Make the Most of Massage

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  • How to Get Your Massage Noticed

    How to Get Your Massage Noticed

    I could kick myself when I think about all the massage business marketing mistakes I had made, especially when I didn’t understand and execute this:  HEY, I’M HERE!

    To me, HEY, I’M HERE! is a must for MTs trying to grow a practice. By the way, the caps and exclamation point are on purpose.

    View them in contrast to the massage business marketing strategy I had used before: Hey, I’m here.

    Noticeable difference, huh?

    HEY, I’M HERE! is screaming. You have to turn your head and look at me.

    With Hey, I’m here. you only hear me if you’re 2 feet away from me. It just doesn’t get the job done.

    I know what you’re thinking: I’m not a HEY, I’M HERE! kind of person.

    Neither am I.

    But you can convey HEY, I’M HERE! without being obnoxious.

    Source: moulderjohny.com

    Massage Business Marketing: HEY, I’M HERE!

    Here’s how I do it.

    1. HEY, I’M HERE! just needs to be impactful enough to be noticed.

    For signage, impactful means it needs to be seen from a distance. And it needs to capture the passersby’s attention. You can capture someone’s attention with content and/or design.

    This is my car magnet sign:

    I wanted to convey that we are confident in our ability to do good work.

    Impact with a website could be content driven, too.

    I offer this deal…

    I’m different than the competition because…

    Here’s my opening for our Google blurb to differentiate us from our competition:

    If you want a massage without a membership contract or a chakra re-balancing, you’re at the right place. We help avid runners, weekend warriors, arthritis…

    Impact on a website could be highlighting great online reviews.

    And pictures have impact.

    Think happy clients. A warm waiting room. Your smiling face.

    Speaking of your smiling face, if you’re really shy, read this. It will help you start moving in the right direction.

    On to tip number two…

    2. Execute HEY, I’M HERE! from a customer’s point-of-view.

    Put yourself in the perspective of your customer when trying to get noticed, especially when it comes to signage.

    At our one office, we’re at the corner of an intersection. We have multiple signs outside the office building. Two marquee signs, a banner sign and 2 tent signs.

    Recently, a new client, Riya, said that she had seen our banner sign for the past couple of years but never called.

    Why?

    Because the banner sign she saw every day going to and from from work was next to the side of the building and didn’t direct her to the entrance. It left her confused. Was our office in the building or somewhere else?

    Also, since she didn’t know where the entrance was she couldn’t determine if our office looked safe and inviting, a place she’d want to try out.

    One banner sign on the side of the building directing potential customers to the front of the building coming up!

    Here’s the last tip.

    3. HEY, I’M HERE! needs to be in multiple marketing areas.

    Guess what ultimately drew Riya through our doors?

    Not the sign she passed by 100s of times.

    It was our website.

    She did a search, pulled our website up and we just happened to be the place she drove by all the time.

    Thankfully, we were using the HEY, I’M HERE! strategy with our website.

    So with Riya, here’s what we got right with HEY, I’M HERE!: Impact and  multiple marketing areas.

    We missed “execute from a customer’s view point”. And here’s what it cost us.

    For about 2 years, Riya’s husband had been telling her to go to the massage place (us) that she passed by the days she went to work. After all, they lived within walking distance.

    Finally, she did (not because of our signs). She liked us and was used to getting massaged regularly, so she started coming to us once a week.

    But, here’s the kicker, she’s moving very soon.

    Hmm…what if we had gotten her to try us 2 years ago?

    Let’s go conservative. 40 weeks x 2 years x $70 (our charge) = $5600.

    Can you say waah?

    HEY, I’M HERE! in Three Steps

    Get your massage business marketing moving by having the right strategy in place.

    Try HEY, I’M HERE!.

    Make it (1) impactful enough to get noticed, (2) execute it according to the customer’s perspective and (3) cover multiple marketing areas.

    Need some help with your massage business marketing?

    Try this free Jumpstart Program.

    Trying to turn  a meh business into a yeah! business, then you may want to look into advanced marketing.

    And I’m here if you need help: mark@makethemostofmassage.com.

     

  • How Not to Drown in Your TO DO List

    How Not to Drown in Your TO DO List

    Lisa and I went away to the shore to unplug. We walked on the beach and stared at the sunrise over the ocean and the sunset over the bay. Overall, the unplugging worked. I felt restored and was less caught up in thinking and more interested in watching myself think. A recurrent topic that came up when I was watching myself think was “lists”.

    I’m a big list maker. On my list are goals and then under the goals are the tasks needed to accomplish the goals. The goals and the tasks have boxes next to them—and I get to check the boxes when I complete a task or accomplish a goal. I have to say that at the end of the day I have a lot of boxes checked. However, not many goals are accomplished.

    A perfect example is my goal to hire more LMTs for our massage business. We can’t fulfill all our massage requests, especially for the weekend. Every morning, I attack my list, but we still don’t have more massage therapists for the weekend. Why? It took the 4 sunrises and 4 sunsets and one article to figure that out.

    Here’s why I have not found more therapists for our business: I have more than the “hiring more therapists” goal on my list. I have marketing and other operational goals on the list, too. So, when a “hire a massage therapist” task is difficult, I often jump to an easier task under a different goal. In my brain, I’m working my butt off and getting boxes checked, but when I dig deeper, I’m checking off boxes in business areas that are less important than the “getting more therapists” goal.

