SMME #433 Why LinkedIn Matters for Spa CEOs: Build Strategic Partnerships That Scale - Spa Marketing Made Easy | Spa Business Growth

Summary

Spa Marketing Made Easy Podcast: Episode SMME #433
Title: Why LinkedIn Matters for Spa CEOs: Build Strategic Partnerships That Scale
Host: Daniela Woerner, Licensed Aesthetician
Release Date: May 12, 2025

Introduction

In Episode SMME #433 of the Spa Marketing Made Easy Podcast, host Daniela Woerner delves into the often-overlooked yet essential role of LinkedIn in building strategic partnerships for spa CEOs. This episode emphasizes the significance of leveraging LinkedIn to create mutually beneficial relationships with local businesses, ultimately aiding in the scalable growth of a spa enterprise.

The Power of Strategic Partnerships

Daniela begins by highlighting the invaluable nature of strategic partnerships in the spa industry. She asserts that collaborations with local businesses can significantly enhance a spa’s reach and client base.

“When it comes to growing your spa, partnerships are absolutely gold.”
(00:45)

She identifies various local business types that complement spa services, such as wellness centers, fitness studios, nutritionists, luxury real estate agents, bridal shops, event planners, and permanent makeup studios. By partnering with these businesses, spa owners can tap into overlapping clienteles, creating a network of referrals and joint promotions.

Why LinkedIn Over Other Social Platforms

A substantial portion of the episode focuses on why LinkedIn stands out as the premier platform for building these strategic partnerships, especially when compared to more popular social media platforms like Instagram and Facebook.

LinkedIn’s Professional Edge

Daniela presents compelling statistics to underscore LinkedIn’s professional focus:

“LinkedIn has over 1 billion members worldwide and the majority, more than 50%, are professionals between the ages of 25 to 34.”
(03:10)

She emphasizes that LinkedIn’s user base consists predominantly of high-income professionals, making it an ideal space for spa CEOs seeking to collaborate with established and financially stable businesses.

Advanced Search Capabilities

One of LinkedIn’s standout features, according to Daniela, is its robust search functionality. Users can filter connections by location, industry, and company size, making it easier to identify and connect with relevant local business owners.

“You can easily filter by location, by industry, even by company size. So that means it's super easy to find other business owners in your local area who, who you actually want to know and collaborate with.”
(04:15)

Comparison with Instagram

Daniela contrasts LinkedIn with Instagram, pointing out that while Instagram boasts over 2 billion users, its demographic skews younger and may not align with the target audience of many spa businesses.

“Instagram has over 2 billion users, but it's definitely younger. We've got 76% of US adults age 18 to 29 are active on Instagram.”
(05:00)

She argues that LinkedIn’s mature and professional user base is more conducive to forming strategic business relationships that can drive sustainable growth.

Building and Leveraging Your Personal Brand on LinkedIn

Daniela stresses the importance of cultivating a strong personal brand on LinkedIn. She advises spa CEOs to focus on their personal profiles rather than solely on company pages to foster genuine connections.

“On LinkedIn, people want to connect with people. It's great to have your company up there to be able to tag it and kind of do the slow build, but really focus on people to people connections and relationships on LinkedIn.”
(07:30)

She notes that content shared by CEOs garners significantly higher engagement, enhancing visibility and authority within the network.

“The posts that are featuring CEOs get three times more engagement.”
(06:45)

Actionable Strategies for Utilizing LinkedIn

Daniela provides listeners with practical steps to harness LinkedIn’s potential effectively:

Profile Optimization:
She urges spa CEOs to refresh and update their LinkedIn profiles, ensuring they reflect their professional achievements and business objectives.

“I want you to refresh your profile, I want you to update your profile, I want you to create a profile if you have not done that yet.”
(09:00)
Active Networking:
Engage in searching for and connecting with local business owners who align with your spa’s brand and clientele.

