Explode Your Spa's Brand Popularity Using Low Cost, Effective Marketing Strategies

Do you want to start a spa?

I run my own skin-care spa and I can tell you that an essential part of my business growth came from having a website that Google likes. I was also aware of the need to keep contacting new customers to get repeat business.

Some people thing that if they start their business, word of mouth advertising will take care of bringing in customers.  They may assume that all they need is a FB page or and IG account and that should do it.

This is not correct if you actually want to create a business and not a just a job you control.

In order to build a business that can operate without your daily input you need a systematic way to drive customers in, service them, and keep them coming back in an ever-growing way.

There are two main ways to do this, and they are having a professional website and a customer relationship management system (CRM).

Email and CRM: In order to get customers you need to get prospects.  In order to find a prospect you have a variety of methods available to you depending on your business.  You could hand out business cards wherever you go.  You could leave flyers in stores or mail them to homes in your area.  Or you could drive online traffic to a website which then gives you the opportunity collect their contact information.

Only one of these options is not dependent on your will, ability, or energy level for that day.  Also, only one keeps your business from looking desperate. If you are approached by someone on the street who gives you the feeling that they are desperate, what is your natural reaction?

A properly set up lead capture system on a nice looking website, combined with a coupon or some other type of offer sends a message that is the opposite of desperation.  It is an invitation to do something special, like a giant welcome sign.

Give Away Useful Information: People like useful information. We all have a bottomless need to learn more about things we are interested in. You can create lots of short articles that can be posted on your website, FB page, IG account, or even in article directories. If you are not shy, you can substitute videos and podcasts that share information.  The information must be of interest to your potential customer.  If it is, and you successfully get the information in front of them, they will keep coming back for more until, soon enough, you have a customer.

Solid, helpful information will grow your authority positioning to your prospective customer.

As you gain their trust, you will build the relationship. You can then leverage this relationship to sell useful products and services to your customers over and over.

Consistently providing appealing content is the key to getting more customers and prospects.  It is also the key to getting Google to notice you.  If Google sees that people love what you are giving, Google will send even more people your way.

Contests: Face it.  People like free stuff.  If you have a small customer base and want to grow it, figure out how to motivate people to enter a contest. By making some valuable item available to potential prospect you make yourself far more likely to pick-up new customers.

By making sure that you "stuff" is valuable, you create excitement, buzz and interest around what you are doing. Don't think small just because your business is small.  Give away something that you would say "WHOA, that is HUGE!".  It might be something that costs $500 or $2,000, but it must be of sizzling interest to your perfect customer type.  

If you set it up right your business will be overwhelmed with contact information and email addresses you can use to grow a relationship.  Not only that, but you can also use this to get free publicity from your local news outlets, driving even more potential customers to give you their information.

Let's say that last part again: Do something that will get your business noticed by news outlets.  If you think hard about it, you can do many things in your community that will draw attention to your brand like:

*Volunteer or donate time to a charity.  
*Give speeches at your local chamber of commerce.
*Sponsor college activities such as a team.

Whatever you do, be sure to contact your local news outlets and let them know! It may lead to nothing, or it may lead to an interview or mention.  If you do it consistently and build a relationship with a local news outlet, you can learn to get thousands of dollars of free promotion for your brand.

These techniques work together to build your brand both online and offline.  It is your job to make your brand attractive to the public as well as your perfect prospect.  

Your next best move is to set up your lead capture system so that you have the maximum opportunity to get a person's information if they visit your site.

Next, use your noggin to come up with ways to make your brand known in your local area.  Do things that get attention from news sources or have the potential to light up social media virally.

Remember: This is your business, not your job.  Don't approach it like other people approach jobs, giving the bare minimum effort.  

If you want to grow the business to the point you could sell it, you have to have customers that are grown, serviced, and kept coming back in an automated, repeatable way.

Without this system in place, you have a job, not a business.  

A job will not get done, or not be done well without your presence. Sure, this can pay the bills, but it will have a hard time making you wealthy.

So let's say you do choose to get serious about using online assets to build your business. (When I say build your business, I mean build your customer database so that you can contact them whenever you need more revenue.)

There are really only 2 things to think about here:
*Communicating What You Do Differently That Solves Your Customer's Need Better Than The Competition and
*Collecting Prospect Contact Information By Giving Them Ethical Bribes

Without properly communicating what you do in a way that speaks directly to your perfect customer, no one will know who you are, what you do, and who you do it for.

If you don't collect prospect information you have no chance to build a relationship, build a business, and convince them that you are the best option.

Remember: when people visit your site, you have a tiny window of opportunity to get a new customer, so make sure your site is able to deliver.

What next?

Now you've got to find a designer or do it yourself.  Find some example sites to help you determine the styles you like.  Then, go on Fiverr or Upwork and ask for samples from a variety of designers. This helps you determine how much your preferred style will cost if you want to pay someone to do it.

Befriend Google - This search engine is the world's most visited website, with multiple billions of searches each month. In order for YOUR site to benefit from it, though, you have to learn their rules. Then, your site will have to play by those rules if you want them to reward you with traffic and eyeballs.

No one can guarantee that you will get any traffic at all from Google. But if you play the game correctly you can reach potential customers nearly for free, and in droves. Learning to optimize your site for search engines can save you money, make you sales, and build your brand locally very effectively.