details of that sale and makes it available to you when you log into your SpaBoom account. It was part of our design to enable you to do a number of things with an IGC, such as track redemptions, add value, void it, reprint it, resend it, etc. (see image on right).

When we first built SpaBoom, we recognized some organizations may want to use our system for selling retail-based gift certificates. So, we built this into the platform. With as few as 3 steps, you can use SpaBoom to produce lovely retail-based gift certificates:

1. Select "Add GC" on the left when you're under the GCs Tab.
2. Find the client purchasing the GC, and if they aren't already in SpaBoom, create a new client record by selecting "Add Client".
3. Fill out the "Add GC" form. Here's the trick: Make sure you select "Retail GC" as the Type. Retail GC tells us you want to use SpaBoom to generate a new, retail-based gift certificate for you. The other options in Type are available, if you want to use SpaBoom to keep track of your non-SpaBoom gift certificate sales, such as your pre-printed gift certificates (we do this for free, also).

Filling out the "Add GC" form within SpaBoom, is equivalent to buying an IGC on your website, except that we don't charge for any sales that occur this way. SpaBoom is smart enough to know when a customer is buying an IGC from your website or Spa Emergency, versus you ordering a retail-based gift certificate from within SpaBoom.

You will be given the same options to print or email the IGC, and if email, where to send it. You can also select a service-based IGC, instead of dollar-based, if that is something the customer desires.

Combine this functionality with a nice color printer and high-quality paper, and you have a professional, custom capability to print gift certificates right in your store. Next holiday season, consider turning your computer into a kiosk, and allow customers to purchase and print IGC's right in your store!

There are a number of reasons you might be interested in using this feature:

• An inexpensive way to provide professional, custom gift certificates at retail.
• A great way to provide custom, bulk gift certificates for corporate sales or promotional purposes.
• A great option, when you (or the customer) doesn't want a dollar amount on the gift certificate (service-based gift certificates just show the service, not the amount).

Excellent promotional opportunity (requires just a bit more work): Use this facility to print out a large number of special gift certificates you give away for promotional purposes. For example, cook up a special promotion with the local radio station or Lexus / BMW dealer, put in the To: line "Lucky Spa Goer" and the From: line "KOBZ Radio" or whatever appropriate. $25 or so each. Here's the great part about SpaBoom: You can change the expiration date of these promotional gift certificates to something short, like 2 or 3 months. Most states, even California, will permit expiration dates when the gift certificates are given away for charitable or promotional purposes (i.e. you haven't been paid for them). The only trick is, you will need to create a new Type in SpaBoom, and give this Type of IGC a different expiration date. You do this under the Setup Tab, using the "GC Types" task. Help is available.

Posted in Spa Marketing, General, Spa Gift Certificates • 6 Comments »

We were on vacation. His name was Jeff. He gave me perhaps the best deep-tissue massage of my life, and he's struggling to get himself recognized in the small town of Wickenburg, Arizona. I found him completely by accident in the yellow pages!

Jeff mentioned that he had given his brochure to the hotel we were staying at, and that hotel agreed to give his brochure out in the packet of materials they give to their guests. The problem was, his brochure wasn't in the packet of materials I received.

I asked Jeff what he did to get the hotel to agree to hand out his brochure, and his reply was, "Nothing. I just gave them a bunch of brochures."

This highlights what I believe is a common misconception among many spa owners and independent therapists I come across: They think they can easily find other companies with similar clientèle to refer them business, without any quid pro quo. Wondering what the heck this phrase means? I once did too, until my husband (an attorney) told me about it. It means "something for something," and it fits perfectly here.

The fact of the matter is, Jeff (or any spa) is going to have a hard time getting any company to hand out their brochures (or business cards), unless a reciprocal relationship is created. Here are some ideas for establishing quid pro quo:

• Offer a discount to employees of the organization;
• Provide free massages for the owner(s), manager(s) or other principle(s);
• Refer business back to them;
• Distribute their brochures;
• Consider discounts to their clients;
• Trade website links;
• And, always do business with them, personally and through your business.

