Before You Email Clients, Do These 6 Things

A question came up in the Bodywork Buddies Facebook group the other day about promotional emails not making it to client's main inbox. (Never heard of our FB group? If you've had a trial account or been a BWB member, you can join and get in on some awesome convos yourself! Drama-free quality conversations about massage biz.)

If your clients are using gmail as their email provider, your emails may be ending up in their promotions tab... or worse yet, being recognized as spam and not making it to them at all.
What are some ways we can ensure our massage clients are getting our emails?

Permission

First off, make sure they actually want them. Did you ask their permission or have them opt-in for your email in some way? If you've personally emailed with them before and are just taking your contact list from your email account and creating a mass emailing, you're not technically following anti-spamming laws. If your contacts report your emails as spam, it can hurt your chances of getting to their inbox even more.

How to fix this:

• Add an opt-in to your website and social media
• Ask clients when they are in for their appointment 
• Clients are agreeing to be on mailing list when they schedule online

Template Style

Another suggestion is to use the plain text option for your email template. While email campaigns offer lots of cool design templates and styles, the most proven is the plain text email. (Not only for making it into the main inbox, but for actually getting read.) Clients don't want a newsletter-style email, they actually want personal communications.

Spam filters are ore apt to catch HTML emails with a fancy design, so instead use the plain text option and make it more like you're writing a letter to a friend.

The plain text option is usually the boring one at the very bottom of the choices for cool templates. 

Links, Images, and Exclamation Points

Having lots of links and images in your email will make it look more spammy to the email gods.
Instead of loading up your email with lots of both, stick to only one link, and maybe one image.
Resist the urge to use lots of exclamation points in your title and text.


Personalize

Add merge tags to add client's name in subject line of your email.

Add merge tags to include the client's name in the body of your email.

Realistic Expectations

Keep in mind that even if your emails are getting to clients, they may not open/read them. Email campaign services like Mailchimp show the industry average so that you can get a good idea of how your emails are stacking up against others in the industry. According to this, email campaigns in the massage therapy field have about a 13% open rate. By that standard, my open rates of 30% and up are pretty great! 

Address Book

Before starting your email campaigns, send out a personal email to your clients asking them to make sure they have your address in their contacts so they are sure to get the latest news from you. Post a notice in your massage studio, mention it at their appointments when you ask for permission to email them, etc.


Quick Tip

If they have received your email in the promotions tab (or another tab), they can drag it over to their main inbox to ensure future emails are delivered there.


I've used examples from Mailchimp here, but these can be applied to all email campaign service companies. I like Mailchimp because you can have a free account with up to 2K contacts and it's easy to import your client list from Bodywork Buddy.

We're actually working to add email marketing into our online scheduling for massage therapists here at Bodywork Buddy. This is the next big feature we've been working on. It's taking some time, because if you know our system and how we operate - we're passionate about quality. With software, the end product that you see seems simple - but there's a lot of work that goes into getting it to that stage. So in the meantime, we recommend using Mailchimp. And we'll be sure to let you know when we have email marketing integrated into our system for some seamless marketing campaigns to your clients. 😀

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







Today's blog post was written to the beautiful sounds of 

Florence + The Machine

Bodywork Buddy Member Spotlight: Erin Onyskow

Today's Bodywork Buddy member spotlight is Erin Onyskow. Erin is a Certified Massage Therapist and owns Discover Massage Therapy in Granger, Indiana.

Q: What inspired you to be a massage therapist?

A: What inspired me to be a massage therapist???  Hmmm… I really don’t have a cool or inspirational story for that. It just kind of fell into my lap. I signed up for massage therapy school after getting out of the vet field. I had no idea what to expect or what the hell I was doing. Due to my amazing teachers and the more I learned about massage, the more I feel in love with it. I learned that massage therapy just doesn’t affect the body but also the mind. From the elderly to infants to the chronically ill to “I just want to relax”, massage therapy has the unique versatility to inspire and heal. I was essentially hooked. I ended up graduating with honors.  

Q: How long have you been doing massage?

