Spa Gift Certificates

Valentine's Day is almost here and the holiday is a natural fit for spas and salons. Boost your first quarter revenue by catching up on the amazing webinar by Janell from this Wednesday!

She showed easy marketing strategies that generate gift certificate revenue and effectively promote your brand this Valentine's Day – you can't miss this, and you have just one more business day to take advantage of our pre-holiday signup deal, too!

Watch the Video: Market the Love for Valentine's Day – Webinar

Download and follow along with our presentation [PDF]

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

It is time for us to give YOU a Valentine's gift: a new design to keep your Instant Gift Certificate page fresh and gorgeous. We have a new Valentine's Day IGC design, as well as a brand new Instant POP, and a new Collateral design, too! Check this lovely stripey design:

Put a fresh face on your Instant Gift Certificate page's look. No matter how much we LOVE our new designs and think you will, too, we do not force you to update. You can choose at any time to update to new designs, and because we strongly encourage you to, here's how.

The quickest way to begin showcasing those new designs is to apply our default designs in one fell swoop. View them here.

Go into your Setup Tab, then click on GC Designs on the left side of the screen. You'll see your already selected list of thumbnails.

On the left, look for the "Restore Defaults" link, and click on that.

What does "Restore Defaults" mean? It returns GC Designs to the current default settings, replacing any name, category, popularity or hide changes that you've made. Custom designs that you've created will be left untouched. So if you have renamed a design or moved its category or hidden it, that will be undone. Any NEW design of your own is always safe.

Click OK on the next screen, and the new design will be featured on your IGC page! If you hadn't updated in a long time (or ever), you might also have a bunch of new and lovely designs across all categories.

You don't have to do anything to receive the new Instant POP or Collateral designs – just go into your Instant POP and Collateral lists, look for the new design with "2012″ in it, and print away! Enjoy, and Happy February!

Posted in Spa Gift Certificates, Spa Marketing, SpaBoom New Features, SpaBoom System Events • Comment »

We have all recently realized just how close we are to Kevin Bacon, but did you know that now, thanks to Facebook, you might be able to reach him in just over 4 Facebook friends? Whew, good to know and just in time for the remake of Footloose!

Marking the distance between ourselves and others is a very human characteristic. One of the best ways for spas and salons to connect the distance between the business and consumers is by utilizing social media as a networking advantage.

With the holidays upon us one of the quickest and fastest tools to build buzz and generate interest in your Spa /Salon’s holiday gifts is through social media, specifically Facebook.

Facebook is the quickest and most expedient way to share information about your services and holiday gift solutions with a much larger audience now more than ever before. Think about this example – I send my best friend in New Hampshire a gift certificate for her birthday, she posts it on Facebook; her sister-in-law who lives in Spain, sees the post, and buys a spa package gift certificate for the two of them to use while she is visiting over Christmas. What could be better than free advertising, a returning client and the purchase of a larger Christmas package gift certificate? Facebook makes the connection that easy.

You may not like the idea of Facebook, or use it personally, but don’t you want to reach those potential spa and salon goers who are talking about their next purchase, hair cut or service treatment? And who knows, maybe Kevin Bacon will stop in!

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

The holidays are ripe with new purchasing activity, but your time is running out. Thankfully, we just had a webinar about your strategy to take you through the holidays and use promotions to get YOUR brand front and center with the clients that will appreciate your services.

We discussed 3 easy promotions to increase your last minute holiday sales for the next seven weeks without spending more than 15 minutes to put them in action. Download our presentation, or watch the video and get yourself excited!

Watch the Video: Hot and Fast GCs for the Next 7 Weeks

Download and follow along with our presentation [PDF]

Posted in Holiday Promotion Brief, Spa Gift Certificates, Spa Marketing, SpaBoom Webinars • Comment »

It's the end of September. NOW is the time to perfect your holiday marketing campaign. It might seem soon, but trust us, your clients shop earlier every single year and having your strategy in place as soon as possible will get YOU in front of their shopping list before many of your local competition. Our webinar this week is exactly what you need.

Janell and Dena were rockin' and rollin' on Wednesday, taking a holiday-hungry audience through tips to leverage your online holiday marketing campaigns, resulting in growth potential for the coming year and increased revenue for your salon/spa this holiday season.

