And How Your Marketing and Business Growth Reflects Your Ability to Do That
I am excited to announce our first Free teleconference in well over a year. I would love for you to join me! In the Stepping Into Your Greatest Self teleconference we will be looking at why your marketing and business growth may not be working. Are you self-sabotaging yourself? Are you doing marketing and advertising and your business is still struggling.
The growth of your business is in direct correlation to your personal growth and development. It has as much to do with you “doing” marketing and networking as has to do with your attitudes and beliefs about how you help others, how you feel when you approach prospects and create marketing materials and how you share your gifts with the world.
In our newest teleclass we will be examining some of the most common ways business owners and marketers self-sabotage and how to discover where we are self-sabotaging. Seeing where we are preventing our own success is the first step to stopping those behaviors!
We will also be introducing our newest coaching program, Stepping Into Your Greatest Self.
If you’ve been having trouble reaching your goals and creating the business and life you desire, odds are you can find several self-sabotaging behaviors ruining your success. Self-sabotage, by definition, is thoughts, feelings and actions that block your success by working against your own self-interests. Only a crazy person would consciously sabotage their own success, right? The thing is you are probably not sabotaging yourself consciously. All of this is happening underneath your radar in your subconscious. In order to stop these unwanted acts the first thing we need to work through is recognizing those self-sabotaging behaviors.
How can you recognize something you are not conscious of? You must first acknowledge that you have self-sabotaging behaviors, recognize which behaviors they are and then have the strength and stamina to look at them and work through them. This is how a strong person and a successful business are built.
Let’s take a look at the seven most common self-sabotaging behaviors massage therapists exhibit when struggling with their business.
1. Feeling you have no value. This feeling often comes from low self-esteem and comparing yourself to others. It’s easy to compare ourselves to others – oftentimes the grass is greener on the other side. Our insecurities tell us that others are doing “it” better because “it’s” different than what we are doing. Remember that each of us is created with something different and special to give the world. We are here to serve others. Each of our talents will connect with different people in different ways and you have to trust and know that. Healing can be a very personal event – you will connect with some people on a deep level and not at all with others. Don’t look at what others are doing, do your own thing. March to the beat of your own drum. That’s how you become a success!
2. Focusing on what is not working or not right. This is a common problem for not only massage therapists and other business owners, but also people that are generally unhappy with their life. What can you do to change things around? Start by writing down what IS working and what IS going right in your life and business right now. Then make a conscious decision that every time you catch yourself thinking a negative thought you switch it with a “what’s going right” thought. Pay particular attention to what you are thinking the 10 minutes before you fall asleep and the 10 minutes when you first wake up. This time frame sets the tone for your entire day. Come up with 3 or 4 positive statements you repeat to yourself daily or write down 30 statements – one for each day of the month.
3. Procrastinating. A big one for many healers and marketers, procrastination is the number one reason people don’t move forward. They are stuck in a place they don’t want to be and procrastinate when it comes to tasks to work their way out. Stopping procrastinating is not just about discipline. It’s also about understanding why you are procrastinating. If there is a specific part of your business, such as marketing, that you keep putting off but know you need to do, look at why you don’t want to do it. Does hearing “no thanks” make you feel less worthy? Do you feel insecure about marketing because you are not clear on best practices? Are you afraid to be seen and play big because some people won’t like you? Here are a few exercises to work through procrastination behaviors:
Try doing the task you are avoiding first thing in the morning.
Take baby steps – make your first steps easy, such as writing one blog post a month and working your way up to one a week.
Form your own mastermind or support group. Having others that you can either do the projects with or hold each other accountable can be helpful.
It’s important to recognize where you are stopping!! If you look I bet you’ll find you are stopping at the same places every time you come to them.
4. Not doing anything because you are stuck in fear. This self-sabotaging behavior can be hard to recognize and even more challenging to work through. First, closely examine what it is you are afraid of. If you look closely you’ll probably find your fears are based on things that haven’t even happened yet. The truth is you can’t control the future or what might happen. This is wasted time and energy worrying about what “might” or “could” happen rather than focusing on the conditions right this very second in time. Oftentimes fear leaves us paralyzed and we take no action because of what might occur. Put your focus on the NOW –Eckert Tolle has written some phenomenal books about being present in the NOW.
