How to Drive Word of Mouth Marketing for your Beauty or Wellness Business

The centuries-old practices of self-care and personal beautification fall within the $4.4 trillion wellness industry. Consumers are seeking to improve how they look, feel, perform, and more importantly, their sense of wellbeing. 

For your appointment-based business to be successful in this competitive space, you’ll need repeat guests. Even if your location is in a high-traffic environment, there are likely not enough customers to fill your books every day with brand new clients. Gaining repeat customers is the key to long-term success, and one of the most successful channels to accomplish this is word-of-mouth recommendations. 

In this post, we’ll offer you tips on how to maximize word-of-mouth marketing for your beauty or wellness business.

Develop your USP

Let’s start at the beginning—do you have a well-defined Unique Service Proposition (USP)? Thousands of businesses are offering the same services as you, so what makes you special, unique, different, and perfect for certain clients? What standouts in your services, or in your facility, staff, and processes? If you and your staff cannot articulate your USP, then start here. Consider these factors: 

• Expertise: What special expertise does your business have? For example, you may have licensed estheticians with several years of experience. 
• Specialization: What’s your specialty? Natural hair care for children? Prenatal spa services?  
• Location: Is your business conveniently located in a busy neighborhood? A business hub? 
• Products: Do you use eco-friendly or organic products? 
• Business hours: Do you provide extended hours for working professionals? Do you open before regular business hours? 
• Innovation: Do you offer research-backed products or trending services? 
• Incentives: Do you provide incentives like gift cards or loyalty benefits after a specific number of procedures? 

Developing a strong USP will help you attract your target clients and get them excited to talk about your services with friends and family. Remember to showcase your USP in all your marketing materials and platforms.

Offer outstanding customer service

When clients share negative experiences about your business online, they can reach lots of people in a short time. A negative reputation will cause reduced revenue and affect your ability to attract new clients. Remember to keep the customer’s needs top of mind by providing excellent customer experiences. You can accomplish this through: 

• Creating a welcoming atmosphere: Address each client by name and discuss their goals so you can recommend the right service and products. Soothing music and a fresh scent in your salon or spa can also do wonders. 
• Offering extra amenities/services: Consider herbal tea, a chair massage, care for waiting family/children, or a wellness consultation. 
• Giving loyal members extra perks: Offer exclusive rates for referrals, a free service after a specific number of visits, or guest passes for family and friends for loyal clients. 
• Offering on-going communication and support: Send emails providing motivation, answering questions, and supporting clients after they leave your business. 
• Providing educational resources: Empower your clients with exclusive content like online workshops, webinars, and e-book guides.  

A great customer experience will naturally prompt your clients to share their positive experiences with others.

Create engaging and shareable content

Create website content that your clients will enjoy reading and sharing. Use a conversational tone and language that’s easy to read and understand. Provide accurate, valuable, and actionable information. For example, your wellness business website may include nutrition tips, mindfulness content like stress reduction strategies, or posts surrounding the latest wellness trends related to your business and services. 

Make your content appealing by including attractive visuals like images, infographics, and videos. Potential clients love seeing results before spending money, so share written or video testimonials of clients who have benefited from your beauty or wellness services. This builds your brand credibility and encourages other clients to share their experiences. Include social media buttons on your site for easy sharing.

Leverage social media

Take advantage of the billions of social media users across various platforms to amplify your word-of-mouth marketing. Start by figuring out which social media platform will work best for your beauty or wellness business. Do your prospective clients hang out on Facebook? Instagram? Or YouTube? Check out similar brands or competitors and find out where they’re posting. Once you figure what platforms you’ll use, incorporate these tips: 

• Post quality content consistently: Find out what type of content interests your audience. Ensure that it’s easy to understand, visually appealing, and aligns with your brand identity. Posting consistently boosts engagement and a following. 
• Engage with your audience: Responding to messages, comments, and mentions builds trust in your brand and encourages your clients to keep tagging and mentioning your business. 
• Collaborate with influencers: Partnering with big or small influencers who are genuinely passionate about beauty or wellness will drive positive word-of-mouth through their networks and followers. 
• Promote user-generated content: Encourage your audience to share their experiences with your services. Then repost their videos, photos, and reviews to build credibility and get people talking about your business.

Encourage customer reviews and testimonials

BrightLocal's 2024 Local Consumer Review Surveyfound that 75% of consumers regularly read local reviews to make a spending decision. 77% of consumers surveyed in the same study said they conduct business research using at least two review platforms. Encourage happy clients to leave reviews on platforms like Yelp, Google, or other review sites. Positive reviews serve as social proof and influence the choices of potential clients. Always respond to positive reviews; thanking clients shows your dedication to their satisfaction.

As all businesses do, you will get some negative reviews. Your response to them will determine whether clients can trust your business again. Avoid ignoring negative reviews, and try not to take them personally. As much as possible, validate the clients’ concerns, address the issues, and inform them of your courses of action to resolve them. Genuine responses give clients the impression that you care about them and can turn negative experiences into opportunities to build trust and loyalty.

Partner with other businesses

Find and partner with other beauty or wellness businesses in the area that provide complementary services to yours. For example, a nail salon could partner with a beauty business that sells cosmetics and skincare products. Partnerships help you earn more reach and gain trust and notoriety with an additional base of people. This way, if one of their clients' needs your services, you’ll be top of mind.

You can build partnerships by offering exclusive promotions to another business’ client base, organizing joint events and activities, or doing cross marketing promotions.

Set up a referral marketing program

A Nielsen study showed that consumers trust recommendations from people they know more than paid advertising and traditional marketing, so there’s no question that referral marketing works. Make it easy for clients to share your business with friends and family by offering rewards for referrals, giving out useful marketing swag, or promoting bring-a-friend days at your business.

Incorporate these word-of-mouth marketing tips for your beauty or wellness business and watch the new clients pour in. 

Ready to take your marketing to the next level? Learn how Mindbody can help you promote your business to 2.4M prospects looking for wellness offerings like yours.