Other considerations

Create exclusive, reciprocal relationships. For example, if you try to get all the hotels in your area to refer business to you, it's next to impossible to install a reciprocal relationship. Pick one or two hotels, and make it exclusive.

Aside from a hotel, consider other businesses, such as a:

• Salon
• Bed & Breakfast
• Restaurant
• Yoga, pilates and/or fitness center
• Flower shop
• Chiropractor
• Nutritionist

Remember, focus on reciprocal relationships. Make sure you can send them business. If you do, you will reap rewards and dividends in your quid pro quo relationships.

With almost 10 years experience in new business start-ups and transformations, Ana Loiselle-Donahue is a specialist in finding new sources of revenue and growth for companies of all sizes. She founded theSECRET in 2004 to help businesses flourish through creative —and powerful —new solutions; including brand development, strategic financial planning and employee training. Mrs. Loiselle-Donahue can be reached at 866/288-7353 or at www.thesecretconsultant.com. Check out her blog!

Posted in the SECRET, Spa Marketing, General • 3 Comments »

Tip #4

Use Email marketing: What would you spend to create an additional $278,000 in sales volume? Would you spend nothing? Many of you did (in part).

The SpaBoom email marketing program is free to SpaBoom clients and we can directly attribute over a quarter million dollars in (2007) sales to our email marketing campaigns, which are 100% free. While most of you benefited in some way, the lion's share of that volume went to 10% of SpaBoom clients. Let me briefly explain how and why:

First of all, unless you turn the email marketing feature off, every time one of your clients buys an Instant Gift Certificate (IGC), they get a chance to opt-in to your email marketing list. If they buy the IGC from Spa Emergency, they can opt in to the national list as well. Thus, we are patiently collecting email address on your behalf. While that may be helpful, we take it a few steps further for you. We also draft outbound email marketing messages (as well as newsletters) on your behalf that are periodically sent to your list, from you. (It is important to note that this feature can be turned off at any time.) Consequently, if you do nothing, we are automatically collecting email addresses and sending your clients timely messages from you reminding them about the wonders of last minute spa gift certificates from your website as a holiday (Valentine's Day or the like) approaches.

So why do the top tier get so much of the benefit? Let's start with the list we are sending to. If you sell 120 online gifts a year to 80 people (I am assuming some repeat business) and 90% of them opt in, that leaves you with 71 folks on your email list at the end of the first year. I'll bet most of you have a bigger email list than that, and if you don't, you should! The easiest, simplest thing you can do to make email marketing more effective is to to grow your list. We have a (free) tool to import your existing email list into the SpaBoom application. If you have 300 email addresses, we can import them and make any campaign you create much more effective simply by delivering it to more people.

The next step the super-SpaBoomers often take is to customize their campaigns. All they (or you) have to do is log into SpaBoom and modify or create any email message or newsletter you like. While our emails are professionally written, your customers will generally respond even better to a message more from you, about your specific services or offers. For a great primer on how to set up an email campaign in SpaBoom, see Andrea Feucht's post on Email Guidelines (or call her at 800.940.0458). There are tons of other email tips out there and I encourage you to read and experiment, but here are some basics:

• Let them Opt-In. Everyone on your list has (hopefully) opted in to messages from you.
• Don't email too often or over sell. Once a month is probably the right number of outbounds.
• Be consistent. Try to send on the same day an time each month (like the second Tuesday at 2:00).
• Give them a reason to open the email, generally in the subject line. Never ever use exclamation points or all capital letters. That makes you look like a mortgage merchant. You win if they open your message, even if there are no direct sales. They will remember you when they have a last minute gift need.
• Put the good stuff "above the fold" in the top half or quarter of the content.
• Newsletters are for for news. Emails are for events and specials. Try to keep them distinct.

One last thought. We provide some reports that show what email marketing campaigns produce on your behalf (click the "Reports" tab then scroll down to "Email marketing" on the bottom right of the page). This report generally provides good data, but a bug in our system prevented it from showing any sales or results for late December through Valentine's Day. It's fixed now and should be accurate going forward.

Posted in Creating Customers, Spa Marketing, Spa Business Management, General • 1 Comment »

A TeleSeminar is worth 1000 blog posts.

