As the socialite-turned-porn-star-turned-reality-star Kim Kardashian debacle interrupts our every waking hour and we endure each pundit’s predictable shots at the spectacle, can we at least use it to gain some branding wisdom?

No matter the justification for keeping wedding presents and the bling ring, we just aren’t buying what she is selling anymore. Watching the K machine's damage control is insulting because it's very clear they believe that we believe their own PR. That is dangerous for any brand, celebrity or spa.

I believe that Kim’s (since millions have all seen her naked we are on a first name basis) train-wreck brand failure in real-time can provide your business with key knowledge you can use to make your spa brand stronger and well, more classy.

So, what can we learn from the Kim spectacle? Well you have to dig deep down to the core tenants of branding to see there’s a rich reservoir of wisdom to take from her disaster and apply to your brand marketing.

Manage your brand.

Exposure matters. Kim built her brand by exposing the personal and sensational parts of her life. It went viral because (like a train wreck) few can resist watching a spoiled socialite sleep and party her way though the shallow trough of celebrity society. Just like Kim (but probably on a smaller scale) consumers are out there talking about your spa or salon and you need to monitor the conversation, better yet, get in the middle of it. Your brand is what they say about you, not what you say about yourself.

Kim’s surprise at the backlash is unbelievable. She earned the disdain she is getting and she needs to accept that even fans who follow her for leaking a sex tape and fighting with her family are still insulted that her wedding was really a pay-per-view peep show. She needs to stand up, take responsibility, and do the right thing. It will go far to begin the healing process and help salvage her bruised reputation.

That also goes for negative online reviews of your spa. If someone is so angry they are willing to take the time to leave a negative review, it begs for management to address it head on. A negative review can provide rich insight if you are willing to see through the anger to gain awareness of a problem. It might mean stepping up, taking responsibility for sub-par service and rectifying the situation. It means taking your punishment and leading by example.

Keep it simple.

Extraordinary, over-the-top spectacles just make consumers wonder what’s hiding underneath all that fluff. The best spa experiences are those that stem from businesses and employees who are passionate about what they do every day. Keeping it simple and letting your enthusiasm speak for itself will keep your brand strong long-term.

Be transparent.

Consumers are savvy enough to see through a brand singularly focused on money and revenue. That mentality shows itself in a million little things that add up to a mediocre spa experience. Instead, local spas that strive to give clients the best service and spa experience available will always win over stuffy, rude and expensive. Being honest and straightforward in your business breeds strong loyalty and client ambassadors for your spa brand.

This kind of break-up behavior obviously struck a vein of contempt among the American public because it was so blatant in its unethical and low behavior. Kim's brand is spoiled sleaze. Her latest stunt took her into the sphere of professional wrestling — wedding for profit and a focus group cast groom.

So take what you can from this contrived publicity stunt and remember that it's your passion for what you do every day in your spa that shines brightly and heightens your brand in the local community.

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]

Need some effective and engaging social media tips to quickly incorporate into your holiday marketing plans?

Blue Glass blogger, Kerry Jones, offers up 60 creative social media tips that will help you connect and share your unique brand of spa or salon this holiday season. Some of her tips are more applicable to spas and salons than others but her blog post will get you thinking about new ways to add social media to your existing marketing strategy today and throughout 2012.

SpaBoomer's have access to powerful tools to promote great deals so think about running a BoomTime Deal during the holiday. It's easy to set-up and will get your clients excited about your holiday promotions.

A holiday Facebook Sweepstakes takes about 5 minutes to set-up and allows your spa or salon to gather new Facebook fans in a short amount of time. It's viral in nature; the sweepstakes application creates an incentive for existing fans to invite new people to increase the chances of winning. A more robust fan base means more people get your Facebook posts on their news feed during the holiday. In addition, when someone enters your sweepstakes they provide an email address and can give permission for your spa or salon to market to them. Those new email addresses go directly into your SpaBoom account. That means a new set of customers will see your holiday promotional email campaigns.

Use Facebook and Twitter to promote your spa or salon as a gift-solution center. You can promote treatments, product/service packages and create the awareness that your business offers a last-minute gift solution with Instant Gift Certificates.

Or maybe we should just say, "Let the real you shine through!"

More and more businesses are hiring out their social media management, often with mediocre or just plain dismal results.

Why doesn't hiring a 'pro' for this work?

Your social media audience, particularly your Facebook friends, want your thoughts, your expertise, your style, your viewpoint out there, not some canned copy that's being used repeatedly and which means, well, certainly less than what you have to say.

SpaBoom takes all the pain out of keeping it real out on Facebook-your posts are created automatically, and reflect exactly what you are featuring and promoting at any given time, so it's always all about your newest news.

3 Social Media Blunders To Learn From, on OpenForum.com, elaborates in Blunder 2:

So put the "real" you out there or you may find your following shrinks, rather than expands like you'd like.

