How can I promote my massage business?
- Market with demo massages.
- Make a website that stands out from the competition
- Follow Googles’s recommendations for optimizing a Google My Business (GMB) page to improve local search rankings.
If you do these 3 things you’ll have a comprehensive “promoting your business” plan that covers both word-of-mouth and online marketing.
By the way, these three strategies can be done at little to no cost.
Let’s start with demo massages because it requires the most amount of physical, emotional and mental energy.
1. Market with demo massages.
First, what I do I mean by demo massage?
I mean free massage.
For everyone?!
No. Offer demo massage to a targeted audience. It’s rule #1 for my marketing with demo massage plan.
My Demo Massages Rules
Rule #1: Not free for everybody.
Only offer free demo massage to strategic business allies, their employees and their clients. A strategic business ally is someone who can refer clients to you, like a hospital, MD, chiropractor, PT, personal trainer, running or bike store manager/owner, hotel concierge, or retirement community director.
Rule #2: Free for 15 minutes.
Limit the length of the massage to 15 or 30 minutes. Typically, I’ll offer a business ally, like a chiropractor, a free 30 minute massage, and I’ll offer her patients 15 minute massages.
I give the extra time to the chiropractor because I want to demonstrate that I’m a good fit with her practice. For her patients, 15 minutes is the perfect amount of time to find and treat pain/problem areas.
Rule #3: Limit the time of the offer.
Offer free massages for 3 months (12 weeks). For the first 6 weeks, do demo massage once a week. For the next 6 weeks, do demo massages once every 2 weeks. At the end of 3 months, reevaluate and decide if periodic demo massages in the future are important to keep you connected to your business ally and her clients.
The demo massage marketing plan was a key component to taking my meh massage business to a yay! massage business. It works because (1) you’re parlaying a skill (massage) into a marketing tool so there’s no real learning curve, (2) it’s practically free to do, and (3) and you can implement this marketing strategy immediately.
By the way, you can still do effective demo massage marketing during COVID-19.
Demo Massage During COVID-19
Instead of doing demo massages onsite, you’re going to do the demo massages in your office where you can maintain the safety measures you have in place. If you’re also selling safety as part of your marketing strategy as I do, then it’s a double marketing win—you get to sell with your hands AND the potential client gets to see how you go out of your way to keep her as safe as possible.
You can set up the demo massages by calling and emailing candidates that you’ve researched and think would be good referral sources.
If you need help with what you want to say as an introduction, I have call a script and a sample email in this free course that I offer: Jumpstart.
I should also mention that many of the health-related businesses that you court should be very receptive to relationship building (growing their business) during this time of economic uncertainty because they too are looking for ways to sustain their businesses during this pandemic.
What if the area that you live in has a high Covid case count and/or positivity rate?
Well then, just set up demo massages for a time down the road when it’s safer.
If you want to start with a more sedentary way to promote your massage business…
2. Make your website stand out from the competition.
How are you doing to do that?
You’re going to write an engaging Homepage and About page.
Wait, Mark, what about SEO?
If you want to pay someone to optimize your website or if you want to invest the gobs of time it takes to learn how to optimize your website yourself, go right ahead.
But I have a different strategy to getting someone to call me when she clicks on my website.
It’s this: Follow Googles’s rules on my GMB page to improve my local search rankings. Then when a potential client clicks on my website I pull him in with words (and videos). We’ll talk about your GMB page after we finish with writing engaging content for your Homepage and About page on your website.
A HomePage That Draws the User In
I learned about the importance of a homepage from new clients.
When a new client comes into our office it’s not uncommon for her to say:
“I like that your massages are 60 minutes long…” or “I saw your tennis ball video…” or “I never heard of anyone not accepting tips…”
Over time I made the connection that having an engaging homepage impacts our phone ringing.
Okay, Mark, how much is it going to cost to have someone write (or rewrite) my homepage for me?
Nothing.
Because you’re going to do it yourself.
