15 Best Spa Marketing Ideas and Strategies In 2024

Last year, there were over 22,000 spa locations in the United States, according to Statista. If you don’t have a good spa marketing strategy and don’t promote your spa salon regularly, it might get lost in the crowd.

In this article, you’ll find the best spa marketing ideas, and you’ll also get tips on how to apply them for your spa business.

1. Get your spa salon on Google Maps

The first step is to make sure that your spa business is visible online. If people are searching online for a spa near them, you want them to find and choose your spa. Most often people search on Google Maps to find local businesses near them.

If you want your salon to appear on Google Maps, you just have to register your business information on Google My Business. It’s free, easy and it only takes a few minutes, but having your business listed on Google Maps is really valuable.

2. Get a website for your spa

When you are wondering how to promote your spa online, having a website is always a good answer. People are more likely to visit your spa if they like what they see about your business online.

If you have a website, you can showcase pictures of your beautiful spa, provide details about your services and opening hours, but also answer some questions that your customers might have before first contacting you.

You can get a website for your spa business by hiring someone to build it for you, or you can do it yourself. While it might sound complicated to build a website yourself, there are so many great tools that make this process easy and fun. It’s definitely cheaper than working with an agency, so it’s budget-friendly. I just love spa marketing ideas that won’t break the bank!

Out of all the website-building tools out there, Wix is really great for creating a stunning spa website without any programming or design skills.

3. Offer convenient booking methods for your spa

The easier you make it for people to book their spa appointments, the more appointments you are going to have. Using an online booking system for your spa business is a must. If you haven’t included it in your spa marketing strategy, you are losing appointments and money right now.

A spa online booking system allows customers to book their own appointment online, which makes it more convenient and less of a hassle for both of you. Not all clients are available during your business hours. Let’s not forget about how difficult it can be to give your undivided attention to a customer if the phone is always ringing. That’s not the best spa experience, clients want your undivided attention.

There are easy solutions to this problem. Goldie is a free spa business management app that makes it easy for you to set up your own online booking system for your spa. Customers will be able to book their appointments online, whenever they want. You can even display your online booking system on your website.

You can install Goldie from the App Store if you are using an Apple device, or from Google Play if you are using an Android device.

You should also make it available for your customers to book appointments from your social media pages since they are already so familiar with them.

4. Text message marketing for spas

This is another spa marketing idea you just can’t say no to. Text message marketing for spas is a gold mine because it hasn’t been used as much as email marketing. While not everyone opens emails, almost everyone reads the text messages received on their phone.

You can send text messages about special offers and promotions, but you can also send appointment reminder texts to remind your clients about their scheduled appointments. This will reduce your spa’s no-show rate and save you money.

You can send these text messages manually, but I wouldn’t really recommend that. It’s not productive and scalable. You can use a spa business management app, such as Goldie, to set your marketing messages to send automatically, based on your preferences.

5. Use a selfie photo booth or selfie station at your spa

Ever wondered how to promote your spa business without investing too much time and money? Set up a selfie booth or a selfie station! You’re basically going to boost your brand awareness while offering your customers a fun and modern experience!

People love to take selfies and share bits of their lives online. If they allow it, you can even share these pictures on your social media channels. This way, your clients become your brand ambassadors and you’ll have accurate, happy people in your advertising. Such a clever spa advertising idea, isn’t it?

6. Scent Marketing for Spa and Salons

“Smell is more closely linked to memories than almost any other sense that humans experience. This is how a smell can suddenly trigger areas in the limbic system to recall certain memories from the past.” – Brandon Amoroso

Scent marketing is one of the best spa marketing ideas out there. It’s actually used by all types of businesses, from small businesses to giants from various industries. Even BMW uses scent in their marketing strategy in all their dealerships. They use a unique scent that leaves an imprint on a place or on your mind.

If you always use a certain scent all the time in your spa or salon, your customers will always get reminded of that smell when they see your brand. Lavender is the best scent for spa and salons. It’s associated with feelings of calm and relaxation.

7. Create a birthday program for your clients

You can create customer loyalty by using a birthday program. It’s always the little details that make customers fall in love with a business.

This is a technique that’s not used by a lot of spas, that’s what makes it so great. While popular spa marketing ideas are great, the less popular but effective ones are the real gem!

With Goldie, the tool we’ve talked about earlier, you can send automated messages to your clients to wish them a happy birthday and offer them a free spa treatment, redeemable during their birthday month. Check out our previous article about sending birthday messages to your clients for a more detailed guide.