5. Having no purpose. Feeling lost or purposeless is not a healthy way to start a profitable business. Know that everyone has a purpose in this lifetime. Everyone – Especially you. The key is to bring to your consciousness what that purpose is. A life without purpose is often a life without passion and that lack of passion will come through loud and clear to your clients and prospects. People are attracted to passionate people. If you feel unsure of your purpose know that you have one, you just may not be aware of it. Journaling, meditation, and giving/serving others are an effortless way to discover your purpose and how healthcare fits into that. Sometimes bringing spirituality to your life can also help you have a feeling of purpose. If we don’t see our lives and business as having a higher purpose we tend to self-sabotage. Feeling as if we have no purpose is the root cause of the self-sabotaging behavior.
6. Getting distracted or losing focus. First things first with this one. Check your diet – are you drinking too much caffeine in the mornings and losing focus in the afternoons? Not eating enough or eating poorly? Not getting enough sleep? Need to break up your day and workout or take a lunch break half-way through? These are the physical areas to examine when you realize you are getting distracted easily. My Starbucks addiction affected my work a few years ago and I had to wean myself off coffee for a year. If it’s not physical then take a look at a few other things…Look at how you are feeeeling as you are having trouble focusing. Is there a specific incident, say an argument with your child or spouse that has you distracted? Is fear taking over? Lack of discipline? Sometimes there are days you just have to plow through your work and not get much done. We all have those days. There is a difference when this happens on a frequent or daily basis or occasionally. It’s when you see a consistent pattern that you need to start looking at a deeper reason for the lack of momentum.
7. Not finishing what you start. Another very common self-sabotaging technique is starting things (such as marketing!) and not finishing them. Look at what you are telling yourself or even other people about why you aren’t finishing – these are your excuses. Again look for patterns. Even important items such as kids, fights with your spouse or dramas that occur in your life are self-sabotaging behaviors which YOU create that detract from your goal. You are the creator of your world and what you manifest. You must own that.
Changing destructive patterns of self-sabotaging behaviors requires you to get curious about why you do (or don’t do) certain tasks. Particularly note how you are feeling when these tasks come up and look inward, dig deep into why. Awareness of your actions and then WHY you are doing them is how you stop the repetitive self-sabotaging behaviors that are preventing your businesses natural success and growth.
Growth is a natural state — everything in nature is either growing or dying. If you’re not growing you have to examine why.
If you don’t recognize your own self-sabotaging behaviors or can’t seem to work past them, a business coach can help. Contact us at 303-460-0285 or Kelly@AMarketingConnection.com to explore how we can help today!
Adding health coaching to your massage practice is a simple and fun way to increase revenues and serve your clients more fully.
Coaching your patients is something you are probably already doing…talking to them about their health, teaching them specific things they can/should do to live healthier lives, offering advice on supplements and exercises.
Do you find there are some patients that would like to spend more time with you than you have? Are there some patients that could use more guidance but don’t know how to get it? Adding coaching to the services you offer is just another way you can help them in a more personal, in-depth way.
How difficult is it to add coaching to your portfolio of services?
Adding coaching is easy. There’s a good chance you are already coaching clients and just aren’t calling it that. Rather than offering the service without charging for it, you need to name it and charge a price for it. For example, say a patient comes in repeatedly for a sports injury – do you not help them by offering techniques to avoid the injury? You may even find yourself recommending vitamins or even shoes that can help them do their sport more safely or efficiently.
This is simply coaching – you are just not calling it that nor charging for it.
Ideas for types of coaching
Are there questions your patients consistently ask about? Opportunities for learning you see that aren’t being met? Using coaching to meet these needs is a great opportunity for you to expand your practice, make more money, and more fully meet the needs of your patients.