Just follow this one simple rule: Don’t bore the reader. Here’s how you’re going to make your Homepage engaging.
Make Your Copy Pop
- Ask yourself: What about my business is eyeball catching?
It doesn’t have to be radical.
In fact, radical can turn a lot of people off.
It just has to be truthful, something you are and/or stand behind.
Here are some examples:
- Above-and-beyond customer care.
- Specialty massage.
- Expert with specific populations, like seniors, PTSD clients or cancer survivors.
- Niche market, like tri-athletes, golfers, actors, dancers, office workers, EMTs, nurses, etc.
- A special introductory rate.
- A really nice and relaxing massage room.
- Aromatherapy/essential oils.
- Guided meditation with massage.
- Massage and stretching.
- Your own brand of massage.
So what if none of this is your deal or you just started doing massage, how else can you not be boring and engage the potential customer?
- Provide non-boring, helpful information.
We have a self-massage video for neck and shoulders on our homepage.
When a customer comes in and says, “I tried the massage tool that you showed on your video…” all I can thing about is how awkward I look on camera.
But I know that the video was effective because the customer remembered it.
- Use pictures to take the yawn out of a homepage.
I use a combination of free stock pics and ones that I have taken.
I’d prefer to do all homegrown pics, but some pics are beyond my pic-taking abilities.
Also, if you’re comfortable writing…
- Write a short article on something important to the customer.
You can’t go wrong with massage as it relates to neck or back pain.
That article can be on your homepage itself or you could create another tab on your website, paste the article on that page and simply have a link to the article on your homepage.
Not too hard, right?
For more information about creating an engaging Homepage, go here or go to the free Jumpstart program.
Massage About Page
There’s a reason I say “massage About page” instead of “About page”.
Start writing an About page without tethering it to massage and the next thing you know it’s a Facebook post about how much you love poetry and stamp collecting.
Friends are interested that you like poetry and stamp collecting.
Customers?
Not so much.
In order to engage a customer on an About page, you need to create your massage story.
Wait, Mark, can’t I simply list my massage credentials and experience.
You could.
But if that’s all you do it doesn’t help the customer with her getting to know you.
And quite frankly, it’s boring.
A massage story engages the customer.
Engagement makes the cell ring and can help boost your website in the Google rankings.
Your massage story should reveal how you view and practice massage.
I wrote this fictitious About page to give you an example of a massage story.
In May of 2013, I was at my wits’ end. My dad had recently died from a long illness and I had just lost my job. I had read books on de-stressing and started to do yoga at home, but no matter what I did, I just couldn’t turn the worry off.
Then one day my friend Asha gave me a gift certificate to see her massage therapist. Honestly, I didn’t want to go. In fact, the thought of going created more anxiety. But I went.
Admittedly, the first 5 minutes of the massage were rough, but then when Jaylah, the massage therapist, pressed at the base of my skull, I felt all the tension leave my body. From that moment on, I was putty.
After carrying what felt like the weight of the world on my back for months, I suddenly felt unburdened. Yes, life’s stressors came back, but massage taught me that I could disconnect, power down and come out feeling recharged.
My goal in massage is to give each client what Jaylah gave me: total relaxation when I needed it the most.
You can read about how to get the I connected the dots here.
Okay, you have the word-of-mouth thing working and you’ve got a website that has engaging content, now you just need to appear at the top of the page in a local search when someone types in “massage therapist”.
Here’s how you do that:
3. Follow Googles’s recommendations for optimizing your Google My Business (GMB) page to improve local search rankings.
What exactly is Google My Business?
“Google My Business is a free and easy-to-use tool for businesses and organizations to manage their online presence across Google, including Search and Maps,” says Google. “If you verify and edit your business information, you can both help customers find your business and tell them your story.”
Mark says, turn on your computer. Google “massage near me”. The first thing that comes up is probably an ad(s). Then under that is a local search with massage businesses in the area. Right now that local search has a map with 3 businesses underneath it and a “More Businesses” button is underneath that (Google changes things around often).
