SETTING YOURSELF UP FOR GROUPON SUCCESS {Guest Post by Cath Cox, LMT}

I am a certified Groupon geek. 

Using Groupon to build my practice fast has been the single best decision I’ve made for my business. 

But it was one I resisted. I’d heard that only cheap people use Groupon, that they just come in for the deal and never return, and that I’d get so booked with Groupon clients I wouldn’t have space for anyone else. What I hadn’t heard is that Groupon provides massive exposure for your practice in exchange for a highly discounted service, and when used strategically, can create rapid, sustainable growth.

In any marketing campaign, planning is the most critical step. 

Unfortunately, it’s often neglected or skipped entirely. I’ve identified five critical skills and tools to planning a successful Groupon campaign. Let’s take a look at what they are, why they’re important, and how they can make a Groupon deal work for you.

HAVE A GOAL

Before we begin any promotional activity for our practice, we need to be clear about what it is we want to accomplish. “Get more clients” is way too vague. How many more clients do you want? Take a look at the number of clients you average per week now and decide how many more you want to have on the books each week. So if you’re seeing 10 clients per week now and you want to be seeing 25, your goal is to attract 15 more clients per week.

Having a goal allows you to evaluate how effective your marketing strategy is because it can be easily measured. 

It also helps you set the monthly maximum for your Groupon deal. This limit not only determines how many vouchers can be sold per month; it’s the metric used for the algorithm that determines where your deal shows up on the Groupon website. High visibility will sell more vouchers to a more varied group of members. Lower visibility means your deal will only be seen by those searching for massage. The monthly maximum can be adjusted to sell more or less vouchers while your deal is active to give you the best results.

USE A TARGETED DESCRIPTION

Who exactly are you trying to appeal to? It’s easy to fall into the “anyone who wants a massage” trap, but what’s going to really create growth and fulfillment in your practice is serving those who you are the best fit for. If you love and are really good at giving the most relaxing massage in your area, then you want to help people looking for that find you. They’re the ones who are going to enjoy what you offer, want to return, and tell others about you.

Massage is a popular item on Groupon, which can work to your advantage or against you. It’s become a go-to directory for those looking for a new massage therapist because they can try us out without breaking the bank. It can also make it harder for us to be seen among the numerous choices. A targeted description of your deal will set you apart from other massage therapists and make you resonate with those who want your unique skill set.

MAKE IT EASY TO RETURN

Once you get a new client, what do you do to inspire them to become a regular client? Aside from giving an extraordinary experience from beginning to end, clients may need a little financial incentive to visit frequently enough to get great results and stabilize your income. Having an enticing loyalty program, membership or discounted package will increase conversions dramatically. These types of incentives make frequent visits easier and keep your schedule fuller.  After all, isn’t the whole point of using Groupon in the first place to bring in more clients who will keep coming?

In my experience, offering a single session and a package of three in your deal gets more conversions in the long run because those who purchase a package are more interested in receiving massage frequently. Have an expiration date for your package (I use 90 days from date of activation) and stick with it. You can always offer to let them pay the difference for expired sessions (most likely they won’t, so those are free money). Use the pricing of your ongoing program (or special for returning Groupon customers) as a guide to price your deal (anything less than 70% of what they would pay for your discounted services is going to make converting them more challenging). You may not sell as many vouchers with a higher priced deal but you’ll retain more of the clients who buy them.

FOCUS ON THE BIG PICTURE

It’s human nature to seek immediate gratification. You will make some money from the sales of your vouchers, but using Groupon isn’t about making money from the deal itself. It’s about helping customers who want what you do find you. Getting them to come back is up to you.

Being successful with Groupon requires you to see it as way to attract more clients so you can then blow them away with your awesomeness. You won’t retain every Groupon client, but you most likely won’t retain every new client who hears about you from other sources either. Focus on those who do rebook rather than those who don’t. Keep the big picture of a full, thriving practice in mind. If you can’t get past the highly discounted rate you’ll receive from Groupon for your services, it’s not the tool for you.

USE ONLINE SCHEDULING

If you’re already using online scheduling, I don’t have to tell you how much it streamlines the booking process. If you’re on the fence about trying it, I encourage you to take the leap. Bodywork Buddy offers a free trial period, so you have nothing to lose. Any concerns you have about optimizing your schedule or not having control will be minimized once you experience the freedom from phone, email and text tag you’ll have. It also provides an added convenience that many clients will appreciate, especially when you have an influx of new customers AND you’re busy working so aren’t available to answer the phone. I wouldn’t recommend doing a Groupon deal without it.

