← Spa Marketing Made Easy | Spa Business Growth
Spa Marketing Made Easy | Spa Business Growth
SMME #478 Is Your Online Presence Losing Clients Before They Ever Call? How to Audit Your Digital First Impression
00:22:10
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Foreign. Hello, my dears. Daniela here, and welcome back to the Spa Marketing Made Easy podcast. If you are new here, I am so glad that you found us. This podcast is all about helping esthetic professionals like you build a business that is profitable, sustainable, and built around the life that you actually want to live. So today's episode, I have a feeling this one is going to hit close to home for a lot of you, because we're talking about something that is costing spa owners real clients real revenue every single day, and most of them have absolutely no idea that it's happening. So here's the scenario. You have a beautiful spa. You have incredible skills. You have clients who love you. You're showing up, you're doing the work. And still new client inquiries feel slower than they should be, and you can't figure out why. So here's what I want you to consider. Your prospective client, your ideal client, the woman you built your business for. She's not waiting to meet you before she decides whether she's going to book. She's researching you online. She's scrolling your Instagram, Googling your business, landing on your website. And in a matter of seconds per platform, she's making a gut decision. Is this for me or is it not? And if your online presence is not giving her a clear, confident, immediate answer to that question, she's not going to just call and ask. She's not going to DM to get more information. She just leaves and she's going to go to the next spa and she's going to book there. Now, that's what's happening right now, today, while you were in the treatment room, while you're at school, pickup, while you're listening to this podcast. And the question is, what is she deciding when she finds you? So today, we are going to talk about what I call the digital first impression trifecta. So your Instagram profile, your Google business profile, and your website, we're not going to cover every single detail of every platform. We actually do that inside of our growth factor implementation program. But what we are going to do is shift the way that you're thinking about these platforms, because I truly believe that when you understand the real job that each one is supposed to be doing, you're never going to look at your online presence the same way again. All right, so before we get into any specific platform, I need to give you the reframe that changes how you're going to look at all of this. Because without this shift, even if you go fix your bio or update your website, you're going to keep running into the same problem. So your online presence is not just marketing. It's not just a feed or a listing or a page. It's your first employee. And it's on the clock 24 hours a day, seven days a week, whether you're working or not. So think about that for a moment right now, again, while you're listening to this, someone might be Googling spas in your area. Someone might be scrolling Instagram and looking for a provider who understands her skin. Someone. Someone might be landing on your website from a referral or from an ad. And your online presence is the employee that's greeting her, talking to her, and building her trust or losing it without you in the room. So the question is not, do I have a website? Do I have an Instagram? Do I have a Google business profile? Most of you have all three. The question is, is my online presence doing its job? And here's where most spa owners get tripped up. They build their online presence for themselves, not for their ideal client. Their Instagram feed looks beautiful to them. The website copy makes perfect sense to them. The Google description has all the information they think is important. But here's the deal. You already know your business. You know what you offer, you know who you serve. You know what makes you different. Your ideal client does not know any of that yet. So she's a stranger who just landed on your page and she's got about five seconds to decide if that's the right place. So for the filter, for everything that we talk about today is this one question. Would my ideal client land here and immediately know this is for her? Not do I like this? Not does this look professional? The only question is, would she see herself here? Would she recognize her own pain points, her desires, her own questions being answered? That is the standard, and it's a much higher bar than most online presences are currently meeting. But when you close that gap, everything changes. Now, one of the first things that we build inside of Growth Factor implementation is a deeply detailed ICA document. When I say ica, I mean ideal client avatar. And this thing, I'm so proud of this thing. I love this document. We actually built a custom GPT that our clients, we just dropped their worksheet into it. We kind of prompt them to ask a few questions and then it generates this insanely detailed, beautiful four to five page document that paints a complete picture of who their ideal client is. Not just demographics, not just age and income. We're talking about the kind of woman that she is. Her values, her lifestyle, the way she sees herself, what she cares about when she's making a purchasing decision. And actually, you know, this week I've done a few of them and I wanted to share one of my favorite examples from a client I worked with recently, because it just illustrates this so perfectly. So her ideal client is an outdoorsy woman. She's wealthy. She. She's going to show up to her appointments in a Canada Goose jacket with a Tom Ford purse on her arm. But if you look a little closer, you would find a crystal in that purse. Because she is so deeply spirit, she wants a holistic approach to skincare. She's not just looking for results. She's looking for an experience that honors who she is on the inside, too. Now think about what that means for your online presence. When you know a person that specifically, you know exactly what to say to her. You know the words that make her feel seen. You know the experience that she's hoping to walk into before she even books, you know what she values. And you can respect those values at every single touch point in your Instagram bio, in your Google description, in the copy on your homepage. That is what builds trust, my friends. Not just a beautiful logo, not just a perfectly curated feed. It's the moment she reads something on her page and thinks she gets me. This was built for someone like me. And here's what happens when the work is missing. Your online presence might be beautiful, it might be professional, but it's speaking to everyone in general, which means it's speaking to no one in particular. The brand that does everything is the brand that does nothing. And your ideal client is going to scroll right past it. Not because she would not love your spa, but because