Set Yourself Apart From the Competition

jscreationzs / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

If you're in an area that is saturated with massage therapists, it's important to set yourself apart from your competition.  There's a few simple ways you can do this.

• Offer a unique technique.  
  Rather than market it as the modality, present it as a solution to your client's problem.
  There are so many different techniques out there - find something that intrigues you that no one else is doing in your area.
• Position yourself as an expert.  
  A great way to do this is to write articles on massage / holistic health / etc for your local paper.  Create a blog to educate clients on the benefits of massage.
  Send out newsletters or e-newsletters to clients.  (Writing not your forte? ABMP has a great newsletter generator for you to send to clients.)
  Speak at events, conventions, etc. that are related to health and introduce the benefits of massage therapy.
• Take customer service to the next level.
  Offer your clients more value with exceptional service.
  Promote extras or add-ons like paraffin dip, hot towels, aromatherapy, etc.
  (More ideas in this post on 10 Simple Ways to Wow Your Clients.)
• Offer unique business hours.Is your competition offering evening or Sunday appointments?  Set yourself apart by offering convenient times that others don't.
• Make it easy for clients to schedule with you.
  Offer online scheduling, phone, email, text as ways to contact you.
• Have a web presence.
  A website is a necessity, in my opinion.  Stand out from the crowd by making yours awesome. (Beautiful design, interesting content, search engine optimization, online scheduling, blog.)
  Make sure you're not making any of these common mistakes.
• Provide a unique specialty.
  Fill a need by offering same-day emergency appointments, or longer-than-usual sessions, or short, effective sessions.
• Create a "Signature Treatment".
  Combine your two most popular services into one beautiful treatment that no one else offers.
• Create a niche market.
  Focus on a certain clientele.  Prenatal for pregnant women, Stress-relieving treatments for agonized executives, recovery massage for athletes, etc.

What ways have you set yourself apart from the competition?  How has it helped your business?

Cindy Iwlew is co-founder of Bodywork Buddy Massage Software, a complete online management solution for independent massage therapists that includes online scheduling. 

She continues to operate her own private massage practice of 13 years, and has been an associate instructor for Ashiatsu Oriental Bar Therapy since 2007.  www.BodyworkBuddy.com

How to Create a Free Commercial for Your Massage Website

Have you ever heard of Animoto?   It's a cool little site where you can take video clips and pictures - add text & music - to create a free 30 second video.

It's a great tool to create a commercial about your massage practice to add to your website.  It's fairly simple - after creating an account and logging in, you can choose your pictures from several different sources including your Facebook account.  Add any text you want and choose music to go with your video... and Animoto then does the rest.

Here are some tips to create an awesome commercial:

• Keep it short.  You can purchase a longer video, but 30 second videos are free... and really, 30 seconds is the perfect length for a commercial.  You want to entice people, not bore them with a long video.
• Animoto has a very large library of music to choose from... however, in my opinion, not much of it goes nicely with massage therapy.  I'd recommend uploading your own music.  Keep in mind that there may be some legalities to uploading just any music... To be on the safe side, I recommend using music from ASOMAssage*.  (ASOMAssage is a music membership site with royalty free massage music - only $9.95/month membership gets you 6 hours of downloadable music each month! It's a great service, despite their use of that talking popup that I just advised against in last week's post...)
  The music in the video below is a sampling of the beautiful massage music you get with a membership.  If you're a member of ASOMAssage and would like to use some of their music for your videos, please contact them for details.
• Use pictures of yourself - not other therapists.  Trade with a photographer to get some nice, professional photos.
• Remember to put your website address and phone number in the video. Direct clients to schedule online if you offer that service.
• Post your video on your website and Facebook page.

Here's a little example of what you can do -

Have you made your own commercial with Animoto?  Post a link here so we can check it out!

*I am an affiliate with Asomassage, which means I will receive a referral commission if you signup for this service.  However, this commission does not influence the information I provide in this blog nor does it mean that you will pay more if you buy through my links.  I always provide honest opinions and reviews to share my findings, beliefs and experiences.

Cindy Iwlew is co-founder of Bodywork Buddy Massage Software, a complete online management solution for independent massage therapists that includes online scheduling. 

She continues to operate her own private massage practice of 13 years, and has been an associate instructor for Ashiatsu Oriental Bar Therapy since 2007.  www.BodyworkBuddy.com

When Good Websites Go Bad / Part 2

A couple of weeks ago, I posted the first half of When Good Websites Go Bad.
So, how can we fix these common website mistakes?

Each page is a "wall of text".  Especially the home page.
There's so much text that after one glance, visitors are instantly overwhelmed and don't bother reading any of it.

• Break up your content into relevant pages.  You don't need to show all of your information on the home page.  Your content is actually more likely to be read if you have it organized in appropriate ways.  Break up remaining content into paragraphs.  Add images in as well as spacing between paragraphs to help set apart the content.  Take a look at the final formatting... would you sit down and read through all of this if it were on someone else's website? 

healingdream / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

There are no pictures or anything visually pleasing.

• Use images to help tell your story.  Pictures of yourself are great - clients will love to see YOU giving a massage, etc.  (High quality pictures are best).  Find a photographer to trade with to get some nice, professional pictures to use on your site.

No luck with high quality pics of yourself?  Use stock images.  There are several sites that provide stock images for your use - you simply need to give credit to the site and photographer.  Freedigitalphotos.net is an example.

