The promotional potential of social media is limitless with a strategically thought out and executed marketing plan. Day spas can get the most from their social media efforts by posting relevant, engaging, and interactive content. While it may be tempting to simply push out social post after random post in an attempt to gain attention and clients, in reality, a systematic approach will yield the best results.
Choose the Best Platform
Understand your target audience and on which platform or platforms they spend their time. Aesthetically appealing images of your establishment can pique the interest of potential clients and remind existing customers of why they so enjoy your day spa.
Facebook: powerful advertising and targeting tools in Facebook make it an excellent place to start. This social platform provides an amazing amount of information about the habits and preferences of Facebook users. In addition, the platform offers advertisers a number of different ways to use that data to pinpoint their marketing efforts.
Instagram: This visually based social media network provides an effective canvas for day spas to highlight their spa, services, and staff. Instagram is also an incredibly interactive platform and encourages high levels of engagement from its users.
Other social platforms: If your spa is located in an area that dictates your brand cater to a younger audience, you may want to put less emphasis on Facebook and more emphasis on Instagram and Snapchat. If you cater to more professional or executive level clients, Twitter and LinkedIn might be more effective platforms for your day spa. The important thing is to have a powerful presence on the one or two platforms your target audience frequents instead of an uninspiring presence on all of the social media platforms.
Create a Comprehensive Plan
A solid content strategy will start with setting specific goals for each of the social media platforms on which you choose to feature your day spa. If you establish a goal of boosting traffic to your website, focus on content that will lead your social audience there. If your goal is to increase engagement on the social platform, your content should include opportunities for interaction such as questions posed to your audience, short quizzes, and so on. Every post should be value added to your target audience to encourage the best performance of your content on that platform.
Track the Performance of Your Content
Every social media platform provides insights and analytics regarding the performance of your posts. Make it part of your regular process to not only access that information but to use those data points to inform your future social content. There are also other analytical tools available such as Brand24 or Simply Measured that can further inform you of content effectiveness and help you determine which type of content to continue posting and which type to either tweak or discontinue.
If your brand is on multiple platforms, you may or may not see the need to post different content on different networks. The key is to post content that is not only relevant to the audience but is also relevant to the platform. You need to give prospective and existing clients a reason to follow you and if all of your social platforms post exactly the same content, they will be less likely to follow you on more than one channel.
Play to the strength of each platform so users are seeing the types of content they expect on that channel. Instagram is an excellent choice for more images and less text. Facebook is great for longer-form content like live or tutorial videos, links to blog posts, and so on. Snapchat and Instagram Stories are fabulous choices to show more informal content, and Twitter is best for short updates, links, and promotions.
Engage with Your Audience
Social media platforms provide an excellent opportunity to interact with current and potential clients outside of the spa environment. Engage your audience by asking their opinions about topics related to your spa. Respond to comments and questions in a timely manner and project your brand’s interest in keeping the business customer centered. Be sure you are not commenting and replying only to your own posts, but that you are also getting involved in your followers’ posts.
Being social is just as much about digital listening as it is about digital talking. These are relatively easy ways to build customer loyalty because people appreciate an organization that maintains two-way dialogue with their clients.
Frequency and Timing are Everything
If you have personal social media accounts, you understand the overwhelming number of posts that occur every day. If you are not posting, at least, daily, you will struggle to get your content in front of your target audience in a meaningful way. Consistency is also important. If your clients know you’ll post a weekly special or daily discount, they’ll only want to scroll a bit to find the post. This is one of the reasons that a scheduling resource like those we mentioned above can be helpful.
Posting content when your audience is online is just as important as posting to the platforms they frequent. Fortunately, the different social media platforms gather such data to help you make informed decisions about when to push your posts out. An Instagram business profile provides Insights that include the days of the week your target audience is online the most as well as the times of day your audience in most online. Facebook also requires a business page in order to collect these types of insights.
Use a Social Scheduling Tool
Trying to create social content and post it on a daily basis can be overwhelming and encourages neglect of your social profile when other day-to-day responsibilities present themselves. Create a month of content at a time and then use a resource like Hootsuite or Planoly to schedule your posts in advance. Most of this type of software has available amazing apps that allow you to manage most everything from a mobile device once your content has been created.
Hire A Social Media Expert
You can hire professionals to do everything from creating a strategy, create content, handle the scheduling, or fully manage your social networks depending on your needs and your budget. You may want to consider hiring a social media consultant to do any combination of these tasks, even if it is simply a one-time contract to help you establish a comprehensive social media marketing plan.
Understand the Long-term Approach
Social media marketing is not a quick thing in which to engage your brand. It takes a patient and consistent approach that includes high-quality content, regular engagement with your audience, and, unfortunately, a good bit of trial and error. By setting benchmark goals as well as overarching social media goals, you’ll be able to track your progress and increase your social reach as well as the influence those efforts have on building your client base and revenue.
Include A Call to Action in Your Social Media Posts
Many people will engage when specifically encouraged or directed to do so. Include a call to action that asks viewers to click or share or make an appointment. Make it easy to do and make sure that part of your social media strategy is geared towards making the most out of the action once it is taken.
To Recap:
Choose the Best Platform
Create a Comprehensive Plan
Track the Performance of Your Content
Engage with Your Audience
Frequency and Timing are Everything
Use a Social Scheduling Tool
Hire A Social Media Expert
Understand the Long-term Approach
Include A Call to Action in Your Social Media Posts
The experts at Strategy Driven Marketing have worked with brands of all sizes and across all industries. We can help you make the most of your social media efforts through a tailored marketing plan, content creation, social media management, and more. Whatever your social media needs are, SDM is ready for the challenge. Contact us today to get started!