5 Steps to Growing Leads and Booking New Appointments

Want new customers for your business? Of course! That’s the name of the game, right?  More customers in the door will increase sales and revenue, and help you become more financially successful. Most skincare and spa professionals think they need to run an ad for a service where they offer an amazing new skincare treatment at a great price, to promote a sale where they offer a specific discount on all services, or even offer a sale on a package of services to ensure they have a stream of customers coming in the door month after month.

Here’s a pro tip: you can grow your lead base of potential clients without offering a sale. Imagine a list of new potential clients landing in your inbox on a regular basis—no sale, no discounts, no special prices. Growing leads is vital. New leads equal potential new clients; potential new clients equal new revenue. And, growing your lead base has never been easier than using digital media. Now if you, want to do a Facebook post and have people text your phone, you can do that, but at some point, the mental breakdown will come.  

Face it—you’re one person, you can only do so much! You can’t run the business, text back-and-forth about appointments, order inventory and supplies, pay bills, create Facebook and Instagram posts, clean the facility, fix the steamer, take continuing education classes, read American Spa magazine, attend the International Esthetics, Cosmetics and Spa Conferences, do the laundry, call the bank, deal with the problem with your credit card deposits, and do the facials…yes, there are still treatments to do!  

Don’t worry, Lipgloss + Aftershave is here to help. Check out their signature five step plan to help you stay sane and grow your business in your sleep.
 

Five Steps to Growing Leads and Booking Appointments


1. Develop Something of Value

The first step to growing leads is simple: develop something of value that will pique the interest of potential clients. In this life you have to give to get. It doesn’t have to be expensive, this item of value is your “give” so that you can “get” the potential new clients email address. You might want to consider raffling off product, giving away a treatment, offering to mail free sample kits, or writing a great article on a topic that your clients will find interesting. Then offer to allow these new clients “Enter to Win,” “Get Free Samples,” or “Read How to Prevent Crow’s Feet,” and all they have to do is give you their email to do so.

 

2. Create A Landing Page on Your Site with a Contact Form

After you’ve come up with your item, create a landing page on your website that describes the item (the giveaway, samples, or article) and have a contact form embedded on the page. Instruct your clients to complete the form. Keep it simple—a name and email address will do. Anything more and they might be reluctant to submit.  

Most website templates have a “blog” option. You can use a blog post page to create this landing page. Contact forms are pretty standard, and most allow you to direct the inquiry right to a specific email address, though a more sophisticated sites will allow you to direct the information that was submitted directly to an email marketing service. A service like Constant Contact allows you to be sure the submissions are being sent to a specific list for this promotion.

 

3.  Post Page To Social Media

Post your new landing page to your Facebook page and put it in your Instagram profile link or add it to your Instagram profile link’s tree. Make sure your post clearly states what you’re giving and be clear that they need to enter their email address!
 

4.   Run Local Social Media Ad 

Turn that Facebook post into an ad on Facebook and Instagram by boosting it. Run the ad to your ideal customer base in your area. You can select age, gender, mile radius around your town, interest, and lifestyles. You can also set the amount of money you want to spend per day. Think of what you earn on one new client and invest an amount equal to that. This will send your offer into the news feeds of potential clients on Facebook and Instagram.
 

5. Send an Email to All Respondents Inviting Them To Book Online

If you set the contact form to come to your inbox, you should receive an email with every submission. You’ll need to add the address to your email marketing service. Be sure to create a list for this specific promotion. If you have had the contact form, send it directly to your email marketing service, you will have one less step. 

You will want to create an email that is set to be an autoresponder, meaning it automatically is sent whenever a new lead is added to an assigned list. This means that whenever a new lead is added to the list for your specific promotion, an email goes out. You can create the email that helps them understand what they just entered to win, or how to claim their free samples, or how to get the paper on How To Prevent Crow’s Feet. You can also send more than one email, so try sending recipients a second email a few days later to thanking them for joining your list. Then explain what you do in your business and invite them in for a service!
 

The beauty of this five-step system is that you will be growing your leads while you sleep. New clients will discover you on Facebook and register for your raffle prize, then be placed on your email list and then be sent an invitation to come to your spa—all while you’re doing the 10,000 other things that you have to do that day. If this sounds daunting, you may want to see if your web developer can help. You may also want to hire a digital media consultant to help you set up the whole system. You’ll thank yourself once you start!
 

Lipgloss + Aftershave cofounder Barry Eichner contributed new articles to American Spa online each month during 2019. You can find them all here.
 

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