Notice the photo to the left?  And the link below it that gives credit to Free Digital Photos and the artist.
Or, if you are a member of ABMP, they have a beautiful library of royalty free images for your use.  (Login to the member area of their website and hover over Marketing Center, click Photo Library.)  Again, remember to give credit to ABMP.

Stolen pictures or content from other sites.

• NOT COOL.  DON'T DO THIS.

Not only someone else's pictures, they're hot-linked.  Don't think this will go unnoticed.

• NOT COOL.  DON'T DO THIS.
  Keep in mind that this image is not controlled by you.  The person hosting the image will notice you're hot-linked, and may choose to teach you a lesson by changing the image.

No call to action to visitors.

• A call to action is a banner, button, or some type of graphic or text on a website meant to prompt a user to click through to convert them from a visitor to a client.  What do you want your clients to do when visiting your site?  Make an appointment, right?  Have a clear and precise way for them to do that.
  
  

50 different fonts.  And font sizes.  And colors.

• Keep it simple.  A uniform look and feel is best.  If you're trying to draw attention to a certain area, there are more effective ways to do it than to get crazy with the fonts, colors, and sizes.

Talking flash graphics, pop-ups, or the windows that pop-up behind the browser.  Or pop-ups that prevent visitors from leaving the site.

• Don't you hate these things on other people's websites?  Then WHY would you put one on yours???

Same content and look since 2008.  The site is never updated.

• There are many reasons to have fresh content on your site.  For one, it helps with search engine optimization.  But it also shows your site visitors that you are still here... give them something new so they come back to your site frequently.  Your site is not just a static business card - it's an interactive experience.
  
  Have a blog with tips for self-care for your clients in between massage appointments.  Change the look or content according to the season.  If you have a Facebook business page or a Twitter account, link those to your site so your clients can see your daily updates.  (Don't use a personal FB or Twitter account.)  If you post frequently, I would recommend you keep the FB or Twitter feed to the last 3 or 5 posts so as not to fill the whole page with updates.
  
  Don't have time to blog or add fresh content to your site?  Daily Om is a great site that publishes articles that could be of interest to your clientele.  You can easily add it to your website, so you will get a constant stream of fresh content to your site - while you are massaging!

Following these simple rules will keep your website professional and effective.  What other ways do you like to keep your website fresh?

Cindy Iwlew is co-founder of Bodywork Buddy Massage Software, a complete online management solution for independent massage therapists that includes online scheduling. She continues to operate her own private massage practice of 13 years, and has been an associate instructor for Ashiatsu Oriental Bar Therapy since 2007.  www.BodyworkBuddy.com

Promote Yourself for Mother's Day

Mother's Day is only a couple of weeks away...  but it's not too late to ramp up some marketing for your massage business!

Here's a great idea from Essential Massage Therapy:

They sent out an e-newsletter to all of their clients that included this Mother's Day Contest.

Enter to Win!

Visit our facebook page and post on our wall a Mom/Daughter or Mom/Son picture telling us why Mother's Day is special to you. Share with your friends and have them vote by commenting on your photo "I vote for you". The 2 Fans with the most votes will each win a ONE HOUR MASSAGE! All photos and votes must be posted by midnight, Wednesday, May 9th. We are looking forward to seeing all of your submissions! 

This contest is a great way to get more LOCAL Likes to your Facebook page - friends of your clients will be stopping by to vote.  These could be potential new clients!  Everyone will be tuning in to see who wins... you could also use this as a chance to remind everyone that Mom will love a gift certificate (if they don't happen to be the winner of the free massage!).  Essential Massage Therapy has a listing of Mom's Day Massage Packages just to the left of this contest on their newsletter - brilliant!

*Thanks to Essential Massage Therapy for letting me share this great idea.

Do you have another creative marketing idea for Mother's Day?  Comment here what has worked for you in the past, or what you're trying different this year.

Cindy Iwlew is co-founder of Bodywork Buddy Massage Software, a complete online management solution for independent massage therapists that includes online scheduling. 

She continues to operate her own private massage practice of 13 years, and has been an associate instructor for Ashiatsu Oriental Bar Therapy since 2007.  www.BodyworkBuddy.com

Google Personal Search

Have you noticed that when you search for yourself on Google, your site is pretty high up on the list?  Google customizes our search results when we are signed in to any Google account.  Sites you have visited often will appear higher in the search results.

It used to be the easiest way to turn off that personal search was to type in &pws=0 at the end of the URL search results.  This turns off the personal search results and will show you what the rest of the world will see when they search using your keywords.  While this method still works, there's now a much easier way.

While signed in to google, you will see this image in the upper right corner of your search results page-

You can toggle back and forth between the person icon, and the world icon.  If you click on the person icon, you will see your personal, customized results.  If you click on the world icon, you will see the results that everyone else sees.

You can also click on the settings icon, and go in to change your personal search settings.  But with this handy little toggle button, it's easy to switch it back and forth for your searches.

No need to sign out of Google, open a new browser, repeat search.  No need to call all of your friends and ask them to search for you so you can find out where your site shows up for everyone else.

This is a fairly new feature... one I obviously wasn't aware of when I posted about the &pws=0 tip just a few days ago on Facebook.  That's the amazing thing about technology - it is always changing!

Cindy Iwlew is co-founder of Bodywork Buddy Massage Software, a complete online management solution for independent massage therapists that includes online scheduling. 

She continues to operate her own private massage practice of 13 years, and has been an associate instructor for Ashiatsu Oriental Bar Therapy since 2007.  www.BodyworkBuddy.com