A strong marketing strategy is the key to success for any business. In the spa industry, repeat clients bring in significantly more revenue than first-time clients, but new customers can only become repeat clients if you get them through the door. Social media marketing is a great way to reach your target audience and organically promote your business without overwhelming your current client base.
The benefit of social media marketing is that you have the freedom to post pictures, publish content, and run promotions all at the touch of a button. Here are the 11 best ways to promote your spa to bring in new customers and engage old ones using social media.
How to Promote Your Spa Using Social Media
Modern technology has changed the way businesses market themselves and it has become an unspoken standard for businesses to have a social media presence. Social media platforms enable you to interact with your current client base and reach new customers without the hassle and expense of a traditional marketing scheme. Though you should still take the time to develop a strategy, social media marketing is a simple and versatile way to expand your business.
Here are 11 ways to promote your spa using social media:
- Post educational content. Certain social media platforms like Facebook are great for posting educational content – articles, videos, or tutorials your customer base may be interested in viewing. Posting educational content also helps you boost your brand identity and establish authority in the industry.
- Show before/after pictures. Whether you’re promoting a certain treatment or just giving a shout-out to a loyal customer, before/after pictures are perfect for social media. You could even encourage your clients to take their own before/after shots and re-share their posts.
- Highlight customer testimonials. Sometimes your best advertisements come from your customers. Post customer testimonials on your social media pages or re-share testimonials clients leave on your website. Hearing good things from current clients may inspire new customers to give your spa a try.
- Encourage viewers to “like” your posts. Posting a picture on social media is great, but what’s even better is getting your audience to interact and engage with your posts. Encourage viewers to “like” your posts or re-share them. Doing so creates a sense of authority and helps the social media algorithm favor your content in the future.
- Curate content from other sources. If you’re running a social media marketing strategy on multiple platforms, it can be difficult to come up with new content as often as you need it. Intersperse your own content with curated content from reputable sources like lifestyle magazines or beauty and wellness influencers to lighten your load.
- Use paid promotion wisely. Compared to more traditional forms of marketing, social media advertisement is fairly inexpensive. You can promote your account or boost specific posts to expand your audience and get your name out there for potential customers to see.
- Utilize user-generated content. Another way to source content for your social media pages is directly from your customers. Re-share images your guests share on their own social media channels (with permission, of course) and retweet mentions of your spa from Twitter.
- Run an online contest or giveaway. Everyone loves free stuff, so why not run a giveaway through your social media platforms? Allow people to enter the giveaway by following, liking, and/or tagging you on social media. Doing so can not only increase engagement among your current audience but also bring in new followers and potential customers.
- Cross promote your own pages. Most businesses choose to run multiple social media platforms which creates an opportunity for cross promotion. The customers who follow you on Instagram may be interested in following you on Twitter, so share your handles and encourage followers to find you on other channels.
- Host a Q&A event. Hosting a Q&A (live or not) is a great way to position yourself as the expert in an industry and give back to your audience. This also gives you the opportunity to organically recommend products and treatments that your spa carries.
- Team up with another brand. Come together with another brand – ideally one in the spa and wellness industry – to promote a campaign or giveaway. Co-marketing opens you up to an entirely new audience of potential followers (and customers).
Tips for Social Media Marketing
Anything you do that is even remotely related to your business should be on-brand. Your brand is what makes your spa unique and it’s what keeps customers coming back for more. When it comes to social media, it’s easy to get caught up in the “joke” and “meme” culture, but it’s important to stay true to your business with everything you pose.
In addition to having a strong brand behind your business, you should develop a strategy for social media marketing. Think about which platforms you want to use and what kind of content you’re going to post on them. Facebook and Instagram work well for images and videos while Twitter is best for short text and links. If you’re interested in long-form video content, YouTube may be best the way to go.
Once you’ve decided which platforms to use and what kind of content you’ll post, create a schedule. Posting once a week probably won’t be enough to keep your audience engaged but posting multiple times a day may be overwhelming.
There’s also a science behind appeasing the social media algorithms. For example, Facebook posts should be limited to one or two per day, ideally in the morning or early afternoon. You can get away with posting a little more often on Instagram and up to a dozen tweets per day on Twitter.
Getting new clients in the door is essential for the survival of your business, but once they’re there it’s important to keep them coming back for more. Developing a strong brand identity and creating unique and memorable customer experiences is the best formula for creating a large base of repeat clients. With the social media tips above you can reach a larger audience and expand your business.