If you are enjoying our top ten e-commerce tips series, Chris Brazey of SpaBoard is hosting a free TeleSeminar on Thursday, March 6th at 10:00am PT, 1:00pm ET. I will be his "guest" and will be covering 10 Tips to Improve Your Online Marketing. I will discuss all the tips we are presenting in the blog series as well as taking general questions on the subject.

Chris can accommodate the first 100 people who sign up for the seminar.

There is one catch to be aware of; when you sign up, you are also signing up for Chris's weekly profit tip newsletter. Chris assured me that he has an easy unsubscribe program if you later decide that you do not want his tips.

Sign up at DaySpaOwner.com before it fills up.

Posted in Spa Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Spa Marketing, Spa Business Management, General, Spa Website Design • Comment »

I have to admit, I've really resisted using the 'r' word when it comes to the state of our economy, but personal quirks aside, there may be something to what the markets are 'saying'. Whether or not you're willing to acquiesce to the idea of an economic downturn, consumer perception is the lynchpin–if people perceive a tight economy, they'll behave accordingly.

So, what do you do when times get a little tighter? Personally, we all tend to either think twice about or simply avoid 'indulgent' purchases in favor of meeting the day-to-day financial responsibilities. Professionally, we all assess and adjust wherever we can. Making the most of resources is a very straightforward way to ensure we're getting the most from our business dollars.

Having a way to reach the online audience while using a resource in which you've already invested, ie your website, makes absolute sense. So does making it easier to do business with you. Consumers will still buy gifts for friends and loved one regardless of the economy; it's a social necessity. If you make it super easy to purchase a gift from your spa, you save them a trip out to shop (which saves gas money, to be quite honest) while offering up a gift that will make the recipient feel absolutely pampered and relaxed AND you're further ingraining your business in their reality as the right choice, regardless.

Remember that with SpaBoom, you have the ability to not only sell Instant Gift Certificates from your website, but also to conduct email campaigns and create time-sensitive specials (in Events)–and these come built-in at no extra charge!

So, get busy already! Make the most of your SpaBoom tools and watch your business respond in a most favorable way!

Posted in Spa Marketing, Spa Business Management • 2 Comments »

Guess what we learned this month? Last minute gift buyers spend more money, and packages help them do it! According to ABC News, people (mostly men) spend more the closer they get to a gift buying deadline.

The SpaBoom Valentine's Day data backs up that assertion. Our clients sold 1.5M in Valentine's Day Instant Gift Ccertificates (this includes sales from February 1 through February 14th). 60% of those sales happened on the 11th through the 14th. Our average sale for each of the first 10 days of the month hovered around $110. The average purchase from the 11th through the 14th averaged over $115. Why and how you might ask? Remember tip #3 in the Top ten ways to sell more gift certificates online? For those who forgot, it was "sell packages" for something more than the $100 most American males default to when faced with a spa menu. This holiday, packages were the preferred gift of your customers. If you don't believe me, argue with Cupid and our accounting team. In the first 14 days of this month almost 46% of SpaBoom gifts were packages. In December it was a little over 35%. This corresponded to an average transaction in February of $114.11 for Valentine's Day as opposed to 106.34 in December. If you are not selling packages you are leaving money your customer would like to spend with you on the table.

Overall, the numbers show that "occasion" gift buyers are willing to spend more, especially last minute AND they really like to buy packages. The good news is SpaBoom clients sell a ton of last minute gifts and we make creating service packages easy. So gear up for Mother's Day, but don't forget the birthday and anniversary packages to sell every day. Our customers seem willing to spend more for holidays like Valentine's Day, especially on the last few days leading up to the event. Give them a package that justifies that willingness and everybody wins.

Posted in Spa Marketing, General, Spa Gift Certificates • 4 Comments »

Tip #4

Pick the luscious, low hanging fruit: Your clients already know and (hopefully) love you. However, they are not always thinking gift when they come to you for treatments. Tastefully remind them that you have a nice website with good information and instant gifts when they do visit, and they are likely to think of you the following week when they realize that their sister's birthday is today. You can do this for free by putting your website address and key features on every piece of your advertising, sales collateral and marketing material your clients see or hear.