It'll be time well spent.

Imagine if you installed a phone in your place of business and invited people to get in touch with you that way. Your phone number is easily found on the internet and anyone could call. And then… you pick up the phone about one in every 20 times it rings. Crazy, right?

This is what a new survey found on Facebook business pages – 95% of posts to business Facebook Pages go completely unanswered. Wow.

Some industries are better than others (telecommunications companies tended to be at the top and they're still just 25%!). Overall, it's pretty bleak. Luckily, it is not hard to fix.

There are clearly easy ways to build your customer relationships, and social media is one of the easiest. But you DO have to pay attention. Set up a notification so that you receive a text or an email when someone posts to your Wall. If the sheer volume would overwhelm your SMS plan, you might have other issues in managing your business. A couple per day or week isn't going to put much dent in your phone usage or even your free time.

Even when someone just posts a "thank you!", or a "I love this spa!" — give them feedback.  Acknowledge and thank them for reaching out.  For actual questions or concerns, handle those as needed.  Address posts as soon as possible — by the end of the business day is best.  Keep a good track record and your clients will be singing your praises — even more than they already do.

The holidays are ripe with sales opportunity, but time is limited during this hectic season.

Join us as we discuss 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.

Reserve your Webinar Seat Now!

Title: Got Sales? Hot and Fast GC's For 7 Weeks – Webinar
Date: Tuesday, November 1st, 2011
Time: 1:00 PM – 2:00 PM EDT

Fusion Aveda Salon and Spa is located in Port Saint Lucie, Florida. They have created a beautiful setting for their full-service spa, with a spa lounge and their quiet and tranquil treatment rooms.

Fusion's spa menu is rich with signature treatments including skin resurfacing facial treatments, exotic body scrubs, chakra balancing massages and exhilarating facials. The staff at Fusion Aveda Salon and Spa is extremely knowledgeable about new Aveda products and their spa services.

Fusion's new website takes their business to the next level with a homepage that is uncluttered, easy to navigate and sophisticated to meet the needs of their customers. The new website makes it simple for clients to purchase Instant Gift Certificates, book appointments online and follow their business on Facebook and Twitter.

Fusion has added a short video to their homepage, an important source of information for potential customers and a valuable marketing and SEO tool for all local spas and salons. Businesses are using video to educate and provide service demonstrations, which can increase conversions and take relevance to the next level with information that written content can't convey.

Fusion's new website raises the bar for other spas and salons in their geographical area and it will help Fusion generate more traffic online. Now it's so easy for visitors to see the menu and choose from their great selection of spa and salon services.

This is a beautiful and elegant website that will help Fusion Aveda Salon and Spa build online traffic and increase revenue for their business. They can easily make changes to the website and consistently keep content fresh to improve their SEO rank.

Did you know there is less than a month until holiday shopping begins in earnest? Last month we gave you strategies on how to perfect your holiday marketing campaign. First, watch our webinar from last month and get caught up, then check in on our latest webinar – how to put it all together.

Yesterday, Janell and Dena took the tips to the next level – how to maximize and follow through on your online holiday marketing campaigns. We used the word "execute" for a reason – you will be the killer present under the tree for your clients this holiday season – just make sure they know it and keep coming back to everything that you offer.

If you could not be with us, just view and download our webinar files on your own schedule — but do it soon!

Watch the Video: Execute Your 2011 Holiday Campaigns

Download and follow along with our presentation [PDF]

Harvard Business School has released a new study finding that increasing your Yelp rating one star can boost revenue by 5-9% annually. The study also revealed that this was true for independent businesses in particular because consumer reviews have increasingly become substitutes for the supposed reliability and constancy of the chains. Consumers increasingly use review websites to determine the quality of your business long before they ever walk in your door.

In addition, the Harvard study also revealed that Yelp provides more comprehensive reviews than comparable sites. The researchers used government data, tracking revenue of Seattle restaurants between 2003 and 2009. They found that Zagat and the Seattle Times each had reviews for only 5% of all local Seattle restaurants while Yelp’s consumer rating penetration was 69% for the same geographical area.

But, doing a Groupon actually has the opposite effect, a recent study has shown that it can actually diminish your Yelp rating. This is just one more reason not to do a Groupon.

Key Takeaways For Your Business:

• Your Yelp rating has a big impact on your bottom line.
• Maintaining healthy consumer reviews has never been more important.
• Groupon can reduce your Yelp rating and have a negative impact on your business.
• If Yelp has a strong standing in a market, it will swing revenue away from chains and toward independent restaurants.

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]

Unless you have done your homework, your credit card processor starts making more money on you this Saturday morning. On the first of next month, the Durban Amendment to the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010 will go into effect.

