Should I Get A Separate Phone Number For My Massage Business
You dont need to, as long as your outgoing message is professional and represents your brand. Be sure to answer every call from unknown numbers as if it were a potential client. If you do want a separate phone number for your business, you can look into a VoIP service provider like Grasshopper, Spoke Phone, RingCentral, 8×8, or Google Voice.
Massage Marketing Ideas For Your Practice
Our Best Massage Marketing Strategies whitepaper will provide you with proven marketing ideas for your massage business. If youre looking to launch your digital marketing strategy to find new clients, download the above whitepaper to learn how you can grow your practice.
In this whitepaper on the best massage marketing strategies, we will cover the strategies below and how you can execute them:
Massage Therapy School Business Plan And Swot Analysis
Massage Therapy School Business Plan, Marketing Plan, How To Guide, and Funding Directory
The Massage Therapy School Business Plan and Business Development toolkit features 18 different documents that you can use for capital raising or general business planning purposes. Our product line also features comprehensive information regarding to how to start a Massage Therapy School business. All business planning packages come with easy-to-use instructions so that you can reduce the time needed to create a professional business plan and presentation.
Your Business Planning Package will be immediately emailed to you after you make your purchase.
Product Specifications :
- 3 Year Excel Financial Model
- Loan Amortization and ROI Tools
- Three SWOT Analysis Templates
- All Documents Delivered in Word, Excel, and PowerPoint Format
- Meets SBA Requirements
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Set Up Analytics To Track Leads
One of the most important parts of any website strategy is to be able to track leads. We could have added this to the previous section, but we feel it deserves its own section. One of the simplest ways to track leads is to use Google Analytics, a free tool. Follow the simple formula we include in this whitepaper.
Why Marketing Is Important For A Massage Business
Marketing is an essential component of massage business success. Failing to create and implement an effective marketing plan is a common reason why many small businesses fail, including massage therapy practices. The reality is that people wont automatically line up to be your client, no matter how awesome of a massage therapist you are.
Marketing is a skill. And like any skill, its learnable. This is one of those skills where you will learn by doing. Start with learning a few marketing skills and then go put them into action. See what results you get. Then make some improvements and try to do better the next time. Study what makes some massage businesses fail and what makes others succeed. Then just do the same things that the successful therapists do and avoid doing the things that dont work. The only way to truly fail is to give up!
Do the hard work up front. Eventually your massage business will get traction and reach a tipping point. When you get to this point, you will only need to spend a little time each week marketing because word of mouth and referrals will bring in new clients.
There are people who make things happen, there are people who watch things happen, and there are people who wonder what happened.
To be successful, you need to be a person who makes things happen.
Jim Lovell
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Stay Connected With Clients
Email Marketing
If youre not already sending out consistent emails to your clients, youre missing out on one of the best marketing tools out there. With an average return of $42 for every $1 spent, theres no doubt email marketing is huge for small businesses.
Your email marketing efforts could include a consistent newsletter, updating your clients on current specials or promoting services. It could also include emails to pass along deals, follow-up Thank You emails after appointments, and re-engagement emails all of which this massage booking app can do for you.
Pro tip: Dont forget to ask for feedback from your clients after each class. Learning what theyre looking for will help improve your class and ensure youre offering the class your clients want.
Build An Online Presence
Before you think about social media marketing or email marketing, you need to establish an online presence. That includes your business website, Google listing, Yelp page, and online scheduling platform.
Business Website
Since your website is likely to be the first place clients get to know your business, your website has to hook them. With so many free website builders out there these days like Wix or SquareSpace you can give clients a look into your work and who you are.
Heres a checklist of items every business website should have:
Pro tip: With Schedulicity, you can add a Book Now button on your website to take clients right to your booking page, or you can even build your Schedulicity booking page directly into your site, meaning clients never have to leave your site to book!
Online Scheduling App for Massage Therapists
Theres no doubt scheduling apps make your business more efficient. But not all scheduling apps are created equal. While we believe Schedulicity is the best , we put together a guide to finding the right app for you.
Google My Business
According to Google, customers are 70% more likely to visit a business with a Google profile, so its a crucial first step to building your online presence.