If you could not join in for the engaging presentation, just view and download our webinar files on your own schedule — but do it soon!

Watch the Video: Ignite Your Holiday Revenue for 2011

Download and follow along with our presentation [PDF]

Posted in Creating Customers, Holiday Promotion Brief, Social Media, Spa Gift Certificates, Spa Marketing, Spa Search Engine Optimization (SEO), SpaBoom Webinars • Comment »

The Joy of Spa News: The Art of a Cool Summer 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.

Joy of Spa News: The Art of a Cool Summer will launch over a three day period, August 7th-9th, 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 Summer events and cooling, 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 Blogroll, Creating Customers, General, Joy of Spa, Joy of Spa Gift Certificates, Joy of Spa News, Spa Gift Certificates, Spa Marketing • Comment »

Dad's want to spa too, so we created these sweet Instant Gift Certificate designs that are perfect for Father's Day.

While they are available, you'll need to go and unhide them to make sure they show up on your IGC page — we hate to force new GC designs on you, even if we think they are super-cool. These are really fun and we highly recommend that you add them to your IGC page.

Here are the new GCs — we hope you love them as much as we do!

The quickest way to begin showcasing new designs is to apply our default "most popular" in one fell swoop. View them here.

Go into your Setup Tab, then click on GC Designs on the left side of the screen. You'll see your already selected list of thumbnails:

On the left, look for the "Restore Defaults" link, and click on that.

What does "Restore Defaults" mean? It returns GC Designs to the current default settings, replacing any name, category, popularity or hide changes that you've made. Custom designs that you've created will be left untouched. So if you have renamed a design or moved its category or hidden it, that will be undone. Any NEW design of your own is always safe.

Go ahead and click OK on the next screen, and you'll be all set. You will now have a good number of new and snazzy Most Popular designs as well as Graduation and Father's Day.

Posted in Spa Gift Certificates, SpaBoom New Features, Tutorials • 2 Comments »

The Joy of Spa News: Wedding 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!

Joy of Spa News: Wedding Edition will launch over a three day period, June 5-7th, 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.)

We highly recommend creating Wedding and Bridal Events and 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 Gift Certificates, Spa Marketing • 5 Comments »

We've just created a couple of last-minute fantastic new IGC designs for the graduates in your midst.

While they are available, you'll need to go and unhide them to make sure they show up on your IGC page – we hate to force new GC designs on you, even if we think they are super-cool.  These are lovely and we highly recommend taking a peek!

New Instant POPs:

Here are the new GCs, and two ways to get them:

First, go to your Setup Tab, and then choose "GC Designs" from the left.

Option One: If you haven't updated designs in a while, I recommend just getting everything refreshed. On the left, look for the "Restore Defaults" link, and click on that.

This will refresh IGC Designs to the current default settings, replacing any name, category, popularity or hide changes that you've made. Any CUSTOM design of your own is always safe.

Option Two: If you have made a LOT of changes with the base categories, hiding most of the designs or hiding entire categories, you might want a finer control. So just click the "show hidden designs" checkbox at the top of the screen, and then scroll down until you see the new Graduation designs:

Click "show" to unhide them, and you're all set! (While you're in here, take a look at all the other cool hidden GCs you might not have noticed – time for some spring cleaning!)

Posted in Spa Gift Certificates, SpaBoom New Features, Tutorials • Comment »

We have some fantastic design talent at work here and regularly create new designs to keep your Instant Gift Certificate page fresh and gorgeous.

We have been adding new designs in nearly every category for quite some time, including Mother's Day — now is the perfect time to put a fresh face on your Instant Gift Certificate page's look.   However, those designs are not forced upon you — you can choose at any time to update to new designs, and here's how.

The quickest way to begin showcasing those new designs is to apply our default "most popular" in one fell swoop. View them here.

Go into your Setup Tab, then click on GC Designs on the left side of the screen. You'll see your already selected list of thumbnails:

On the left, look for the "Restore Defaults" link, and click on that.

What does "Restore Defaults" mean?  It returns GC Designs to the current default settings, replacing any name, category, popularity or hide changes that you've made. Custom designs that you've created will be left untouched.  So if you have renamed a design or moved its category or hidden it, that will be undone.  Any NEW design of your own is always safe.