Google My Business is the way to input your business’s information so your business appears in the local search. Do the basics and you’ll get basic results. Do more than your competition and you can potentially climb higher on the local search page.
If you’re still wondering if this is a good time investment here are some stats from Hubspot that may help you decide.
Over 2 years there has been a 900% increase in “near me” or “close by” searches.
72% of consumers that did a local search visited a business within a 5 mile radius.
46% of all Google searches are looking for Local information.
Here’s how you get started with your GMB page.
If you’ve never registered or claimed your business with GMB do this:
(1) CLAIM YOUR BUSINESS or go to GMB to register your business.
Here’s the thing, you may have never registered your business, but your business may already be tagged with GMB without you knowing it. Big brother Google does this. So, if you’ve never registered your business with GMB, first do a Google search to see if your business comes up in the local search.
If your business comes up, click on your name. A GMB box should appear with your business’s info in it. Scroll down until you see “Own this business?”. Click on that and go through the steps to claim the business. It’s not complicated.
If you don’t see your business in the local search then you’re going to have to register your business with Google. To do that, you’re going to:
(a) Sign in to your Gmail Account.
(b) Open Google My Business page.
(c) Follow steps to register a business.
Once registered you can start to input your business information.
*Later on whenever you want to get into your GMB account you can access through this link: https://business.google.com/
Now, I’m going to take you through GMB using our PressurePerfect account.
Here’s what the inside looks like:
- PICK THE BEST CATEGORY that represents what you do.
Not sure which one to pick, then look to see what your competitors are doing.
Click on a competitor’s GMB listing and look right under their business name.
Add secondary categories by clicking on Additional Categories under Primary Categories. Just start typing in the box until your category comes up, like Sports Massage.
(3) Input ADDRESS and make sure it matches website address!
This step is important because if the address on your website doesn’t exactly match your business address, you won’t rank. So, take your time to be accurate and consistent with your name, address and phone number (NAP).
(4) Fill out SERVICE AREA.
When I first filled out Service Area for PressurePerfect Massage, I forgot to click on the Apply button and for years Google never 100% knew the area my business covered. Again it pays to go slow and make sure you do things correctly the first time.
(5) Fill out HOURS.
Make sure website hours match GMB hours. If your hours change on your website make sure you change them on your GMB page.
Under HOURS is MORE HOURS where you can add hours for specific services or specials.
Going forward it’s important to keep your hours updated and remember to add special hours for holidays.
Speaking of special hours…
(6) Note SPECIAL HOURS.
You may not need to fill out Special Hours yet. This feature allows you to show your modified or extended hours during special events.
Google says that edits may be reviewed for quality and can take up to 3 days to be published. So, plan accordingly.
(7) Fill out PHONE NUMBER.
If you have a business phone number use that number.
Later on you can do more with your GMB page to help with optimization like filling out Questions and Answers. But for now, that’s good enough.
The Reality With Demo Massages/ Website Engagement/GMB
I don’t have to tell you that there are a lot of ways to promote your massage business. The problem is that you don’t have the time and/or money to do them all.
The answer to this problem is to pick the marketing strategies that meet you where you’re at—demo massages, website engagement, and an optimized GMB page do that because you can already sell with your hands and you don’t have to be techie to improve your website or fill out your GMB page.
That said, I’m not going to tell you that all of this is easy. These recommendations come with some challenges.
Demo massages will probably make you feel the most uncomfortable because you literally have to put yourself out there and sell with your hands.
An engaging website will require you to be creative. You’ll have to think like your potential customers and try things that you may have not considered trying before. For example, if writing isn’t your bag, you may have to experiment with videos.
An optimized GMB page requires adherence to the rules. This is the toughest one for me because I want to do things my way. But I also want my business to show up 1st in the local search. Guess who’s following the rules?
The good thing about putting yourself out there, being creative and adhering to the rules is that you don’t have to be an expert in any of this. You just have to be competent:-)
To get my latest info about building a massage business and making money, sign up for my email list. It’s free.