One of the simplest and most popular features we offer to help is our "Instant POP" function. It is under the Setup tab when you log into SpaBoom. Instant POP (short for "point of purchase") are templates for 8.5 x 11 signs you can print for your business. We generally have several pre-built for holidays, birthdays and anniversaries but you can easily modify what we write or create your own from scratch. They automatically show your logo and web address. Our top sellers have at least seven pieces of POP in their stores.

Oh, and don't forget your voice mail message. The callers after closing on February 14^th are often looking for one thing. Tell them about your online gift program (in the first sentence, before they hang up). You will be that last minute buyer's Valentine too.

Posted in SpaBoom New Features, Spa Marketing, Spa Business Management • Comment »

Tip #2

Have a great website: No, I'm not repeating, or trying to make just 9 points so I can go home early (I am sort of home for those who care).

A website is not something you build and forget about. Just like your store, you have to keep it current or visitors get bored and have no reason to return. Add interesting content regularly; update your menu and specials and packages.

The SpaBoom Dynamic Website application will do this for you, and most of our top sellers use those tools. If you would like to make better use of them, call us! If you don't have a website you can easily edit, you should consider an alternative from us or a good web designer, like our partner Televox.

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

Valentine's Day offers Salons and Spas a chance to express their creativity through unique promotions, but it also gives the business the opportunity to make a lasting impression on customers. Customers who come to your Salon or Spa to celebrate Valentine's Day will return again and again if the service is unparalleled. Try these 3 steps to increase your salon or spa's traffic and keep them coming back for more:

1) A survey by QUESTUS research showed respondents will spend more on Valentine's Day gifts because of the Internet: 40 percent of survey respondents said they will shop exclusively online, and 40 percent also said if not for the Internet, they would not buy Valentine's Day gifts at all! So, if your not selling your services and or products on-line you're missing out on BIG SALES!! SpaBoom's Instant gift Certificates can solve that problem!

2) Make sure you have services and products geared towards all of your target market. If you think that Valentine's Day is just for lovers, maybe you should think again. Go into any card shop today, and you will see Valentine cards for everyone including priests, ministers, and mailmen. Every pet shop has dog bones and catnip wrapped in red hearts and bows. Yes, this expansion of the age-old Valentine's Day idea is a huge marketing ploy to entice the consumer to purchase more. This may not be a bad idea; now everyone is given the opportunity to enjoy the occasion if they choose to do so.

3) Implement online marketing plans to ensure success. Online marketing ranks top in methods to reach consumers. With up to 10 days to two weeks for the first mention of your Valentine's offerings, then a second [mention] about three to five days later. You want to make sure people have time to respond.

It all boils down to your marketing strategy and then your service, which will bring them back year after year.

With almost 10 years experience in new business start-ups and transformations, Ana Loiselle-Donahue is a specialist in finding new sources of revenue and growth for companies of all sizes. She founded theSECRET in 2004 to help businesses flourish through creative —and powerful —new solutions; including brand development, strategic financial planning and employee training. Mrs. Loiselle-Donahue can be reached at 866/288-7353 or at www.thesecretconsultant.com. Check out her blog!

Posted in the SECRET, Spa Marketing, Spa Business Management, General • Comment »

Salons and Spas can make sales soar this Valentine's Day just with some simple planning. The moment a customer enters your Salon/Spa or Web site you should smother them with love. Immediately reinforce that they've come to the right place to find the perfect Valentine's Day gift. Here are some affordable marketing strategies Salons and Spas can use on and offline to hook Valentine's Day shoppers.

Use The Language of Love
There are a variety of audiences shopping during Valentine's Day. Talk how your customers talk. For example, if your products and services appeal to teens, then you may want to consider using the word "like" instead of "love."

Under $20
It's imperative you offer mini services or products for less than $20. This is the cut-off for impulse shoppers. Anything more than this and your customer may have to think about it. February 14 will be here before you know and there's not enough time for customers to ponder, make your customer's decision easy and price it right the first time. What's more, most shoppers are not afraid to spend $20, especially online.

