How do you market your health club or spa?

Fit Small Business, Fitness, Fitness Marketing, Public Relations, spa marketing, start up marketing, Start up Success

If you are launching a new gym, health club, day spa or healthy destination retreat, check out these marketing strategies at FitSmallBusiness.com that are specific to the health and fitness industry that will give you an edge over your competition.

From embracing the newest in technology to automate your marketing efforts – to creating standout treatments and programs that offer results and make headline news, these tips are guaranteed to help you boost brand awareness and sales.

FitSmallBusiness has established extensive networks of industry experts who bring years of experience and a variety of perspectives to every subject imaginable for startups in health and fitness.

How To Score Media Coverage for Your Brand

collaborations, creative collaboration, Digital Newsroom, Earned Media, Fitness Marketing, growth hacking, Integrated public relations plan, marketing muscle, media relations, Public Relations, The PR Playbook

Yes you need press coverage. No you don’t need a press release. What you need are answers to the most important questions that writers, reporters and bloggers want to know.

In this video, I quickly move through the top 20 questions on every media influencer’s mind.

The Top Three Questions on every writer’s mind. . .

What makes your story newsworthy right now? Why is it so timely?
What problem does it solve? And, is it a big problem?
Will readers and viewers want to share your story?

If you need help reaching out to bloggers, vloggers and writers about your brand story, check out The PR Playbook, a crash course in winning over the media and collaborating with influencers.

Successful Spa Marketing

Uncatergorized, word of mouth campaigns

If you own or operate a spa business, one of the most popular promotions you can create to attract new customers is a referral reward campaign that’s linked to a customer loyalty program. Spa guests love to talk about their time spent at the spa to all of their friends and family. Why not give them an incentive to receive more spa treatments from you in the future when they recommend your location?

Let’s face it; your most loyal customers (your brand ambassadors) are probably referring friends anyway. Why not try driving word of mouth referrals by giving something of value to those who are doing your best promoting?

Award your customers with something they value, like savings or a complimentary service.

15 to 20% off their next service
An upgrade on a service of their choice
$10.00 or more on their favorite service
A special gift of something they buy from you regularly

Do this daily, with every customer you have. Combine it with the delivery of a superior customer service and experience and you will drive sales, one happy customer/client at a time.

Eventful Planning and Spa Marketing

Beauty pr, customer loyalty, customized promotions, Engaging Customer Service, Experiential Marketing, experiential retail, grand openings, spa marketing, Uncatergorized

Spa Party Planning Tips

Madeline Johnson, The Market Council’s CEO interviewed by Senior Editor, Nanci McArdle in the October 2011 issue of American Spa Magazine. The topic: innovative ways to boost retail sales by offering your spa clients a good time. Read the full story and issue of American Spa here.

MJ’s Party Time Tips

1. Make sure you have pre-packaged retail products by price range, lifestyle and type of product. Display with care.

2. Secure enough sales staff to help customers purchase products and have manufacturers reps come for the evening to help sell.

3. Keep it experiential by having the customers try the scrubs, gels, lotions and potions and a fun and exciting setting.

4. Give guests a taste of the treatment with 15 minute facials and massages to help sell the products.

5. Appeal to all of the senses. Make sure to pay attention to your selection of lighting, aroma, music and beverages.

Remember, the more engaging your staff is, the more customers will seek advice and knowledge about how to look, feel and be vibrantly healthy for a more enriched life.

King of the Road – The Case for Bespoke Travel

Engaging Customer Service, Marketing Mavens, spa marketing, Travel marketing, Uncatergorized

We had an impromptu beach-side travel marketing meeting today with a friend in the spa industry, Stephanie Durst of Pro Travel Inc. She’s a Virtuoso agent and a specialist in pampering spa travel. We caught up with her between her spa-cations at Canyon Ranch and Miraval and struck up an informal chat about the personalized and human side of customer service and the true value of having an agent, especially when planning a long needed vacation.

