Even before the global COVID-19 pandemic situation, marketing and promoting a spa business was already quite challenging: the industry is saturated, so you’ll need to compete with numerous other spa businesses, and what’s worse, everyone is seemingly using the same marketing tactics and channels.

Yet, it’s no secret that the post-pandemic “new normal” situation has also forced many businesses, including spa businesses, to rethink their marketing and promotion approach.

There is no shortage of marketing channels and tactics to choose from when it comes to promoting your spa business, from traditional ones like brochures, posters, and magazine ads, to digital channels like social media promotions, SEO, email marketing, and video marketing, among others. Yet, the challenge is how you can choose the right channels and mix-and-match your efforts according to your spa business’s needs and your target audience’s preferences.

Thinking about using new and effective ways to promote your spa marketing business but don’t know where to start? You’ve come to the right place.

In this guide, we will discuss 7 of the most effective marketing ideas you can use for your spa business, why they are effective, and how to implement them in your business for success.

Let us begin this guide by discussing the basics of marketing a spa as a service business.

Basics of Spa Marketing

A spa business, by nature, is a service business. While you may sell complementary products as part of your business, your spa services are your business’s main course.

The thing about marketing services is that they are intangible, and it could be difficult for customers (or clients) to weigh the value of your services unless you effectively elaborate your value and can prove your service’s quality to your audience.

With that being said, the ultimate objective of spa marketing is to build credibility and establish trust. Your marketing efforts should be focused on how to convince your prospective clients that your service can answer the problems they are facing and is of value.

So, how can you establish credibility as a spa business? There are five key marketing pillars you should take into consideration when planning a spa marketing campaign.

Five Pillars of Successful Spa Marketing

1. Strong Branding

There may be numerous other spa businesses in your area, so how can your prospective clients choose yours if they can’t even remember your business name?

Remember that as a service business, you are literally selling the brand, so it’s very important to ensure your brand is always in its best shape.

Spa branding, however, can be quite complex and will involve various different elements: brand name, logo, color selection, and even decoration. You might want to check out this guide on spa branding that may help you in this purpose.

Here are some actionable tips you can use when developing a strong brand for your spa business:

• Consistency is key when it comes to strong branding. All the visual elements of your spa (logo, color selections, furniture choices, decorations, etc.) should always be consistent wherever they are seen by your audience, from your website to social media posts to posters and brochures.
• Make sure your spa business name is easy to remember and easy to pronounce while being something unique that communicates what your business’s distinct quality and value are.
• Design your logo based on your prospective clients’ preferences. The better you understand your target audience: demographics data, behaviors, pain points, interests, etc., the better you can create a logo that resonates with your target audience.
• Make sure your brand colors are also relevant and effective in expressing your brand’s message.

Again, consistency is key. Make sure all your marketing and promotion campaigns align with the brand identity you’ve developed.

2. Social Media Presence

In this digital age where everyone is on social media, it would only make sense to promote your spa business on social media networks your prospective clients frequent.

The thing is, every one of your competitors will also think the same, and getting your spa business noticed amidst all the noises can be easier said than done.

Creativity is key, and effective social media marketing is essentially about finding the right balance between three different marketing options on social media:

• Organic social media marketing: this is about building your own followers on your social media networks and engaging them with your content. Organic social media marketing is cost-effective (and can be totally free), but it will take some time before it can generate the results you desire.
• Paid social media marketing: utilizing paid advertising options offered by the social media networks (i.e., Facebook Ads, Instagram Ads). With these paid options, you are virtually guaranteed quick results, but obviously, they can be very expensive.
• Influencer marketing: this is about partnering with relevant influencers in your area so they can help promote your spa business to their followers.

Finding the right balance between these three options is essentially about time VS cost: how much budget you have available and how fast you’d like your social media campaigns to generate results.

3. Well-Designed Website

As a spa business, you should treat your business website as your online business card and portfolio. It is often going to be the first impression of your business for your prospective clients and is really important if you’d want to establish credibility.

And, even if you’ve already built a strong social media presence, remember that your social media handles are not direct replacements for a professional-looking and functional website.

Fortunately, with services like Wix or Squarespace, it’s now very easy and affordable to build your own well-designed website. And, if you have the programming know-how and would like more versatility, there’s also the handy and free WordPress with a professional scheduling WordPress plugin.

Your spa business website is an essential marketing pillar because:

• It is the most effective tool for establishing credibility. When prospective clients see and experience your professional-looking and reliable website, they’ll also see your business as reliable.
• By nature, your website is a great branding platform where you can display your logo, use your brand colors, and display photos of your spa facility.
• With SEO, you can turn your website into a tool for generating and converting leads.
• It can act as a centralized, all-in-one hub for all kinds of information about your business: the services you are offering, different prices, your best therapists, who are available, and so on.
• You can provide online booking functionality on your website by integrating appointment scheduling software like Bookeo. Using an online spa booking system is the best way for potential clients to schedule an appointment rather than the traditional phone-based booking.

4. Google Maps Presence

In today’s post-pandemic age, there are two main ways people learn about local businesses, including spas: via social media posts (including YouTube videos), and via Google search for queries like “spa in my area”, “spa near me,” “spa in (city name),” and similar queries.

However, it’s worth considering that for these “local” queries, Google will display results from Google Maps above the organic search results. There’s no surprise that businesses featured on the top Google Maps results in their respective location will get a steady influx of clients.

