Just as technology and consumer trends are constantly changing, the marketing tactics that work – and don’t work – for spa owners, managers, and marketing professionals are always shifting.

‍Wondering what’s in and what’s out when it comes to marketing your services in a way that will get you boatloads of bookings in 2024 and beyond?‍

Then follow along with this master guide of spa marketing ideas to generate buzz and engagement that keeps your clients coming back for more.

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How to Promote Your Spa Services

The spa industry can get competitive. If you're in a city with lots of other spas around, it's important to craft an effective marketing strategy vital to stand out and encourage clients to choose your services. As a spa owner, you understand that promotion goes beyond just attracting new clients – it's about creating a lasting impression that keeps them coming back. In the upcoming list, we'll dive into 20 of the best spa promotion ideas, but first, let’s outline the foundations of a successful spa marketing strategy.

Leveraging social media platforms is indispensable today. Platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok offer unique opportunities for video marketing, which can showcase the relaxing and luxurious experience of your spa services. Share behind-the-scenes peeks, client testimonials, and visually appealing spa packages to captivate your audience. Additionally, make sure your spa is listed in online directories, making it easier for potential clients to find you.

Developing tailored marketing campaigns that resonate with your target audience is crucial. Whether it's through seasonal offers, exclusive spa packages, or engaging social media content, your campaigns should reflect the quality and ambiance of your spa. Remember, the goal is not only to attract new clients but also to foster loyalty among your existing clientele.

As we dive into the list of 20 ideas, each will be contextualized within this broader spa marketing strategy. From the traditional methods to the latest digital trends, you’ll discover a mix of strategies that align with your brand and resonate with your clientele.

20 Best Spa Marketing Ideas in 2024

Here are our favorite marketing strategies for Spas:

1. Personalize Your Client Communications
2. Get Thoughtful with Text Marketing
3. Automate Your Review Requests
4. Show Clients Gratitude for Their Reviews
5. Create a Pop-Up Market in Your Community
6. Cross-Promote Complementary Services
7. Host An Open House
8. Participate In Local Events
9. Get Your On-Site Branding On-Point
10. Show Off Your Work With A Selfie Station
11. Create A Buzz On Social With A Photo Contest
12. Treat Clients With Giveaways
13. Connect With Other Professionals Online
14. Make Booking From Social Seamless
15. Update Your Google Business Profile
16. Join Popular Spa Directories
17. Upgrade Your Social SEO
18. Consider Creating A Membership Club
19. Build A Client Loyalty Program
20. Roll Out A Referral Plan

Okay, let's bucket each one into its own category and dive deeper.

1. Personalize Your Client Communications

One of the tried and true methods for marketing for spas is to leverage email marketing from either your existing customer base or promotional offers. Email marketing generates some of the best return on investment (ROI) out of the many digital marketing strategies out there. Email marketing is:

• Is easy to do, even if you're not a pro
• Can help you reach existing clients and prospective clients alike
• Costs you little to nothing at all!

But if you’re looking to create and nurture lasting client relationships, there’s something you have to know:

‍One-size-fits-all messages are out.

Marketers agree that the tactics they find most effective in their email marketing campaigns are segmentation, personalization, and automation.

When we’re talking about emails, personalization is all about making sure the content feels relevant to the individual – even if it's sent to a large group of clients. Achieve this by segmenting email recipients into different categories based on services they’ve had, services they may be interested in, the value they bring as a client, and more.

‍GlossGenius makes it easy for its customers to target specific segments to take a more personalized approach with relevant messaging.

When setting up an email marketing campaign, you can filter by:

• Not seen in the last X months
• Last seen in the last X months
• Has had X appointments or more
• Has paid $X total or more
• Past services
• Past retail purchases

Simply head to Settings > Email Marketing > Create New Email Campaign > Filter in your GlossGenius app and select which group you wish to send your message to and tap Apply.

We’ll tell you more about GlossGenius later – but for now let’s get back to the spa marketing tips.

In addition to personalized follow-ups and offer emails, here are some spa promotion ideas you can share with your entire client base as part of your email marketing:

• Mother’s or Father’s Day Campaigns: Celebrate parent-child time by offering a 2-for-1 deal on these holidays.
  
• Winter Holidays Campaign: Create a “12 Days of the Holidays” campaign where every day brings a unique new giveaway, discount, or special service.
  
• Valentine’s Day Campaign: Offer clients to bring their significant other for a 2-for-1 deal or to come alone and enjoy complimentary treats. This provides the opportunity to add new clients and make existing clients even more loyal.
  