Go ahead and click OK on the next screen, and you'll be all set. You will now have a good number of new and snazzy Most Popular designs as well as Graduation, Father's Day, and Mother's Day — perfect for this weekend!

Here's a peek at the Mother's Day IGC category for an org that has just restored defaults:

Hop to it and freshen up your designs — your clients will love them!

Posted in Spa Gift Certificates, Tutorials • Comment »

We've added a series of Events, beginning with Graduation and spanning through Summer; plus five email marketing campaigns, so please take a peek and tailor them to your exact preferences. If you use Events and don't make changes, the Events will automatically appear on your website for the range of dates listed.

As a reminder, the email campaigns are now segmented by spa and salon type to include: Day Spa, Salon and Spa, Massage Therapist, Medical Spa and Aesthetician. It means the emails are now tailored for your business with more exacting language, 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.

Please go and review – and test – the new event campaigns, making sure they look great and have your own look and feel. 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!

Events and Email Campaigns:

• Graduates Prefer Spa (transactional email) 5/15/11
• Celebrate Graduation with an Instant Spa Gift Event: 5/15/11 – 5/30/11
• Wedding Stress Demands a Spa Intervention (relational email) 5/31/11
• Wedding Stress Demands a Spa Intervention Event: 5/31/11 – 6/11/11
• Give Dad Spa Instantly (transactional email) 6/12/11
• Give Dad Spa Instantly Event: 6/12/11 – 6/19/11
• Give the Couple an Instant Gift of Spa (transactional email) 6/20/11
• Wedding Bliss Starts with Spa Event: 6/20/11 – 7/10/11
• Enhance Your Healthy Summer Glow with Spa (Relational email) 7/11/11
• Maintain Your Healthy Summer Glow Event: 7/11/11 – 8/01/11

Posted in Spa Business Management, Spa Gift Certificates, Spa Marketing, Spa Technology • Comment »

And the cool thing is, they're really easy to run! I know this because I set one up for Joy of Spa just last week, and it took less than 10 minutes… for my very first time!

Why you want to run Sweepstakes

Growing a FaceBook fan base is key to a thriving social media campaign, and we really encourage you to work to nurture your social media marketing. After all, it's where a lot of your audience is spending free time, and you need to engage them while they're out there.

You should see a bump in your fans with each sweepstakes. Adjusting your offer from Sweepstakes to Sweepstakes will help you figure out just what triggers your FaceBook audience to join so you can enjoy bigger and bigger increases in your fan base over time.

You can monitor the progress of each Sweepstakes as it's running by going back into Events and clicking on the Sweepstakes currently underway, and at the end the winners' names will also appear on the Sweepstakes record. As of this post, 170 of our fans have entered the Joy of Spa Spring Refresh Sweepstakes, and those entrants have invited 813 friends to join.

How much should you give away?

Offering up a giveaway that will cover a full treatment for spa, salon care, or massage therapy is where you should start. What does that look like for you? A range of between $75 and $100 is what we're seeing our businesses use as they begin adopting Sweepstakes, but the amount is entirely up to you.

We chose to give away a $100 Joy of Spa Gift Certificate this time, and if the winner was invited by another person who entered the Sweepstakes, the person who invited also wins, so in essence we could be giving away 2-$100 Joy of Spa Gift Certificates at the end of the contest.

How hard is it to set up?

If you can set up an Event in SpaBoom, you can set up a Sweepstakes. In fact, Sweepstakes are a type of Event.

You'll need to choose an image to accompany the Sweepstakes, use the Event content field to describe the Sweepstakes compellingly (after all, you want people to participate!), and then you can even send an Email out to your clients letting them know you're running a Sweepstakes.

The new "Add Email" task in Events makes it super easy to create an email campaign, and by default uses the copy you wrote to describe the Sweepstakes in the event, which you can add on to if you wish, or simply let fly verbatim.

Any additional Events you have running can be included in the email, too, so you have an additional opportunity to promote Events underway while you're announcing your current Sweepstakes.

Who gets to use BoomTime Sweepstakes for FaceBook?

If you currently have the SpaBoom Marketing Suite (all Spaboom Dynamic Websites are automatically included), then follow our simple steps to run Sweepstakes.