8. Refer-a-friend spa program

The main goal of your spa marketing is to bring in more referrals. The key to getting more referrals is providing excellent services that make people recommend you to their friends and family.

Even so, customers sometimes need to be encouraged to talk about your services. To boost your spa marketing, you can offer referral incentives. These incentives could be free services, such as discounts for both customers – the referring one and the new one, or a free spa session for every referred client.

Just make sure you know your customers well enough and assess the situation correctly. If you have VIP clients or if you offer luxury, high-end services, this might rub your clients the wrong way and damage your image.

9. Spa loyalty cards

Loyalty cards are the easiest way to encourage repeat visits. Motivate your clients to return for more appointments or to buy more of your services by offering loyalty discounts or by offering a free appointment each time a client purchases a certain number of appointments.

To get your own spa loyalty cards, order the loyalty cards online, or visit a print shop.

10. Sell spa gift cards/certificates

The best marketing ideas are the ones that don’t make you put in a lot of time and money to execute them. Selling spa gift cards or gift certificates is the easiest way to earn new clients and sell more services.

The gift cards do not have to be real cards or anything expensive. You can find a free spa gift certificate template that you love and print it. The only costs you’ll have are paper and print costs.

If you don’t want to print them out yourself and you want something a little bit more personalized and special, use Vistaprint to purchase a spa gift certificate template, customize it and they will print it and ship it to you.

11. Leverage online reviews for your spa

“The average consumer reads 10 reviews before feeling able to trust a business” – BrightLocal

Out of all the spa marketing ideas out there, word-of-mouth has always been the most effective one. And that’s what online reviews are, the new word-of-mouth.

Leaving a review about your spa doesn’t always come naturally to everyone, no matter how satisfied they are with a business. Perhaps they don’t even know how important reviews are for your business, so make sure you let them know. Encourage them to review your spa business and services and let them know how much you appreciate it by thanking them.

Don’t forget to answer politely if you receive a negative review. Try to really understand why a customer is upset and see if there is some way to fix the problem. How you handle a bad review can make or break your reputation.

12. Promote your spa on social media

You want to be where your customers are. Your customers are on social media. Everyone is on social media these days!
Promoting your spa on social media is probably one of the most inexpensive spa marketing ideas. But in order for it to work, you’ll have to put in some extra time and love, since social media is definitely a long-term spa marketing strategy.

Growing your social media channels and following requires commitment, but the reward is certainly worth it because, after reviews, social media is the best way to spread word-of-mouth.

Because spa social media marketing is so diverse and spread across different platforms, it would require an entire article to cover it all. So, in order to get a better understanding of how to use social media to promote your spa, I recommend checking out our social media marketing strategy guide.

13. Organize giveaways and contests

I guess we could say that this is one of those spa marketing ideas that work best when done on social media. And it’s very much so. While you can host a giveaway offline or on your website, fewer people will find out about it. The whole purpose of these giveaways and contests is to get your spa salon in front of as many people as possible. Social media is definitely the best channel for that.

Plus, it’s easy and inexpensive. This spa promotion idea will only cost you the time invested in managing the contest and the prize that you’ll be offering. Spa giveaways or contest prizes usually consist of services or beauty products.

Whatever it is that you are offering, make sure it’s tempting enough. This is the secret to attracting a big crowd. Check out this contest guide for spa businesses.

14. Sell spa packages

Selling your services in special spa packs will help you sell more services per appointment, and it’s also going to encourage customers to return for more appointments. Giving discounts to clients will make your customers feel as they are getting more value for less money and they’ll feel like they’ve made an amazing deal.

15. Pay attention to your spa decor

It’s not always easy to get your customers to return for a second appointment. Spa industry studies show decor being the second biggest factor considered by customers when deciding whether to book another appointment at a spa or not. The first factor is the staff attitude and professionalism.

Your spa design is something worth investing in. It’s very important that your spa design and decorations match the feeling you are trying to achieve with your services. No matter how hard you’ll promote your spa and how much money you’ll spend on marketing your spa, it will all be in vain, if you’re not offering the best possible customer experience.

Now that you’re familiar with the best spa promotion ideas, it’s time to build your spa marketing plan and try them out to see which ones are a better fit for your business.

We’d love to hear about your favorite ways to promote your spa, so leave us a comment in the section below to tell us all about your favorite spa marketing ideas.