I’m not going to tell you that working with Groupon is all butterflies and moonbeams. It can be very challenging because you’re dealing with well-trained salespeople. It’s your responsibility to make the best decisions for your business and not let them steer you toward a deal that won’t serve you. But with a sound plan, it can be an unmatched option for growing your practice faster. Give some thought to what you want to achieve and create a strategy to support that BEFORE contacting Groupon. Then you’ll be prepared to negotiate a campaign that works for you and those who need you to reach their wellness goals.

Cath Cox has been a licensed massage therapist in Colorado since 1999 and is the creator of the Booked and Busy in 90 Days System™. Her mission is to heal the world by inspiring independent massage therapists to build thriving practices of their own so they can work authentically for as long as they desire. She currently provides Ashiatsu barefoot deep tissue massage exclusively in her private practice. You can learn more about Cath and her journey at cathcox.com.

How to Take Control of Your Passwords

In today's tech world, we all have a million passwords for a million different accounts. Your bank account, your online scheduling account, your business Facebook page... and these are just a handful that are only for your massage therapy business. How do you remember or keep track of them all?! Especially when they are cryptic words with special characters, a specific amount of numbers, some lowercase letters mixed with some uppercase letters.... 
Well, good news. There's a new school of thought on what makes a strong password.

Previously, security experts recommended the use of password manager apps to ensure users' accounts were protected.

"The old wisdom... we found that it does everything negative for usability and really, not a whole heck of a lot for security." - Paul Grassi on All Tech Considered

The new suggestions for what makes a strong password are:

• Long passwords
• phrases
• spaces
• lowercase typical words, no need for uppercase letters mixed in
• no need for special characters
• no expiration

It's suggested to have a password manager. There are lots of useful apps available to store your passwords and make your life easier. That combined with the new rules for what makes a strong password, I think we can all breathe a little easier and stop putting so much energy into creating and remembering our keys to all of our accounts!

The Biggest Facebook Setting Mistake You Don't Want to Make

This past week, I kept trying to tag a local business Facebook page in a post about how awesome they are. Facebook wasn't showing the tag once the status was posted. Then I realized there is a setting in the business page that will not allow others to tag your page.

Just wanted to pass this along in case you didn't know this was an option. You may want to make sure you have this setting set to allow people to tag your business, so when your clients brag about you on FB, they can easily send others to your business page!

Without this setting enabled, when someone tries to tag your business page on Facebook, it will only show the text and not be a clickable link to your business page. Which would be absolutely zero help to getting the word out about your business. You'll especially want this setting enabled if you offer online scheduling right from within your Facebook page. ( *Shameless Plug * Our online scheduling for massage therapists has the ability to embed the scheduler right into your FB biz page, so clients don't even have to leave FB to schedule a relaxing massage with you!)

Check out Hillary Arrieta's massage business on Facebook and how her scheduler is embedded right into her business page:

Here's another helpful tip when using FB for your massage business:
When you post graphics or articles from your biz page, be sure to add a little comment in the main post encouraging clients to schedule and include the link to your scheduler. 
Keep in mind that when clients see your posts, it will most likely be from within their feed rather than directly from your page. Make it as easy as possible for them to schedule by including a link they can click to schedule. Otherwise, they would have to see your post, click onto your page, click onto schedule online, etc. Instead, just make it stupid easy with one click! :D

Amanda's business, Soothing Palms Massage, does a great job of this on FB. She shared an image from Massage Magazine, and added her own comment including her link to her online scheduler:

Speaking of Facebook, did you now we have an awesome active group for Bodywork Buddy members? If you're a massage therapist using our online scheduling, we would love to have you join us on FB!

Cindy Iwlew is a licensed massage therapist who has had a private practice since 1999 and cofounder of Bodywork Buddy massage software.
www.bodyworkbuddy.com

Iggy is the branch manager and helps keep Cindy on track with balancing out computer time with playing outdoors.

Today's post was created while listening to Amazon's Playlist '90s Hip-Hop BBQ. (We all need a break from massage music, right?!)
Happy Summer!

New Microsite Themes, An Editor, and Bears, Oh My!

We're excited to announce some new designs available for our online scheduling microsites as well as some other cool features and updates to the microsite area!

There are now 11 color/theme choices for your microsite. We've also added an editor to the main text area of the microsite - this means you can now add your own links, images, bold or italic text, etc in your main text.

This makes our online scheduling microsite more customizable than ever! Combined with the ability to choose a video, upload your own images or use images from our library, and add your own text, you can truly make your Bodywork Buddy online scheduler reflect your personality and your business.

