SMME EP427 6 Myths Holding Back Spa CEOs … Bust Them for Explosive Growth

12:59PM Mar 27, 2025

Speakers:

Daniela Woerner

Keywords:

Relationship marketing

spa growth

community ecosystem

customer loyalty

strategic partnerships

authentic relationships

local businesses

network building

brand visibility

community engagement

customer retention

lifetime value

collaboration

ROI tracking

business foundation.

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 Woerner, CEO of Addo 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 now. Let's dive into the show. Have you ever thought I don't have time for networking, or I'm just not the networking type? If so, you're not alone now as a working mom with two kids who also has a husband with a demanding career, I get it, but these beliefs are stalling your spas growth today, on the spa marketing Made Easy podcast, we're diving into the six most common myths spa CEOs tell themselves about relationship Marketing, and we're uncovering the truth behind each one, plus I'm going to give you actionable strategies to turn these myths into opportunities. So you ready? Okay, let's go ahead and start with a fundamental truth. Your spa doesn't exist in a vacuum. It's an integral part of a broader community ecosystem. Engaging with this community isn't just a nice to have, it's a cornerstone of sustainable success. So why is community so vital for small businesses? Well, there's the economic impact. You know, small businesses, they are the lifeblood of local economies. They create jobs, they foster innovation, they contribute to the unique character of neighborhoods. In fact, small businesses donate 250% more than larger businesses to local nonprofits and community causes. That's way more than the big companies. Okay? Mutual support. A thriving community supports its businesses. You've seen out there on Small Business Saturday, people coming and shopping. People want to support small business. They uplift their community. It's this really symbiotic relationship that leads to shared prosperity and resilience. So what exactly is relationship marketing? Well, it's a strategy that focuses on building long term relationships with your customers. Yes, of course, we want to emphasize retention. We want customer satisfaction and we want increased lifetime value. I've talked about that metric quite a bit. That is just good business, but we also believe that expanding your network, and really ultimately expanding your community, is going to create a stronger business foundation. Now I'm talking authentic relationships here, okay, not transactional relationships. I want real, authentic, meaningful. You genuinely care about this other human being in front of you. Relationships, okay? That builds community. Community creates opportunities. It creates referrals, and it even opens the door for strategic partnerships. Look, I love paid ads. I love building funnels. I love creating incredible spreadsheets. These are all tactical things, though, if I really zoom out, I owe the success of my business and where I'm at today to the relationships that I have built over the years. I want that for you too. So let me get into the benefits of relationship marketing, and I'm going to tell you this from like a customer perspective. First, you know why this matters to the customer, but then I'm also going to talk about why it matters from the business owners perspective. Okay, so from the customer perspective, when we focus on relationship marketing, we have increased customer loyalty, which right? We want that repeat business. It's more expensive to get a new client than it is to retain an existing one, so we want to make sure that we are building those relationships with our customers. When we have those relationships, we do have an increased lifetime customer value. It means that if, if a patient or client comes in for a facial and you have a relationship with them, they're more likely to trust you and then cross sell into something else. Maybe they're going to do a micro needling service. Maybe they're going to do their brows like their brows, micro bladed. They're going to be able to cross promote more when they have a deeper relationship, when they feel connected, and again, have that. Trust that increases your lifetime customer value, and that is huge. Then community engagement when you have relationships, and let's say you're hosting an open house, we know like we love doing events. We love mini events. We love open house, style of events when you have relationships with your super loyal people, they're going to be the ones that are showing up. They're going to be the ones that are really promoting your services for you through social proof. This is a huge deal when it comes to events, right? So these are three reasons that relationships can be really beneficial to customers in your business, but let's now look at the benefits of relationship marketing from a business owner's perspective. You're gonna hear me talk about strategic partnerships a lot, and

