Stop spending a fortune on marketing schemes and SEO and social media advertisements. In today's post I'm going to teach you the most important and effective means of building your spa and it's client list. Once you've mastered these techniques, if your book isn't still full then consider spending significant dollars on your internet and digital marketing.
Always keep in mind, your spa is not a digital product, its physical and should be promoted as such.
The five main ways spas generate business through IPL is by:
1) Selling packages of treatments
In the profitability study, we recommend selling treatments (for hair removal) in packs of 5, with the fifth treatment being free (so a 20% savings). In order to get the preferential pricing clients must pay up front. This speeds up your cash-flow and guarantees a commitment from the client. When asked and shown the pricing difference, they will pay as all hair removal requires at 5-8 sessions in total if they wish to see permanent results.
For specialty treatments (acne, photo-rejuvenation, dark spot removal, and varicosities) packs of 2 are usually sufficient to see significant results so the same discounted pricing applies. If they require a third treatment to get the completed effect then the third treatment should be booked and paid at the same preferred pricing at the end of the second treatment.
Photo-rejuvenation treatments are a little different as they offer an enhancing effect rather than clear elimination. Packages of 6 for "A Year of Youth" are very effective for achieving maximum collagen production and thus the anti-aging effect. Again all 6 treatments should be booked and paid for in advance and has the client coming in every 8-9 weeks and provides them the most effect.
2) 5 = 5 Referral Program
This is a system that followed through with will grow your business exponentially. Through this, a client who has had satisfactory experience thus far can earn 5 free treatments of their choice (in addition to, not instead of, any packages or services they have already bought), in exchange for bringing in/providing 5 referrals who also come in and pay for service/purchase a package. Then of course once those referrals have had an experience the same offer is made to them to get the free treatments.
3) Don't advertise any discounts
People who are doing well and providing a good service, don't need to discount to get people in the door. Furthermore "Discount Seekers" are cheap and unloyal clients (unless you can give them a really good deal on-going but it will forever be that way). Focus on the few clients you've got currently and work with them to reward them for supporting your business using the above two methods. You can however give clients who are consistent bonuses such as free retail product or them a free $25 gift card out of appreciation. Rewarding actual clients encourages them to talk about your business to others and further encourages them to commit to packages and the referral program.
4) Open House Events: Use Meetup.com, Eventbrite.com & Facebook
Once a month, hold an open house meetup with wine and cheese (if you know people/neighbors who might sponsor it even better) and use the opportunity to offer people a free spot test (which accomplishes two things in terms of them becoming a client ;)) and a little bit of education about the machines that you use, services you offer and why you decided to get into this business in the first place. Of course have a registration form at the event to collect people's information before they leave and find out if they would like to book a service.
In the beginning it will be only a few people who show up but if one of them becomes a successful client who purchases a package and becomes a referral agent for the 5=5 program, that's a huge success. The best people to invite to the event are the businesses located next door, across the street, and within several blocks of you either by giving them a phone call, sending them an email or dropping in person and asking them to give the invite out to their staff. This is also a great way to network locally and you could very well become the local party/get-together place (a very good thing to be haha)!
5) Pay local businesses for referrals in exchange for free advertising space
If you make a successful connection with one of the locals around you, ask them for advertising space somewhere in their office or showroom. It could be something as small as a brochure and business card stand their clients can pick up. It could be as big as a stand-up banner. The key is though it has to be no cost to them, not inconvenient and of course they need to get paid. Local and small businesses are always looking for ways to maximize their incomes so paying them something such as 25% of a referrals initial service can draw a lot of attention. Like attracts like, and so money attracts money.
Real-estate agents and financial planners are also great people to connect with this way as they are often looking to be able to offer their clients and prospects perks and gifts. A stack of gift cards they can give out or their clients, friends and family and themselves can use is highly effective. Even if only they become a client as they understand referrals.
If you can manage this for 6-12 months consistently, you've built a list of at least 200 referral agents (even if all of them are Realtors & Financial Planners), and keep up the contacts with everyone, your appointments should be booked, and your bank accounts full! Everything above is either free or very low cost to do month to month and in my experience these are the absolute best ways to build a local service based business.
If you need help to implement the above, feel free to give us a call and let's talk about it (free of charge if you mention this article ;P). Our head office can be contacted at 1-877-841-5092.
Cheers,