Attracting Clients As A Sports Massage Therapist
The aim of any marketing strategy should be to attract customers, but before you can even start with creating that marketing strategy, the first thing you need to do is think about your target audience.
Its all well and good having a brilliant marketing strategy which provides your brand with plenty of exposure, but if your message is reaching 1000s of people and none of them have ever stepped foot in a gym or fitness facility, then it isnt going to get you any new clients. Essentially, making your efforts a bit of a waste of time.
Throwing spaghetti at a wall and seeing what sticks is not a good marketing strategy for any business, but especially not for a sports massage business as this is a pretty niche area of the fitness industry.
Even compared to personal training, your potential client base is a lot narrower if youre a sports massage therapist so you really need to focus on making sure that your marketing strategy gets your message across to the right people.
So, who is your target audience? What kind of person would be a potential customer? Or in the case of sports massage, who are your potential clients?
Once youve answered those questions, then you can start to think about how you can create relationships with that target audience and ultimately, how you can turn them into clients!
Expand your Sports Massage business by becoming a qualified Personal Trainer
Advertise Your Massage Therapy Business By You Tube Channel
There are a lot of places that you can advertise your massage therapy business by You Tube. But, you should choose your spots wisely. There are many massage centers out there that you can choose from.
But, if you place your ad on You Tube, then you need to be more creative.
First off, when you advertise your massage therapy business by You Tube, you need to consider your audience.
Your target market will be mostly the people who use the internet. You should not waste your advertising budget on marketing your product or service to people who donât watch television. So, how do you target those people? Well, you advertise on You Tube in the most effective way â by using videos.
People these days have a lot of problems and they want to solve them. It is no secret. So, you should be able to convince them through the power of video. This is why it is a good idea to advertise on You Tube. You can take advantage of the fact that a lot of people are watching this particular site to increase the effectiveness of your marketing campaign.
How To Advertise Your Massage Therapy Business Using Local Massage Marketing Sites
If you have a massage therapy business, one of the first places that you should consider advertising is on a website.
Although you may already have a website, you should make sure that it meets all of the requirements set forth by the various online directories, which include a page rank of 4 or higher, a high SEO ranking, and a heavy amount of content.
The second place to consider advertising is on a message board. Message boards are a type of bulletin board that allows users from all over the world to post messages.
Because it allows for mass posting, it can be a very effective way to advertise because you can reach a wide audience for your advertising cost.
In addition to being a great way to advertise your massage therapy business, message boards are also a great place to find customers who are looking for massage therapists.
When you advertise your massage therapy business on these types of sites, you can also put specific keywords in order to draw more traffic to your site.
When doing so, you should try to include these keywords in your title, description, and links throughout your message board postings.
Many of these message boards will allow you to leave links in your posts, which will direct readers to additional information about your business. You should always try to be as specific as possible when using these sites in order to draw more attention to your massage therapy business.
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Advertise Your Massage Therapy Business By Referral Program
When it comes to advertise your massage therapy business by referral program, there are several ways in which you can do so. For starters, if you live in a fairly populated area, it would be easy for your clients to know who you are and what you do.
In order to reach such a large community, you may want to consider advertising through flyers, newspaper ads, and on bulletin boards at community centers and schools.
As mentioned earlier, there are several ways to advertise your massage therapy business by referral programs.
You can go about this method by contacting several local therapists and asking them about the various massage therapy programs they participate in.
Ripple Effects Of The Backpage Shutdown
Regarding shutting down the websites, doing so actually makes it more difficult for customers to distinguish between a business that provides a completely legitimate therapeutic services, and another business that probably doesnt .
That means for companies like mine, we do occasionally have to field some questions from people who are obviously testing the waters to see what we might reveal or hint to them about what may or may not happen for them of a sexual nature. We have to act out this charade with people who are barking up the wrong tree. We are already seeing more of these types of calls as those who used to use those classifieds websites are now trying to find alternatives in all the wrong places.
The other thing is that if websites like Backpage or Craigslist stop offering a forum for these other types of providers then it only forces them to try to blend in more with the legitimate community of massage therapists. To me this is not helpful at all. It only further blurs the lines between the professionals on the non-professionals.