Customized Note Cards
Offer all customers the ability to include a personal note with their gift. Whether you're doing business online or in-person, always make available attractive note cards customers can personalize. Take it a step further and stock at least 10 prewritten love [and like] messages for customers who lack the ability to express themselves. They'll appreciate your thoughtfulness.

Gift Wrapping
Receiving a wrapped gift makes the recipient feel more cherished. She'll think warm thoughts such as, "Oh - he took the extra time to wrap it. That's why I love him." Ultimately, she'll love the gift and this will increase your chances of your customer returning to your store or Web site to purchase her birthday, anniversary, "I'm Sorry" and holiday presents!

Create a Mood
It's Valentine's Day. Remember to build-in a mood of romance throughout your customers' shopping experience. Try hanging red streamers over your product case, displaying complimentary chocolates at the counter alongside your Valentine's Day special offer POP, or a simple Web site page boarder with connected hearts. For lucky business owners with roadside signs, try using red light bulbs and wrapping the sign with an enormous heart or cupid. Passersby will get the hint that you have some great Valentine's Day gifts inside.

Provide Variety
It's important to position at least one of your existing products and services as a great Valentine's Day present. For example, rather than just advertise your salon/spa as a place to take your lover for Valentine's Day, instead, sell a premium-priced packaged.

There are very few businesses that could not capitalize on Valentine's Day to jazz up their marketing. It's fun and profitable! Give it a try.

With almost 10 years experience in new business start-ups and transformations, Ana Loiselle-Donahue is a specialist in finding new sources of revenue and growth for companies of all sizes. She founded theSECRET in 2004 to help businesses flourish through creative —and powerful —new solutions; including brand development, strategic financial planning and employee training. Mrs. Loiselle-Donahue can be reached at 866/288-7353 or at www.thesecretconsultant.com. Check out herblog!

Posted in the SECRET, Spa Marketing, Spa Business Management • 1 Comment »

I already get the sense that everyone around me is in the same state of shock: the holidays are HERE and I didn't see them coming. It seems like "last week" was September, and the week before that?  April!  Sheesh.

While the postal service may be swamped with orders for last-minute package deliveries, YOU are in the perfect position with your SpaBoom Instant Gift Certificates. You can sell to your customers around the clock right up until the last possible minute they need their gift.

Use your website to loudly proclaim this fantastic ability. Put a display on your front counter letting everyone know about your website and your services available there. Tape a sign on your front door for the unlucky shopper who shows up when you're not open, reminding them that all is not lost if they need a gift for anyone.

In your marketing, target situations that illustrate examples of predicaments that your Instant Gift Certificates can help alleviate. Here are a few to get the ball rolling — use them or come up with your own unique calls to action:

"Aunt Betty showed up to the holiday dinner unexpectedly with a really great bottle of wine? It's no problem when you know you can visit us online and get her a great little thank you in 5 minutes."

"Arrive at a friend's dinner party with nothing to offer the host? Grab a few minutes on their computer to order an Instant Gift Certificate and have it emailed to them on the spot!"

"Disappointed at early closing hours for other holiday stores? On our website, you can always get Instant Gift Certificates for your wish list friends - no mailing or trips to the store required!"

Get creative and see a noticeable spike in your last-minute shoppers — good luck, and the best of the season to you!

Posted in Creating Customers, Spa Marketing, Spa Gift Certificates • Comment »

We looked at the sales volume of a large group of our clients for the last few days before Christmas in 2006, which is represented hour-by-hour in the following graph. It is very interesting.

If you assume the average spa or salon is selling gift certificates from 8am to 8pm through the 24th, and is closed on the 25th, a full 33.4% of gift certificate sales occurs outside those normal business hours.

Ideas to help sell more gift certificates for this holiday season:

• The obvious — stay open as long as possible.
• If your phone is busy, what then? Do you have multiple lines and call-takers, and if a customer can't get through, does your call prompt tell your customer they can purchase "INSTANT Gift Certificates…" on your website "…perfect for last minute gift buying?"
• If you're one of our busier organizations, what does your car traffic flow look like? Is it possible your losing customers because they see a long queue in front of your store? Consider signage or banners that announce your web address, and make sure to say "Instant Gift Certificates" available.
• And, of course, if you're not using SpaBoom and just lurking on our blog, what are you waiting for??!?