If you are currently an Instant Gift Certificates client, you will need to upgrade to the SpaBoom Marketing Suite to activate your Sweepstakes functionality. It's easy, and risk-free. Send us an or call us at 800.940.0458. We're here to help!

Posted in General, Social Media, Spa Gift Certificates, Spa Marketing, SpaBoom New Features • 3 Comments »

Thanks to all of you who attended my presentation last week at IECSC New York on the CARD Act and state gift laws.

If you couldn't make it, below is a link to the presentation I prepared, but was unable to use due to audio video problems at the Javits Center (they were not prepared for a Mac!). We also posted a guide to the CARD Act for small businesses. If you have any questions please feel free to call 800-940-0458 to clarify how we handle legal terms on gift certificates.

Gift Card Law Presentation IECSC New York 03/06/11 CARD Act [PDF]

Posted in Spa Business Management, Spa Gift Certificates • Comment »

Spa Emergency! was highlighted as a gift guys can give their ladies for Valentine’s Day on Washington DC’s Let’s Talk Live. DC Thrillist Editor Leo Schmid touts Spa Emergency! as a great last-minute gift idea and notes the extensive list of redeemable partners.

The piece can be found online here. TBD TV’s website receives 660,849 unique visitors each month.

Thanks Thrillist and Let's Talk Live!

Posted in General, Media Coverage, Spa Emergency!, Spa Gift Certificates • Comment »

Spa Emergency! is included in a roundup of gifts for Valentine’s Day on Maxim.com. The piece cites the 3,000+ partners, custom designs, and ease of purchase. Also included is a direct link to www.spaemergency.com.

Maxim.com receives more than 1.4 million unique visitors per month. Please find the coverage here.

Thanks, Maxim!

Posted in General, Spa Emergency!, Spa Gift Certificates • Comment »

Spa Emergency! was included in a segment on CBS Better Mornings Atlanta Tuesday morning, as Atlanta Thrillist Editor Mike Jordan gave Valentine’s Day gift suggestions. Spa Emergency! was recommended for the "last-minute guy," touted for its ease of purchase and robust listing of partners. Mike also gave the link to the site during the segment.

CBS Better Mornings Atlanta had 11,886 viewers that morning. Additionally, the video can be seen online here.

Spa Emergency! is also included on a list of web links mentioned on Better Mornings Atlanta and can be seen here. CBSAtlanta.com receives 174,428 unique visitors each month.

Thank you CBS Better Mornings Atlanta, Thrillist and CBSAtlanta.com!

Posted in General, Spa Emergency! • Comment »

I truly wish this spa and imaging concept had been around when I was pregnant. I hopelessly searched for a massage therapist specializing in pregnancy to find relief from ongoing sciatica. Obviously, there is a clear demand for pregnancy products and services and Becoming Mom Pregnancy Spa and Imaging Center is growing to keep up with the unmet needs of expectant moms.

The spa and imaging center worked with SpaBoom to create a new website for their growing business. The spa has succeeded in building an online social community, their Facebook page is filled with helpful information targeted at pregnancy. Their new website clearly communicates all the great services and products they offer to expectant moms and makes it easy to navigate through all the valuable information. Clients love the new website and the spa is excited about the SpaBoom feature allowing gift givers to pick a gift certificate design and delivery date. It is the perfect online gift solution for pregnant moms.

A very happy client recently exclaimed:

Looking back it is easy to track the journey of pregnancy, but during each stage women are much more focused on the immediate changes that affect the skin and the physical changes that bring on discomfort and exhaustion. The spa is a place pregnant women can address aches with a massage, hormonal changes with a soothing facial and find some relief from discomfort in a relaxing pregnancy focused treatment or beautiful pedicure. During pregnancy, expectant moms can't always see their feet but that doesn't mean they can't look beautiful thanks to a pampering foot treatment at Becoming Mom Spa.

Posted in General, Spa Gift Certificates, Spa Website Design • Comment »

I don't know about you, but have you wondered about some of the emails you receive when you sell an Instant Gift Certificate?  Previously, we've sent a receipt to your email address on file, and also a copy of the exact email sent to the recipient.  If you sell a fair number of IGCs these messages can pile up.   To make your inbox a little bit cleaner and clearer, we've now given you more options for the emails you'll receive when an Instant Gift Certificate is purchased.