• Best Friends Campaign: Have clients bring their best friends and give both a discount off your services. Make an impression and win a new long-term client.

2. Get Thoughtful With Text Marketing

Text message marketing is another powerful outreach method for spas, massage therapists, and other professionals in the beauty and wellness industry.

Just like with email, you can use GlossGenius to send texts to different client segments based on their appointment history, services purchased, products purchased, and so on.

Head to Settings > Text Marketing > Create New Text Campaign > Filter in your GlossGenius app and select which group you wish to send your message to and tap Apply.

When using text message marketing, you have to be careful not to come off as spammy. There are only a few times clients really want to get a text from you:

• Right after their appointment – to make sure they’re happy, encourage a great review, and remind them to schedule their next session
• As a reminder that their next session is coming up
• When they're on your waitlist and an appointment becomes available
• When there’s a hot deal to be had

Use More Client Reviews, More Effectively

You must learn how to embrace reviews in this day and age. After all, more folks than ever before are reading online reviews and using them to decide which companies they want to do business with.

Here are a few tips that will help you learn to love reviews again.

3. Automate Your Review Requests

We understand how awkward it can feel to ask clients to give you a written online review when you’re done providing your services and they’re trying to get on with their day. After all – you’ve worked so hard to create an incredible client experience! And if that means you don’t get as many great reviews as you deserve, you’re not alone.

This exact situation is why we automated the process of getting client reviews with GlossGenius. When your client receives their receipt for payment via our built-in payment processing platform, it includes a polite reminder to leave you a glowing review for all your hard work.

• Read how Liz McKay received 200 five-star reviews in just 16 months
• See how Kris Mann received over 400 five-star reviews from her 800 clients
• Learn about Linda Jordin’s 200 five-star reviews that helped her double her revenue

And it’s not just important you get more reviews – it’s also important you get to have more control over them! With GlossGenius, you decide which reviews get displayed publicly, and it’s as easy as toggling on show or hide.

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4. Show Clients Gratitude for Their Reviews

What else can you do to make reviews work harder for you? Respond to the ones that show up publicly, on various platforms.

The vast majority of people (89%) want to work with a business that responds to online reviews.

For those reviews where there’s a “difference of opinion,” remember to keep your response professional. If possible, mention the positive ways you’re going to act on their feedback to make the experience even better for future visitors.

Make Your In-Person Marketing Pop

We know it might sometimes feel like it, but you don’t spend all your time in your spa, salon, or studio. Here’s how to turn those out-of-work experiences into more exposure – and bookings. 

5. Create a Pop-Up Market in Your Community

Take a cue from farmers markets and host a “spa market” with your own spa-inspired twist on the classic.

Turn your parking lot into a market featuring local businesses that offer goods and services your typical clientele would be into. You run a med spa? By all means, invite local businesses that specialize in hand-crafted facial serums or esthetician services!

This is a great way to build community as well as raise awareness and generate business for all the awesome wellness-focused providers in your area.

6. Cross-Promote Complementary Services

You don’t have to plan a full-on event to find a way to work with like-minded businesses.

Something else you can do is find ways to cross-promote each other. Maybe you can use towels from a local creator in your massage business, and in return they can display your business cards in their shop on Main Street that gets lots of foot traffic.

7. Host an Open House

Changing up your salon aesthetic? Finally getting that renovation done? Or did you just sign the contract for your new location?

‍Host an open house and invite your community to see what your services are all about. If you have some staff who are able to circulate and answer questions or hand out brochures, that’s even better – or invite your existing clients to rub elbows and wax poetic about your talents!

To ensure a great turnout, promote the heck out of your event using social media and physical flyers, make sure you have great snacks on deck, and sweeten the deal by offering product giveaways.

8. Participate in Local Events

One of the awesome things about spa services is that many of them can be done, in some form, “in the wild” at events like farmers markets, fairs, even business conventions.

Look out for your next local event to see if you can set up a booth and offer goods or services like 15-minute chair massages, quick nail shaping lessons, mini jars of your famous clay mask, or vouchers for a med spa consultation.

9. Get Your On-Site Branding On-Point

If you do have a physical location, use it.

Are you taking advantage of your front door, windows, building exterior, or even the lawn to display all the wonderful services and deals passersby can get inside?

If not, grab the sidewalk chalk and window paint and get out there this weekend!

Refresh Your Social Media Marketing

Here are some fresh ways to create engaging social interactions that, when combined with an integrated booking system (don’t skip the last tip in this section!), should lead to real-life, money-making bookings.

