Five ways TikTok can transform your spa business

By Wendy Golledge

18 January 2023

www.thespaprcompany.com

After almost 20 years in consumer public relations, specialising in spa and wellbeing, Tracey Stapleton, managing director of The Spa PR Company, knows a thing or two about making social media work for your spa.

Talking exclusively to European Spa she shares her five tips for using TikTok to transform your spa business.

“TikTok specialises in authentic short-form video content, which continues to be one of the top social media trends. This use of vertical full-screen video and its ability to dictate trends has made TikTok a useful platform for spa brands. The top three reasons to use TikTok are to raise brand awareness, increase brand engagement and gain new customers,” explains Stapleton.

“It may be just under a third of the size of Facebook, but TikTok has witnessed spectacular growth over the past two years, developing faster than any other channel and becoming a launch pad for discovering new trends and brands."

Tracey Stapleton

Managing director of The Spa PR Company

Here she looks at some of the campaigns spas have been running on the platform and shares five ways that TikTok can be used to your advantage.

1. Recruiting new staff

Staffing continues to be a challenge for spas. According to Statista US, those aged between 10 and 19 years old make up 25% of the TikTok demographic, those between 20 and 29 account for 22.4% and 30 to 39-year-olds make up 21.7%. These are prime age groups for potential spa staff.

Rudding Park Hotel in Yorkshire, UK, ran a campaign that made existing members of their staff the stars of TikTok videos with the aim of attracting others to want to work for them. They used trending topics such as ‘a day in the life of’ and ‘when your besties are on the same shift’ to increase engagement.

2. Promoting specific treatments

The TikTok audience is fascinated with ‘how to’ videos and this extends to treatments.

Think about even the tiniest details – any unusual ingredients or close-ups on facial or massage tools used in treatments are popular, too. Combine these with round-ups of your spa’s best facials, wraps and beauty products, and see if you can associate any of your treatments with current trends beyond TikTok.

3. Showcasing your experiences

TikTok is all about joyful entertainment and Carden Park Hotel in Cheshire has mastered this with its authentic but beautifully shot compilation videos of the experiences you can enjoy at the spa.

Grouping under popular target audience search terms, the Spa at Carden features ‘girls weekends’, ‘couples breaks’ and ‘date night’.

By combining this with popular hashtags such as #luxuryspa and #tiktoktravel, in a very short period this award-winning spa has managed to deliver a number of viral videos and attract over 1.7 million likes.

4. Grow your audience with TikTok Creators

TikTok creators have already built up a loyal following and know their audience and what they like to see inside out.

Research popular TikTokers producing the type of content you would like for your spa. Grow your audience by inviting them to visit and film their trip under the heading ‘come to the spa with me’.

5. Get creative with campaigns

There are thousands of brands you can learn from on TikTok.

Look at Ryanair’s talking planes that address customer complaints, for example.

Storytelling is key to this success and it starts your own customer narrative. Address these in an entertaining way and there’s every chance your next TikTok video could go viral.

Tracey Stapleton is a regular European Spa columnist. Look out for her insights in the latest issue.

The Spa PR Company offers a targeted range of PR and marketing services to spa and hotel operators as well as beauty and wellbeing product brands and services.

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