With that being said, you’d want to make sure you’ve claimed your spa business listing on Google My Business and implement local SEO to optimize this listing.

While the idea of implementing local SEO (or Google Maps SEO) to your spa business might seem scary at first, there are actually only four basic steps in implementing local SEO:

1. Claim and verify your spa listing on Google My Business.
2. Optimize your listing. Focus on providing complete and accurate information. You can optimize for keywords but include the keywords naturally. Include well-taken and optimized photos and videos of your spa and/or the services you are offering.
3. Build local citations by listing your spa business on online directories for salons and for your location/city.
4. Get more (positive) reviews from your existing customers, especially on your Google Maps listing, but also on other relevant sites and platforms for service businesses.

Do these consistently, and you’ll slowly climb the Google Maps ranking.

5. Email Marketing

Marketing your spa business is not solely about acquiring new clients, but retaining existing clients and encouraging them to keep coming back is also equally, if not even more important.

With that being said, email marketing remains very important and powerful when it comes to nurturing existing clients so they can keep coming back to your spa.

You can, for example, send a personalized email newsletter to clients who didn’t visit your spa in two months after their previous visit. Nowadays, numerous email marketing solutions are available that can help you easily and quickly send personalized and automated emails.

Also, don’t solely focus on promoting your services on your emails, or else your prospective clients may get annoyed and flag your email as spam (or worse, unsubscribe from your list). Instead, publish content that is also informative and engaging, for example, publishing a free Yoga/stretching class, tips, behind-the-scenes content, and more.

Effective and Creative Marketing Ideas for Your Spa Business

After you’ve established the five pillars of spa marketing we’ve discussed above, you can then amplify your marketing strategy with the following marketing ideas:

1. Creative Social Media marketing

As discussed above, building a strong presence in relevant social media networks is now a must if you really want to attract new customers to your spa.

Use well-taken photos and videos to showcase your spa and the services you are offering, which is especially effective on Instagram and YouTube.

For example, post a video about a client’s massage session on your social media (with their permission, of course). You can offer clients a discount in exchange for their therapy session being shared on social media.

Also, with the rise in popularity of YouTube Shorts and Instagram Stories, you can post interesting short videos to generate brand awareness, like funny interactions between your therapists and clients.

Be creative, and if possible, play along with the current trends when posting your social media content.

2. Interesting Discounts

Just because special offers and discounts are a classic marketing strategy doesn’t mean they won’t be effective. Offering limited-time offers and discounts can definitely work, as long as you do it right.

The key here is to offer something that is perceived as valuable by your clients. However, you’d also want to strategically use your discounts and offers to maximize profitability.

For example, you might want to offer discounts during the time when traffic is low (happy hour). Another effective way to attract new clients is by offering group discounts (or referral discounts) to encourage your existing clients to bring their family and friends to your spa.

Also, limited-time offers can be effective in enticing a sense of urgency, which can help in converting those who are already interested but still not sure about your service.

3. Customer Loyalty Program

It’s crucial to remember that spa marketing isn’t solely about attracting new clients but also retaining existing clients and encouraging them to keep coming back.

In fact, retaining existing clients can often be more profitable and cost-effective than new client acquisition.

This is where having a well-planned customer loyalty program can help you in maximizing customer retention. It doesn’t have to be overly complicated; for example, offering a free spa session after ten different transactions can already be quite attractive.

4. Build Relationships With Local Businesses

As a local business, you’ll still need to locally promote your spa business despite all the digital marketing efforts we’ve discussed above.

Build lasting partnerships with local businesses so you can offer cross-promotions. For instance, you can partner with a local gym nearby so that the members of the gym can get a special discount on your spa. And vice versa, you can offer your clients discounts for membership on this gym.

Consider joining local expos and trade shows, as they can be great opportunities to find potential partners, as well as make yourself known to potential clients.

Engaging your local community can provide so many different benefits for your spa business.

5. Referral Marketing

The most successful form of marketing is when your satisfied customers are converted into advocates that recommend your business to their peers, friends, and family.

Referral marketing is essentially designed to create artificial advocacy: we offer incentives in the form of commissions to existing clients or even those who haven’t used your service to promote your salon to their friends and family.

Group discounts (i.e., offering a 10% discount for those that bring their friend to your spa) can be a form of referral marketing, but you can take it a notch further and create a more “complete” referral marketing campaign.

6. Influencer Marketing for Spa Businesses

As with many other businesses today, influencer marketing can be very effective in promoting spa businesses to attract more clients and generate more appointments for your spa.

Finding the right influencer with a similar audience base to your spa’s ideal clients is key. You’d want to make sure the influencer has real followers and make sure they consistently post high-quality content (photos and videos).

7. Host Events

Hosting and/or attending events can be a great way to attract prospective clients while at the same time can also help your spa business in meeting potential partners who may be willing to send their clients your way.

It doesn’t have to be overly complex. You can, for example, support a local charity and give free massages to people who pledge their donation.

You can also be creative and host your own event, like a cocktail party (with free facials or massages).

Wrapping Up

While marketing your spa business can be quite challenging, by following the seven creative marketing campaigns we have shared above, you can develop a comprehensive marketing strategy that you can use to promote your spa business right away.

We have also discussed the most important marketing pillars you should focus on, both for attracting new clients and retaining existing ones.

Keep in mind, however, that you don’t need to do everything at once. You can start little by little, monitor your progress, make adjustments, and add new campaigns when needed.