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 Most Ambitious Float On Project Yet
We have a new endeavor that we’ve been working on in private for awhile now, and we think that it’s going to make a big splash in our salty little industry. After many years of testing behind closed doors, we’re finally ready to take the plunge and release our secret project to you, the floatation community.
You might want to sit down for this one….
The Start-a-Center Giveaway Returns!
Everyone knows that, when it comes to gifts, it’s much more fun to give than to receive. With this year’s Start-a-Center Giveaway, however, I’m not so sure anymore. With over $13,000 in Float Tank Solutions products going to one lucky duck (plus $4,000 worth of goodies from other float industry homies), we humbly suggest that we may have finally tipped the scales in favor of the recipient.
If you’re Charlie, this Giveaway is the Golden Ticket, which I guess makes the Construction Package a Wonka bar and the Ninja Fans are the Fizzy Lifting Drink. So, what do you have to do for a chance at all the Everlasting Gobstoppers?
It’s been three years since our last Giveaway, and we thought that it was long overdue for another one. So, what’s the dealio? The Giveaway is a chance to give a big ol’ boost to a deserving Float-Center-To-Be. This time around, we’re taking things to a whole new level, with over three times the value of products and services being given away. To you. For free.
Dear Everyone: Please reconsider building your own tanks
Look, we get it. Really. Float tanks are expensive – especially for what can seem, from the outside, like a glorified bathtub with spa parts attached. It doesn’t take long to go from, “Why is this so expensive?” to “I’ll bet I could save money by making my own tank!” After you start mulling it over, you get excited. You could be offering something no one else does right now… because it’d be your own creation! How hard can it possibly be?
As experts in only thinking about half of the consequences of our actions (at best), we’d like to say, “Incredibly hard, actually!”
Location Checklist – The Search for Your Float Center’s Home
In honor of our newly minted, fresh off the press, prize winning Construction Packet, we are releasing one of its more succinct components, the Location Checklist, as a free resource. Don’t let the fact that it’s only one page fool you – this set of questions breaks down the major site and location considerations for your center.
Financing Your Center With Bank Loans
If you are looking to open a center, at some point, you have to face the reality that you’re going to need to spend, and thus track down, a good chunk of money. There are many ways to fund a float center – personal capital, family and friends, sending travel funds to the exiled Liberian prince that you met on the internet and using the forthcoming reward money, etc. This post, however, will focus on financing using bank loans.
A Peek Into Our Construction Packet: Planning Your Space – Square Footage and Number of Float Rooms
For anyone opening a float center, one of the earliest questions they’ll have to tackle is, “How big should my space be?” This can be one of the most difficult queries to answer, because it hinges on many variables.
Will you be offering other services? What types of tanks are you getting? What other rooms will your space need? If you’re planning on installing a float tank water slide, that’ll take up extra space, too. I know it’s unreasonable, but Jake really wants someone to do it.
All of these questions aren’t even factoring in thinking about profit margins. It quickly becomes a daunting task that can feel overwhelming.
How to Launch a Successful Kickstarter Campaign
At Float Tank Solutions, our main goal is simple.
We want to provide access to floating for as many people as possible. That’s why, this week, we are opening up our blog to our friend, Shane Stott. Shane, an avid float ambassador, life coach, and founder of Zen Float Co., will walk us through the essentials of running a Kickstarter campaign, with a highlight on his current efforts to raise money through Kickstarter for a documentary on floating.
4,937 Things to Know About Buying a Used Float Tank
You’re thinking about buying a used float tank. Whether this is for a new center, an addition to an existing operation, or a purchase for your home, this is a big decision.
We’ve compiled together some of the major questions and considerations to entertain before making a purchase. While you do have the opportunity to save some money and snag a good deal, there can be hidden costs and unknowns to weigh against those savings.
Offering Overnight Floats
Almost three years ago, we discussed the merits of running overnight floats from an employee’s perspective, focusing on the opportunities of this unique experience as well as its challenges. We’d like to take a deeper dive into this issue because, while the majority of floaters come through our tanks during “normal” business hours, overnight floats form an important part of not only Float On’s identity, but also its business structure and broader culture.
How to Talk About Floating
You step into the elevator and shuffle to the side to make room for the kind-eyed, old woman with the miniature poodle.
“Good morning,” you say with a smile.
“Good morning,” she beams back, her gaze resting briefly on your water bottle with the logo from your float center’s annual party.
After a brief pause, she asks, “What is Float-a-Palooza?”
You take a breath, smile, and launch into your literal elevator pitch.
So, what do you say?