Just when I thought I had heard that dumb joke about whether or not my company does happy endings for the last time, weve got the potential for things to swing back around the other direction!
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Use Advertising To Build Your Massage Practice
As a marketing coach for massage therapists, Ive privately coached more than 300 therapists to stand out from the crowd of other massage therapists in their markets. In studying how massage therapists advertise, Ive discovered five distinct forms.
They are: retail, benefits, comparative, imageand what I like to call waste-of-money advertising.
Its sad to say that most massage therapists advertising falls into the last category. Lets get that one out of the way first.
Massage Therapist Advertising Examples
Statistics from the American Massage Therapy Association reports that massage therapists on average serve around 46 clients per month. Some people sought the help of a massage therapist for pain relief. Others booked sessions for injury rehabilitation, physical wellness, stress reduction, or relaxation.
If you are serving 46 clients per month and would like to grow or youre not even there yet, advertising may be the key to reaching more clients. Many massage therapists who are looking to grow are looking for massage therapist advertising examplesin hopes of improving their current marketing approach.
Its no secret that advertising, whether through paid or organic efforts, can be tedious. More importantly, it requires understanding how some tools and platforms work. To help you gain insights on how to spread the good word about your massage therapy studio or practice, weve gathered some of the finest massage therapist advertising examplesfrom all over the country.
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Consider Your Massage Marketing Options
Hey, lets face it. The message in your massage marketing can get confusing:
As you take into account the tactics listed in this post, you need to make a choice.
You can try to handle all these marketing tactics yourself. That can be difficult without time, training and experience.
Or you can hire a series of freelancers to handle each tactic for you. That can be confusing and costly.
A cheaper, more effective option is to use a solution, like Marketing 360® that offers everything you need to manage and grow your massage therapy business from a singular platform.
This is a robust solution that evolves with the constant changes in online marketing. Best of all, its backed by a team of marketing professionals that you can turn to any time to help you get it right, and that you can utilize as much or as little as you need!
Tips For Marketing Massage Locally
1. Know your local target market
Defining your target market begins by being clear about who it is that will be using your services. Consider the demographics of your local area and tailor your services to attract this specific clientele. Doing local market research can help you gain a bigger picture understanding of your local competition and the size of your market. You can use this information to determine the best ways to sell your services and promote your business to your local market.
2. Advertise your business
If you have a business website, you need to integrate search engine optimisation . SEO is a way to help people find your site online and is key for local businesses that want to appear on the first page of search engines such as Google. That way, when clients search for a service followed by their location, for example massage Sydney , your business has a better chance of appearing at the top of the search results and therefore attracting clients looking for local services.
Another way of targeting local audiences is through utilising both email marketing and social media. As a massage therapist, email marketing helps to foster a community with your existing clientele and is also a way of generating new leads. Social media is also an effective way of attracting clients in the local market, as you can specifically tailor your ads or hashtags to advertise your location and services, making it easier for people in your area to find you.
3. Manage reviews
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Refer A Friend Schemes
This one wont apply if youre just starting out as a sports massage therapist, but its still worth thinking about for the future.
If you do already have a few clients, and youre looking for sports massage marketing ideas to expand that client base, then you should definitely put a refer a friend scheme in place.
Its really as simple as asking your existing clients if they have any friends or family members that could also benefit from your services.
Chances are, your marathon runner client who you see every week, she has a network of friends with similar hobbies and interests.
Those friends could be potential clients who just dont know about sports massage, but once they hear it from a friend, they might think about giving it a try.
Not only that, people trust their peers – more so than they do brands and business owners. If you can get your clients talking about your business, that can be a more effective way of getting new clients than any marketing communications that you set out yourself.
This is a classic form of word of mouth marketing which will really get your message out there.
If you really want this strategy to work, then consider setting up an incentive-based referral scheme.
Offer an incentive to your existing clients, for example, a discounted or free massage for every new client that they bring in. That will really encourage your clients to talk about your business and get clients through the door.
How Much Will I Make
Once you know what your expenses will beremember to also calculate personal expenses, like rent, food and transportationyoull need to determine the P side of your P& L. Start with an estimate of your income.