Yelp
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Get It Out On Social Media
After your trip to other massage salons, and slightly eavesdropping on what their customers are looking for, it’s time to put your service on a digital platform and share it across different social media channels like Facebook and . You can create a blog post or a vlog, whichever works for you.
In addition to the features and benefits of your massage therapy business, you want to introduce yourself, share your qualifications and professional affiliations, and what you are passionate about outside of work. Try to keep your content light and friendly to elicit the interest of your audience.
Loyalty Marketing For Massage Therapists
Getting new clients is important when offering your services as a massage therapist, but its even more important to keep them coming back. Loyalty marketing works by building strong relationships with clients and giving them incentives to continue scheduling appointments with you and not someone else. These loyalty marketing ideas for a massage therapy business can encourage your customers to book massages on a regular basis.
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Competition And Buying Patterns
The key element in purchase decisions made by potential massage clients is trust in the professional reputation, and ultimately, in the skill and knowledge of the provider as experienced in the initial massage. For this reason, a discount coupon or donation to a charity auction can be an effective way to troll the waters for new clients. Recommendations from other clients and alternative health service providers is also critical.
While there is a range of prices charged for massage service in the area, there is some price sensitivity among the long-term clientele. Since the variable cost of each massage is nominal, the best bet has seemed to be to charge less than the market will bear. The one exception is when billing insurance companies, where there is no penalty for charging the full Reasonable and Customary Rates for the area.
Clients rarely compare massage therapists directly, although they may try a second LMT if they are not entirely happy with their first experience. Usually they follow word-of-mouth recommendations, and return for repeat sessions as often as their budget allows.
How To Create A Marketing Plan On A Massage Therapists Budget
Once you have all the massage therapy equipmentand skills you need to start your business, the next step is to get the word out. Regardless of how long youve been in business, youre going to need to consistently market yourself to continue to grow.
The best way to remain consistent is to create a massage marketing plan. Marketing requires a regular investment of time and money. So, youll need to create a budget for your marketing plan too. Once you have all that in place, you can choose a handful of massage marketing strategies to implement.
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Develop A Massage Therapy Website
First thingâs first to be able to market your business online, you need to develop a website that imparts the professionalism of your business and the value of your services. This helps establish your credibility and creates a positive impression about your company.
Since potential massage customers visit your website, be sure to provide them with crucial information about your company and the services you offer. Also, make sure your website has a professional design that loads quickly and is mobile-responsive . A clean design website allows you to convey your brand message quickly and persuade your customers to take action.
Step : Define Your Brand
Your brand is what your company stands for, as well as how your business is perceived by the public. A strong brand will help your business stand out from competitors.
If you aren’t feeling confident about designing your small business logo, then check out our Design Guides for Beginners, we’ll give you helpful tips and advice for creating the best unique logo for your business.
Recommended: Get a logo using Truic’s free logo Generator no email or sign up required, or use a Premium Logo Maker.
If you already have a logo, you can also add it to a QR code with our Free QR Code Generator. Choose from 13 QR code types to create a code for your business cards and publications, or to help spread awareness for your new website.
How to promote & market a massage therapy business
While word of mouth will be your greatest marketing tool, there are other things you can do. Build relationships with the medical professionals in your community. Many will refer clients to you and allow you to put your literature at their front desk.
No matter what route you take for your massage business, social media is the most affordable way to share information that specifically targets your demographic.
How to keep customers coming back
Aside from a marketing strategy, your best way to attract and retain clients is through your healing skills and affordable pricing. If your customer walks out of the facility feeling refreshed, theyll not only come back, they will tell everyone they know.
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Is Offering Discounts A Good Way To Get Massage Clients
Offering discounts for your massage therapy services can attract more new clients and speed up business growth initially. This is a pricing strategy called penetration pricing. But there are some problems with using this marketing strategy long-term. Here are a few problems that I can think of:
- Discounting your prices attracts clients who just want the cheapest massage in town. These clients may leave you when a cheaper option comes along or if you ever raise your rates.
- It can lead to a price war with your competition. This essentially becomes a race to the bottom, which makes it hard for any therapist in your community to make a living.
- You will have to do more massages and get even more clients to make the same income.
- Working for less than what you think your services are worth could leave you feeling underappreciated.
Instead of discounting your prices to get clients, a better way is to increase the perceived value of your services. Help clients to understand why you offer more value to your massage clients than your competition.
