Social Media Outage! What Now?
So yesterday, social media went down for about four hours, and the world was freaking out. Now, I had originally thought that maybe my account had been hacked because I couldn't log in and I was just on. And then I thought, oh my gosh, like, okay, well, this is going to stink, like this is going to mess everything up if I've been hacked.
But then I saw an email that said that social media, there was an outage. And I thought, okay, well, that's fine. I'll just come back to whatever I was doing.
And I wasn't worried about it at all. But I know a lot of other people were worried about it. And that's because they don't, they aren't doing this one thing that they should be doing to stay in touch with their clients.
And in today's episode, I'm going to dive in all about that strategy that I have that keeps me connected. And you should have too.
Welcome to the Spa Business Building Podcast, your go-to destination for turning your passion as a beauty or wellness professional into a successful and profitable business. I'm Tiffany, your host. I'm a mom, wife, licensed esthetician and massage therapist, and enthusiast of all things business building.
Not too long ago, I took a bold step into entrepreneurship, embracing the roles as a wife and mother of two while venturing into the spa industry as a solo practitioner. Armed with nearly two decades of expertise as a licensed esthetician and massage therapist, my passion for the spa industry fueled my determination to succeed despite having zero business experience and no client base. I created Spa Business Building because I've been in your shoes.
I faced the challenges, celebrated the victories, and learned invaluable lessons along the way. Now I'm here to share my insights, strategies, and the insider knowledge that transformed my own business. In the Spa Business Building Podcast, we'll deep dive into all things spa business related, from effective marketing strategies and client retention secrets, to building solid business systems.
I'll bring in industry experts, successful entrepreneurs, and share real life stories to inspire and guide you on your journey. So whether you're a solo esthetician, spa owner, or someone dreaming of entering the world of wellness, this podcast is for you. So subscribe now so you don't miss out on the valuable insights that will take your spa business to new heights.
Get ready to unlock the secrets of spa business building and embark on this exciting journey together. Your thriving business awaits. So social media went down for four hours.
And if you are solely relying on social media to communicate with your audience or clients, this probably felt like an eternity, and you were probably feeling a little lost. I have to admit, I wasn't freaking out though. I thought it was a little annoying because I had some work that I needed to do, which involved scheduling some posts and other things.
But I didn't feel like it was a big deal at all because I have another way that I communicate with my guests. And that's through emails. I have email marketing.
I've been building an email list for years. I have hundreds of people on my list for my day spa and my spa business building. I actually did a little housekeeping last year or so and deleted a ton of inactive members from my list.
I send at least one email each week, sometimes two or three, just depending on what's going on. If I have some last minute cancellations and I will put out an email or I have a flash sale, I'll send an extra email. My open rate, which is the percentage that subscribers that open your emails, is about 49.9%.
My click-through rate, which that means your subscribers who click on a link in your email, my rate is 2.1%. My unsubscribe rate is 0.4%. And my deliverability rate, which is the number of emails that went through and didn't bounce, so those are real emails and not fake accounts.
“But my deliverability is 99.6%. So on average, open rates should be about 20%, so anything over that is good. Click-through rates, a good click-through rate should be between 2% and 5%, and an unsubscribe rate should be about 0.26%.
So a number below that would be considered good. So I feel like my percentages are pretty fantastic, and I can't complain because I have about a 50% open rate. But my weekly emails usually consist of my available openings.
If I ever have any, I'll talk about my weekly retail specials and my Facial of the Month reminders. I'll also talk about anything new and exciting coming up. And I try to share some personal tidbits about my life, like our fun-filled weekend or something like that, make it a little bit more personal.
And I'm sure that if you're using a scheduling system, you're gathering emails from all of your clients that schedule appointments with you, which is great. But you should be utilizing this list to your advantage, and you need to start communicating with your guests on a regular basis consistently, even if you're just starting out and you only have a handful of guests, because those guests don't know that they are only a few of them, that they're one of ten. They have no idea.
So communicating with them regularly to stay in the forefront of their minds, like popping into their inbox weekly to say hi, offer some education or self-tips, let them know of your availability. They don't know that you're talking to only two people, so you should also be collecting e-mails outside of just your guests that schedule appointments. Now, my scheduling system collects e-mails and it integrates with my e-mail marketing.
So when someone schedules an appointment, it gets sent to my e-mail marketing and I'm capturing those e-mails. But outside of that, I am capturing e-mails through my website. So I have a pop-up when someone comes to my website.
A box will pop up after about 10 seconds of being on my site, asking them to join my e-mail list and I give them a 15% discount in my retail shop for purchase of products or to schedule an appointment. I've only had a couple of people actually remember to use that discount code on their first appointment, but people are there because they are curious. So having that pop-up to capture those e-mails, when someone pops up and puts their e-mail in, they are sent to a funnel, a nurturing sequence, a drip funnel.
Some people call it different things, campaign funnel, nurturing sequence, drip funnel. I call it a nurturing sequence, but they will automatically get a welcome e-mail that says thank you for joining. And then through the week, I think there's about five days, five e-mails.
So each day, they will get a new e-mail. I'm talking about my services. I have a bio about myself.
And then on the last e-mail, I will remind them to use that 15% off again. But I capture quite a few e-mails weekly, and not a lot of people use the discount, which is fine, because there's some scheduling appointments regularly. You should be collecting e-mails outside of your system.
You can do it through your website. So e-mails on your website, you can offer a freebie or to entice potential clients to sign up. Sometimes this can feel itchy, but remember they're on your website for a reason.