Interested in creating your microsite to match the design of your website completely? We do offer individual designs as well. Contact us for pricing and details.

Not sure if Bodywork Buddy is right for you? We have a risk-free 15 day trial. I'm a licensed massage therapist myself (still in practice, btw). I get it. It's hard to switch over to a new system, or to take the plunge away from your paper book. That's why we offer the trial and will also import your client list for you. We also have amazing customer service, if I do say so myself! ;) I'll be here along side you every step of the way if you need me.

Try it free.

Oh, and I was just kidding about the bears. Don't worry, there are no bears.

How Do You Know If Your Client Got Their Email Reminder?

Bodywork Buddy has always had an email log so you can see when your clients received/opened their reminder emails. (Accessible from dashboard > account > email services > scroll down to email log.) Last I knew, no other online scheduling service offered this.

While it's a handy feature, we've had some members request a quicker, more "at-a-glance" way to see if clients haven't received or opened their email reminders. So we've implemented a new envelope icon in the calendar next to the client's name. An envelope outlined in white shows that the reminder has been sent, and the envelope will turn to solid white once it's been opened by your client. Pretty cool, right? Our members have been enjoying this feature for a few weeks now and the feedback has been pretty great.

Other ways to cut down on no-shows in your massage practice:

• Send text reminders.
  Easy to do within BWB. Enable SMS services, have clients opt-in by texting the word "START" to 269-509-4288, make sure client's mobile number is on file.
  
  
• Have a cancellation / no-show policy and make sure clients know about it.
  You can have your policies show within your email reminders, and you can also choose to have clients agree to your policies when they schedule online from your microsite.
  
  
• Train clients from the beginning that you might not be able to get them back on the schedule immediately if they miss or cancel their appointment. You might be surprised how clients will be able to make it work once they realize they won't be able to get back in for several weeks. I discovered this by accident when I was so busy that I really was booked out for a month in advance. Clients started saying that they didn't dare cancel, because they knew they wouldn't be able to get in until next month.
  
  Even if you're not booked out for weeks in advance, you can show less openings in your schedule using Bodywork Buddy's "optimized time slots" feature. It only shows openings immediately before or after existing appointments, not only cutting down on large gaps in your day - but also creating a scarcity of available appointment times.

Do you have some useful tips to help cut down on cancellations and no-shows? Share here in the comments, I'd love to hear what has worked for you! 

4 Ways to Make Your Policies More Effective

Sure, we all know that boundaries are important in a massage practice and that having policies will help cut down on no-shows and make your business run smoother. 

But how do you make sure that your clients are aware of your policies? Many intake forms have some fine print at the bottom that they are agreeing to when they sign, but does anyone actually read that?

Here's a few things you can do to ensure that clients are aware of your policies - thus making it easier to enforce them:

• Have them printed, framed, and displayed in the client changing area in your massage room and check out area.
• Have them posted on your website.
• Occasionally include them in your email newsletter as a reminder.

And Bodywork Buddy just added a new feature that can help. You can have the option to require clients agree to your policies when they schedule online!

From within your BWB account, you can add a general service policy, a reservation policy, a cancellation policy, and a payment policy. You can choose to have any or all required for clients to agree to when scheduling.

Here's what it looks like in action:

Pretty cool, right? Clients can't claim ignorance to your policies.

I've posted this helpful video from Marie Forleo before, but it fits so well with today's topic that I thought it was worthy of a repost.

Cindy Iwlew, LMT 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 since 1999.  www.BodyworkBuddy.com

Steamy Wonder Update

Wow, it's been a few years since I added the Steamy Wonder to my services and I still haven't posted my promised update of how it's worked out in my practice...oops!




I started out with adding a complimentary 20 minute steam with each session for them to experience it for the first time. After that, it was a $30 add-on. (Without really adding on any time to the session.) About 2 out of every 3 clients seems to love it, and many have added it to their regular routine. After having worked with the steam for a while, there's a few things I have changed:

• I only steam for about 15 minutes now instead of 20. This includes the cool-down time at the end of the steam, so really more like 10 minutes of solid heat.
• I've moved into a new space and don't have a good area to hang the tent with the pulley system. I realized my previous post didn't make it clear that the pulley system is optional, totally not required. I liked the pulley system, but some clients did mention that it looked like a huge casket hanging from the ceiling... (yikes?!). Now I stand it on it's end and partially tuck it behind my armoire. It doesn't take up much space and is still easily accessible.
• I used to use a sheet as a drape, and would slide it out after putting the tent over the table - leaving the client uncovered under the tent. I have recently switched to a bath towel for a drape, and leave it on the client during the steam. They can choose to slide the towel off to the side if they want, but most leave it on during the steam. It's comfortable and leaves the client feeling less exposed. It also helps to soak up some of the sweat, and then after wiping the client off with hot towels, I switch out the drape to a clean sheet and remove the bath towel.

