Spas are spending way too much money on marketing their spas and seeing way too few results. Every month, you submit your ad, close your eyes, and pray that someone, anyone will notice your ad and come walking through the door. In education, they call type of communication the "throw and stick" method. If you really want to market your spa and find a way to get people in the door, stop wasting your money on newspaper ads, magazine ads, radio ads, tv, and park benches. Blindly communicating to a group of people your information and hoping that something sticks to someone. Stop this madness immediately! To really communicate your brand, and bring more people in the door, you have to first understand who you are before you can understand who you are trying to reach. Here are the five steps to ensuring that you create a powerful marketing campaign:
1. Find out who you are. Look at your spa through a new set of eyes. Make a list of adjectives that describe your spa. What are the goals of the spa? Why is the spa in existence? What values does the spa have?
2. Create a color board. Cut out inspirational pictures that embrace the essence of your spa. Arrange them in a visually appealing way and hang this color board up in a place where your associates can see it. All decisions for marketing need to be congruent with the emotions that this color board evoke.
3. Describe your end consumer. Who is she/he? What are they looking for? What do they want and need? How do they make their purchasing decision? Understanding who you are targeting helps you stay so much closer to the target!
4. Analyze your current clientele. Are your current clients the ones that you are trying to get in the door? If they aren't, then what is it about your spa brand and identity that is not attracting them? If you aren't getting new people through the door, there is a disconnect from who you think you are and who your consumers think you are. In other words, they are disappointed with some expectation that they have about your spa. Find that disconnect and fix it!
5. More of the same. Once you have establish who you are and who you are trying to attract, create die hard loyalty programs for the clients that you already have. Spend your money on rewarding and incentivize your current clients to bring you their friends, family, and colleagues. Find out where your current clients exercise, eat, shop, and contribute to charity and then team up with their favorite businesses and charities to create cross promotional campaigns.
So, stop wasting your money on the radio, and start spending your money on what works. Creating an environment that rewards loyal clients for coming back and bringing their friends.
