This month is all about men. Men are an often overlooked and they are an untapped market in the spa industry. Men represent half of the population, yet often make up only a tiny percentage of spa clients. Time to change that.

The first step is to get men comfortable with the idea of visiting your spa. Take a look at your spa with fresh eyes. Is the décor decidedly female oriented? To help make men comfortable, consider changing out some of the pinks for more neutral colors. You don’t need to go overboard and make it look like a man-cave but consider offering a waiting area with more openly spaced seating, perhaps a television with a sports channel playing, and male-oriented magazines. Consider having separate spa service menus for men.

EVENTS

Massage is the number one male spa treatment. Consider hosting a men-only event or better yet, host one or two men-only events each month. Promote massage therapy specials for those sore muscles to get men through the door. Events can be done on a limited budget. Partner with a local fitness center to host a “Men’s – Show Off Your Beach Body” event at your spa. Feature joint spa and fitness packages with men in mind. Help them look great at the beach this summer with combination body treatment packages to get them ready for swimsuit season. Offer specials on acne treatments for chest and back acne, waxing to remove unwanted body hair, and cellulite and fat reduction. Don’t forget sunscreen samples and discounts on sunscreen products. Your fitness partner could add a fitness class or gym membership to the package.

Host a men’s get-together. Book a local celebrity with male-appeal to co-host the event (athletes, coaches, motivational speakers, actors, popular businessmen, and more). Consider hosting a “Smokin’ Hot Men’s Night” featuring cigars and tire-smoking sports cars. Partner with a car dealership that sells sports cars and a cigar shop. Barter with your partners. Maybe hold a raffle for a free sports car rental for a weekend or a box of premium cigars. During the event, educate the men in attendance about spa services, as well as provide information on cigars, hold a cigar rolling demonstration, and let your partners offer hot deals on their products. This is a men’s night, take a cue from the Las Vegas auto shows and use attractive women in sexy attire to educate and sell spa products and services.

Hold events in the evening, outside of the normal eight in the morning to five in the evening. workday to make it easier for men to attend. Have food, beer, and wine at your events – think happy hour events. Chair massages are a great way for guys to get quick relief from those work-related, stress-tightened muscles and they provide a gateway through which to interest them in other spa services.

Events with male-oriented themes are great marketing tools – think sports, outdoor activities, and cars. Men make very loyal customers once you’ve earned their business. The keys to earning that business is to make them feel welcome and comfortable, educating them, and making it simple and easy for them to buy from you.

Men have different buying patterns than women. They may take longer to make a decision, but once made, they act quickly. Educate men on the benefits your products and services provide to them in simple, easy to understand terms (but don’t talk down or demean your male clients). Men don’t have as much exposure to spas treatments as women, so more education is important.

Another untapped market is gay men. If your spa is located in an area with a large LGBTQIA+ population, consider holding an event specifically targeting this market.

FATHER’S DAY

Father’s Day falls in June. A Father’s Day theme might be something like, “Dads Deserve Pampering Too” and offer a miniature session featuring a massage, a men’s facial, and waxing. Build different packages to appeal to different price ranges. Have gift certificates and product gift packages in masculine packaging available well ahead of Father’s Day, so female clients can do their Father’s Day shopping while visiting the spa.

VIP PROGRAMS

Offer a VIP program for male clients that provides rewards. Rewards such as tickets to sporting events or a gift certificate to a hot, new restaurant are always popular.

Find other businesses to partner with and barter your products and services, so you can offer exciting packages to clients. Bartering is a great way to keep your promotional costs down while upping the value of your packages.

Whatever theme you choose, carry it across your entire advertising mix for the month – from brochures to social media, your website to product displays. Keep your audience in mind. Stay true to the masculine theme for this month with strong colors, sports, outdoors, cars, or other male oriented graphics and offer products with more masculine packaging. Make sure to include images of men across your social media and website. Men are very visual and images help sell your services.

Be sure your staff is engaged and having fun with the theme, as this leads to better customer rapport which encourages customer loyalty. Encourage your team to make male clients feel more comfortable by being able to discuss sports, by knowing the latest scores, and so on. If you have sports enthusiasts on your staff, even better. For men’s night, change out the Spa uniforms for sports jerseys. Bring your theme to life.

Spa Season would love hearing about your successes, as well as answering any questions you might have. Please feel free to contact us.

Next month’s Spa Season will focus on Sizzling Summer Specials and heating up your profitability.

Internationally recognized aesthetic business development expert Cheryl Whitman is the founder and CEO of Beautiful Forever Consulting. She is a sought-after speaker and industry marketing specialist. With her seasoned team of professionals at Beautiful Forever, Whitman assists physicians and medical spas in creating new profit centers, developing profitable private label product lines, ghost writing articles and eBooks, and identifying and executing new business strategies aimed at improving their bottom line. A celebrated author, Whitman’s “Aesthetic Medical Success System,” a turnkey educational system, has assisted clients in opening or jumpstarting their current businesses. Her second book, “Beautifully Profitable, Forever Profitable,” provides solid, practical information on how to create, launch, and grow successful aesthetic medical practices and related businesses.