Grow Your Massage Practice with These Top Marketing Tips
Marketing can be a huge challenge for small business owners and especially Massage Therapists. Many Massage Therapy Practice owners are wearing a lot of hats and still trying to focus most of their energy on doing what they love - caring for for their clients! We are hoping to take some of the confusion out of marketing and help you focus on the efforts that will bring the most return. Check out the below marketing tips for inspiration and guidance on how to reach more of your ideal massage clients.
Create the right messaging to reach your ideal clientele
- How can you describe your massage modality in a way that your ideal client’s will relate to and understand?
- Think about the unique benefits that your specific modality offers vs. other modalities and why certain people should choose it over other massage modalities?
- What problem(s) does this type of massage solve for your ideal clients?
Social Media Marketing for Massage Therapy
Content
- Create content that your customers actually care about
- What problem do your clients have that you can solve for them? What is your solution? What are your clients goals?
- Create a list of questions that your customers frequently ask. Ie. “how often should I get a massage?” “What type of massage should I get?”
- What influences your client to get a massage?
- Create original content when possible: use your logo and/or name and a link to your site on these in case they are shared. Don’t forget to use keywords.
- Make a video
- Take your own images
- Create your own meme
- Make a podcast
- Interview your team or other experts in the field, this could also be a great networking tool
- Publish high quality and relevant content that conveys your brand, mission and values every time.
- Follow other people in the field and see what they are publishing, what is working and what is not, this will help you generate ideas.
Facebook
- Set Up a business page
- Add a “call to action button” on your page
- Upload your email list to Facebook
- Create a strategy based on your ideal client
- Create content to share with your customers, use photos and videos
- Get very comfortable with video, it is the marketing of the future. Use this guide to shoot pro video on your smartphone.
- Use Facebook’s Business Manager. Here you can set up and save audiences, manage ads and more
- Install Facebook’s tracking pixel on your website so that you can use targeted advertising to reach clients whom have already visited your website! The pixel is a code you install on your website to capture information about people who are visiting and remarket to them via Facebook Ads - read this support article for more information
- Respond to FB messenger messages quickly
- Use FB Live to promote your business and connect with clients. Facebook live gets preferential treatment by FB as far as what shows up in client’s feeds. Use for Q&A Sessions, product/service releases, promoting community events, short online classes, use it to test content, live customer service, chat sessions, giveaways, contests.
- FB ads
- Use targeted audience tools to make sure that you are reaching your target customers
- Use Facebook Business Manager to create ads for both Facebook and Instagram. Best practice is to use compelling visuals that have you in them. Keep your messaging simple - first time specials are great or messaging that focus’s on the problems you will solve for the client and the benefits they will gain. Here is the support page for FB Ads.
- Timing: Post daily. Best times are early in the morning before work and 1-4pm and 2-5pm weekdays
- Promote Posts
- Monitor and adjust
- Measurement:
- Identify your key performance indicators.
- Events - Create Facebook events for things you are hosting that fit in this platform, ie. virtual wellness event, open house, ….etc… this can be a great way to introduce yourself to know clients.
Instagram
- Set up a business account.
- Write a great bio
- Shorten URL’s
- Follow and get followers. When you are first starting out getting followers should be your top priority.
- Post at the right time of day and post consistently, daily is ideal.
- Use Instagram Stories
- Monitor and adjust: which posts are getting the most engagement? What hashtags work best? Always respond to comments.
- Connect with influencers and get them to promote your brand. Create a list of top influencers in your area for health, wellness, self care etc...offer them a free massage for talking about your service to their audience and/or a free service to their audience.
- Use video! Create an IG Reel
- Regram
- Paid advertising - Most brands find success on Facebook and Instagram through boosted posts and Paid ads. This is a great way to gain new followers so that your lovely content and messages can be seen by a larger audience!
- Giveaways - Use giveaways on Instagram to turn your followers into brand ambassadors.
- Use a visually compelling image with text that calls out the giveaway to capture people’s attention. Check out these post ideas on Pinterest
- In the caption tell people what you are giving away and how they can win it. Ie. Win a free massage! Follow this page and tag 3 friends in the comments. Winner will be chosen on xx date and we will notify you via DM. etc...
- Learn more here: Run an Instagram contest
- Following people - Follow brands that align with yours and/or other massage therapy studios. Follow those brands followers, if they like similar brands then they will likely enjoy yours as well. Often times when you follow a person they will follow you back and then you will have their attention.
- Hashtags - Use relevant hashtags in your captions so that your content shows up when that hashtag is searched. Ie. #pdxmassage #beavertonmassage #massage #pdxashiatsu etc..
- Learn about and use #hashtags.
Website and Search Engine Optimization for Massage Therapy Businesses
Website
- Your website should be simple and easy to navigate
- Your domain name should include keywords and you should buy it for several years at a time.
- Make sure people can reach you: Is your contact information or booking link visible on every page? It should be!
- Your website should reflect your brand and maintain brand consistency with other promotional items that you use
- Use your own professional photos when possible or photos that you have permission to use and that look clean, clear, and professional otherwise.
- Install Google Analytics on your website to measure the performance of your pages and your site overall
- Incorporate video
- Include social media icons/links so that clients can both connect with you on social media and share your blog posts with their friends.
- Include web sign up tools to capture clients even if they don’t buy/book. A newsletter sign up is typically sufficient.
- Create your own website with website builders like Squarespace, Weebly, and Wix
- Where do you stand?
- Use Google’s webmaster tools to find out how Google views your website or use Upcity’s free SEO report to see how you compare to competitors.
- Keywords
- Create a list of keywords that you believe customers might use to search for your business, products, and/or services. Ie. massage in your city, back pain relief in your city, deep tissue massage in your city.
