SpaBoom New Features

Must Do: New Mother's Day GC Designs plus Graduation Email Design

May 3rd, 2012 • Posted by Andrea Feucht • Permalink

Today we have two quick and easy ways to entice your clients this spring: new Mother's Day GC designs, and a brand-new email design, just for Graduation season!

First, I have a question for you: when was the last time you looked at your own Instant Gift Certificate page? Go ahead, take a look (even if you regularly switch around your designs). Now, take a look at our demo site, which shows off the latest GC designs from our talented in-house artists: New and Featured Designs

We add new designs all the time, but with Mother's Day coming up, you should freshen up your IGC page for maximum effectiveness. It takes just one action, in your SpaBoom account on the Setup tab.

[Even if you do not want the brand new designs all at once, you already have them in your list! Just click the "show hidden" checkbox on your GCs view and you can select the designs that YOU want to feature.]

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 "Update Designs" link, and click on that.

What does "Update Designs" mean? It gives you all the new and cool designs, replacing any name, category, popularity or hide changes that you've made. Custom designs that you've added 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 heading into the summer!

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

Next, take a peek at this snazzy email template:

This design is all ready to go – just choose it for upcoming emails with a simple Email Marketing action.

Login to your SpaBoom account, and open your Marketing Tab, under Email Marketing, you can create a new email for your clients, or just choose the upcoming campaign called "Spa Makes the Perfect Graduation Gift". Select "Graduation" as your email design and save the campaign. Now, send a test email to yourself, and bask in the happy graduation vibes!

Posted in Spa Gift Certificates, Spa Marketing, SpaBoom New Features, Tutorials1 Comment »

Webinar Available: Thanks for Being a Friend!

April 18th, 2012 • Posted by Andrea Feucht • Permalink

Janell was "rocking the webinah" yet again with a presentation on how to reward your clients with . . . Rewards! This is SpaBoom's newest feature and ready for your use and feedback (see our blog post on how to get it started in mere moments, here: Reward Your Repeat Customers)

Watch the engaging and quick webinar on strategy and how to hit the ground running (the start is even hitting the ground running – sorry for that!), held on April 17th: Thanks For Being a Friend

Download the presentation: Thanks For Being a Friend [PDF] Get Adobe® Reader®

Posted in Creating Customers, Social Media, Spa Business Management, SpaBoom New Features, SpaBoom WebinarsComment »

Reward Those Repeat Customers You Love and Appreciate

April 17th, 2012 • Posted by Andrea Feucht • Permalink

You've worked hard to get clients in your doors – but getting them to come back time and time again seems like the holy grail of service businesses. If you have our "Suite Plus" marketing package, you can offer your customers just one more little perk to help them remember how great your services are and to keep coming back: Rewards!

We just had a Webinar explaining the concept and going into some marketing strategies to use while creating your Rewards Program, but this is a simple "how to get started" – no fuss. (Watch the webinar here, any time – just look for the one called "Thanks For Being a Friend" on 4/17.)

Here's how to create your first Rewards Program:

  1. To enable Rewards, head over to the Marketing Tab and scroll down to the bottom where you see the "Turn On" button under the Rewards Section:

  2. No Rewards button? Nothing on your Marketing Tab? You might need to upgrade your account to include our Plus Marketing Suite to get Rewards and all the super awesomeness we have crafted for your spa management needs.

  3. Or click on Rewards in the side column, then click on "Go":
  4. To view your Reward program, click "Rewards" in the left column on your Marketing tab. You'll see the default rewards program we have set up for you to get started:
  5. To change the name, just edit the field and click "Save" or "Update".
  6. Next, decide how much you'd like to reward your customers and how much you'd like each Reward Point to be worth. For some businesses, equating 10 Reward Points to 1 dollar of value is easy. Your customers will rack up points quickly which makes it almost a game. Then they can redeem their points for Offers or Gift Certificates of your choosing, keeping the cycle of their business with you alive.

