Marketing to new clients

Overview of marketing to new massage clients

Between ½ and ¾ of massage therapists are looking for new clients (per AMTA, ABMP). Massage is a rapidly growing field, with acceptance of massage having grown tremendously over the past few years, as 24% of Americans report receiving a massage in the past year as compared to only 8% in 1997.

Finding new clients can be challenging, especially for therapists who have recently started practicing massage or who have moved to a new area, as many new massage customers come to their therapist via referrals or other word of mouth.

There are three steps someone must go through to get to your table for the first time: Awareness, Consideration, and Decision to Purchase

Goals

You will see the greatest immediate results by understanding where people are in this process and targeting your marketing efforts to move them to the next step.
• Decision to purchase: Make it easy and/or urgent
• Consideration: Address needs and show credibility
• Awareness: Find people looking for your services

Toolkit

• Distribution: Find ways to get in front of people
• Targeting: Understand who wants what you do and what they are looking for
• Credibility: Show that you are a professional with the appropriate skills and approach
• Differentiation: Show how you are better (capabilities, quality, price)

Example Resources

• Awareness: Business cards, Advertising, T-shirt/ Car magnet, Signage, Search result
• Consideration: Informative article, Online reviews/awards, Referrals/Word of mouth, Low risk (Brand, satisfaction guarantee), Unique
• Purchase: Pressing need, Social pressure, “Great deal”, Easy purchase process, Curiosity

Awareness

People need to know that you exist and what you do in order for them to ever be a client. However, where you spend time and money will need to be focused on people that are likely to become customers.

First, you must figure out who is most likely to want your services. How old are they? Where do they live? What do they do for a career and outside of work? Where are you likely to run into them? What pressing needs are they looking to solve when they would be interested to meet you?

Once you figure out these things, you can focus on making sure that your information is distributed to the right places via business cards, mailers, advertising, web profile, etc where people can find out you exist and determine if they want to hear more. You’re most likely to get a positive response if you get in front of people when they are looking for you—this is why Google’s search tools have become so effective at marketing for businesses.

Consideration

Once someone has heard of you, they’ll want to find out a bit more to see if you are credible and provide a good quality service that they want at a reasonable price.
Today, that increasingly has an online component, although word of mouth is still the primary factor. Large companies bring brands that help reduce concerns—as an independent therapist or part of a small company, it’s up to you to prove that you are a premium service (as opposed to a cheap interchangeable commodity). Today, that means showing that you’re better than a “cheap” or “discount” massage, or competing for business at those prices.

The online space, however, allows you to compete on the same footing as the bigger players. A high quality web profile, good (independent) reviews, awards and high scores, unique/targeted offering, and low risk (ie a satisfaction guarantee or free trial) all allow you to move people to purchase.

Two things are important here: how you present yourself and how others present you. You can present yourself by looking professional and helpful: a good web profile with useful information written clearly reflects well. Writing about a topic you’re passionate about by answering questions or writing regular articles (that are available via your profile) allow others to “sample” your work and get a sense of whether they’ll like your services. How others present you via endorsements/ reviews and referrals, also matters—every online comment allows others to again get a better sense of what you have to offer and how delighted others have been with your services.

Purchase

Once a client has determined that they want to use you, they have to decide when to make that purchase. The easier you can make that process, by providing triggers to buy now and removing any obstacles to the purchase, the more likely it is that you will have a new client.

Triggers to buy now include cues that everyone is used to responding to. “Free” anything tends to get lots of response (and maybe a free 5 minute chair massage is all you need to get a customer on your table). However, “free” also brings with it many people who will never pay for the service, so it needs to be used carefully. Coupons with expiration dates can also work—the ending of a special deal tends to bring people in at the deadline. Packages may expand a purchase—people are often willing to pay a bit more if they think they are trading up.

Removing obstacles to the purchase is a big opportunity in the massage space, and online scheduling offers huge opportunities to reduce this friction. Have people ever called you to reach a busy number or answering machine? Have customers ever wanted an appointment but you didn’t have your appointment calendar with you? Ever have people who want to try you, but you’re too expensive at standard prices (and once they try you, they’ll realize they need you). Ever turn down people for busy times because you’ve booked them far in advance?

All of these are opportunities to create triggers, remove obstacles, and manage your appointments to yield the best results for you and a thriving practice.