“Start playing around with the possibility, doing some searches, finding other business owners in your local area that you can connect with and build relationships with.”
(09:45)
Content Sharing:
Regularly share insights, updates, and valuable content from a CEO’s perspective to establish authority and attract meaningful connections.
Cross Promotions and Referrals:
Utilize LinkedIn to arrange cross-promotional activities and establish referral pipelines that benefit all parties involved.

Foundational vs. Tactical Strategies

Daniela distinguishes between foundational and tactical marketing strategies, emphasizing that relationship marketing on LinkedIn serves as a foundational approach that underpins other tactical efforts like advertising and SEO.

“Relationship marketing is foundational. This is something that for years and years and years you have heard and you will continue to hear about the power of your network, the power of relationships that create opportunity and success.”
(11:30)

She asserts that strong relationships open doors to opportunities that tactical strategies alone cannot achieve, reinforcing the necessity of investing time and effort into network building.

Call to Action

Towards the end of the episode, Daniela encourages listeners to take immediate action:

“If you are serious about growing your spa, not just client by client, but through building strategic partnerships with other businesses. LinkedIn is not optional. It is essential.”
(12:15)

She advises spa CEOs to prioritize LinkedIn in their marketing strategies to harness its full potential for business growth and leadership positioning within their local markets.

Conclusion

Daniela wraps up the episode by reiterating the critical role LinkedIn plays in building strategic partnerships that can scale a spa business effectively. She encourages listeners to connect with her on LinkedIn and to implement the discussed strategies to elevate their spas to the next level.

“Start using LinkedIn. Like the CEO that you are. I want you to do this for yourself.”
(13:00)

Key Takeaways:

Strategic Partnerships: Collaborating with complementary local businesses can significantly boost a spa’s client base and growth potential.
Why LinkedIn: LinkedIn offers a professional and mature user base, advanced search tools, and higher engagement rates for CEO-driven content, making it more effective than platforms like Instagram for building business relationships.
Personal Branding: Focusing on personal profiles and sharing insightful content as a CEO can enhance visibility and authority on LinkedIn.
Actionable Steps: Optimize your LinkedIn profile, actively network with local business owners, share valuable content, and establish cross-promotional opportunities.
Foundational Strategy: Relationship marketing on LinkedIn serves as a cornerstone for sustainable business growth, supporting and enhancing tactical marketing efforts.

By leveraging LinkedIn effectively, spa CEOs can build a robust network of strategic partners, facilitating scalable and sustainable growth for their businesses.

Transcript

A (0:00)

Welcome to Spa Marketing Made Easy, a podcast for spa owners who want to step up their leadership and business skills and step into the role as spa CEO. I'm your host, Daniela Warner, CEO of Atto Aesthetics and founder of the Growth Factor Framework program where we teach, coach and guide spa owners in scaling their spas to the next level of growth and unlocking freedom in their life and their business. I'm so glad you're here.

B (0:26)

Now.

A (0:26)

Now let's dive into the show.

B (0:31)

