My single most effective marketing tool…and it’s FREE

by Hillary Arrieta LMT, Richardson Texas

This weekend I was working as a vendor at the AMTA Texas chapter convention. I was approached by many of my fellow local massage therapists about marketing.

"How do you market your practice?" They asked.

“What's working for you?”

This is a topic that I have come to love. When I first started out, I would say that marketing made me a little bit crazy. When I thought of it, I had the impression that I would have to spend a ton of money on print, radio, or TV ads. I didn’t want to become a sales person. Now I know that marketing is so much more than sales and I find it fun and challenging!

As I discussed my current marketing process, many therapists were surprised to learn that one of my top marketing tools was my email list.

Maybe you’ve heard that saying  “email is dead.” Well my friends, It’s very much alive and well.

My email list is one of the most successful marketing tools I’ve encountered, if not THE most successful.

My clients love my weekly emails. Yep, that’s right, I email my clients at least once a week. When I was trying to come up with my email marketing plan, I thought weekly emails were a bit much and that maybe it was going to come off too pushy. I didn’t want to annoy my clients.

Funny enough, I began receiving great feed back about them.

My clients LOVED that I sent out my availability so that they could hop on to my online booking site (thank you Bodywork Buddy!) and schedule right then and there. Everyone is so busy these days and having my openings delivered to their inbox every Monday morning was just another way to support my clients in keeping up with their self care.

Many of them told me to keep it coming! That they actually looked forward to my Monday email.

I also have a handy sign up form on my website that allows prospective clients to sign up if they are interested in hearing from me.

In addition to my weekly availability email, I’ve used my list to run successful semi annual massage package sales ( take that, Groupon!!) as well as sending out important information about changes in my practice. I love emailing reminders for my meditation class, and adding a link to my blog so that my clients can read about self care suggestions and current events within my practice.

I always keep the information valuable and relevant to my clients, because who is going to read boring newsletters?

If you don’t have an email list, here are some resources to get you started!

And they are free!

www.mailchimp.com

www.tinyletter.com

www.hellobar.com

How do you use your email list?

Hillary Arrieta Gaia Bodywork PLLC 214-709-6394 gaiabodywork.com about.me/hillary.arrieta

*NEW FEATURE* Print/Email All Sessions on One Receipt

We've just implemented a new feature that many of our members have asked for: the ability to print or email all sessions from a specific client onto one receipt.

You can choose to do this from within each session record in the upper right next to the usual "print receipt" and "email receipt" buttons.

You can also do this from within each client's file in the upper right corner.

Now you can not only do that, but you can also choose a specific timeline of sessions you want to include if you don't want to do ALL sessions.

Thank you to our members for the suggestions and feedback. Your ideas help to make Bodywork Buddy even more awesome and we value your business!

Member Spotlight: Tanya Knicely

Today's member spotlight is Tanya Knicely of Trust Your Journey Therapeutic Massage in Elizabeth, West Virginia.

Q:What inspired you to be a massage therapist?

A: My inspiration to become a massage therapist was two-fold. The first being my oldest daughter was attending a massage therapy program and would come home everyday with new techniques and amazing information about how massage works with the body's natural healing processes. Her excitement was contagious. Secondly, being a nurse at the time, I saw the benefits touch had with my patients and their healing. I saw these benefits from caring for ill newborns and their distraught parents all the way through the final stages of the dying patient who can peacefully transition into death with just the slightest touch on their arm, back or brow as they are passing. The comfort massage and touch in general allows is astounding.

Q:How long have you been doing massage?

A: I have been a massage therapist for almost two years.

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

A: The thing I like most about being a massage therapist is passing on the knowledge I have with my clients and why they are feeling the way they are. Whether it is through education about the muscles that are giving them discomfort and how muscles somewhere else on their body could be the actual problem or the benefit massage is to their body, even something as simple as the need for drinking an adequate amount of water to keep their bodies hydrated and systems flushed. Education is so important to me and giving my clients the information they need to help their body heal itself through massage with no side effect is wonderful.

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

A: I feel there are several challenges for massage therapists. One of them is educating people so they will include massage as an important part of their weekly or monthly health program. Another is educating insurance companies so they include massage as a necessary addition to preventative care and adding it as a covered benefit to more insurance plans. Education on massage as more than just a luxury is important for individuals and insurance companies.

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

A: I feel the best advice I could give another MT is to never stop learning, never stop trying new techniques that can give their practice and their studio that special advantage. Always work for the clients best interest and treat their clients as if it were themselves getting the massage. Because when you do that you will be more in tune with what your clients are in need of and how you can help them achieve their goals for their body, health and healing. And most importantly know where you want your business to go and never give up on getting it there. When your clients feel your passion for what you do, your advertising is taken care of...word of mouth is your businesses' best advertisement.

*New Feature* Recurring Appointments

Bodywork Buddy has always had recurring/repeating general events, but now we also have the ability to create recurring confirmed appointments!