Only instant gift certificates are going to enable you to capture these last minute sales.

Posted in Spa Marketing, General, Spa Gift Certificates • 5 Comments »

What do these seemingly, grossly different subjects have to do with one another??!? I'm glad you asked …

Last Friday, I attended a live show at the New Mexico Museum of Natural History & Science's Planetarium, called First Friday Fractals here in Albuquerque, NM.

I'd be lying to you, if I didn't say that I was sort of expecting something analogous to the laser-light shows of the eighties — you know — the ones done to the tunes of Pink Floyd in a smoke-filled theater with partying rabble-rousers. (i.e. "Do you smell that??!? It doesn't smell like a normal cigarette …") The truth of the matter was, this show was anything but … it was impressive, educational and done "live" with Jonathan Wolfe, Ph.D., the organizer for event. To say that Dr. Wolfe really likes fractals would be like saying "supernovas go boom" … a significant understatement. This event, apparently, experienced it's 48th consecutive sold-out show. There was a line of people trying to get in (luckily we purchased our tickets in advance).

In this show, Dr. Wolfe didn't just parade successive "fractal zooms," as he called it. He explained in very simple terms what fractals are, and how they are represented in just about everything dealing with nature and human behaviors. He showed pictures of trees and flowers, and how they are comprised of repeating patterns, or fractals. He showed a closeup of tree bark, and showed how the cracks in the bark appear similar, no matter how close you look. He showed a high-level map of Paris, then of Phoenix (I think), clearly showing how our metropolitan areas are constructed of successively repeating smaller patterns.

Then he said it. He said, "It's really interesting how small changes in zoning laws have dramatic impacts on our cities and neighborhoods." He said this was an interesting phenomena of the Chaos Theory, which says "small changes in the initial conditions lead to drastic changes in the results."

We at SpaBoom have noticed this phenomena for quite some time (i.e. see Love is in the air), where small changes in a website have a profound impact in sales. For example, changing "gift certificates" on your website to "instant gift certificates" will increase your sales. Making your call-to-action highlighted text, versus a graphic banner, also increases sales. And, placing your call-to-action near the top of your page, versus the bottom, will also increase sales.

It appears anything that improves the visibility, accessibility or ease from which a customer can do business with you, will increase your sales. This is all a form of the Chaos Theory, and remembering the Chaos Theory (or fractals) as you make minor adjustments to your website and the way you do business, will help you reap long-term dividends.

Posted in Spa Marketing, General • 1 Comment »

The US Post Office recently posted their Holiday Shipping Calendar, as a special service to its customers for ensuring "cards and packages arrive by December 25th."

As spa and salon owners, it's good to take note of these dates to advise your gift certificate buying clients accordingly. For shipping in the US, the absolute last deadline to mail something — to be received by the 25th — is December 22nd using Express Mail.

We've found, after helping our spas and salons sell $12.3 million spread over 114,382 instant gift certificates, that nearly 50% of the gift certificate sales will occur within the last 48 hours of a holiday or event. So, if you utilize SpaBoom effectively, you can potentially double your instant gift certificate sales on the 23rd, 24th and 25th of December — dates the US Post Office cannot serve.

What are you doing to take advantage of your last-minute gift certificate buyers? Do you mind sharing your tips and tricks with other SpaBoomers?

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Next to getting the client to walk through the door for the first appointment, the most important step is getting the client to come back.

I am simply amazed at how many salon and spa owners “miss the boat” on this easily applied marketing tool - The New Client Tour.

It may seem obvious, but you can’t imagine how many times I'm not given a tour or offered a brochure, when I visit a salon or spa for the first time. Oh, and if I am lucky enough to be given a tour, it's often hastily conducted, confusing or incomplete. I often feel like I'm imposing on the one giving the tour. Ever have this happen to you??!?

Because cultivating new clients involves a long lead time and expense; when you get them in the door use every opportunity to make them a client for life and to utilize more than one of your services!! Giving a well thought out and scripted tour is an integral part in increasing client retention and cross-selling your services.

Why is a tour important?

