How to Create Foolproof Spa Branding in 5 Steps

Want to stand out from outer wellness businesses out there? Here are a few simple tricks you can use to take your branding to the next level.

Big signage and word of mouth might get a few customers to visit your local business. But if you want to see your business grow, creating a strong brand is a must. From your visual identity to the way you promote your spa salon, everything should be infused with a sense of brand identity.

Today, we’re sharing 5 key spa branding tips along with real-life examples that you can learn from.

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Start with a cool logo and a unique color scheme

After you have your small business brand strategy and key messaging on paper, it’s time to start devising your visual identity. Great spa logos come in different styles and types, from minimalistic wordmarks to intricate boho designs with natural elements like lotus flowers.

When it comes to spa logo design you are allowed a lot of creativity, but make sure it matches your brand promise. If you provide high-end skincare treatments and massages, a darker color palette with gold details will demonstrate a sense of luxury. If your wellness center is focused on a more holistic approach, then something closer to a yoga studio logo might be more fitting, such as flowy script typography and natural imagery.

A great contemporary example you can learn from is the Forena Spa in Canada. This spa center recreates the experience of Icelandic spas, with thermal baths and specialized massage therapies. For this reason, the design studio behind this spa brand project opted for a darker, earthy color palette. The elegant and simple logo is inspired by contrasts (hot-cold; empty-refueled), which is visible in the custom font, with start line widths.

We hope this brief guide provided you with some actionable advice on how to lift your spa startup off the ground by building a strong brand. Of course, when it comes to designing anything from your own logo to marketing materials, don’t settle for sloppy DIY design; let our experienced designers take care of all your needs with a simple, affordable service you’ll love!

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Another great feature that found its way on this spa brand’s website is the customer testimonials which can be found right above the services menu. This is another extra step to make sure that once they reach the bottom of the page, clients are ready to make an appointment!

By byHOUSE Studio and Josiane Cossette

Create a great website experience

Unlike many other brick and mortar businesses, people usually visit a day spa on a whim. Most of them will head to your website first, make an appointment, or at the very least check what sort of services or facilities you have available (massage treatments, pools, beauty salon, etc.)

Especially in the covid-19 era, your website is also a place to provide key information and assure your guests that you keep hygiene standards at the highest level and take all necessary precautions.

One report says that people form an opinion after just 0.005 seconds on a website, so you really don’t have that much time to make a strong impression and keep website visitors’ attention long enough to move them down your sales funnel.

Salon Safari has a great website that looks professional but also has great content and organization. Their landing page contains all the key information for potential customers, such as location (“Over 30 years in the city of Brampton”), interior design and scope of service. This is done in a clever way with a simple embedded video that lists their spa services while showing their stylists in action, as well as a menu with all the services and prices at the bottom of the page.

Improve spa experience with interior design

It goes without saying that you should include photos of your salon or wellness center on your website, but what exactly makes for an effective interior design?

Well, for the most part, it will depend on your budget, the size of your business and of course, your brand identity. But here are a few things that are universal for most businesses in the beauty and wellness industry.

Big design trends in 2021, when it comes to interior design, are open floor plans and natural materials. With the pandemic, well-aerated spacious locations are definitely more popular than small, cluttered spaces. And since most of us have been spending our time indoors, adding a bit of nature to your beauty spa design is a clever move. Whether you opt for using organic, natural materials or textures, or simply adding more plants, this can really help your clients relax and unwind.

So when it comes to your spa business interior, keep it clean, minimalist, and if possible add natural elements like plants, fountains, or wood.

Cute merch for you and your clients

Who doesn’t like freebies? Investing a little more time and effort, and hiring a professional graphic designer to create things like business cards, stickers, or branded water bottles, can be a terrific way to build brand awareness and earn customer loyalty.

Of course, make sure you include a spa or salon logo on everything, from custom towels and bathrobes to beauty products packaging, in case you have your own line of these.

If you need a place to start, we suggest you check out our massage business cards and hair salon business card templates. They’re downloadable and free to use and can give you some design ideas for other types of merch you may need for your business.

Here are just a few mockups to give you a taste!

Use social media effectively

It might seem like kind of a redundant tip, but it’s not bad to reflect on just how big social media marketing is at the moment. In 2019, 45% of the world’s population was on social media. Deduct the ones who are too young and too old, and you’ll see that almost all of your potential customers are using social media.

Instagram is probably the most effective channel to advertise your spa salon. Make sure that you produce content regularly, but of course, avoid using generic stock photos, or something your target audience has seen a thousand times before: yes a picture of a scented candle is pretty, but it doesn’t really tell clients who you are.

Try to be genuine, but still use high-quality photos if you can (basic skills in photo manipulation software like Photoshop might come in handy here). Spring Spa has a gorgeous Instagram feed, effortlessly combining different types of posts. From their custom beauty products, an image of the spa business founder as well as photos of staff, wearing masks as a coronavirus precaution.

A final social media trend you should definitely have in mind is the importance of niche markets and partnering with influencers. Influencer Marketing Hub suggests that 63% of marketers plan to increase their influencer marketing budget, meaning that this type of digital marketing is bound to become even bigger in the coming years. Partnering with a super established social media influencer might be costly, but even a micro-influencer can be a tremendous boost for your brand recognition if they attract the right target audience. In fact, micro-influencers have 20% higher conversion rates than other types of influencers, since their small group of followers really trusts their opinions and recommendations.

A success story to inspire you is a beauty startup called Glossier. Instead of paying thousands of dollars to established names, the brand founder had a vision to “treat everyone like influencers”. Four years after their launch, in 2019, the company had over 500 brand ambassadors who weren’t employees and raised nearly $90 million in venture funding.

This approach is also evident in their Instagram feed. They share posts from their customers, even if it’s a simple funny tweet that doesn’t have the usual aesthetic quality of marketing materials we see in the spa industry. In their own posts, they retain a strong brand aesthetic, but also focus on celebrating diversity and their consumers.