this is so like, I don't know if I've been able to fully like communicate how essential this is, but and how impactful this has been on my business. But strategic partnerships, these are relationships where you are collaborating with other local businesses that serve the same ideal client. Your businesses support one another. So I'm going to use successful ads club as a great strategic partnership. My girlfriend, Tara and I have known each other for 10 plus years. Our families, our friends, our families, vacation together. We met through an entrepreneurship group, a meetup group, here in the DC area. When she was living in DC, we became personal friends that evolved into a business relationship. We both had companies. She is She taught me everything I know about ads. She helped me grow my business with ads. Well, I don't want to teach ads in my business. That is not something. It changes so much. There's so much to stay up to date on. But it is a it is a need in spas, right? If you have a brick and mortar business, you've got to understand how to do paid advertising. It can be an incredible way, one way, you know, we talk about getting new leads, there's there's social, there's SEO, and there's the relationships, right, or word of mouth. So this is one really strong way that we're getting new clients in the door. So it's absolutely important. But she and I have a strategic partnership where my company highlights and recommends her company. Her company highlights and recommends my company. It goes back and forth, and she and I have such a level of trust, such a personal relationship, we can talk openly, we can talk clearly. We can we really understand the core values, the integrity of the other individual. That symbiotic relationship has benefited both of us, and that all started from taking a leap, putting yourself out there to meet people in the community, right? And this has now been 10 plus years that we have been friends, that we've been supporting one another's businesses, think of the amount of revenue that has come in. And on top of that, if I zoom out even more, if I look at the other entrepreneurs that Tara has connected me to, or that I have connected Tara to, expanding that network and how much money those relationships have generated into our business, it's huge, and it all starts with showing up. Okay, so strategic partnerships are so, so huge in your business. All right, so next up for benefits of relationship marketing from a business owner's perspective, enhanced brand visibility through collaborative content. So if you are an and I love this one for local business, for spa, because so many spas get hit up with, Hey, can you donate a gift certificate to this charity or to that charity, or to this school function or to that school function, and yes, you can absolutely and in exchange, I'd love you to send out this email to your list, right, so you're both giving. It's not just one taking. I think the reason that so many spa owners just get so frustrated around October, when we seem to be getting all of those requests to donate, donate, donate, donate, donate. Well, we want to make sure that we're seeing some result in that we want some exposure. So think about what it would be like to have a partnership with a charity that you. You are really passionate about that you believe in. We've got one gal who volunteers for a dog rescue, and she had an open house, she had a dog adoption center at her open house, where people could also so she was like, you know, supporting that charity. Think of a long term relationship that you could do where they're regularly promoting your business and you're regularly promoting their business. That's going to be much more effective than a one time, one time email or one time donation to a gift search of a gift certificate that may not even be redeemed. Right? So we want to make sure that that relationship piece is there, so that that other organization or business will continue to support you, to highlight you on your social on their social media, to maybe have a featured section of trusted partners on their website to email out to their list. It's these small, consistent actions that are going to make the big difference over time,