About 2 out of every 3 clients seems to love it

I offer it as a combined service in my Bodywork Buddy online scheduler. So, for example, under my "deep tissue massage" service group, I have these choices:

• 90 minute deep tissue massage plus steam
• 90 minute deep tissue massage
• 60 minute deep tissue massage plus steam
• 60 minute deep tissue massage
• 30 minute deep tissue massage plus steam
• 30 minute deep tissue massage

I can run a report on specific services within Bodywork Buddy to show how much of my income each year has been from what service. Handy, right?

The small investment of adding the steam service has definitely been worth it. *Pro-tip: Be on the lookout for a used Steamy Wonder in good condition to save money.

So, there's the scoop! Do you have any specific questions on how I use the steam in my practice? Let me know and I can answer them in another post.

BTW, if you're interested in checking out Bodywork Buddy for your business needs, there is a 

free trial to see if it's a good fit for you. *Special discounts for Board Certified therapists and members of ABMP!*

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 since 1999.  www.BodyworkBuddy.com

6 Problems Massage Therapists Solve Using Bodywork Buddy

1. Phone tag with clients
   
   If using the online scheduling aspect of Bodywork Buddy, massage therapists can greatly cut down on phone tag with clients and the back and forth of trying to get an appointment time that works for both client and therapist.
   
   The online scheduler will show open appointments in real time to clients looking to schedule while still allowing the therapist to keep control over their schedule.
   
   Clients want the convenience of online scheduling, so not only does it eliminate phone tag but it gives your clients what they want!
   
   
2. Being unprepared for tax time
   Have you ever waited until the end of the year or even April to go through your entire book and add up your income? Uh... me neither....
   
   BWB actually makes it really easy to make recording your income a daily habit. And if you don't do it for every session? Those sessions will stay on your dashboard as overdue appointments so you'll remember that you still need to complete those and add payment info.
   
   
3. Setting boundaries and enforcing policies
   Policies are included on the email reminders sent to clients, and you can also add them to your online intake forms for clients to agree to.
   
   It's important to have clear boundaries and policies, and BWB helps you enforce those.
   
   
4. Tracking growth of business
   Do you know where your business is for this quarter? This month? How have you grown since this month last year? BWB makes it easy to find out with just a few clicks.
   
   
5. Tracking gift certificates and packages
   "Oh you have a gift certificate but you didn't bring it with you or you don't know the number? No problem! I have it on file."
   
   
6. Having a professional online presenceThe BWB microsite design has been made specifically for massage and to help you have a professional online presence. With massage specific images and videos, our online scheduler helps show clients what you do and how you can help them. You can also add your own images and text to completely personalize your microsite.

It's important to have clear boundaries and policies 

How To Use Bodywork Buddy As Your Website (With or Without Online Scheduling)

Do you want to use Bodywork Buddy to keep track of your income, expenses, client files, gift certificates, etc. but don't want to offer your clients online scheduling? You can choose to not enable your microsite, so it will never be live online... but another option is to still have your microsite and use it as your business website but without the scheduling aspect.

To do this, you can set all of your services to private instead of public from Dashboard > services > main > click on each service under service code > select private from visibility dropdown box > save.

When all of your services are set to private, your microsite will look similar to this:

Want to use the microsite for your regular website and have your own domain name direct to it? You can purchase your own domain name and then contact us to help you point it to your Bodywork Buddy microsite. 

Of course you can also always offer online scheduling by having your services set to public, and still using your microsite as your main website that includes online scheduling.

Try Bodywork Buddy free for 15 days and see for yourself how it can make your life easier at tax time and year round!

How Can Optimized Scheduling Help You?

I recently wrote a blog post titled "It's Time To Kill These 4 Online Scheduling Myths" in which I talked about therapists who are afraid they will lose control over their schedule if they make the switch from paper.

A fellow MT commented that she likes to cluster her appointments together so that she doesn't have large gaps in her day and she didn't think there was any online scheduler that could offer her that option.

This is actually exactly what Bodywork Buddy's "optimized scheduling" does!

Optimized scheduling is an optional feature you can turn on or off at any time within Bodywork Buddy. When it's selected, it will cluster your appointments together so that only openings before or after an existing appointment will be shown to clients booking online.

