INTRO

Launched in 2004, Hand & Stone Massage and Facial Spa is a massage and facial spa franchise with 450-plus units in 31 states and Canada. Created with a mission to bring luxury spa services to the masses at a competitive price point, Hand & Stone has created a differentiated, membership-based business model within the $18 billion massage therapy industry. As members, customers commit to one service per month at a reduced rate, up to 35% off Hand & Stone’s already reasonably priced services, plus additional discounts on products and gift cards. Since spa concepts need to innovate in order to survive in the overserved segment, Hand & Stone has also differentiated itself in the space by exploring innovative techniques and providing customers with services utilizing the latest facial technology.

PROBLEM

Hand & Stone Massage and Facial Spa has always enjoyed consistent franchise growth, but the brand’s franchise development website had grown stale and needed a refresh that conveyed a sense of zen while also showcasing valuable information about its franchise opportunity.

SOLUTION

To meet Hand & Stone’s vision for the look and feel and its franchise growth goals, Mainland executed a full relaunch of the brand’s franchise development website.

RESULT

The new website launched in April 2019, and since then, franchise leads have more than doubled for Hand & Stone.

HOW MAINLAND WON

“We had shown more of a business setting on our franchise development website,” McQuillan said. “From a graphics perspective, you’d see people in front of a Hand & Stone building or you’d see people at the front counter. We weren’t really showing the experience.”

Prospective franchisees who now visit the brand’s franchise development website immediately sense that zen vibe the brand so desperately wanted.

“Now you see someone who is absolutely and completely relaxed, with a half-smile, getting a massage or facial,” McQuillan said.

Then there was the user experience (UX) aspect. Buttons with clear calls to action such as “Let’s Talk” and “Download Brochure” were added to the franchise development website’s homepage, allowing prospective franchisees to easily request more information.

The Hand & Stone team have also benefited from the website redesign. One major change made by Mainland was giving executives the ability to make changes to the website’s slider.

“Mainland gave us the ability to make changes on the fly,” McQuillan said. “For example, Hand & Stone was featured as one of Forbes’ “Best Franchises To Buy” in 2019. Forbes is a really incredible publication that everyone knows about, including investors, and it’s the kind of news we’d want to put on our franchise development website as soon as possible. Thanks to the changes made by Mainland, now we can.”

Above all, the brand wanted to humanize its website and portray the backstories of its franchisees. Hand & Stone prides itself on maintaining a franchise system filled with interesting and accomplished entrepreneurs and wanted that to be reflected on the new franchise development website. By putting 1851 Franchise stories on the website and making them easily accessible, the brand could target people who might be interested in franchising or in passing along the information to a prospective franchisee.

“We didn’t have any real stories on our website and by partnering with Mainland, we saw an opportunity to deliver this,” McQuillan said. “Now when you go to the Newsroom section of the Hand & Stone franchise development website, you’ll see all of the things we wanted to portray.”

Powills is thrilled that the collaboration between Hand & Stone and Mainland has yielded such successful results for the spa brand.

“Hand & Stone’s development team has done an amazing job at closing more deals with a lower budget than the majority of franchise brands with similar growth goals,” Powills said. “While we thought there was a gap in the content and the structure of their site, we didn’t predict that it was that wide, given their ability to close. That is a testament to the strength of their sales process. Today, the Hand & Stone site is rich in best practices to help drive educated leads and has already led to even more deals.”