10. Show Off Your Work with a Selfie Station

Who doesn’t love a picturesque self-care moment?

Take advantage of this trend by turning a corner of your spa into a cute selfie station. Buy some fabric or garland from a craft store, order an LED or neon sign from Etsy, and add an accent chair for some extra interest.

We recommend choosing a backdrop that aligns with your brand colors and features your spa name, social media accounts, and any hashtags you want to be associated with (#medspa, #miamispa, etc.). You could even swap out the backdrop for different holidays and events.

Invite clients to capture a pic featuring their mud masks, freshly-done nails, or post-massage glow and watch your following grow!

Take a look at these examples of branded selfie walls that should get the creative ideas flowing.

11. Create a Buzz on Social with a Photo Contest

Struggling to ask clients to post photos on social? How about a friendly photo contest to get even more people posting those selfie station pics and other photos from their experience at your spa?

Once some clients tag you in their spa experience photos on social, it’s sure to inspire FOMO from your other clients!

Here are some ideas to generate photos that increase brand awareness and bookings:

• Ask clients to post a photo of the results of their appointment with you, with your business tagged – best photo every month gets a free service or product.
• Post your own photos of clients in the middle of a service (with permission, obviously) and ask your social followers to comment with a caption. For maximum engagement, it always helps if you offer the follower with the most-liked comment a gift card!

‍GlossGenius Tip: Don’t forget video content! Short-form video is popular among social media users, can generate impressive results, and video is seeing growing investment from professional marketers, too.

12. Treat Clients with Giveaways

Consistency is key if you want to use social media to create actual business engagement. However, sometimes you just don’t have time to create or share your own content.

That’s where a good giveaway can help to inspire your clients to create and share social content for you.

We recommend creating a point system where something like 500 points = a $200 gift card for your services. Clients can earn points and win awards by creating and sharing on social, such as:

• Reshare one of your spa’s photos for 20 points
• Post a photo from your spa to get 25 points
• Post a good review and get 50 points

GlossGenius has dozens of templates already formatted for social media that give you lots of beautiful backgrounds to announce contests, giveaways, appointment openings, gift cards, new products, etc.

13. Connect with Other Professionals Online

Looking for even more ways to get your name in front of the kind of people who will love and share your services?

There are plenty of online communities on platforms like Facebook and Reddit centered around massage, wellness, small business, and local services.

As we often preach, it’s all about community over competition!

We recommend communicating in a helpful, natural, and non-“salesy” way. Just be yourself! While many of these groups allow for a special self-promotional day or thread, be sure you’re not breaking any guidelines before you post anything about your business to avoid getting kicked out or making a poor impression.

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14. Make Booking from Social Seamless

It can be hard to get folks who engage with your social posts and online reviews to make the jump to calling you or visiting your website to find your booking information. That’s why every spa professional needs an easy-to-navigate booking experience that can be accessed via a simple URL.

GlossGenius provides this online spa booking experience in the form of a comprehensive and customizable booking website that comes free with your membership.

On the client side, in a few taps they can see your schedule and make an appointment – no sign-in, download, or deposit for booking (unless you want one!) required.

On your end, there are tons of features you can update on your GlossGenius booking site:

• Add your unique branding
• Include your policies, services, prices, and staff profiles
• Set advanced rules to create booking windows, provide gap time between appointments, and have ultimate control over your schedule
• Use the ban and Waitlist features to fill your books with your preferred clientele
• Require deposits or card on file at booking to protect your business from cancellations and no-shows

With our always-on and easy-to-update booking experience, GlossGenius users have seen a 35% increase in bookings, on average. It's no surprise that 99% of the clients our members work with prefer GlossGenius’ booking system over the outdated legacy platforms some spas unfortunately still use.

If you’re still on one of those clunky old systems, sign up for a free 14-day trial of GlossGenius now and start making the money you deserve.

Optimize the Rest of Your Spa’s Online Presence

Social media sites and online review platforms only account for part of your online presence, and most clients only seek out social media profiles to discover new artists and professionals.

But when it comes to booking services, these prospective clients are going straight to directories or search engines like Google.

If you don’t want to miss out on this chunk of traffic, here are some tactics to clean up and make your presence known to an even larger pool of interested potential customers.

15. Update Your Google Business Profile

Who uses Google to look into local businesses before visiting?

A ton of your potential clients.

More than 80% of consumers report going straight to Google to evaluate a business.

What can you do to make sure what they’re seeing is accurate and favorable? If your business has a physical location, you can get your Business Profile on Google up to date (fyi, this feature used to be called “Google My Business”).