Getting The Word Out Through Public Relations
Public Relations Tools: How Effective Public Relations Can Benefit Your Practice Having an effective public relations strategy will help generate awareness of your practice while promoting a positive image of massage therapy.
Public Relations Tools: Putting Together a Press Release Follow these basic guidelines to get your press releases noticed.Read More
Public Relations Tools: Raising Public Awareness of Massage TherapyCheck out these seasonal ideas to help you grow your practice by increasing public awareness of massage therapy through educational presentations, fun events and media relations.Read More
Community-Based Marketing for Your Massage Practice Community marketing is a way to reach members of your local community, establishing trust and relationships with them and increasing the likelihood that theyll remember your practice when looking for a massage therapist.
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Step : Plan Your Business
A clear plan is essential for success as an entrepreneur. It will help you map out the specifics of your business and discover some unknowns. A few important topics to consider are:
Luckily we have done a lot of this research for you.
What are the costs involved in opening a massage therapy business?
There are a number of investments youll need to make before opening your doors. First, youll need a work space. Rent can run anywhere from $750/month to thousands, depending upon location and size of the space you need. Most landlords require first and last months rent as a deposit, so plan on budgeting for at least two months.
Hopefully, you already have a massage table and bolsters, but if you dont, now is the time to buy. Its not necessary to purchase the most expensive table, which could cost upwards of $900 but you will want to invest in a solid, quality table, an investment of at least $300. If you plan on offering standard massages, youll also need to purchase a few bolsters and wedges, which will run you another $150. When you start to offer more specialized massages, like pregnancy massage, youll want to save up for additional bolsters, setting you back another $250.
Your customers will need clean sheets and a blanket to keep them warm during their session. To avoid hours of laundry every day, most therapists purchase several days worth of sheets. At $35 per set, this can easily be one of your largest initial expenses.
Who is the target market?
Build A Great Website
First and foremost, we recommend building a website ! Think of this as your storefront . This is often the first place new and potential clients will head to in order to check out your offerings, learn about you and get an idea of your pricing.
A great website no longer needs to take weeks of design and planning with a specialized web developer. There are many website building platforms available online that can cater to your needs, and they all make building a website a straightforward process.
The key points for a great and functional website are:
- Good design that reflects your branding
- User-friendly and easy to navigate
- A succinct description of your business and your offerings
- Easy to sign up to appointments and services
- Clear pricing and offerings
With these things in place, your business is ready to take bookings!
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Web Strategies Reports That In 2017 Most Businesses Spent Somewhere Between 89 And 109 Percent Of Their Budgets On Marketing
Furthermore, that number is expected to either stay the same or rise next year.
If you can feel your heart begin to race and palms start to sweat at the mere mention of spending your hard-earned money on marketing that may or may not work, stop and take a deep breath. There are many different ways to advertise your massage therapy business that dont cost much at all.
Some dont even cost a thing.
Ive been an LMT for a decade, says Mandi Weiser, and always had to moonlight doing other jobs. However, that changed about two years ago, which is when Weiser says that she dedicated herself to taking care of her own marketing efforts.
In that time, Ive opened my own shop and increased business 150 percent, says Weiser.
And she did it all with a number of free marketing tools.
What Are The Basics Of Marketing A Massage Therapy Business
When it comes to marketing your massage therapy business, there are a few key components you will need:
- A marketing plan that includes how to market your massage therapy business online, how to find clients through social media, how to promote your services in person, how you will track the effectiveness of marketing efforts, and how often you plan on updating it.
- A website with a blog that can drive traffic back home so people who are looking for information about what is offered at your massage therapy
- A presence on social media platforms that allow you to engage your target audience in conversation via one convenient location.
- Competitive advantages such as email marketing, which allows for frequent communication with existing clients and helps build loyalty through discounts and promotions on new products or services offered by your massage therapy business.
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Invest In The Patient Experience
Patient experience entails every instance of connection between your patients and your massage therapy practices brand, including visits to your practice, phone calls to your front desk, engagement with your online presence, and even their exposure to advertising and social media. Optimizing the patient experience is a practice-wide effort thats a process of monitoring, listening, and incorporating feedback from patients that add up to a continuous improvement of your massage therapy practice.
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