In a nutshell, the law caps the fees that card networks like Visa and Mastercard can charge for debit card transactions. The intent is to benefit consumers and small businesses. However, one tiny little problem is that merchants don’t buy processing from Visa; they buy processing from "acquirers." So, on October 1st (Saturday) your acquirer's cost to process debit cards will drop like a rock, but the amount they charge you will very likely stay the same.

Since the average salon or spa does 45% of their card transactions as debit, the change is likely to be substantial.

What to do? Make sure that whomever processes your credit cards is charging you "interchange plus" pricing rather than "tiered" pricing. If your transactions are processed as "qualified", "mid-qualified" or "non-qualified" you are a great candidate to either save a lot of money or become a very profitable customer for your processor.

If you need some help figuring it out please give us a call. We will be happy to take a look at your statements and point you in the direction of a processor who will save you a lot of cash.

Huzzah! If you had to suspend a Sweepstakes, please contact support to start it up again. If you weren't running a Sweepstakes — well, why not? Now is a good time to start one.

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

How quickly the heat of summer wanes and Fall's cool breezes arrive. As the seasons shift, we should take time to assess, and to embrace what we've been given. We're rich beyond measure, but often become too wrapped up in the day-to-day to fully appreciate our gifts. Stop, breathe deeply, and look around you. We'll bet you'll be overwhelmed in a most amazing way by what life has brought you. Happy Fall from Team Joy!

This edition will launch over a three day period, October 2nd-4th, 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 Fall events and relaxing, soothing, service packages to accompany this edition of Joy of Spa News. Helping people choose a great spa gift package for the occasion provides them a perfect gift solution while increasing the average amount of the gift certificates — a win win!

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

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

Well, Facebook hasn't fixed the bug that caused our Sweepstakes app to stop working, so we've been busy totally re-writing the app. We're testing now and expect the fix to be available soon.

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!

Chirugy Massage has created a relaxing spa environment, focused on health and whole body wellness. Their facility promises a private and quiet spa experience for clients seeking a much-needed reconnection to mind and body. They specialize in therapeutic pain management, holistic treatments and stress relief.

A new spa or salon website elevates your local brand, so building one that creates a strong association with your physical business and that attracts more visitors by standing out amongst competitor's websites is critical.

Spas like Chirugy, that embrace holistic health and wellness can effectively and subtlety communicate their unique brand and build a website that fits their business perfectly.

One philosophical tenant of Chirugy Massage is creating a practice that embraces whole body wellness, allowing the body to heal itself naturally and addressing the body as a whole unit that works toward the single purpose of life. It makes sense that their website should work pretty much the same way.

Color branding guru, Susan Gunelius, says this about using Yellow as a major color in a website:

After SpaBoom's initial website launch call with Chirugy Massage on January 1st, our implementation team was able to build and take their website live on January 25th. Chirugy Massage had a beautiful new website and integrated online marketing platform in less than a month.

Chirugy Massage is also taking advantage of SpaBoom's online marketing platform by using our built-in, customizable email campaigns that integrate Chirugy's current specials and events within the email. They repurposed the email content and posted it on Facebook. They used social media to extend that campaign to remind fans about their current treatment specials and in-spa events.

This is a great explanation of why we do what we do when we build a Dynamic Spa Website. Then, when you build new pages on your website, keeping the "search engine recipe" in mind will help you build better content that attracts more visitors from natural search traffic.

Seth and Dena were the dynamic duo on Tuesday, taking a rapt audience through the often complicated world of merchant accounts and credit card processing. Basis points, default rates, rewards cards, oh my! We hope to have simplified much of the jargon and allowed you to take a fresh look at your monthly statement, and decide what to do next to benefit your business.

The nutshell? Most businesses (including yours) could be paying less, but it often takes a ton of hard work and negotiations.

If you could not join in for the fascinating presentation, just view and download our webinar files and catch up on your own schedule – and then take action to help your bottom line.

Watch the Video: What Credit Card Processors Don't Want You To Know

Download and follow along with our presentation [PDF]

According to Launch Media, a study by computer scientists from Harvard and Boston University reveals that businesses running a Groupon or Living Social deal can expect a 10% decrease in their Yelp star rating.

The study beautifully illustrates what happens when businesses compete purely on price. Daily deals often result in unique, price conscious consumers who are less loyal and inconsistent. They are also more likely to give your business a lower rating. Ironically, Groupon won't work with many businesses until they have established hard earned reviews on sites like Yelp. It's a parasitic relationship that uses your online reputation to sell their coupons.

Daily deal sites might need to tone down their claims that these offers will help "jump start" a business because the deals deliver consumers who are less interested in a businesses and more focused on the price they'll receive for a specific product or service.

As we've said many times, these consumers get your deal one day and the next they'll be pitched a local competitor's offer. Add to it, newer businesses have fewer Yelp reviews so running a daily deal would likely skew their rating down farther than an established business. It's just not a great way to get valuable customers through the door.