When creating a confirmed appointment via clicking within the calendar (dashboard > calendar > main > click into date on calendar > confirmed appointment), there is now the option to make the appointment recurring/repeating.

Fill in the client, service, and time details like when normally creating a confirmed appointment, and then select the repeating type from the dropdown box.

Once choosing the type of repeat, you'll have options to customize it more with how often it repeats, and until forever or a set date, certain days of the week, etc. 

Click Schedule Appointment.

Clients will receive a confirmation email with the first date in the series for the repeating appointment, and then receive their email reminders prior to their appointment as specified in your settings.

This latest update also includes the ability to delete just one in a series or the entire series of a recurring general event. (Up until now there was only the option to delete the entire series).

The Power of Real Reviews

Displaying testimonials or reviews on your website or in other marketing can be very persuasive to prospective clients looking to schedule an appointment with you. They build trust, aren't "sales-y", and help clients overcome skepticism.
When a potential client sees a whole page full of quotes and testimonials from existing clients, it
further cements the idea that you’re someone they want to do business with.

So, how do you go about collecting reviews for your business? While there are many review sites available to list our businesses on, there's also great testimonials all around us if we are listening. When a client comments about how great they feel after their treatment, ask them if you can quote them on that.

Many online scheduling softwares include automated emails that ask your clients to leave a testimonial or review. This is not only a great way to collect testimonials for your marketing, but a wonderful source of feedback to improve where needed. 

Some tips for collecting testimonials:

• Ask for a review within a day or two of your service when it's still fresh in your client's mind.
• Ask for their permission to use it and their name in your marketing.
• Have an easy form for clients to fill out that simply asks them questions like "How do you feel before your massage? How do you feel after your massage? What do you like most about our services?".
• Use an online system that automates the process for you. (Shameless plug: Bodywork Buddy.)
• LinkedIn can be another easy source for testimonials. If you're connected with clients on LinkedIn, you can easily send a request for them to leave you recommendations. 
• Facebook business pages includes the option to rate and review.

When using testimonials in your marketing, choose testimonials that are:

• Filled with benefits.
• Substantiates your claims.
• From someone your clients can relate to.
• Compares your services to others.
• Credible - use real words from real people. Don't create fake reviews.

Keep mediocre reviews. This is your opportunity to make your business shine with great customer service. It also makes your testimonials more believable if there are some 3 and 4 star reviews in with your 5 star ratings.

Member Spotlight: David Kuhn

Today's member spotlight is David Kuhn of Muscle Therapy Pro in Columbus, Ohio.

Q: What inspired you to be a massage therapist?

A:   My inspiration for becoming a massage therapist came out of a loss of a job which I turned into a positive rather than a negative.  I was at a good paying job but at the end of the day I was not happy.  My desire is to change lives for the better and I was not spending 12 hours a day doing this.  I was at a crossroads, recently divorced then the loss of my job all in a 6 month period and I was narrowing in on 40.  I decided I was going back to school and this was my one shot to do what I wanted for the rest of my life.  I would never give somebody else the power to tell me when my job was over and change not only my life but my children’s life as well.  It has not been easy buy I have never taken my eyes off of my goal.



Q: How long have you been doing massage?

A:   I have been doing massage for almost two years now.




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

A:  Wow, there are so many good things to say about being a massage therapist!  I guess my favorite would have to be making people feel good and changing their lives at the same time.  My favorite type of client is the one that comes in for headaches and has been taking over-the-counter meds on a regular basis for their condition.  I love explaining to them what the meds may be doing to their stomach and what I can do for them so they no longer need the meds and at the same time they no longer have the headaches.



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

A: I feel the most challenging issue for massage therapist is to educate the public. This is a profession that has been around for many years. In fact it was the first type of medical care. Unfortunately down the line it has received a bad name because of some much less than professional individuals in the business. Most people view massage as a pure luxury and not for the numerous medical/health benefits as well as emotional benefits.  Think about it, where else can you go for things like plugged up sinuses, constipation, headaches, muscle tension and emotional healing, be treated for all during a 90 minute session then sent on your way feeling like a new person for a fraction of the cost at a doctor’s office and no meds prescribed!



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


A:  The advice I would give to other massage therapist to help build their businesses would be knowledge, market, have a vision and stay the course while continuing to be flexible.

Cool Tool: Hubspot's Blog Topic Generator

Are you blogging for your massage business? (You should be! More on why later...)
Here's a cool tool from Hubspot.com to help you come up with some topics. The Blog Topic Generator is simple: enter a few nouns of subjects you would like to blog about, and the generator comes up with some ideas for you.

I entered:

• massage
• health
• stress

The generator came up with these topics to blog about:

You might need to tweak some of the results to work for topics for your blog, but this could definitely help get the creative juices flowing.

What other ways do you use to think of topics to blog about for your massage business?