Some benefits to this are:

• eliminates large gaps in your day
• makes you appear busier than you are / more in demand
• gives you more control over your schedule

Let's take a look at just how this works. On this day, my entire schedule is open except for a noon appointment:

When I have optimized scheduling selected in my settings, this is what my clients will see when scheduling online. Only a 1:15pm appointment available because it is immediately after my 12:00 appointment with my buffer time of 15 minutes built in:

If I don't have optimized scheduling selected, my clients will see all of my open appointment times that day, starting with 1:15 and going all the way until the end of the day with the last appointment opening:

Pretty cool, right? This is just one of the ways Bodywork Buddy can help you maintain control over your schedule and make your life easier.

Want to try it out yourself? Signup for a free 15 day trial (no credit card required).

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 since 1999. www.BodyworkBuddy.com

It's Time To Kill These 4 Online Scheduling Myths

1. "I won't have control over my schedule."

A lot of therapists have this fear that they will lose control of their schedule, clients will suddenly dictate their life with too much access to their book, there will be too many appointments, too close together, and chaos will ensue!

Mary-Claire Fredette of Affinity Massage Studio in Cincinnati, Ohio says before she started using Bodywork Buddy, she was afraid that she would be at the grocery store buying ice cream when someone would schedule a massage. Her life would be ruined as the ice cream would melt info puddles as she massaged someone. It makes me laugh, but as a therapist myself, I can understand this concern!

Luckily Bodywork Buddy has some key features that would prevent this from being an issue.

• Your clients request an appointment online from the openings shown, and you can then accept or decline the appointment request. (So it's not an automatic confirmed appointment until you accept it.) You're sent an email to notify you of the request, and it will also show within your BWB account on the dashboard and the calendar.
• Stacked time slots versus interval time slots: BWB lets you choose how your openings are shown to clients. Do you want to show intervals of 10 minutes like 10:00, 10:10, 10:20 giving the client the most flexible options? (Interval options vary from 10-60 minutes.) Or only show them blocks of times like 10:00, 11:30, 1:00 giving YOU more control? It's up to you.
• In your settings, you can choose to show openings to clients online ranging from immediately to 4 days out. So if today is Monday and you have 4 days set in your settings, clients will not see any openings in your calendar until Friday.
• BWB's "optimized scheduling" feature is an optional setting to only allow clients to schedule appointments before or after an existing appointment, which helps to eliminate large gaps in your day. So if you have this setting selected, and you only have 1 client today at 5pm with the rest of the day open, any other clients looking to schedule online will only be able to select today at 3:30pm or 6:30pm (times may vary depending on your settings).  So at 10am you can buy your ice cream with no worries of it melting :)

2. "It will become a double-booking nightmare."

Do you worry that a client will schedule online at the same time that you're scheduling a client in the office?

Once a client requests an appointment online, it will show in your calendar in orange so you know it's been requested. That time slot will not show as open to other clients unless you decline that request.

When you're manually scheduling a client who is in your office or on the phone with you, it will instantly no longer be shown as an opening online.

Tristin Resinger of Akua Esthetics and Bodywork in Ann Arbor, Michigan says the owner at her previous job refused to get online scheduling out of fear of these kinds of mistakes happening, but Tristin points out that those mistakes seemed to happen a lot with a paper book. Having an electronic trail of each appointment can actually cut down on misunderstandings and human error. Within BWB, you can see a log of all emails sent to clients and 

even see if/when they've opened them.

3. "The online scheduler won't work."
Erin Howk of Therapeutic & Stress Reduction Massage in Fairmont, Minnesota says she had a fear that online scheduling wouldn't work and she'd have clients showing up that she didn't know were supposed to be there.

There's a few things within BWB that prevent this from happening. When a client requests an appointment online and you accept it, it turns into a confirmed appointment (in green) in the calendar and the client gets an email letting them know the appointment has been confirmed / accepted. 

The client will then get an email reminder shortly before their appointment (you can customize the how many hours before their appointment this is sent out in your settings.) If you have SMS services enabled and the client has opted in, they will also receive a text reminder.

If they don't have an appointment in the calendar, they will not get these confirmations and reminders.

4. "Nobody will use online scheduling and I'll still have to answer the phone and pay for a useless service."

While some clients might take some time getting used to scheduling online, the majority of clients today want the convenience of online scheduling. Not only scheduling online, but from their phones and tablets! Studies have shown that mobile use has skyrocketed in recent years. Offering online scheduling that is mobile friendly will cut down on phone tag and make scheduling an appointment with you a breeze.

I can't promise that you'll never have to answer the phone again, but it can make your life easier and save you time.

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 since 1999.  www.BodyworkBuddy.com