Marketing Your Uniqueness to Attract More Massage Clients

Many massage therapists find the notion of marketing extremely daunting. But it needn’t be. Marketing is simply anything that helps to attract new clients or keep existing ones. It can include anything from how you answer your phone, how you greet your clients when they come to your practice and how you present yourself in advertisements and brochures. Today’s blog will focus on fine-tuning your uniqueness and how that can be used to attract more of the right type of clients to your business.

There are three common mistakes that massage therapists make when setting out to attract clients. The first is that they believe that targeting everyone for massage will get them more clients. They believe that if the pool of people they are reaching is larger, it will mean more bookings. This is in fact a mistake. By being a generalist, you are not differentiating yourself from other therapists in the marketplace, which means that it becomes more difficult for a potential prospect to choose you. The second common mistake made by therapists is that they spend a lot of time and money adding new modalities to their treatment repertoire, and then promote the many modalities that they offer because they believe this will bring more clients. I want to emphasise that this is not necessarily the case. If you are spending all of your professional development time on massage skills rather than learning to market yourself than you will not end up with a thriving practice. The only time when more massage modalities is important is when it means better results for the client problem. More often than not, potential clients will not even be sure what the benefits of these modalities are, so it may not even mean anything to them. Telling your clients all the techniques you can offer is most likely to confuse them and may not result in a massage booking. The third common error is emphasising your company name or logo first in any promotional material. Now, with this in mind, take a look at the massage ads in your local paper or phone book. Notice how many of them list types of massage offered and put the company logo at the top. This is not focusing on the clients problem - it is focusing on the Massage Therapist. Now, this may be good for your ego, but will not result in more clients for you. Whilst it is true that your professional image is important, the focus needs to be on your clients problem and how you can help them. It is vital that you promote yourself from your clients perspective, not your own. So, what we are really saying is that marketing your uniqueness is not so much about you, but it is about your client and what matters to them.

In summary you need to:

Specialise
Be specific
Speak from the clients point of view
Speak to the clients problem
Offer a solution the clients problem
Show them how they can get it
Emphasis how you are a better choice the average therapist

When considering this list, think about the people you are helping most now, or would like to help. Who is your ideal client. Are you effectively helping people beat migraine, manage chronic pain or deal with emotional issues? Think back to the feedback you most regularly get from your existing clients. Is it your caring and soothing nature, you ability to get to the root cause of the problem, or the way they leave free of back pain?

Now you need to come up with your USP – unique selling proposition. It should speak to the clients problem and offer a solution. For example:

My name is John Therapist and I help people with chronic back pain. I do this with a range of techniques that have proven to be effective in treating back pain. I can be contacted 7 days so you can ease your back pain anytime.

My name is Trudy Therapist and I help woman experiencing hormonal symptoms. I do this with soothing massage and the use of essential oils reputed to assist menopause and premenstrual tension. I can come to you in the privacy of your own home at a time to suit you.

My name is Darcy Therapist and I work with stressed out people in the workplace. I do this with on-site seated massage that leaves my clients revitalised, refreshed and free of muscular tension. I only need a small area set aside or can massage right at your desk from 3 to 20 minutes.

Now you may be thinking that this is narrowing your market too much. Not so. Niche marketing has been proven to be most effective in developing a loyal clients and achieving referrals. When you develop a reputation for being an expert in your field it opens all kinds of opportunities. You will be seen as the person to see for a particular problem. It allows you to charge more for your speciality. You can also promote yourself using editorials in local press and through speaking engagements to your target market. It allows you to choose the kind of client you wish to work with and the ones you can help the most. It gives your work meaning and purpose. In saying this, you will not be turning your back on other clients, and you will find that you continue to attract other people. However you will have differentiated your self from the average therapist and this is what is important.

Once you have developed your unique selling proposition you can incorporate it into your advertisements, networking introductions and brochures. You will find your self more focussed and clearer in your direction. Just for fun, check out this website http://www.15secondpitch.com/ which will show how to easily create and simple marketing message which you can edit and adjust as needed. (I’d love it if you email me your pitch to krishna@vitalityoptions.com.au )
In our next blog we will build on this and look at what makes a good advertisement.