- Check keywords in Google’s Keyword Planner
- Title tag, page headers, URL’s, image names, and all content should include relevant keywords but each page should still be created with the client in mind.
- Blog
- Put the blog on your website
- Create links to archived material
- Blogging with keywords in mind is the best practice
- Blogging helps create fresh and relevant content on your site. This plays a major role in search engine optimization.
- Share links to your blog posts on social media and in email newsletters.
- Backlinks
- Reach out to other sites that you think your clients might visit and ask them to include a link to your site on their website. You can offer to include a link to theirs on yours in return. This will help your SEO ranking!
- Online Presence
- Google My Business: login to your account and make sure your listing is fully updated. You should take advantage of all of the features that Google offers for your listing, including making posts etc…
- Ask your clients for reviews regularly, this will not only help with search engine optimization, but it will help you get more of the types of clients that you are hoping for. (see template for asking for reviews at the bottom of this email)
- Make sure your business information is consistent across the web, specifically, your business name, address, phone number, hours and any other contact info. Everything online should match what you have listed on your Google My Business listing.
- Add your business info to online directories such as Yelp, Next Door, Angie’s list, Oregon Live. Adding links from online directories to your website will help your website show up higher in search results.
- Oregon local directories:
- SEM (Search Engine Marketing)
- Super helpful article on Google Adwords
- Article on setting your budget
Networking to Grow Your Massage Practice
- Join your neighborhood business association
- Join Next Door, both as a business listing and as a personal listing. Be active in the forum to get to know your neighbors. This will be a great place to learn about neighborhood events etc...
Event Marketing for Massage
- Go to neighborhood events to introduce yourself and build relationships in your area, offer massage when possible
- If there are any other types of events near you such as street fares etc.. you could have a booth there and offer massage and/or have a raffle.
- Donate gift certificates to events that your ideal clients might be at and causes that you support.
- Partner with fitness studios - Consider partnering with fitness studios in your area that align with your brand and messaging. You could offer their clients a discount or free add on at their first visit. Or repurpose your membership for this partnership.
- New seasons/Whole Foods (healthy groceries etc...) who else has insurance that covers massage near you? Nike? Intel? Do any of these businesses offer wellness events to their employees or customers? If you can offer massage at those events you could capture those clients.
Offer Membership Plans and Packages to Your Massage Clients
- Corporate Wellness Plan
- Create a monthly membership and/or package option for small businesses or large corporations. You can offer different options for them to choose from.
- Option 1 - Buy a pack of x amount of sessions for the year for employees to draw from (this could be paid in full by the company or paid partially by the employee)
- Option 2 - Monthly membership - Company pays x amount of membership and the employee pays the remainder
- Create a monthly membership and/or package option for small businesses or large corporations. You can offer different options for them to choose from.
- Memberships
- Create a monthly membership option ex: 1 60 min massage per month discounted by $10 per month if you sign up for a 6 month contract. You can add extra details if you would like to make it more enticing ie. buy additional sessions at the same discounted price. Be added to a happy hour email list. Be the first to know about new products/services, etc…
- Packages
- Create package options for clients to buy - ie. $15 off each session when you buy a pack of 4 60 minute massages - expire in 1 year
Gift Certificate's and Client Retention
- Gift Certificates
- Sell gift certificates online and in physical form - this can be a great stream of revenue around the holidays!
- Happy Hour
- Offer discounted sessions last minute that you send out either via social media or email (or both). This is great for filling slow appointment slots or days.
- Email newsletter
- Collect client emails so that you can send a monthly or quarterly newsletter. This is a great way to build a relationship with your clients and keep your business top of mind for when they need a massage session. MailChimp is a great free service for this!
- Make it easy for clients to subscribe/unsubscribe-subscription box on your website
- Tell subscribers what to expect
- Use email automation-send a welcome email at least
- Be consistent: Brand consistency, voice consistency, send your email newsletter consistently
- Keep it short, simple and visually pleasing
- Add value to your clients lives, what can you include that will teach them something great or make them smile?
- Personalize your emails-use clients first names
- Create an emotional connection with your clients.
- Include a call to action: what do you want a client to do?
- Optimize for all devices: mobile and desktop
- Include social media icons, both so they can follow you and share your content
- Subscribe to your competitors emails and social media accounts! How can you know if you are staying competitive if you don’t know what your competitors are doing?
- Proofread and test your email communications!
- Track your results
- Use A/B testing: try a vague subject line vs. a specific subject line, intriguing vs. funny etc.. See which gets more responses
- Collect client emails so that you can send a monthly or quarterly newsletter. This is a great way to build a relationship with your clients and keep your business top of mind for when they need a massage session. MailChimp is a great free service for this!
- Recall email
- Use the template located here contact clients that you haven’t seen in a while (60 days) and invite them back. I recommend going through your client visits 1x per quarter and sending out emails at that time.
Signage
- Use an A-board sign to let people in your area know about your great work! The more visual and compelling the better and make sure that it is branded with your biz name and logo. You could use an image of you giving massage and/or advertise a first time visit special.
- Make it easy for people to contact you by making your phone number large enough to read from far away
Paper Marketing
- Use flyers, magnets, business cards, postcards and posters around your area to make sure that people see your messaging over and over again. Potential clients typically need to see/hear your message several times before they take action.
- You can also create door hangers to put on residential doors around your business location inviting them to come and see you.
Build Partnerships
- Check into partnering with ClassPass. You could offer mini sessions that people can book using their membership plan with ClassPass.
Marketing Planning
- Fill out the marketing plan (below) and try to stay about 2-3 months ahead so that you can create any marketing materials that you might need as well as reserve spaces at events. Keep it realistic and manageable so that you can keep up with it.
| Example Marketing Plan Spreadsheet |
| Example Marketing Tracker |