Whether you need to disappear, a bit of bustle or just a big break from the day-to-day race; we chatted about the critical need for human intervention and the importance of customer service before, during, and after the travel experience.

In the travel industry, quality personalized customer service comes in the form of –

true imagination that includes recommending the best restaurants to directing you to the most authentic local experiences to enjoy.
A passion and deep curiosity for the authentic and new.
An ability to think outside the box and the usual digital directories and typical travel agendas.
A strong desire to succeed in planning the ultimate customized journey.

Great travel agents have an intimate knowledge of the hotels, resorts, cruise lines, tour companies, and destinations that you want to visit and add value to the travel purchasing process. Tripology wrote a great post on 101 reasons to use a travel agent, including upgrades, not-to-miss agendas and acting as your personalized advocate when things get a bit messy, as they often do during travel.

Those travel experts that sell a niche high margin product (aka a spa getaway), could very well be your greatest asset when creating memorable vacations.

Virtuoso is a network of the world’s finest travel agencies with knowledgeable advisors who draw upon first-hand experience to craft the perfect vacation for you. Virtuoso affiliated travel advisors have global connections with the best hotels, cruise lines, airlines and tour companies.

Additional unique and inspirational travel services are offered by –
Abercrombie & Kent is the world’s foremost luxury travel company, combining comfort and authenticity in the world’s greatest destinations since 1962.

Based on the belief that people are looking to challenge themselves through unique, immersive and intrepid travel experiences that deliver a true sense of achievement, Epic Tomato was born to deliver challenging travel itineraries in remote places around the world.

Black tomato knows the ins and outs of every destination they recommend and are able to bring an insight and create the perfect bespoke trip.

How to Kick Off a Successful Spa PR Campaign

Beauty pr, Creative Marketing Campaigns, Engaging Customer Service, spa marketing, Star Powered PR, Uncatergorized

Spas (and retailers of all types for that matter) should kick off their marketing campaigns before the foundation settles and the sheet rock has been nailed.

We see too many spas wait until a few weeks before opening to begin building buzz, which could mean a slower start and fewer spa sales upon opening.

We make sure our clients announce their opening about 6 to 8 weeks (sometimes even more) before their grand opening and we link it to online booking so clients can begin scheduling their services at a pre-opening discount (20% seems to lure them in, thank you very much Group on/Living Social).

Our agency specializes in spa marketing (it’s a tough job, we know). Let us know if you need help getting off to a great start.

One of our favorite spas, Terme di Salsomaggorie, This water source has a very high content of saline, bromine, iodine & salt which is 3 times greater than the Dead Sea. It is from an underground lake in the town of Salsomaggiore that provides therapeutic properties in the “baths” which became legendary for its mineral rich healing waters.

Sunday Spa Therapy – Spa Marketing 2011

Uncatergorized

Every day really should be approached witha spa mind-set of healthy living, but Sunday, just feels like it should be a spa day.

In the past few years, the real leading spa treatment trends have and continue to be –

personalized spa experiences that focus on the healing science behind spa therapy
healthy skin aging treatments that offer an alternative to cosmetic therapies like Botox and plastic surgery as well as
shorter spa therapies (ie. the 30 minute neck and shoulder massage and 15 minute facial)

We are experienced with helping spas like Townhouse Spa, Acqua Beauty Bar, White Tea and Willow Stream spas with their marketing and PR and we believe that incorporating these “trends” into spa menus have proven to effectively help drive revenue, develop new customers (and markets) as well as build a brand presence for spas of all sizes.

Spa managers and owners must pay attention to the treatments that spa goers want and the spas that deliver them effectively will succeed to lead in their markets. Engagement is the name of the game and this report from the Global Spa Summit will give those interested in the state of the industry up-to-the-minute insight.

And for those looking for a leading provider of cloud-based business customer relationship management and spa marketing, our clients have had great success with Spa Booker.

Jumping on the Spa week bandwagon has become one of the most popular ways to introduce new customers to your spa with limited time special offers.

The Market Council will take the stress out of marketing your spa brand. We are your experienced team that delivers real results.