    I don’t think my behavior is uncommon. We do what we like doing and avoid the uncomfortable or less desirable stuff, right?

    However, my reaction is preventing us from taking our business to the next level. And that’s a problem.

    Here’s how I corrected my behavior: First, I prioritized my goals on my list. The business goal that needs my attention the most is growing our massage business. To accomplish that goal, we need to hire more therapists.

    Next, I prioritized my tasks of the day that will help me find more therapists. So, I don’t allow myself to switch to other goals until all the tasks for the day for finding more therapists are checked off. Once that is done, I reward myself by letting myself accomplish other tasks in my “preferred but not priority” goals column.

    Here’s the thing: I’m sneaky. If I don’t watch myself carefully, I’m suddenly working in my goal column of selling and writing articles. When I catch myself I hear: But look at all the boxes I just checked off!

    Yes, but none of those boxes are in your “growing your massage business” column.

    This corralling of my desire is not easy. If I worked for someone else, it would be. I would have a job to do, and no matter if there was something else I wanted to do, I would have to do the tasks for my job or I would get fired. But when you work for yourself, you are the boss. And boss says: Party on, Garth. Do what makes you feel good.

    The rewarding of myself for staying on track with checking off boxes in highest priority goal is important because it keeps me engaged so that I get the goodie at the end. That said, if I have too many tasks that I don’t like doing and never get to the reward, I’ll cheat and go to the reward way too early and get lost in what I want to do.

    Here’s a reward formula that works for me: If I have time to accomplish 5 tasks for the day, I choose 4 tasks from the highest priority goal and 1 task (that I like doing) from a less important goal. That way, I know I’m going to get my reward once I get through the hard stuff.

    This following article was really helpful with helping me figure out what I needed to do to stay on course for accomplishing high priority goals that are difficult, unpleasant or just not my favorite thing to do: Forbes article. There’s not a lot of research in this article, but the advice was spot on for me.

    Lastly, throwing in a couple sunrises and sunsets to help clear your head from the inner-chatter couldn’t hurt with helping you accomplish your most important goal of the day, week, month and/or year.

    If you haven’t signed up for my email group, you can below. It’s free and hassle-free.

  • Build a Massage Business Using Massage Tools

    Massage tools will not only save your hands, they’ll help you build a unique practice and differentiate yourself from the competition. This is my quick tutorial for building a massage business with massage tools.

    Massage Tool Guy Not

    First, you may think that I’m known as “the massage tool” massage therapist, but I’m not. Okay, some of my clients know I use massage tools and connect massage tools to my massage, but most don’t. Instead, they connect me with focus work—as in, I have the ability to deliver precise pressure. From a marketing standpoint, that really works for me.

    Imagine you’re designing a Facebook ad. What sounds better: “massage tool massage” or “massage with focus work”? Most people don’t have an experience to connect with massage tools and it’s hard to imagine what that experience might be. Is the massage tool going to be electric? Will it be relaxing?

    Not to mention “massage tool” sounds intimidating to some. So there’s no need to scare them away by advertising you might be using massage tools. And there’s no need to hire a marketing person to sell your “massage tool” massage. The marketing beauty of massage tools is that your marketing is simply you using massage tools in a massage.

    What clients feel on the table will be what sells your “massage tool” massage. Clients will feel very precise focus work. More precise than a thumb? Yes. Your thumb comes in one size. But massage tool tips come in many different sizes, some smaller than a thumb.

    The preciseness is one of things that makes “massage tool” massage unique and will give you an automatic advantage over a massage therapist who is using a thumb or another body part instead of a massage tool.

    Here are other advantages massage tools will give you: You’ll be able to sustain pressure a long time without fatiguing or injuring yourself. And you’ll be more durable than a traditional massage therapist because you won’t overuse thumbs and fingers, and compromise joints. That means you’ll be able to do more massages and increase your income.

    Overcoming Perceived Barriers

    What’s stopping you from becoming a “massage tool” massage therapist? You might be afraid that you’re going to lose sensitivity when using a massage tool.

    There’s a solution for that: Why You’re Not Using Your Massage Tool.

    Maybe you tried a massage tool and it saved your thumb but hurt your hand. That happened to me early on in my massage career. I spent many years figuring out how to hold a massage tool so that it wouldn’t stress my hand. This is what I came up with: Save Your Thumbs: The Mighty T-Bar.

    That’s basically it. To build a “massage tool” massage business, (1) practice with a massage tool to deliver focused pressure, (2) advertise massage tools as focus work, detail work, precise pressure or focused pressure, and (3) let your clients sell your work.

    How to Get it Done

    One last thing: Simply identifying a barrier won’t get you across the finish line and make you a “massage tool” massage therapist. You have to experiment and practice with massage tools.

    I have two massage tools, online (home-study) classes that will guide you through experimenting and practicing. You can view them here along with the Pain-Free Massage Therapist online classes package.

    Also, anytime you need help, I’m here. Just shoot me an email. 🙂

  • Improve for Free GMP Ranking – Optimize Your GMP Page

    Here’s what you need to do to have your business show up higher in the local search listings when someone does a search for massage in your area. By the way, it’s free and not hard to do.