Examples of Rewards Program Strategies

  • Let's say you place a huge value on follow-through with referrals. Leave the default points for "Share with a friend" to 0 (that way you will not be rewarding for one of your clients essentially sending out spam to their friends or random email recipients), but then set "Shared friend signup" to a large number – perhaps 100. That means you're effectively granting a $10 gift to your new referred customers – not a bad deal for them and an effective way for you to grow your clientele.
  • On the other hand, what if you really value any current client who would simply recommend a friend of theirs to you – providing an email address – even if the friend never becomes a client? Easy – then just set "Share with a friend" to something other than 0. We recommend setting it to "1″ and keeping the "Shared friend signup" number much higher to give the existing clients a reason to make sure their friend signs up!
  • Rewarding the Services clients: to pamper the clients who purchase Services, set your Points level for the Services purchases to higher than that of dollar GCs or Deals. Easy!
  • Let us know what you think and how you plan to use your Rewards Program to grow your loyalty!

Posted in Spa Marketing, SpaBoom New Features, SpaBoom Webinars, Tutorials4 Comments »

Promote Your Valentine's Day with New Designs: Get Them Today!

January 31st, 2012 • Posted by Andrea Feucht • Permalink

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 EventsComment »

Webinar Downloads: 3 Trends You Can't Afford to Miss

January 23rd, 2012 • Posted by Andrea Feucht • Permalink

Janell showed her fantastic skills as a presenter yet again on the 18th, bringing you up to speed on trends in the market for 2012 that will help boost your bottom line, create new customers, and generally get everyone on YOUR bandwagon.  How can you not love that?

If you couldn't make the webinar, we're sorry to have missed you! But, you can download the presentation and watch the video streaming at your convenience right here. Just block out some time for our next webinar – we always have great Q & A sessions at the end, and a limited-time special that you'll want to know about.

Watch the Video: 3 Trends in 2012 You Can't Afford to Miss

Download and follow along with our presentation [PDF] Get Adobe® Reader®

Posted in Spa Marketing, Spa Technology, SpaBoom Dynamic Websites, SpaBoom New Features, SpaBoom Webinars1 Comment »

New Email and Event Campaigns Await You

September 16th, 2011 • Posted by Spa Kat • Permalink

We've added a series of Events, beginning with Holiday and spanning through Valentine's Day; plus 5 email newsletters to your 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.

Event:

  • Celebrate Spa and Relaxation (Runs 11/28–12/18)
  • Banish Yuletide Stress with Spa (Runs 12/19–12/25)
  • Did You Receive the Gift of Spa? (Runs 12/27–12/31)
  • Love Thyself this Valentine’s Day (Runs 1/16–2/5)
  • Share the Bliss of Spa! (Runs 2/6–2/14)

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

Email Newsletters:

  • Give Instantly this Holiday (Launches 11/28/11)
  • Need a Last Minute Gift Solution? (Launches 12/19/11)
  • Gratitude and Spa for the New Year (Launches 12/27)
  • Give Instant Love this Valentine’s Day (Launches 1/16)
  • A Valentine’s Gift from the Heart (Launches 2/6)

You have the power to edit any Events and Emails we've created from within your SpaBoom account. Simply go to Marketing, Choose Email Marketing or Events from the list on the left side of your screen and edit away!

Note: We always recommend sending a test Email to yourself, even to multiple email accounts, to ensure it looks exactly how you'd like it to look. This gives you an opportunity to make changes to content, graphics, or even the colors if you like, before your clients see it.

As always, if you have questions about any of this, just give us a call and we'll help you out!

Posted in Spa Marketing, SpaBoom New FeaturesComment »

Text Messaging Webinar Files Ready to Download

June 23rd, 2011 • Posted by Andrea Feucht • Permalink

We are so excited that many of you could join us to talk about how to reach your spa or salon clients where they are most accessible — their mobile phones.

Janell and Seth went over how text messaging is one of the quickest ways to encourage action with your existing client base – text messaging directly to your interested clients, right from your SpaBoom account. Not only that, getting the word out to your own employees about last minute scheduling or other important news is a fantastic feature.

If you missed all the fun, just view and download our webinar files and catch up on your own schedule – but do it soon and capture some hot summer interest.

