Ever since I can remember, spa marketing has been a significant bone of contention for almost every owner I’ve met. And while I understand the hesitancy you feel when it comes to looking at the price, it’s important to also pay attention to the hidden costs of doing your own marketing. Spa owners need increased visibility to boost bookings and sales, but I've discovered six major roadblocks you come across when trying to tackle marketing on your own.

1. You’re already too busy managing the day-to-day operations of your spa.

   • This is where many of you stall out on growth when it comes to marketing; you need to attract better quality clients and fill staff schedules, but you're overloaded with spa admin, staffing and client care and the only time that’s available to you digs into personal days off. But you're mentally and physically tapped out to stay consistent with your marketing efforts during your “down time”. And when there’s no consistency in your marketing, new client bookings - sales slow down.

2. What got you here won’t get you there.

   • If you were bootstrapping as a startup, all you had was “sweat equity” to learn and implement your marketing. But once you start getting traction with your clientele, you shouldn’t be wasting your time on low-level admin tasks. It’s time to prioritize your focus & energy on working in your zone-of-genius - spa operations, client care and exciting growth ideas.
     
     Let’s be real, there’s simply not enough time in the day/week/month to cover all your visibility "bases" on your own (multiple social media channels, email/newsletters, website updates, events, new service or product launches, new staff announcements, client engagement campaigns, staff meetings/training/coaching, etc) and run a profitable spa with a fantastic guest experience yourself. Even with a spa team, it’s a recipe for burnout.
     

3. You’re not great at marketing anyways.  

   • The speed at which social media and digital marketing changes makes it almost impossible for you to keep up with the latest tactics and maintain a high level of client care, staffing, and innovation. As a result, you will need to carve into family or self-care time to attend training webinars, complete homework, and labor over your marketing action steps for the upcoming months. Learning curves are slow and tedious. You, dear spa owner, must be smarter about where you commit your time in terms of organizational efficiency.

4. There’s an internal struggle between needing to be visible and feeling too vulnerable to self-promote.

   • I know you’ll agree with me here - it’s tough to toot your own horn without feeling like you're bragging or being a know-it-all. This is a symptom of Imposter Syndrome and is the friction that’s typical among caregiver/service provider mindsets, sabotaging marketing creativity and finishing to-do lists. It’s one of the biggest, most destructive roadblocks I see with spas & their digital visibility.
     
     However, when you outsource your marketing, we take the “ick” out of self-promotion by doing it for you in a way that is educational and inspires clients to take action rather than using bravado or cheesy sales copy. Besides, we LOVE tooting our clients horns! You've worked hard and you have a gift...we'll make it easy for you to shine unapologetically!

5. You don't have to hire or train spa staff to help you with your marketing. 

   • At first glance, it may seem like a reasonable solution to hand off your marketing (or part of it) to a spa manager or service provider who says they are up for the job. But the problem is, most spa hires don't have the up-to-date digital knowledge or training to handle a detailed and multi-platform marketing strategy and implementation needed for fantastic visibility and lead generation. It would be up to you make sure they've got a solid skill set before you could hand over the marketing reigns with confidence. But do you have the time for that? Didn’t think so. Our team of Social Media Managers can hit the ground running with your marketing because this is their zone-of-genius and they do for a living.
     
     Another bonus of outsourcing your marketing to us is you're not responsible for payroll taxes, Workman’s Compensation or benefits and is a safe way to start scaling your spa business because you'll now have time to work with more clients or on growth initiatives.

6. You have an experienced spa business coach overseeing your marketing strategy, implementation and engagement.

   • Not only have I been a spa owner for 20+ years in my career as an esthetician, but I’ve been analyzing, strategizing and teaching digital marketing to spas for 7 years. I see that spa owners are worried about outsourcing their marketing for fear of losing their ‘brand voice” or finding a Virtual Assistant that doesn't understand how spa marketing works and wasting time and money on finding one that does (most of you give up the VA search at this point). 

Letting go of the reigns of your spa marketing can sometimes feel a bit nerve-wracking at first. We get it! Which is why we here at Virtual Spa Business Management, have detailed systems in place to make sure your marketing is consistent, authentic, on-brand, and in your voice. We just do all the heavy lifting!

Ready to talk about outsourcing your spa marketing? We’d love to chat!