A: 7 years this month!

Q: What is your favorite thing about being an MT?

A: My favorite thing about being a massage therapist is that it never gets boring. From putting a smile back on someone’s face that hasn’t smiled for a while because of chronic pain or crying with someone because they just lost a loved one, massage is a multifaceted profession. Even though we “just give massages”, it affects people in many unparalleled ways, that we don’t often see.  

Q: What do you feel is the most challenging issue for massage therapists?

A: Then most challenging issue for an MT is that, essentially, to be taken seriously in our western society. Massage therapy has been the backbone of health and wellness for many other cultures, for thousands of years. America is just catching on to this fact, and even then, the public’s perception of our field can be a bit muddled. Not only do massage therapists have the exhausting task of “putting people back together” but we also should educate to alter people’s inaccurate, hardwired belief systems. Massage is so much more than relaxing music and soft lighting, it can often be, literally ripping soft tissue apart, in order for their bodies to correctly heal themselves. There is a ton of research out there, that does prove what we have already known to be true for a long time – that massage therapy does indeed work.

Q: What advice would you give to other MT’s to help build their business?

A: Advice for other MT to help build their business – don’t’ burn bridges, be patient and be your own curious, weird, bold and wonderful self. Build relationships with the other businesses around you. Prepare for problems and issues.  Develop an amazing skill for brainstorming. Have solutions ready for those problems before they come into fruition. Stay consistent and know that word spreads like wildfire.  Reputation is absolute KEY. You never know where that next new client is going to come from, so get involved – with community events, networking and hitting that pavement. Clients aren’t going to magically appear at your door. Go out and find them. Once you get the clients, your hard work is just starting. Now you have to maintain that relationship and give them a reason to keep coming back to you and spending their hard-earned money. It’s much easier to maintain clients, than to find new ones. I read a great article - while it was targeting financial planners -  the message is the same for massage therapists or anyone with a clientele based business. APPRECIATE YOUR CLIENTS. He states, “Here’s the truth: if you don’t appreciate your clients, someone else will.” Even as a solo massage therapist, with your own business, we can sometimes see ourselves as not having anyone to answer to. No bosses, no management. Wrong. Your clients are your boss. They pay your bills and keep your business open. Treat them as such. Take care of your clients and they’ll take care of you. I highly recommend that everyone read his article.  😊

11 Awesome Client Appreciation Events

Retooling Your Barefoot Massage

I had the good fortune to be a guest client for Mary-Claire and Abigail’s FasciAshi FUNdamentals class in Battle Creek, Michigan this past weekend. Even after having taught barefoot massage for 10 years and practicing it for longer, I had some “ah-ha” moments when receiving FasciAshi. (YOU GUYS, the anterior neck work is amaaazing.)

I received some of the work in the afternoon on the first day. I felt like what I received on the first day was better-than-average first-day-of-class work. It seemed to me that the way this class is structured had the students starting with full body strokes with their feet that make it easier to delve in with working with the feet for the first time, and easier to receive for the client… then working their way up to more specific strokes.

The definition of FasciAshi:

Ashiatsu barefoot massage focusing on exploration of how to engage tissue with each stroke using myofascial release, trigger point, deep tissue and ROM techniques applied by your feet.

I’m here to tell you, if you think you know all there is to know about ashiatsu and working with your feet, I can guarantee you will find some awesome value in the FaschiAshi classes. This is NOT your grandmother’s barefoot massage.

Mary-Claire Fredette
teaching how to install
bars in ashiatsu class

The guest clients on the last day of class were people I have had as guest clients for classes throughout the years, and one even said that this was the “best yet” massage from a class he’d received. And I really feel it’s not only the type of work, but in the way that it was taught - with the goal to help the therapists in class start thinking with their feet and working with intention rather than just following a routine.

Interested in learning more about these ashiatsu classes? Check them out at Center for Barefoot Massage. I’m planning to take some of their classes in 2018 myself.

What great continuing ed classes have you taken recently? Give them a shout-out in the comments, I'd love to hear what your favorites have been.

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

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!