We hope you were able to join Repêchage® CEO and Founder Lydia Sarfati and Repêchage® Executive Vice President Shiri Sarfati for the 2021 Virtual Power Lunch on December 6, 2021. Over 300 people signed up to attend this year’s annual event, known for its networking, education and inspiration, with attendees from all over the globe, including clients and representatives from the UK, Ireland, Italy, India, Spain, Australia, Romania, Malta, Estonia, Finland, Israel, Mexico, Canada, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic.
As Shiri Sarfati noted, the event was “a wonderful way to kick off the holiday season and head into 2022 with your goals set, your business strategy in place. And we know that all together, collectively, we are going to have an incredible 2022.”
During their presentations, the Sarfati’s were joined by several international leaders in the esthetics field, including Grete Transtok, Marketing and Communications Manager and exclusive distributor for Repêchage® in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Finland, LeVonne King-Riley, President and Owner of LéVonne de Spa / Salon & Esthetics in Waterford, MI, Brian David Douglas, Director of Spa & Recreation, Conrad Fort Lauderdale Beach, and International Repêchage® distributor Vanessa de Mello of the Esthetic Institute in Calgary, Canada.
Despite the tremendous difficulties presented by the ongoing pandemic, each presenter has gone above and beyond the challenges of COVID 19 to invest and develop their business, and redesign and create new opportunities that not only sustained but help grow their business into the future. Their insights are both inspiring and instructional, providing priceless advice for everyone in the esthetic industry.
As part of an ongoing series for the beginning of the year, we have compiled the key takeaways each of the presentations to utilize now to further grow your business into 2022.
Influencer Marketing and the Power of Repêchage®
Grete Transtok, Marketing & Communication Manager for Repechage in the Baltics & Finland and Public Affairs & Communication Manager for Coca-Cola HBC, presented information on social media influencer marketing branding, the power of Repêchage, as well as shared her tips on creating a brand story that creates profits.
Transtok is an innovator who, in partnership with her mother, chose to use the challenges of 2020-21 as an impetus to growth and improvement. During her presentation, she detailed how, during lockdown stages, she amplified her personal phone, social media and email reach-out to consultants to help them stay in business. Post-lockdown, Transtok continued to maintain this outreach, while offering monthly promotions, one-on-one training and by creating at-home kits to provide to retail customers
Her two biggest achievements in 2021, according to Transtok, were the launch of an entirely new website and new platform for e-commerce and the opening of a beautiful, state-of-the-art flagship Repêchage Beauty Bar concept and Training Center in Tallinn, Estonia. This facility saw enormous growth, despite the continuing challenges of the pandemic, and now employees a staff of 10 after only three months of operation.
Moving on to Social Media, Transtok advised attendees on the importance of utilizing this tool to its fullest potential.
Transtok emphasized that having a good social media strategy and platform, where you can engage with your customers and gain new ones, was key to the success of her business for several reasons including:
- Developing and sharing your brand awareness
- Engaging with customers and gaining new ones
- Sharing insider/behind the scenes
- Education
- Getting bookings and selling products directly
Transtok has created a winning formula for content sharing that has equated into a successful business. Her key tips:
- Focus on sharing something relevant for the week. This can be seasonal, holiday related, or pertinent to special events
- Educate on ingredients in products or specifics of treatments
- Use the content of your clients/influencers because they may be seeing something from another angle.
- Be consistent, plan/schedule your posts.
Transtok’s content sharing plan includes 30% of content is educational posts, products, special offers and events and 70% pictures & videos, tips and influencer content.
One of Transtok’s specialties in her market is Influencer Marketing. She shared her strategy for this important piece of the marketing puzzle. To select an influencer, she advises working directly with the influencers not via agency. When you are choosing fashion and beauty influencers, reach out to ones with different viewpoints who have a unique audience. For example, one is perhaps more athletic, with a fitness POV, while another might be more interested in natural beauty products. Combined, you will reach a wider audience.
Start from warm invitation to salon/spa. Assign them the best esthetician to provide their services and gift a small at-home use product. “You want them to love their service,” says Transtok, “and what you are offering. This is a sort of meeting where you don’t expect them to share anything. Don’t expect that they come and they have to share. This is just for them to get this wow experience.”
The next step is to start developing your relationship. The following week, invite them for a coffee or tea, ask their feedback and then, then talk about your expectations.
You will hear what they want to achieve, and how best to work out your business arrangement. Make sure you talk about expectations from this relationship once it is established, meaning the costs and benefits expected. There are many options that can work for your budget, including exchange for offering treatments and products, basing their income on discount and referral codes they provide in their posts and one-time fees for sharing.
One of the most integral factors, according to Transtok, is to find out what makes your business unique and to tell that story consistently. What this means is finding the “it” factor of your spa or salon. It may be a person, the whole staff or the location and ambiance of the spa. Make sure that it stands out and sell it.
For example, like Repêchage, Transtok is partnered with her mother in the esthetics business. This relationship is highlighted in all their marketing. Repêchage emphasizes that it is a family business, manufactured at the highest ISO 9001:2015 certified standards in the USA using their own unique, proprietary sustainably-harvested seaweed filtrate. These factors make the businesses stand apart and help to define it.
To help you discern and define your business advantage, you may want to ask customers, friends, or do market analysis to determine what makes you different from your competitors, says Transtok. Once you determine this factor, don’t be shy in sharing it. “Think of it as the core of your business,” says Transtok. “Story building takes time, but will be something your clients come to recognize and will build loyalty.”
Repêchage CEO Lydia Sarfati reiterated this during her presentation, emphasizing that while social media is a powerful tool, the most important factor is building loyalty with your client, who in turn will share their appreciation.
“The best recommendation is still word of mouth,” says Sarfati. “I always have taught that you must invest in your client and build that relationship with great one-on-one service.”
Finally, Transtok advises to utilize the power of Repêchage by making use of all the available assets and content provided by Repêchage on a daily basis. From Instagram posts to promotional materials, sharing the educational and luxury cache that Repêchage has developed from over 40 years in the luxury skin care business will help grow your business.
For more business building tips, Lydia Sarfati shares her own step-by-step method to creating and maintaining a successful business in her book “Success At Your Fingertips: How to Succeed in the Skin Care Business.” Called “The definitive handbook for spa professionals” by Deborah Carver, Founder, DaySpa Magazine, this comprehensive how-to business manual is designed to help skin care professionals create new opportunities and realize their dreams of success.
How do you implement social media into your marketing strategies? Let us know in the comments.