nothing stopped her and said, hey, this is for you. That is the gap that we're talking about today. So let's get into Instagram first. Okay? And I want to start by saying that might be a little bit uncomfortable. I know that for spot owners, Instagram is the platform that so many of you are spending the most time on, but it's also the platform with the most misplaced effort. So here's what I mean by that. Most of the energy is going into the content. The reels, the carousels, the posts. And the content matters a hundred percent. I am not saying that it. It doesn't. But before any of that content can work, before anyone is going to stop scrolling and pay attention to what you're posting, they're going to land on your profile. And your profile specifically, your bio, your link, Your highlights. That's your storefront window. That is what a stranger is going to decide in five seconds. That's going to help her know if she's going to stay or if she's going to leap. And I want to speak directly to the spot owners who are thinking right now. Well, most of my clients come from word of mouth, so that doesn't really matter for me on Instagram. I hear this all the time. I get it. Referrals are incredible. Word of mouth is incredible. But I want you to think about that process of how you're getting to getting a referral. Even a referral will oftentimes go to your Instagram. Right when your happy client texts her friend and says, you have to go see my esthetician, she's probably sharing the profile. She might even be DMing her your profile in a message. Okay, they're going to go directly to your profile. And that friend, that warm, already interested, practically pre sold prospective client is clicking on your profile, deciding in five seconds whether or not she's going to follow through and book. Now, your Instagram is her first impression of you, even when the introduction came from someone she trusts completely. So even if she never found you through the feed, your profile is still the thing that's either closing that referral or quietly letting it slip away. And the mindset shift that I want you to take away about Instagram is this. You're not building a feed, you're building a first impression. Every element of your profile has a specific job to do. Your bio's job is to make your ideal client immediately feel seen to. Tell her in just a few words that this spa was built for someone like her. Your job is to remove every possible barrier between her interest and her booking. Your highlight's job is to answer the questions she has before she even knows to ask them. When those elements are not doing their jobs, it does not matter how beautiful your content is. She is going to land on your profile, feel nothing in particular, and keep scrolling. So the most common thing that I see with spa owners is not that their Instagram is broken, it's that their Instagram is generic. Looks like every other spa Instagram, and generic does not build trust. Specific does. When your ideal client reads your bio and thinks she's talking to me, that's when your Instagram starts to work. Okay, so now let's get into your Google business profile. And this is the platform I'm like really excited about right now. And I care a lot about it right now. It's oftentimes one of the most neglected, one of the most underestimated. So the mindset shift that I want you to take away from this, from Google is that if you look at Instagram as window shopping, Google is I have my wallet out and I'm ready to buy. And that's a really important distinction because when someone searches facial near me or best esthetician in and puts her city in, she's not in exploration mode, she is in decision mode. She knows what she wants. She's choosing between you and the spa two miles away. That's the highest intent moment that you are ever going to get from a prospective client. And your Google business profile is the thing standing between her choosing you or choosing someone else. And yet this platform that most spa owners either set up once and forget about, or have never even fully built out at all. I can't tell you how many times I've pulled up a spa's Google profile during a coaching call, found outdated photos or generic description or an old logo that hasn't been updated. Things that are not creating the cohesiveness from their online presence. There may be not a ton of reviews and that spot owner is wondering why her new client flow feels inconsistent. The mindset shift for Google is this. Your Google profile is not a listing, it's a conversion tool. It's either actively earning or losing clients for you every single day based on how complete, how current and how specific it is. Now, I want to take this one step further because the way that people are searching is changing faster than most people realize. And I think it's one of the most important things I can tell you right now. Traditional Google search is still enormously important, but AI powered search is growing rapidly alongside it. People are going to ChatGPT and asking what's the best facial for sensitive skin in Austin? Or recommend a holistic spa near me. And those AI tools are pulling the information that exists from your business online. Your website, your website copy, your reviews, your descriptions, the words you use across all of your platforms. And it goes even further than that. So Shopify earlier this year integrated directly with ChatGPT, which means that if your spa has an e commerce component and someone is searching for skincare products through an AI tool, your products can surface and even be purchased right inside of that conversation. So the line between search and sale is collapsing. And the spot owners who have invested in strong SEO and have a well built online presence are the ones who are going to benefit from that shift. Now, I'm not sharing this to overwhelm you okay, I'm sharing it. Because what this tells us is the fundamentals that we are talking about today. The specific language, the clear descriptions, the strong reviews, the website copy, the speaks directly to your ideal client. Those are not just good marketing practices anymore. These are the infrastructure that determines whether AI tools can even find you and recommend you in the first place. The rules of discovery are changing, but the foundation is the same. Be specific, be consistent, and make sure every platform tells a clear and compelling story about who you serve and what you do. And the urgency that I want you to feel is this. Someone is searching for what you offer in your city right now, today. Whether that's on Google or inside of an AI tool, your online presence is either showing up for her or it's not. Okay, last platform, and this one we're going to spend a little extra time on because I think it carries a lot of weight and does not get a lot of strategic attention. Your website is the only platform in this entire trifecta that you fully own and control. Instagram can change its algorithm tomorrow. Google can update the rules next month. Platforms rise and fall, but your