and then contribution to the community well, being right, being a part, being a leader in your community, that is so huge. So you're strengthening your community ties, you're participating in local events and initiatives, you're showing up as a contributing member, and your employees will often feel more engaged and proud to work for a business that positively impacts their community. So by by embracing relationship marketing strategies, you as a spa owner, you're not only driving growth and visibility, but you're also paying a pivotal role in enriching your local communities. Yet, even though there's all these really incredible benefits. Many spa CEOs hesitate to embrace relationship marketing, and there's six common reasons why. So six myths is what I'm calling these. So let's go ahead and break down each one of those. So Myth number one, I don't have time for networking and relationship building, I get it. I get it. Time is our most valuable resource, and when you are running a spa, it's demanding, it's overwhelming, it's exhausting. But integrating relationship marketing doesn't have to require a significant time investment. Relationship Marketing. Marketing can seamlessly be incorporated into your existing routines. So simple actions like engaging with clients during appointments, collaborating with with neighboring businesses, they can both be effective and time efficient. So you guys know, I love systems, right? So I'm going to give you a little system to help you do this in two hours a week, all right? So you can spend 30 minutes engaging on social media. You can spend 30 minutes reaching out to a potential partner, or potential partners, and maybe you have a list of potential partners that you want to be reaching out to. You can spend 30 minutes following up, and you can spend 30 minutes promoting another local business giving Okay, so these are ways that you can carve out. And if you haven't listened to our podcast episode about how we're using chat GPT in our business. Go back listen to that episode, and we'll link it up here and look at how you can use chat GPT to free up two hours or more so that you can plug in these two hours to actually do the work. Okay, super important there. So Myth number two, let's move on there. I'm not a natural networker, I'm not an extrovert, I'm an introvert. So not everyone feels comfortable in traditional networking settings, and that's okay. I get overwhelmed in groups of large people, I do really well in small groups, all right, but if I'm in a big group, I am not the one that is going to just naturally walk up and do small talk or, you know, figure out a a conversation starter. But the reality is authentic connections. You don't have to have this big, gregarious, outgoing personality. You have to have genuine conversations about showing up. You have to have genuine conversations about what you care about. You have to have genuine conversations. About the impact that you're wanting to make. So even if you're like, it's a hard No, I'm not going to a networking event. You can reach out. You can have a list of people that you want to reach out to via email or via LinkedIn, or whatever your kind of process is, and see if they'll meet you for coffee, see if they'll hop on a zoom call, right? So you can do that on a one, on one basis, and remove the part that is very stressful for you. All right. So your action item for this one start by reaching out to one local business owner that you admire or a business that you frequent. All right, a simple message expressing appreciation, a desire to connect, that can open doors to new possibilities, right? So I want to add a little caveat here, because you're gonna get nos, you're gonna get people that don't respond, and that's okay, right? Because you will also get yeses, and you will also get people who do respond and people who do want to collaborate. Don't take any of the no's personally. All right. I had one one rep. She was a skincare rep, and she said to me, one time, no just means not yet. And I thought, She's good. And so look at it from that perspective. Make sure that you're focusing on the impact that you're wanting to make. Don't take it personally. People have a lot of things going on in their life, and so we've got to make sure that we are just doing our thing, staying focused on what it is that we are trying to accomplish in our business. All right. Myth number three, I've tried networking before and it didn't work. Probably every single one of you listening to this has been through that before. You maybe have been to a past experience at a net where you're thinking of a past experience at a networking group that was not fun. You got a bunch of business cards. Nothing really panned out. Maybe you got a bunch of spammy LinkedIn messages. You know, I get it, but to build authentic relationships, and I want to just keep highlighting that authentic relationships, you have to connect with that person as a human being, you have to find things that you align on, things that you connect on, besides referring people back and forth. That's transactional, okay, so that's a really, really important piece. So when you are looking at what didn't work, did you make sure that you were following up? Did you make sure that you were providing value to them and leading with how can I support you? How can I be of value? What can I do for you? Those are the things that people that are building authentic, genuine relationships are doing. They're providing value. They're giving, and that is when you're seeing the result, okay, you're gonna say no, and think about how you respond to people, right? Think about relationships that you have built with other whether it's other business owners, whether it is other business owners in the community, whether it's your clients or patients that are coming in, you are going to like the ones that lead with giving, with kindness, with respect. Those are the ones that are going to really pan out into great relationships. Myth number four, other businesses in my area don't want to collaborate, right? There is, it's natural to fear rejection. We were talking about, you know, worrying about people saying no, or maybe you feel like you're the other, even if there's other spas in the area that they're not in a collaboration over competition, type of mindset, and that's normal, but if you don't ask the question is always no, okay? So the reality is, all business owners want to grow their business, right? We're not going through this roller coaster of emotion and stress and trying to learn new skills and pivot different economies and train our staff and systemize just because we think it's a fun hobby. No, we want to grow our business, we want to make money, we want to build the life we want to live. We want to make an impact in our communities. These are all really important things, so finding the right fit and presenting a way that your two companies can work together, presenting a way that you can provide value, it's just the way that you are presenting the offer to get them to say, yes, okay, so if you don't ask. The answer is always no. All right, myth number five, I don't know where to start. I don't know who to partner with. That is the kind of big thing. I'm not going to do relationship marketing because it's too overwhelming. It's going to take too much time. It's daunting. Okay, so what I like to do is begin by identifying local businesses that cater to a similar clientele but are not direct competitors. So for us, think about hair stylist. Think about massage therapist, if you're not offering massage in your practice, think about permanent makeup artist. Think about wellness clinics or weight loss clinics. We're seeing a lot of those pop up. Think about chiropractors or dos. Think about boutique fitness studios. There's a lot of places that we can look at