The first appointment with the client is very important, and a tour is the single greatest way to welcome a new client to your business - to make them feel like a true guest, and that there is nothing greater for your business, than to serve this new client. This gives you an excellent opportunity to exceed the client's expectations.

Simply put: a tour is an outstanding educational tool, sales tool, and dramatically increases customer satisfaction and retention. It provides a wonderful opportunity to provide a soft-sales pitch for your business and its services. It gives the customer an opportunity to see the different parts of your business and how you stand apart from the competition. It also, gives them an understanding of the various services performed, why they might want certain treatments and a chance to ask questions they might not otherwise ask.

How to make a tour successful?

Don't think you have time or can't otherwise do it? Make it a part of your culture and business model. Don’t lose out on this opportunity for increased sales with excuses or obstacles. You must plan for it. Ask your new client to show up 15 minutes early. If you don't do a call-back to confirm the appointment, start doing so, and remind the new client to show up 15 minutes early.

An effective tour must be carefully scripted. Everyone on staff must know how to give one and what their role is in the tour. The greeter (often the receptionist or adviser) should be thought of as the sales and customer service force of your organization. During a tour, they become the tour-guide. Make this the most important thing they do, when they do it; and they can’t rush through it because they need to cover the front-desk or phone. When other staff sees a tour in progress, they must be especially friendly and helpful.

Don't conduct the tour in the hallway. Make sure to actually take the new guest into each and every room (as much as practical). Keeping a new client n the hallway is awkward, and fosters the perception of rushing. Standing in the hallway doesn't help him or her truly appreciate what each room (and the corresponding services) has to offer.

Don’t forget to give them a brochure.

When your clients are ready to leave your salon or spa, always give them a brochure. I convinced one of my clients to hand out laminated cards. The results have been wonderful. My client tells theirs, “We have had this card laminated because we want you to always have it. Even if you run this card through the washing machine, you will still have our number. We want you to know that if you have any questions about your service or products, or anything that you would like to do in the future, you can give us a call. From now on, we are your expert therapist, so if you have any questions, ever, about your skin/hair you can call us.”

Remember: It's expensive to get a new client into your door, so don't take that new client for granted. Reinforcing that you care about your clients, their questions, and their success, keeps them coming back and sending their friends and family.

With almost 10 years experience in new business start-ups and transformations, Ana Loiselle-Donahue is a specialist in finding new sources of revenue and growth for companies of all sizes. She founded theSECRET in 2004 to help businesses flourish through creative —and powerful —new solutions; including brand development, strategic financial planning and employee training. Mrs. Loiselle-Donahue can be reached at 866/288-7353 or at www.thesecretconsultant.com.

Posted in the SECRET, Spa Marketing, Spa Business Management, General • 3 Comments »

Part of my job at SpaBoom, simply put, is to increase our client base. One of our methods is to develop strategic relationships. This isn't as easy as it sounds. As I mentioned in a previous article: "It's absolutely critical to our success to partner with the right organizations. This takes work, research and luck. Partners not only have to have the right position in the marketplace, they must share our values, match our culture and offer complimentary products and/or services."

What does this have to do with the Day Spa Association? Well, we came across the Day Spa Association a couple of years ago, when we had very few clients, and were surprised at how friendly, helpful and thoughtful the folks at the DSA were. They made introductions for us, and gave us an outstanding forum from which to learn and partner with the movers-and-shakers in the spa industry. It didn't take us long to realize the DSA would make an ideal partner for SpaBoom.

I was so impressed with the folks behind the DSA, especially Hannelore Leavy and Skip Williams, that I offered to serve on the Advisory Board for the DSA, and I was really impressed with not just the people, but their intentions. Everyone — all exceptional folks — are trying to identify ways to add value to their membership through education, marketing and leadership.

Take a review of their Membership Benefits. It's chock-full of specials, discounts and free industry publications for its members.

Today, I'm proud to announce that SpaBoom customers receive a $30 discount for the 1st year membership (for new DSA members only) to the DSA (that is, $225 instead of $255). Just call them up (201-865-2065), and tell them you are a SpaBoom customer.

Posted in Spa Marketing, General • 1 Comment »