Even before experiencing a global crisis, float centers have had a hard time navigating social media, marketing, and just generally keeping their customers engaged. That struggle is even more real in the wake of the COVID pandemic.
We’ve spent the last two months (in between bathrobe interviews) putting together the Buoy Project, an ever-growing collection of marketing materials and content that will help you save time and bring in new customers.
Throughout the years, Float Tank Solutions has seen float centers evolve from ideas, to plans, to buildings, to destinations for healing, growth, and community. Hundreds of entrepreneurs from all around the world have worked with us to plan and build their centers – now, we want to help you to grow and thrive.
Coming up with fresh ideas and good content while also keeping abreast of the latest trends is not only challenging – it can be a full time job. Outsourcing is a common solution, but not everyone can afford to hire a marketing agency or someone to handle their social media, and our industry is so specific it’s hard for an outsider to produce truly good material.
The Buoy Project helps lighten the burden of social media, website, and newsletter content for float centers. This is an offer designed to amplify your current social media, whether you manage it yourself, have an employee run things, or have hired out a marketing company.
It’s a total social media toolkit designed specifically for float centers. As a monthly subscription, you get:
- 10+ Float Centric Social Media Posts
- 500-750 Word Blog Post w/ Images
- Customizable Email Newsletter
- Content Calendar Posting Schedule
- Access to All Historical Marketing Content
This content is designed to be adaptable. If you want to add a vector logo, host the blogs on your website, and change the template newsletter to include updates from your shop, we’re giving you all the tools to do that. This won’t replace your own marketing efforts, but it will give you a solid foundation and lift up what you’re already doing.
We’ve priced this to be accessible for everyone in the industry.
If you want to pay for the Buoy project on a month-to-month basis, it’s $225. If you’re able to commit to a full year, you’ll only be charged $150 each month, and you’ll get access to our growing archive of past blogs and images.
If you sign on before July 31st, you get the whole deal for only $75 a month for the first year. And, if that doesn’t work for you for whatever reason, but you think this could be helpful, let us know and we’ll work something out. We want this to be a useful resource for everyone who needs it.
We’ve also got more than just Marketing in mind…
We want to create an infrastructure that can carry floating forward and weather future storms, not just the one we’re in now. The Buoy Project will evolve with the needs and the desires of the industry, and we already have some things in the works.
While that’s very theoretical, we’ve got a lot of ideas we want to pursue, but only if you want to be a part of them! If you’d like to know more about our proposed timeline, or about more specifics for the project as a whole, check out the main page for The Buoy Project.
We’ve felt the community come together now more than ever, and we want to use this momentum to really help achieve something big for the industry. Check it out and see for yourself and let us know what you think.
The Float Tour Blog – Issue #1
Editor's Note: This and upcoming issues of the Float Tour Blog will be documented by the newest member of the Float Tank Solutions team, JT Howard! We couldn't think of a better way to welcome JT to the family than take him on the road with us... Welcome to the Float...
Choosing a Water Heater for Your Center
You may not be surprised to hear that a Float Center is a business which has a hefty water requirement. You may, however, be surprised to hear that the majority of the water demand you’ll be facing day-to-day is going to be in the form of showers and (if you’re doing any laundry on-site) a washing machine.
The factors of energy usage and cost over time should also be taken into consideration when deciding upon your water heater…
Float Fund – NSF Magnesium Sulfate Test Results
I’m happy to announce to first results from the Float Fund testing. This experiment, run through the NSF, was to see how salt water, with no other form of disinfection, actually effected harmful organisms. We ran tests with two different microorganisms, and in this post we’ll talk about how one (Pseudomonas) got its ass kicked by salt-water and how the other one (Enterococcus) didn’t seem phased in the slightest.
If you want to skip straight to the test results, you can download them in their entirety. Since they have a lot of fancy laboratory lingo, we’ll spend the rest of this post breaking down the different aspects of the testing.
Float Memberships and Packages
Customers are great, but getting those customers to commit to returning on a regular basis is even better. There are a few different schools of thought in regards to encouraging return customers, but they’ll generally fall into two main categories, Memberships and Packages.
We’re going to provide a little insight into how to utilize each of them at your center.
Marketing is all About Relationships
Marketing is one of those words that has a lot of different meanings from one person to the next. Personally, I’ve studied marketing in one way or another for the past 20 years. I suppose you can say I’m a marketing nerd (I’ll wear that badge proudly). I even annually budget myself a different marketing conference to go to… for fun.
Float Quarterly – January 2016
It’s been our pleasure to be actively involved in the float industry for over five years now. In 2016, we’re already on track to have more new centers opening, more press covering floating, and more resources for people just entering our salty world than ever before.
With so much action, we’ve decided to send out brief, quarterly updates on our industry to keep people posted on the all the latest happenings. Welcome to our first installment!
Training to Become a Certified Pool/Spa Operator
Each year at the Float Conference, we put on a Certified Pool/Spa Operator (CPO) training course. At first, that might strike you as an odd thing to have as part of a float tank conference. This post will explain what CPO training is and why we think it can be a really useful certification to have on your belt.
Increase Sales by Offering Retail in Your Float Center
On their own, float tanks have a limit to their profits. Retailing has the potential to bring extra money into your shop, but it also requires a lot of work and attention on your part to really be successful at it. At Float On, our retail contributes 6.5% towards our overall sales and 3% of total profit. While this might not seem like a large contribution, depending on your sales, it could end up paying the wages of a whole extra employee.
The Health Department and Float Tanks… How to get Approved!
If you’re working on starting a float center, chances are you’re nervously anticipating having to call the health department. We’ve all heard horror stories of people being asked to follow pool rules that don’t make sense for them, or having to do costly changes to their pump systems.
float tanks not regulatedBelow is our best advice for working with your health department to get your float center approved, but before we dive into that, it’s important to get a bit of an understanding as to how the health department works.
Announcing: The 2015 State of the Industry Report
The results are in, and 88 existing centers and 185 aspiring float center owners have responded to create the 2015 State of the Float Industry Report.
