For a newly opened venture on your block, bringing in customers can be a daunting challenge. And a crowded battlefield of existing competitors with brand presence and a strong client base of several years can only mean a steep hill up to the way of success. But with effective digital marketing, you can help your business create interest and eventually see customers coming through your doors.
For B2C (business to consumer) companies, including spa and health and wellness businesses, social media is an effective marketing platform. And the jaw-dropping statistics won’t lie about this. According to Pew Research Center, 91% of retail companies use at least two or more social media sites, and 81% are small and medium-sized companies. In terms of account numbers, Facebook has around 3 billion users and 68% of the population are Americans, followed by Instagram with 1 billion and Twitter with 326 million.
With customers spending more time online, including buying activities, it is imperative for a start-up spa company like yours to optimize the free tools in the form of social media.
Since it started, marketing via social media has changed dramatically. With every hour that passes, a new update is implemented. If you’re not up to date, you will be lost on how to even start a campaign that will reap results. To get you on track, here is a primary list you or your staff needs to do.
The Right Platform
There is a Santa Claus list of social media platforms you can utilize today. The million dollar question is which ones you should choose. It depends on the marketing budget, goals, target market and type of content you want to publish.
The finance considerations include salary if you want to hire either a social media manager, outsource or you want to do it yourself.
Another thing to consider is if you want to venture into online ads like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube ads. For your goals, it depends on the milestones you want to achieve, such as number of posts, reach, engagement, and ROI probably.
Next is target market. You can scour the web for stats that will give you the right platforms that your target market uses or what is popular in the local market.
Lastly, determine the types of content you should be creating. Each platform publishes different types of content. You can go for Instagram and Pinterest with images, YouTube for videos and Facebook for almost everything else.
The thing is you can maximize a handful of social media sites, and use a tool that publishes your content to all those sites during the best times. With this, you can reach out to targeted prospects using varied platforms.
Rich Content
Having a social media presence is one thing. But posting rich content that drives engagement is another thing. Creating company pages will not suffice to gain your brand the presence it needs to attract potential clients.
You need to plan and craft compelling images, videos or captions to capture a like, a heart or a share and eventually see clients coming in to your business. For example, if you have a spa for pets and sell essential oils like Pet Wellbeing, then you need to think of social media posts that your audience will love. Otherwise, the time, money and effort you invest to these pages will not cash in returns.
Reviews
Be it a good or service, people browsing the web are more likely to seek reviews and recommendations before making a purchase or trying a new service. Exploit the reviews section of social sites like Facebook.
You can ask your clients to post an honest review and give them incentives for doing so. An unsolicited remark is even better. For bad comments, do not just ignore. You can communicate directly with the customers and ensure them that their concerns are well attended. Even for a bad review, you can still give the impression that you’re taking care of everything.
Collaboration
Another effective and cheap way to spread the buzz about your new start-up is to collaborate with other brands. You can communicate with other business owners or their marketing executives and submit a proposal for a collaboration. One example is to get discounts on certain goods or free vouchers when customers use your salon services.
With this, your brand will have an exposure to another company’s businesses and other way around.