Nancy Griffin

Felicia Brown’s latest Spa Insider post “Whose Responsibility Is Marketing?” points out the pros and cons of engaging your spa staff in marketing activities. Felicia’s commentary got me thinking about the importance of involving everyone in your organization in marketing. Whether it is making outgoing phone calls or participating in social media, your staff must understand the “why” behind what they are doing and be compensated for their efforts.

As I was contemplating the spa industry’s marketing challenges,  I came across an article in McKinsey Quarterly titled “We’re All Marketers Now.” The premise is that “marketing is the company”.  It asserts, “Companies of all stripes must not only recognize that everyone is responsible for marketing but also impose accountability by establishing a new set of relationships between the function and the rest of the organization. . .In today’s marketing environment, companies will be better off if they stop viewing customer engagement as a series of discrete interactions and instead think about it as customers do: a set of related interactions that, added together, make up the customer experience.” Therefore, regardless of position or rank, we all must engage in marketing activities.

In addition to the myriad of activities a spa director must master, marketing must be at the top of the list. Resort and hotel spa directors are often taxed with marketing the spa without the support of the hotel’s in-house marketing department. Day spa owners spend countless hours designing promotions to drive traffic through the doors.  It is management’s responsibility to help the therapists see the bigger picture rather than force them to participate without explanation.

Everyone must be concerned with getting new clients through the door and encouraging repeat business.  The success of your business depends on it!

How do you engage your staff in marketing?  Share your marketing success stories and challenges below!