These options are toggled in your Basics page, under the Advanced section for Instant Gift Certificates.

• Email me a copy of each GC receipt: Normally, we send you an email with each IGC purchased – this is a happy way to let you know you're getting conversions on your IGC page. But if you get too many of these or check your SpaBoom account often enough that they're not necessary, turn this checkbox off.
• BCC me on GC recipient email: Whether or not you'll receive a masked copy of the email sent to each IGC recipient. So if Joe buys a gift for Sue, you'd get Sue's email exactly as she does. This is OFF by default to keep your emails manageable, but of course you can turn it on at any time.

In addition, we've made the language on the Instant Gift Certificate Order email even clearer, changing the first line of the message to,

…and then listing the To and From as well as the Gift ID.  Simple and easy!

Let us know if you have questions or feedback, and have a wonderful week!

Posted in Spa Gift Certificates, SpaBoom New Features • 2 Comments »

It is extremely satisfying to see our spas and salons succeeding in their marketing and sales efforts. That is why we were all so excited to hear from VIP Salon and Spa owner, Renee Borowy, letting us know she had doubled her holiday Instant Gift Certificate sales after signing up with SpaBoom earlier this year.

VIP Salon and Spa, in Riverview, Michigan, is a nationally recognized salon for nail and hair quality. Their salon is consistently honored for their industry leading service and product offerings. This is not a surprise; Renee is driven to provide the very latest in beauty techniques and products and the staff prides themselves in giving the highest level of customer service. VIP Salon and Spa has continued to grow since they opened in 1986, their full-service salon and spa has over 55 trained staff and employees.

SpaBoom recently upgraded the VIP Salon and Spa website to offer online Instant Gift Certificates, with a goal to give more choices to the salon's online customers. Renee expressed the benefits beautifully:

Renee likes that customers can purchase Instant Gift Certificates for a dollar amount or they can choose specific spa services and specials. It is easy for customers to make a purchase and Renee loves that she doesn’t need to continually contact a website programmer for help. It gives online control back to her business and saves time, an amazing benefit.

We are thrilled that VIP Salon and Spa saw a significant increase in Instant Gift Certificate sales over the holiday. We are confident Renee will use her business savvy to achieve the salon’s best sales growth to date in 2011.

Posted in General, Spa Gift Certificates • Comment »

SpaBoomers have experienced the thrill of a $10 million dollar Instant Gift Certificate holiday. Now, take all that sweat and good fortune and make it continue to work for you in 2011. Leverage those gift sales with an innovative marketing strategy that builds additional revenue from each IGC sale in the coming year.

The Instant Gift Certificates you sold over the holiday are a strategic asset; they hold the power and potential of new, recurring customers, a larger and more valuable opt-in email list, and a wider online social community.

According to givex.com:

Thanks to all the hard work during the holiday season, many SpaBoomers now have 50% more IGC recipients than last year, so make them your targets for repeat customers in 2011.

Engage

Email remains the most efficient, powerful and inexpensive way to deliver your spa message. When an IGC recipient calls to set up an appointment get their email address right away. Give them a gift for opting-in to your email list. Developing a high quality email list is a long-term commitment that will pay off for your business. Email is the perfect medium to begin the conversation with new clients and deliver offers and promotions.

Reward

Create an amazing spa experience and it will engender loyalty, create additional value during that first visit and you set engagement into action. It’s an ideal opportunity to provide an “instant incentive” they will remember long after they leave your spa. As an example, your spa could provide new clients with $10 off their next treatment if they book right away or extend their initial treatment or provide them with a free gift.

Communicate

To enhance your spa’s social influence and reach with new clients, make sure they are aware that the spa is active on Facebook and Twitter. It is the perfect opportunity to increase your fans and followers. Use social media to share valuable content, demonstrate your spa expertise and extend special offers to engage and keep customers coming back. A proactive approach will increase your online social community, website traffic and conversions. Social media can be very effective when used in conjunction with email marketing to increase sales and long-term loyalty.

Want to learn more? Join us January 5th, 2011 for a free webinar where we will outline the 3 most important numbers you will need to drive sales and overall revenue in 2011.

Posted in General, Spa Gift Certificates, Spa Marketing • Comment »