First, determine how many massages you can realistically give in a week, Bowman advises. If you can do five massages a day, and you want to work four days a week, thats 20 massages, she says. If the average cost of a massage where you live is $60, multiply that by 20 to determine what your potential weekly income could be multiply that figure by 52 weeks, then divide by 12 to get your potential monthly income.
A common mistake is thinking thats your takehome pay. It isnt. As a rule, about 50 percent of what you make goes into the business and the other 50 percent of what you make goes home with you, explains Kelly Bowers, LMT, a Durham, North Carolina-based massage therapist and business educator. So if your monthly living expenses are $2,000, it should be your goal to make $4,000 a month, at a minimum.
Whatever your earning potential, understand that it will likely take a while to reach it. Youve got to build up your clientele. Plus, youre going to be spending a lot on marketing to hopefully get business in the door, Bowman says. So, its going to take a minimum of six months to break even, and usually it will take about a year.
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How To Advertise Your Massage Therapy Business By Linkedln
Linkedln is a site where you can advertise your massage therapy business.
All you have to do is register an account, create a website, upload your services and photos and then start advertising your service.
You can also advertise your massage therapy business on TV or in the local newspapers if you want to reach a wider audience.
If you are using Linkedln to advertise your massage therapy business you will need to have a business email address so that clients will have the option of sending their email to your business email address instead of your personal one.
If you decide to advertise your massage therapy business on TV, you can advertise your service at any time during the day or night, but you should advertise your service during the weekdays.
This is because most people who are looking for a good masseuse are working on the weekends and on the busy days.
In order to get the maximum exposure for your ad you should upload a picture of your work in action, or a sample of your work.
The picture or the sample will let the viewer know what type of work you do and how well you do it. It will also let them know your prices and what they can expect from you.
Optimize Your Digital Presence
Along with being listed in online directories, its critical that you also have a strong social media presence.
The first step is to choose your platforms, such as Facebook and Instagram might be more effective for your business than Snapchat or Twitter, for example. It will all depend on your client demographics and where they fit on social media.
Pew Research provides a lot of info about who uses which platforms the most, which can help you to hone in your efforts.
Next, decide what kind of content youre going to share. This can range from original content that you create yourself including updates about your new offerings and discounts or resources youve found online that would provide value to your followers and help to establish your brand which is the point of social media for your massage business. Some suggestions include:
- Images
- Inspirational material
- PR material
For best results, have a mix of different types of social media content. Take a look at Chrissys Massage Studios in Texas. The companys Instagram page offers a variety of content including promotional posts, educational content, pricing details, and just for fun posts.
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Make Referrals Between Your Services
This one will only apply if youre qualified to offer another service in the fitness industry, for example, if youre a personal trainer.
If youre not a certified PT, then its worth considering adding a personal training qualification to your CV because these careers go hand in hand. If youre interested, then why not enquire for our personal training diploma?
So, how can you use your role as a personal trainer to get new sports massage clients?
Its simple really. If youre a personal trainer, you have a host of potential sports massage clients right in front of you.
These clients will all benefit from SMT, and theres the added bonus that you already have a good relationship with them. All you need to do is talk to them about how sports massage can help their training.
You dont even have to go with a hard-sell approach, you can bring it up as a solution to a problem. For example, if your clients performance is being held back by a limited range of motion, explain how sports massage can increase ROM, and book them in for a session.
In the same way, you can maximise your income by turning a sports massage client into a PT client.
For example, you could have a client who came to you for SMT post-injury, and now they want to get back into training. This would be the perfect chance to explain that youre also qualified as a personal trainer, and again because you already have a good relationship with them, you can get them started as a PT client, too.
Massage Marketing: 11 Tips To Promote Your Massage Therapy Business
The Signpost Team
As a massage therapist, you know how tough it can be to expand your customer base at a time when many consumers are tightening their belts and cutting back on services that they tend to view as optional. Unfortunately, no one has yet developed an analytics program to present clear numerical data quantifying the health benefits and cost savings that can be achieved through a program of regular massage therapy. So how does a massage therapist go about bringing in more customers? Checkout our list of massage marketing tips for the best way to get started!
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