Normally you may feel that your massage therapy business is doing well and has a good number of clients. Even so there are frequent times in our massage therapy business life when client numbers could be better and we get that familiar sense that our wonderfully fulfilling massage therapy business could work a lot better.
You’ve heard me talking about how your thinking can change your massage therapy experience, and business. But how is this done? How can you turn around a massage therapy business from ok to doing well?
For most massage therapists it simply isn’t that easy. The fact of the matter is that we all have times when clients don’t come as we’d like them to and there is room for improvement. When examine our massage therapy businesses, we can really see that our client numbers are not as high and even getting our most regular clients to refer friends can feel like a battle. In this case, what is needed is some techniques to combat this and cut of falling client numbers. And all massage therapy businesses need this; not just the starting up ones.
In this case what we need to do to bring client numbers up for our massage therapy business is to examine where the clients you do have, have come from. Go over your client records again and do a quick search on what sources you have got them from.
Look at your records and you will find that perhaps out of 100 people that 10 have come from the dance club up the road, 15 have come from the office block in the city, and that the rest have come from signs and advertising. What you are trying to do is establish a pattern and find where the flow is coming from.
What will happen then is that you realise that not all client numbers have to drop in your massage business just because of unforeseen circumstances, sometimes the reason client numbers drop is because you have not followed up on marketing for a while, not contacted people in the community who have referred you business or created new, positive contacts who could be possible candidates for giving you business.
In any massage therapy business, writing down a basic graph or report for yourself will help you keep on top of any potential falling client numbers and hopefully put a stop to it before it happens.
It does not just have to be on massage marketing, it can also be spa marketing or marketing for any natural health modality. Just enter a comment with your question and I’ll answer it (and you get the chance to win one of the massage marketing trainings).
On a different note, I want to share with you something from another project I am working on: a website for freelance writers. Why am I sharing that now? Because I have just entered a competition with a short piece of writing. Nothing fancy, just to be part of it. Here it is:
How do I develop a relationship with health care practitioners who may not be familiar with the modality I practice? (avoiding their discrediting something they don’t understand)
Thanks Jocelyne.
I guess that really depends on what your modality is and how it complements what other health care practitioners do.
A relationship with you
What I am wondering is how they could discredit something that they are not familiar with. It probably means that they have heard negative things of the modality. So they might think that they are familiar with it, even though they do not know details.
Probably the best way around it is to build strong personal relationships: actively networking. It is probably best to focus your relationship building on other interests of yours.
Join a sports club, make music, go to events. Relate to people on a personal basis, so they get to know and trust you. Then will then extent to what you do.
And maybe it is not necessary to put a lot of emphasis on your modality, but rather on the problems you solve and the results clients can expect.
Supporting what others do
If there is a way that your modality fits int what other health care practitioners do (i.e. supports their process), you’ve got a great inroad for some mutual marketing activities.
I would avoid trying to convince people who use another modality that yours is better. But if they are a specialist in a niche different to yours, let them know about your niche and how you can help their clients in your area of expertise.
I want to share the next step in Caroline’s story. She is not marketing massage, but her postnatal exercise classes. Still, what she has done applies to all other modalities as well.
There are 4 simple steps… (and I learned something new in the process as well).
There is no better time to market yourself than when you have clients.
I received an email the other day from someone asking me whether he could purchase the Passionate Training and not start it until later. The reason was that he was busy with some clients.
Most businesses go through phases of ebb and flow. While in the flow with lots of clients, nothing is done to retain them or get new clients. Why would you, all is great.
But then the flood stops and suddenly it becomes really important to get new clients. (more…)
After much consideration, I have finally decided to close down the Passionate Forum. It was part of the training where participants could ask questions and I would answer them.
But very few used it.
I still had to go in there every day and check whether any questions were being asked.
Now I closed it, and I feel relieved that I do not have this obligation. You can contact me either on this blog or via email and I will still help. (more…)
Not because she is my wife, but because she is a Physiotherapist and has always resisted going into business for herself. She preferred being employed (even though here in Australia that works only on a commission basis).
But today’s story is about her decision to run a post natal exercise group.
We talked about all the different ways she could market herself: website, business cards, fliers, a media release, and more. I got really excited because I would have loved to produce all that for her. But she got completely overwhelmed and almost did not want to go ahead with the groups. (more…)
You feel like you are the best in your field and are fulfilling an important role in the community.
Then a few days go by with no one calling. After a week you really feel down.
Questions start racing through your mind: “Why is no one calling? Maybe they did not enjoy it after all? But they should know how good it is for them! Maybe I am just not made for this?” Uncertainty sets in and it gets harder to do anything to move forward.
Support from someone else who can keep your motivation up and lead you back to clarity is one way out of it.
Another possibility is to shift your focus from outcomes that are difficult to influence to what you have 100% control over: the number of people you are telling about your services. (more…)
Can you remember a time when you talked to someone and they just did not get the point you wanted to make? Can you feel the frustration of not getting your idea across?
What was your reaction? Did you draw back and stop the conversation? Did you feel like a failure? Did your point seem wrong? Did you start explaining it from a different angle?
Or ……. Did you start asking more questions and listening to the other person? Did you make an effort to get their point? Did that change something in the conversation? Did the other person start asking questions, too? Maybe you noticed that your points were actually not that opposite at all, just using different words? (more…)