Find out if your business has a Business Profile by Googling its name. If your business shows up under “Places,” you have a Business Profile.

If you don’t have one, or you do but you haven’t done anything to manage it yet, here are Google’s tips for getting that done.

When you have official ownership of your profile, follow these instructions to edit it to make sure it’s up to date.

16. Join Popular Spa Directories

In addition to Google, another place many business owners go to marketing a spa is through service directories.

There are digital directories out there for every profession. Yelp is a sort of directory-social media mashup that spans industries. With GlossGenius, people in your area who are searching for the services you offer can find and book you right on Yelp.

You want to make sure your profiles on these kinds of sites are up to date and that you’re interacting with clients however you’re able – answering messages, responding to reviews, etc.

17. Upgrade Your Social SEO

Win most of your new spa business via social media?

With social media search engine optimization (SEO), you’ll be able to grow the number of people who find and connect with you across social media.

Not only is SEO up there alongside social media in terms of effectiveness in marketing, the majority of professionals who are already doing it say they’re going to keep investing in 2024.

Social SEO all starts with keywords. When someone searches a platform like Instagram or TikTok using a phrase, those platforms search for that phrase across captions, hashtags, user names, bio sections, and even location tags. The profiles that fit the search the best rise to the top of the results.

What you want to do to make this tactic work for you is think about what people who love your services search for. They may use phrases like “steam room in X city” or “hydrotherapy specialist.” You want to be sure you’re always using these phrases in your profile bio, and when you create and post to your social accounts!

A critical component to being successful with social SEO is to refresh your strategy often. If you find traffic falling, go back to the list of phrases you’ve optimized for and make sure you’re taking advantage of the latest trends and terms in the spa world.

Use Clever Retention Tactics

What exactly does client retention have to do with marketing?

Well, if salon marketing all boils down to selling products and services, retention might actually be the most important tactic of all.

That’s because retention is one of the most affordable ways to sell products and services – to clients who already exist and don’t need to be converted first with time-consuming or costly marketing tactics.

It’s undeniably more expensive to get a new client to spend money than it is to get one you already have to spend money with you. That’s the power of retention.

With that in mind, here are several tips for rewarding client loyalty and creating a strong base of folks who love coming back for your services again and again.

18. Consider Creating a Membership Club

Memberships are a great deal for spas and spa clients alike.

For you, ongoing membership payments ensure steady income even during those slow months. For your clients, they get to enjoy a discount on services by paying for them up front, but get to use those services at their leisure throughout the month.

By offering some special allowances that are only for members – such as first dibs on rare services or priority when scheduling appointments – you can make it even more worth their while to sign up, without having to offer too high of a discount that eats into your profits.

19. Build a Client Loyalty Program

Loyalty programs help with cash flow in a different way. They should help keep your traffic a little more steady, so you don’t see as many slow periods.

Customer loyalty programs come in lots of forms. Some businesses use punch cards, where the client’s tenth punch (aka visit) is free or discounted. Or, a tactic you can take from the retail world is the point system, where spending equates to points and those points can be redeemed for rewards or discounts.

20. Roll Out a Referral Plan

Referral plans are a great way to reach folks in your target audience without spending a dollar of marketing money.

And there are several really cool things that will happen when you start taking referrals seriously.

One, you of course get new customers coming in the door!

And two, your existing clients are incentivized to keep booking more services with you as they rack up the rewards from making referrals.

What’s there to lose?

We’re Rooting for Your Success

Learning how to advertise a spa can seem like an overwhelming feat. There are so many opportunities. My advice would be to find 1-3 strategies that work for you and stick with them. Just because there's over 20 ideas on this list doesn't mean you have to do all of them. A jack of all trades is a master of none. So find a few, maybe even just one, strategies that speaks to you and try it out.

Try GlossGenius free for 14 days!

Whether it’s doubling down on personalized emails, finally planning that event you’ve been dreaming about, or trying a combination of the tactics above – the team here at GlossGenius has your back.

As hairdressers, nail artists, estheticians, and makeup artists ourselves, we've been there, done that – and it's our mission to give you all the tools you need to build your empire.

We save you time by building app features, filters, and automations that make the cycle of marketing, booking, review, follow-up, and rebooking a breeze.

We save you money by offering affordable subscription pricing and charging a flat, industry-low fee for every payment processed. No sneaky hidden fees, fine print, contracts, or add-ons.

‍Sign up for your 14-day free trial of GlossGenius today!