They're most likely there because they're curious about your services, want to know more about who you are. So offering them a discount or freebie for joining your list is a great way to stay in touch with your potential clients and nurture them into buying your service and products. So on average, it takes about seven points of interaction before someone schedules or buys from you, because people need a little more coaxing.
They need to know, like, and trust those they buy from, and getting them on your email list to nurture that relationship with them is a great way to build that know, like, and trust with your potential guests. So here are five reasons you need to start an email list right away and utilize it regularly. Number one, client retention and loyalty.
Emails allow you to maintain a direct line of communication with your clients. So regular newsletters, exclusive offers, personalized updates, keep your clients engaged, ensuring they remember and return to your services. Number two, strategic marketing.
With an email list, you can tailor your marketing messages to specific segments of your audience. You can personalize promotions based on client preferences and behaviors that lead to higher conversion rates. Now, I also have segmented emails.
When I special a promotion or if I have an event, I will create a new segment. That way, I know where people are coming from when they capture their emails. So I have a segment for my website.
I have any events, but then I also have guests segmented per scheduling. So I have my facial, my massage clients, my waxing clients, because each of those clients, I like to market to differently because they're essentially different clientele. And you can do the same thing with your email list and make it more strategic when you are promoting or marketing to them.
So number three, education and expertise showcase. It allows you to position yourself as an authority in the industry by sharing valuable tips, advice, or industry insights. And it helps you to regularly provide valuable content that builds trust and keeps your audience eagerly anticipating your next email.
People join your email list for a reason. Sometimes it's just for the discount, and then they can just unsubscribe their way out. Otherwise, they join your list and enjoy the content that you have out.
So when you're checking your analytics and looking at those numbers, you know exactly what your clients are wanting, what information they enjoy. So if you have emails that kind of flop, there's no open rates, no click through, you know that's not the content that your guests want to see. When you have high open rates and click through rates, then you know that that's what your guests want to see.
And there is a little trick to the headline that you are putting on your emails to people to open them. So number four, boosting sales. Announce new services, product launches, or limited time promotions directly to your loyal audience.
Use this to promote. Studies show that email marketing has one of the highest conversion rates among marketing channels. Number five, data driven decisions.
Track open rates, click through rates, and other metrics to understand what works best for your audience. I just said this. Use this data to refine your strategies, ensuring each email is more effective than the last.
But another really important reason is that you own the rights to your email list. Now, usually when someone joins your list, you can have an opt in so that they are specifically saying they are opting in to your list. They are saying it is okay to send them emails.
There are laws in various states about opt ins. And if someone is just signing up, scheduling an appointment, and you're sending them emails, I have an opt in for all of my guests. They can opt in to emails and text message marketing.
It's still good to capture those emails in case you really need to send important information, but for just marketing and promotional purposes, you may want to opt in. But you own that list. So if social out, it crashes all day, or it is non-existent forever, you still have a way to communicate with your guests and market to them.
So if you are solely relying on social media to engage with your customers, you're losing out. I think it's a really great idea to have both avenues, but communicating through email marketing is so much more valuable, in my opinion, because you always have a way to communicate with them unless they unsubscribe. And if they unsubscribe, then that just means that they weren't your ideal client.
But here's a fun fact for you. According to a survey by HubSpot, email marketing has an average return on investment ROI of $42 for every $1 spent. So if my math is correct, that means that let's just say you're spending $38 a month on your email marketing system.
That's what you're paying for, email marketing, $38 a month. You will get $1,596 back from that. That means that you will capture those sales from that email system.
Almost $1,600. Now, that's an investment worth making. I'm only spending $38, but I'm getting nearly $1,600 back from sending regular emails to my clients.
That's making them buy my products and schedule services. That sounds amazing. And if I actually think about it, yes, that does happen, because when I send an email that says, I have an opening or I have this special, people buy those products and they schedule those appointments.
And it's about $1,600. That's not what I make on a regular basis of my returning clients, but if I have an opening and I need to send those emails, that's about what I make. So I would say that's true.
Now, there are lots of different email marketing platforms out there. I've tried so many of them. I've tried MailChimp, Clavio, ActiveCampaign, ConvertKit.
But right now, I'm using Flodesk and it is by far my favorite. Now, I've been in business for nine years. I actually started out just using MassageBook.
That's who I used to have. And it was limited. I wasn't able to capture emails from Potential because there was just no workaround.
It was capturing the emails for all the guests who were with me. But I couldn't just capture potential clients. There were no pop-ups.
And I don't know if that's... I haven't used them in years, so I don't know if that's still the case. But I needed something where I could capture pop-ups and use pop-ups to capture clients.
So I tried these other ones. And I like Flodesk the more because it's simple. It integrates with my scheduling system, which is Acuity.
And it's super user-friendly. And it creates beautiful emails and funnels. And I can do it easily within minutes.
And they have tutorials. They teach you how to do all of that stuff. But it is super.
But I have a special offer for all of my listeners. You can get 50% off your first year of Flodesk by using my referral code. And I will post that in the show notes.
50% off. And I will tell you, Flodesk is very, very affordable. I pay $38 a month.
Now, you can pay more than that if you add on a few. But what's really great is that you pay for the monthly fee and limit how many subscribers you have. A lot of the other systems, it limits how many subscribers, how many funnels, how many emails you can send out, and Flodesk does not do that.
That's why I love them. So if you want 50% off, you want to try it out, you want 50% off your first year, I'll post that in the show notes. So that is it for today's episode, my friend.
I hope you found this information valuable. Thank you so much for joining me. If you liked today's episode, don't forget to leave a review and share it with your fellow beauty and wellness besties.
Until next time, stay inspired, stay fabulous, and happy business building.
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