With most of the world’s workforce now relegated to a home office, there has never been a better time to establish and grow your massage therapy business. People feel the mental and physical stress of working in unfamiliar and less-than-ideal settings. Add in isolation, and there is a new demand for your services. Unfortunately, unless many people know about you, you may not be living up to your earning’s expectations.
Are you ready for more clients?
When you first became certified as a massage therapist, you probably dreamt of flexible hours, good pay, lovely clients, and plenty of time off to pursue other interests. A few clients a week may have been ideal because it gave you plenty of time to gain experience in your new trade.
As you gained experience, you became confident and ready to take on more clients. You developed time management skills and can now service multiple clients a day. Perhaps your situation has changed, and you need to earn more money.
Whatever the impetus, you’re now ready for more clients but aren’t sure how to expand your business to meet your needs. In this article, we’ll give you several ideas to promote business growth and take you to the next level in your massage therapy career.
How to attract clients
Of course, marketing is a proven way to attract more clients, and we’ll get to that in a moment, but what else can you do to attract new business? One of the best ways to generate further interest is to upskill through continuing education. The more specialty services you can offer clients, the broader the audience to which you will appeal.
You can also gain higher expertise in massage therapy services you already offer. For example, if you have a deep tissue certificate, you can pursue advanced courses. With each advancement, you broaden your audience a bit more.
As you market your business, you need to have a great story to tell. Talking about advanced certifications helps you stand out as you develop a marketing plan.
Ways to grow your business
Once you have a good story — and are working on a great story — what can you do to make sure people seeking massage therapy solutions know about you? There are hundreds, if not thousands, of things you can do to market yourself and your business.
Here are four ideas to get you started, but you are limited only by your creativity with marketing.
1. Create a website and blog
Having a website is the most-important component of your marketing efforts. It is real estate you own, where you can tell the story in the way you prefer. If you want people to know you are a massage therapist and a promoter of healthy lifestyles, you can create pages to focus on this.
If another business writes about you, such as Yelp or other directories, they may have their idea about your business and may tell a different story. Most people will confirm by looking for your website to see what you have to say but not always.
Your website also allows you to provide online bookings, reference material, education highlights, and more. This type of information helps people with the decision-making process.
If you are a natural storyteller, consider having a blog on your website so you can share personal experiences with clients. These stories help people connect with you and feel more confident about your skills.
2. Set your business up for online maps
Everyone searches for businesses online in their own way, but the fastest method for an in-person service like massage is registering yourself on the various online maps platforms. Search your business on Google My Business, Apple Maps and Bing Places are essential ways for you to ensure the information these platforms show is accurate and up-to-date, as well as attract new business. It can be time-consuming to set up, but it is well worth the effort. You can even upload photos or make daily posts like you would with other social media accounts. One limitation is that you must have a physical location for the business.
3. Promote yourself locally (and beyond)
Taking a step offline, it’s important that you remain front-of-mind with anyone in your local area looking for your services. If you have a budget for advertising (a good sign that you’re ready for growth), you can promote yourself through posters, local advertisements, direct mail marketing promotions and more. The most important thing is to weigh up how far someone would be willing your travel for your services, with a good rule of thumb being around 20 minutes for a local service, and focus on those areas. For the online side of things, if you’re already involved, you can also do this on local social media groups to help you find new clients by sharing content about the benefits of massage therapy.
4. Sponsor your services at events
Another way to get people talking about your expertise is sponsoring at local sporting events or other community events. If you have it on hand, you can develop some assets for signs and posters to be presented at the event, with your logo, website, or phone number prominently displayed. What’s more, if you’re also available to volunteer at an event, check with the event managers if they’re happy for you to wear clothing branded with your logo.
How to inspire loyalty with current clients
While you’re working on expanding your client base, don’t forget your current clients. It costs less to keep a client than to find a new one. Encourage your clients to book more sessions by mentioning new skills and qualifications you’ve added to your repertoire. You could even encourage multiple bookings and prepayment by offering ten-pack sessions at the price of nine, for example.
Conclusion
Massage therapists are in high demand, so there are unlimited opportunities for you to grow your business, expand your skills, and make more money. Unlike baseball fields, it’s not a matter of building it, and they will come. With your massage therapy business, you need to tell people who you are, where you are, and make it clear that your skills make you stand out from the competition.