that serve the same clientele as ours. I'm seeing a lot of head spas pop up, right? Can we partner with them? Can we build relationships with them. Go and frequent their business. See what it's like to have a service with them. See what the overall experience is like. That's a really important piece in referring business. You need to make sure that you have a personal story of doing business with that company, ask your existing clients, make a list of your top clients, and ask them the other local businesses that they love, that they frequent, and then go there and just start up conversations. Get to know the owner. Ask them if they want to have a coffee. Get to know them as a human being before presenting the relationship piece, the strategic partnership piece, the referral piece, right? It's really, really easy to do, all right. Myth number six, so I can't track ROI from relationship marketing. Yes, you can. Yes you can. The way that you do it is either by creating a specific offer for that practice, if you're giving, like we've talked about this in the past, one of our very first episodes on this podcast, like hundreds of episodes ago, was on gift card marketing, and this is a strategy that I used years and years and years ago, where we would create these plastic gift cards, we would give them out in it would be either a $50 increment, $100 increment, $200 increment, and we could give them out as vouchers to car dealerships to insurance companies To hairstylists to real estate agents. We looked at all these different people that would serve an audience that maybe would be potential clients or patients of our practice. We would then make sure that the back of the gift card was numbered and we would have a spreadsheet that listed out gift cards, one through 50 went to real estate agent. A gift cards 51, through 100 went to this person, right or this business. And so when you're getting those redeemed, you're highlighting them, and you're able to see who is actually referring people back. All right, so this can absolutely be tracked. Get into, you know, my love of spreadsheets here, which makes this whole process a heck of a lot easier, but it absolutely can be tracked. And what you'll find is, let's say that you have relationships and partnerships with maybe 10 companies. About two of them are going to be regularly and consistently referring people to you. The other eight, they may highlight you on social media. They may do a blog post about you. They may have, you know, your spa brochures in their front area, but they're not actively, consistently referring people your way. And that's okay. That's okay. I personally, my approach with strategic partnerships is having a small amount of people that I can go deep with. But in order to figure out who those ones are, that you can go deep, that you can really find those kind of a level strategic partners, you've got to test out different people. You've got to test it's as simple of that it is a long term game. All right, so let me just do a quick recap of some of the objections, what I'm calling myths that you may have told yourself as to why you're not going to do relationship marketing. Maybe you've never tried it before. Maybe there's other businesses in your area that won't want to collaborate. Maybe you're not a natural networker. Or maybe you don't have time, maybe you don't know who to partner with, and maybe you're worried that you can't track all of those things are untrue, all of those things, it is so worth the time and energy for you to put in to this relationship marketing piece by shifting your perspective, by implementing these actionable strategies, you can harness the power of community to drive your spas growth. Now I want to challenge you choose one myth, just one this week, that resonated with you, and do the action items. Remember that relationships aren't just about expanding your network. It's about enriching your business and your community. Okay, relationship marketing is an essential piece to your spas growth. I'm not discounting social and paid ads. I'm not discounting SEO. Those are important, but really, as I'm zooming out, relationship marketing is the foundational piece. This is the thing that, above all else, can help you grow. Alright? I hope that you found this episode insightful. Do me a favor and share it with a fellow spa CEO. Let's collaborate. Let's continue this conversation, and I'll catch you on the next episode.