Watch the Video: Text Messaging to Increase the Bottom Line

Download and follow along with our presentation [PDF] Get Adobe® Reader®

Posted in Social Media, SpaBoom New Features, SpaBoom WebinarsComment »

New Email Marketing Designs for Spas

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

Variety is the spice of life. Your spa is unique, so you should have choices in email templates. To give you more selection, our graphic team has delivered a batch of fresh, new email designs to give you an edge. The new designs  highlight your message, include current offers and blog posts to engage your readers and give your spa a polished look. The new templates are clean and sophisticated, perfect for showcasing your brand with a design that fits your aesthetic.

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 these new email designs simply select which email design you'd like to use the next time you create an email campaign, or choose the default which will be used for all of your future emails in the Marketing tab under Marketing Settings. We recommend you choose the design that you love and stick with it – consistency for your clients is a great thing. Here's what the setting looks like:

When you change your settings in Marketing, ALL of your upcoming campaigns will acquire the new look – so your message and branding are consistent, with just one easy step!

So that you can see the subtle variations between all four new designs, here they are as seen from an email client (the iPad, actually), using the same content for each, and labeled with their names:

ORGANIC DESIGN

SIMPLE DESIGN

SLEEK DESIGN

BIG DESIGN

Posted in Spa Marketing, SpaBoom New Features, Tutorials2 Comments »

How to Use Text Messaging — Free Webinar

June 13th, 2011 • Posted by Spa Kat • Permalink

Reach your spa or salon clients where they are most accessible — their smart phones.

Text messaging is one of the quickest ways to encourage action with your existing client base.

Join us as we explore the best uses of text messaging for your salon or spa business to enhance relationships and fill those last minute appointments.

Text Messaging to Increase the Bottom Line — Free Webinar

Reserve your Webinar Seat Now!

Title: Text Messaging to Increase the Bottom Line — Free Webinar
Date: Wednesday, June 22nd, 2011
Time: 1:00 PM — 2:00 PM EDT

Posted in General, SpaBoom New Features, SpaBoom WebinarsComment »

Video Tutorial: Spa Sweepstakes for Facebook

June 6th, 2011 • Posted by Stephany Toman • Permalink

Everything you need to know in 2 ½ minutes

SpaBoom's Client Services group enjoys nothing more than walking our clients through various features so they can get the absolute most out of SpaBoom. A great call is one that ends in a client saying, "Thanks! I've got it! I'm all set and ready to promote that new service. Appreciate your help!"

We also work hard on our Help files, so you can find what you need there, too. We want you to have not only access to tools that help you effectively market your business online, but also guidance to use those tools to their fullest.

Now we're creating Video Tutorials for those of us who like being walked through a feature, regardless of whether we're at our desk at work or at home late at night in our 'jammies preparing for the next day!

Our first video, Sweepstakes on Facebook for Spas, takes you through the super straightforward steps in setting up a Sweepstakes for your spa, salon or massage therapy practice in just 2 ½ minutes.

We've also added a complete description of Spa Sweepstakes for Facebook on the SpaBoom website, complete with this video, for your reference.

Give the video a watch, and tell us what you think! We're producing more as we speak, and will let you know as they're ready for prime time.

Posted in Social Media, Spa Marketing, Spa Technology, SpaBoom New Features7 Comments »

New Father's Day IGC Designs for our Spas

May 26th, 2011 • Posted by Spa Kat • Permalink

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, Tutorials2 Comments »

Graduation GC Designs and Instant POP for you!

May 12th, 2011 • Posted by Andrea Feucht • Permalink

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, TutorialsComment »

How to Grow Your Facebook Fan Base

April 8th, 2011 • Posted by Stephany Toman • Permalink

BoomTime Sweepstakes for Facebook, of course!

Now that social media has become a key component of online marketing campaigns, you're asking us at every turn how to grow your Facbook fan base. We hear it during webinars, in emails, via phone calls to our team – you're focusing on the right thing and we can help you out!

First a follow-up on my last post, where we were running a Sweepstakes for Joy of Spa. We ended up with 208 entries, and 962 fan invites. The person who won hadn't been invited, just entered the Sweepstakes on her own, so we ended up giving away one $100 Joy of Spa Gift Certificate. Had she been invited, the person who invited her would have also won, and we'd have given away two.

