What is the difference?

The first most obvious difference is that a spa has more money to invest into marketing. The individual massage practitioner is on a tighter budget.

But the biggest and more important difference is the way, relationships are formed.

Spa Marketing

A spa needs to develop a strong brand.

The team changes, employees come and go. It is therefore important that a relationship is built between the client and the brand of the spa.

What is brand? On the surface it is the logo and name. It is the presentation of the spa in all advertising material.

However much more important and deeper than that, it is all that the spa stands for. For example one decision that is reflected in the brand is whether the spa wants to provide high quality or a quick service (with no waiting).

That needs to be reflected throughout the experience of clients. How are they welcomed? How are they treated (personal or as a number)? Do they have their personal massage practitioner or are a range of people providing different services?

Any brand attracts certain clients. So the better the brand of a spa reflects its clients, the better it will do. And the more consistent it is, the better will the right clients be attracted.

If you want to know more, try this blog on spa marketing.

Massage Marketing

An individual health practitioner needs to develop a strong network.

In a way, the brand is you. So the better you are able to reflect your true self, the more happy you will be with your work. And clients will notice and refer.

Because of that, networking is so essential. It is building strong relationships within your community. Not to get everyone as a client, but to have people who know and respect you for who you are. I have written on it in The Best Way to Promote Yourself.

So even though spas have a bigger marketing budget, individual massage practitioners have a much easier way to promote themselves, by just being yourself and connecting with people.

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Tags: advertising material, brand, marketing massage, Networking, spa marketing

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 14th, 2008 at 11:08 am and is filed under Marketing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.