Welcome to Spa Marketing Made Easy, the Show where spa CEOs get the tools and strategies to scale with ease. I'm Daniella and today we are diving into a platform that is often overlooked but absolutely critical when it comes to building real business partnerships, strategic partnerships. These relationships are the type of relationships that will help you scale with ease. I'm talking about LinkedIn, not Instagram, not Facebook, LinkedIn. And if you're thinking, wait, isn't LinkedIn for job hunters? Just hang on, I'm going to change the way that you look at it. So let's go ahead and start here. When it comes to growing your spa, partnerships are absolutely gold. We want to be able to collaborate with other local businesses. So when I say local businesses, I'm talking about wellness centers, fitness studios, nutritionist, luxury real estate agents, bridal shops, event planners, permanent makeup studios. I mean, there's so many lists of business types that also serve the same clientele as we do in our spa. And so we want to be able to find, find them locally and start to build connections and relationships with them. LinkedIn, hands down, is the best platform for that. So what's really cool about LinkedIn is their search tools. So you can easily filter by location, by industry, even by company size. So that means it's super easy to find other business owners in your local area who, who you actually want to know and collaborate with. You might be wondering, well, why wouldn't I just use Instagram? Let me give you some stats. Okay, so first, LinkedIn has over 1 billion members worldwide and the majority, more than 50%, are professionals between the ages of 25 to 34. So over half of LinkedIn users are from high income households. That is the type of professional network that you want to tap into, right? We're looking for partnerships. We're looking for businesses that are standing on their own two feet and that are working well, that we can create a relationship that's mutually beneficial. We don't want to have a relationship where it's just one side is the giver and the other side is the taker. Okay, so real strategic partnerships that work incredibly well. Both sides are providing value to one another. Okay, so if we compare LinkedIn to Instagram, sure, Instagram has over 2 billion users, but it's definitely younger. It's more casual. We've got 76% of US adults age 18 to 29 are active on Instagram. And so if we're thinking that, hey, we in the spa space, we are targeting a more mature, a more sophisticated. Most of us, right. We all serve different age demographics. But if we have such a high percentage of 18 to 29 year olds on Instagram, is that where your clientele is? Okay, maybe for some of you, but not for everybody. And when we're looking at building strategic partnerships, I can tell you from myself, like, I like to look at my own behavior. Yes, we absolutely have an Instagram account for adoesthetics. Am I on there? No, my team handles that. Where am I? I'm on LinkedIn. If you send me a message on LinkedIn, it will be me that responds to it. If you send me a message on Instagram, it will be my team that responds to it. Okay, so that is normal for so many business owners that I have spoken with. So if you want to get straight to the CEO, the founder in your local area of these businesses, LinkedIn is the place to do it. Okay, so here's another key difference. On LinkedIn, about 70% of users engage with content shared by companies. And the posts that are featuring CEOs get three times more engagement. So that means when you show up and share your insights as a spa CEO, you're not just posting into the void. People are ready to listen, connect, and collaborate. And I want to just highlight something here. I said, you know, on LinkedIn, 70% of users engage with content shared by companies. We want to lead with your personal brand first. So your personal profile is what you want to be building. On LinkedIn, people want to connect with people. It's great to have your company up there to be able to tag it and kind of do the slow build, but really focus on people to people connections and relationships on LinkedIn. Okay? So people are ready to listen. So if you are serious about growing your spa, not just client by client, but through building strategic partnerships with other businesses. LinkedIn is not optional. It is essential. All right, so you've got to leverage these networking features to help you build a local community. You can create cross promotions, you can create referral pipelines, you can get in front of other people's audiences, and you can position yourself as a leader in your local market. So if you haven't yet, what I want you to do right now, unless you're driving, unless you're doing your workout, I don't know when everybody listens, but I know we get a lot of commuters and doing your makeup or doing your workout, if you are able, as soon as you're able, I want you to go to LinkedIn. I want you to refresh your profile, I want you to update your profile, I want you to create a profile if you have not done that yet. And I want you to start playing around with the possibility, doing some searches, finding other business owners in your local area that you can connect with and build relationships with. Okay? This is so incredibly powerful as an overall strategy. This is a foundational strategy. And when I talk about the difference between a foundational strategy and a tactical strategy, the tactical strategies sit on top of that. Foundational strategy ads, SEO, those are tactical. Those, the strategies can shift and change. But relationship marketing is foundational. This is something that for years and years and years you have heard and you will continue to hear about the power of your network, the power of relationships that create opportunity and success. It's how you get in the right room. Okay? So start using LinkedIn. Like the CEO that you are. I want you to do this for yourself. Okay? So if you found today's episode helpful, don't forget to subscribe, leave a review and share it with another spa CEO who is ready to elevate their business. Find me on LinkedIn. Send me a connection request. I would love to connect with you over there and I will catch you on the next episode.