SpaBoom clients who have run Sweepstakes have all grown their fan bases. The Wellness Spa in Kelowna, BC went from 38 to 84 fans. Bodyworks Massage in Vernon, CT, went from 34 to 82. Spa Constantine in Downers Grove, IL, whose Sweepstakes ends later today, has gone from 439 to 529, and with luck will increase by a magic 100 before it's all over.

Relative increases differ, of course, based on your beginning fan base number. Doubling is awesome, particularly when you're just beginning to build it. Increasing by 25% is also great, especially when your beginning number is much higher.

How to encourage people to enter your Sweepstakes

Ask yourself what your most popular service is at the moment. Then offer that up, maybe with a small lovely add on, like a massage oil takeaway, or a neck massage with a salon service, or something that sweetens what you know is a well-loved service already.

Really, it's always ok to just ask yourself, 'What would make me enter a sweepstakes?', then trust your gut reaction. You already know what works!

Since you'll want to run a series of Sweepstakes to continue to grow your Facebook fan base over time, pay close attention to what's popular at any given moment and use that to design subsequent Sweepstakes offers. Being current really matters, and really works, and the good news is you'll always know exactly what's making your spa, salon or massage therapy clientele happy at any given point, so there's no guessing involved.

Not that we're against guessing, but you can save a lot of time and energy using what's already working, right?

Posted in General, Social Media, Spa Marketing, SpaBoom New Features15 Comments »

Mother's Day Sales Webinar – Downloads Ready for You!

April 7th, 2011 • Posted by Andrea Feucht • Permalink

Thank you if you joined us today as we gave you the winning Mother's Day strategy to maximize revenue and swoop-in to capture the flurry of last minute online Instant Gift Certificate sales. We hope it was a fabulous webinar full of useful information for your business strategy. If you could NOT make it, don't despair – we have love to go around, in the form of video and slideshow.

You won't hear the Q & A at the end, but feel free to call us and one of our folks can handle your questions from the nuts and bolts to "I am not a client yet but want to be". We love those calls! (It is 800-940-0458, if you've forgotten.)

Watch the Video: Increase Your Mother's Day Sales in 2011

Download and follow along with our presentation [PDF] Get Adobe® Reader®

Posted in Spa Business Management, Spa Marketing, SpaBoom New Features, SpaBoom Webinars1 Comment »

Grow your fan base with BoomTime Sweepstakes for FaceBook!

April 1st, 2011 • Posted by Stephany Toman • Permalink

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 Features3 Comments »

Ready to Run Your Own Group Deal?
Download Our Webinar!

March 3rd, 2011 • Posted by Andrea Feucht • Permalink

If you attended our webinar today on group-based deals, thank you!

If you couldn't make it, you really should try to attend the next – Seth and Janell are usually a lively duo, leading through the presentation with tons more info than you'll see on the slides. But, you can relive the magic by viewing our slideshow or watching the video of the webinar that we recorded live. You won't hear the Q & A at the end, but feel free to call us and one of our group deal experts can handle your questions from the nuts and bolts to "I am not a client yet but want to be". We love those calls! (It is 800-940-0458, if you've forgotten.)

Watch the Video: Ready To Run Your Own Group Deal?

Download and follow along with our presentation [PDF] Get Adobe® Reader®

Posted in Group Deals, Spa Marketing, SpaBoom New Features, SpaBoom Webinars2 Comments »

Be My Valentine: Signup Card With Phone & Address

February 4th, 2011 • Posted by Andrea Feucht • Permalink

You asked, we listened – we've added a new Signup card design to your list of Collateral in Marketing.  By the time you read this post, it will already be there – head over to your Marketing Tab and click Collateral to see all available designs.  If it's not there, just click on "Update Collateral" on the left and you'll get a fresh download of our default pieces.

We added your spa's name to the sub-header, as well as your name, phone number, website, and address at the bottom!

The new name of the card, so you can spot it, is "Be My Valentine Signup with Phone/Addr".  We've left the old one, just in case you'd like to use it anyway.

