• Telling your convention & visitors bureau that you're interested in participating in a spouse program for conventions and conferences. You might offer the meeting managers a free treatment for every so many booked through the conference.
• Make sure the hotel concierges know what treatments and services your spa offers, can talk about them firsthand, and has a good supply of your brochures.
• Adopt a program that allows your employees to handle any problem immediately regardless of their position. 

Other ideas include bartering, publicity via news releases and promotions, advertising in print and electronically, in-spa promotions, dealing with spa employees and clients, and the Internet.

Exerpt (The Introduction)

"Whether you’ve been in the spa business for years or today’s your first day, and whether you operate a destination, resort, club, day, fitness, medical, mineral springs, or cruise ship spa, you need to promote your spa and the benefits you offer your clients. The problem is standing apart from the spa next door, down the block, across the country, or on the high seas.

"There’s a definite difference between advertising and publicity and each has its benefits and specific uses.

"Advertise when you have a special sale and there’s a time limit to it, and you want to target a specific audience. Publicize when you want to promote your business in a more generic way, or to promote an event that might reach an audience beyond your normal targeted audience.

"Professional assistance, in publicity and advertising, can’t be beat, but there are times when you need or want to do some of the work yourself, and there are times when you need a refresher course to trigger an inspirational idea.

"A budgeting rule of thumb that pretty much went out the window in the 1980s, was alloting about 20 percent of your budget for advertising and 10 percent for publicity. In today’s market, there’s no iron-clad rule. If you’re the only spa in town you theoretically don’t need to make as big a splash as if you’re one of two dozen. This theory goes out the window, though, if you have to educate your potential clients about what a spa is and what benefits they’ll derive when they patronize your spa. Advertising and publicity campaigns should be based on what your goals are and the best way to achieve them.

"Marketing goes beyond news releases and ads, though, for every employee and client you have, and every action you take in your spa and your community are part of your advertising and publicity campaigns.

"So, in Big Bang Marketing for Spas: See Your Profits Explode with these Easy and Effective Advertising and Publicity Ideas we offer more than a hundred suggestions on how to promote your spa and see your profits explode. We’ve gathered these ideas from our many years working in this business: Judy covering the spa industry sincer her ground-breaking book, The Spa Guide, published in 1988, and her comprehensive work in journalism and public relations; and Saul from his thirty plus years in the advertising business.

"Most of these ideas cost relatively little to implement, certainly very little compared to the results you’ll see on your bottom line. Consider them the start to your brainstorming session. As you’re reading, check the ones you’re most interested in putting into action.

"If an idea sounds good for a large spa and you have a small one, or vice versa, think how you can modify the idea to your needs. The more people see you in all the right places, advertising and editorial, the more they’ll start thinking of you as the place to go when they want to relax, refresh, revitalize and renew.

Judy Colbert
Saul Fruchthendler"