website is yours. It's your home base. And because of that, it has a responsibility that no other platform has. Your website is not a brochure. It's a conversation. A brochure just presents information. Here's our services, here's our prices, here's our address. A conversation does something different. It meets your ideal client where she is, acknowledges what she's struggling with, shows her what is possible, and walks her towards a decision. The difference between a website that converts and one that does not is almost never about design. And I want to say that clearly, because I see spot owners invest thousands of dollars in a beautiful website redesign and still not see a difference in bookings. The design is lovely, but the words are written for the owner, not the client. The booking flow still has too much friction. The homepage still does not answer in five seconds why she should choose this spa over every other option that she has. The three things that I see most consistently missing on spa websites are, number one, copy that speaks directly to the ideal client in her own language. Number two, a booking experience that is so simple and frictionless that nothing gets in the way of her saying, yes, thank you, mango mint, and a homepage that immediately communicates, this spa was built for you specifically. Now, just like with the other platforms, the full framework for auditing and optimizing your website is something we go through in depth inside of our growth factor program. But honestly, the specifics are different for every spot, every ica, every offer. There's not a one size fits all template that works, requires looking at your specific site through the lens of your ideal client. And that's the work that we do together. But here's what I want you to do right now, today. I want you to open your website, look at your homepage, and ask yourself one question. If a complete stranger landed on this page in five seconds, would she know whether this spa is for her? Just that one question. Be honest with yourself, because that answer is going to tell you everything you need to know about where to start. Okay, so we've talked about Instagram, we've talked about Google, we've talked about your website. And I want to close the teaching portion of today's episode with something that kind of ties all three of these together. So each of these three platforms, they, they matter on their own, but the real power comes from consistency across all three. So here's what I mean by that. Your ideal client is rarely going to encounter just one of these platforms. She might discover you on Instagram, then Google your name to read your reviews and then click over to your website to book. She's touching all three in the span of maybe like five minutes. And what she's doing, whether she realizes it or not, is looking for confirmation. Every step she's asking, does this feel like the same business? Does this feel trustworthy? Does this feel like it's really for me? When all the platforms tell the same story, use the same language, reflect the same brand, the same energy, and point towards the same clear next step, that confirmation builds on itself. Every touch point she hits makes her more confident that she is in the right place and a confident client. Books. Now, when those platforms feel inconsistent, when the Instagram feels one way and the website feels another, and the Google description sounds like it was written by someone who'd never met either of them, the inconsistency creates doubt and doubt kills bookings. So the goal is not to make each platform better individually. The goal is to make them work together as one cohesive story. And the through line of that story is always your ideal client. Her language, her pain points, her desires, her transformations. When you get that right, your online presence stops being something that you have to manage and starts being something that works for you around the clock without you having to be present for every single interaction. This work, what we're talking today, this is actually a clarity project, because in order to make your Instagram speak to your ideal client, you have to know her deeply. In order to write a Google description that resonates, you have to understand what she's searching for and why. In order to build a website that converts, you have to know exactly what she needs in order to say yes. This is exactly why the very first thing that we do inside of growth factor implementation is get crystal clear on your ica. That's not a warm up exercise. This is the foundation that everything else is built on. We do this in phase one. We map out your ideal client. We apply the same level of clarity to your service menu, your profit margins. We make sure that the offer that you are leading with is actually aligned with your ica, is aligned with every other piece, and most importantly, aligned with the business that you are trying to build. When you do that foundational work in phase one and you get truly clear on who you serve and whether your business is profitable. When we move into phase two, the book to Visi Blueprint, the marketing just works. It clicks. Because you're not trying to market a business that's still figuring itself out. You're marketing a business that knows exactly who it's for, exactly what it offers, and exactly what it wants to say. The clarity is what makes everything downstream easier. So if you're feeling like your online presence is not working quite as hard as it should, I want you to know that it's not a reflection of your talent or your quality of work. It's just a gap in the system. And gaps in the system can be fixed. That's exactly what we do. All right, my dears, that is a wrap on today's episode. And if this conversation has you looking at your Instagram, looking at your Google business profile, looking at your website with fresh eyes, good. That means that my job here, my goal here, it is working. So if today's episode resonated with you, I would be so incredibly grateful if you could take 30 seconds and leave us a review on Apple Podcast. Reviews are the lifeblood of this show. They are how other aesthetic professionals find us. They mean the world to me personally. I read every single one. And if you know a spa owner who needs to hear this today, please share this episode with her. Forward it. Drop it in your Instagram stories, send it in a group chat. Let's get it in the hands of other people who need it. Thank you so much for being here and I will catch you on the next episode.
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Quick reminder before you leave, if your spa growth still depends on you doing more, it's time for a shift. Watch the system shift a free training designed to help spa owners break past that 25 to $35,000 month plateau without adding more treatment hours. You'll learn the CEO level systems that help you scale while protecting your time, your values and your piece. Go to grow.autoesthetics.com podcast and watch the systems shift. That's Grow autoesthetics.com podcast.