Have a wonderful Valentine week and keep promoting yourselves!

Posted in Creating Customers, Spa Marketing, SpaBoom New Features4 Comments »

2011 Website Design Trends

January 28th, 2011 • Posted by Spa Kat • Permalink

Narcissus, famous for his splendor, was an extraordinarily vain man. In mythology he is punished by falling in love with his own reflection. Unable to be away from his beauty, he withered and died. This is a perfect metaphor for what to avoid in modern website design. The current trend is to create clean, engaging designs focused on the end-user's experience rather than a reflection of one's own image.

End-user is tech-speak for all current and potential online spa clients. New trends are about designing a website that is attractive and useful for them. Today's end-users won’t bother to sit through your video, splash page or other fluff. They will just hit the back button and click to the next spa website that gives them the information they are looking for. It’s that simple. If your website doesn’t engage or captivate within 10 seconds, you will lose them forever. It is not personal, they just move on.

Below are several websites that demonstrate the latest trends in website design. They use images to engage the end-user's attention and provide key information intuitively.

Big, Bold Photos

Using big photos in the main content area of the homepage creates a strong impression and quickly draws the end-user's attention. It is critical that the photo tie-in seamlessly with the content and is stylized for maximum impact.

Streamlined and Intuitive Design

Website designers are trending toward simple, easy to navigate websites that don't throw everything at the end-user all at once. Simple navigation is extremely important.


The all important first impression should tell the end-user that they are in the right place, and guide them quickly to the information or action they need.

Bigger fonts and Strategic Spacing

It is true that people are tired of straining to see dense blocks of text but you don’t want to design a spa website exclusively for aging baby boomers either.

Bigger fonts should be used only when it enhances the end user experience, like headers and sub-headers for instance. But with website content, 12-14px is still the appropriate standard.

More spacing between paragraph lines is also a trend that can give a website a cleaner look and feel. In addition, adjusting line-height helps give copy some breathing room and eases the strain on the eyes.

Typography

The boundaries within topography are widening, allowing for innovative web design and development. This trend will continue to grow and evolve. Just keep in mind, bad typography ruins good web design and it distracts the end-user.

Simple color schemes

New color trends center around the concept of using just a few colors for a super clean and modern website design. Busy, multi-colored websites strain the eyes and distract spa visitors from reading your content. Loud website design like centered format text, assorted text sizes that rule-out established text hierarchy disorganizes and diminishes the end-user experience.

Movement without Flash
Flash, distracts users from a websites core content, and introduces a myriad of design problems. While there are a few occasions where flash is acceptable, and can even add value, typically the use of Flash makes websites harder to use. –Josh Walsh, Designing Interactive

There is still a way to get movement without using flash. SpaBoom website designers incorporate these methods to create rotating images that engage the online consumer. Click on the website below to see Lumiere Resort's rotating photos on their website.

Effective, search engine friendly websites get noticed, attract visitors and turns them into new clients. Synchronizing website navigation with a more stylized look will deliver a seamless and positive interaction with your clients.

Posted in General, Spa Website Design, SpaBoom New Features1 Comment »

Control Your IGC Emails — New Feature

January 10th, 2011 • Posted by Andrea Feucht • Permalink

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,

You just sold an Instant Gift Certificate!

…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 Features2 Comments »

Newsflash: SpaBoomers' Regular IGC Commission Rate Now Applies to Spa Emergency! and Joy of Spa Directory GC Sales

December 2nd, 2010 • Posted by Stephany Toman • Permalink

Why have we decided to reduce your commissions on directory-originated online gift certificate sales?

Sometimes making life simpler for everyone makes good sense, and this is one of those times.

So your regular commission rate applies on all of your individual spa gift certificate sales that come to you from Spa Emergency! and Joy of Spa directories, period.

Note: If you've opted not to be on our national directory sites, now would be a great time to opt in! Learn MORE.

Holiday presents come in many forms, yes?

Happy Holidays from SpaBoom!

Posted in General, Joy of Spa, Spa Gift Certificates, SpaBoom New Features2 Comments »