Let’s look at an example of how a massage therapist could add coaching to their practice:
Offer health coaching packages individually and coach clients with specific issues: For example coaching for stress endurance. Coaching for insomnia.
Offer weight loss coaching or physical fitness coaching.
Rotate offering specific coaching on different topics that complement your practice such as meditation, increasing energy, relaxation.
Coaches traditionally charge anywhere from $100 up to $1,000 an hour or more. Depending on your practice and niche, I recommend starting off on the lower end and raising your rates as your coaching time fills.
Integrating coaching into your massage packages will allow you to set a price that doesn’t necessarily spell out an hourly rate. Many practitioners package their coaching with existing services to increase the value.
For example, a massage therapist could put together a package of 10 massages that normally costs $100 each. A $1000 value. For the package, they may discount the services because the patient is purchasing in bulk. Rather than discounting the price, the LMT could offer 30 minutes of one-on-one coaching, or free access to workshops or classes you do. You want to offer services that are easy to do, but add value for the patient and ultimately help them achieve their health goals.
Here’s what it ultimately looks like:
Ultimate massage therapy health package:
10 massages
Five 30 minute one-on-one coaching sessions
Develop personal health plan
Free admittance to monthly health seminar held in office for 6 months
Total cost: $2800
Coming up with several different packages with different price points for clients can quickly, and easily, add several thousands of dollars to your revenues and strengthen your relationship with patients.
Do you offer coaching services with in your business? Tells us about it!
It’s very important for any business owner, particularly massage therapists, to have a vision of success and prosperity. Success and prosperity can be things different for different people.
Your vision of prosperity
The prosperity mentality will naturally guide you so that you are extremely clear in your intention and purpose. I’d like you to take a few minutes and write down what prosperity means to you. Be descriptive in your answers. How much is “enough money”. How many patients do you see a month? How much time away from your practice do you have? Does your income come from a variety of sources or from your patient base?
Does striving for prosperity mean you are not sincere in your work?
Just because you are making money (which is an even exchange of energy for the work you do) does not in any way compromise the healing you do, or make you selfish and greedy.
Nothing can be further from the truth.
When it comes to our financial motivations, it’s helpful to get very clear about what we believe to be true about money. Why do some of us believe that money should be shunned, that it is somehow unethical to make a lot of money and help people heal? Why do others believe that money is the end all be all – that making money is the top priority in life?
As a massage therapist, your belief system around money will determine your success as much as anything you “do”. We live in a society that fears not having enough. Most of us have bought into the mentality that money is in limited supply and that we must do what we can, however we can, to get our fair share.
When we live from a place of scarcity, fear will dictate that unfolding of our lives, acting like a clamp that shuts us off from the magic and abundance of the Universe.
Recognizing your Prosperity Mindset
Understanding your beliefs about money and prosperity are an important component to changing them. I am now going to go through a few personal exercises to help you recognize your beliefs.
Write down the main qualities that come to mind when you contemplate how your parents relate to money. What did they teach you through their actions? Can you identify any harmful themes that have been passed down to you? Feel free to write this in a personal journal over several days and weeks.
Write down, by decade, your experiences about money throughout your life. What was your family life like when you were a child? A teen? In your 20s, 30s etc.
Read the following statement:
“As a bodyworker, I deserve to make a healthy six figure income. There is no cap to my earning potential. I value making money just as I value the service I offer to my clients.”
How do you feel after reading that statement? Do you embrace this statement wholeheartedly? Is there a part of you that resists it? What is the belief that causes you to resist it?
Understanding your beliefs about prosperity and money are an important factor for your growth and development, both personally and professionally. Uncovering deeply seeded beliefs can require much more internal work and analysis than I provide in this blog but is worth exploring on your end. As a business owner and massage therapist it’s imperative you explore your internal as well as external actions and beliefs. Business coaching can help you discover unsupportive beliefs that are preventing the growth of your practice. To schedule coaching with Kelly Robbins call 303-460-0285.
About the author
Founder of www.AMarketingConnection.com and www.TheCopywritingInstitute.com, Kelly Robbins, MA, is an award winning author, copywriter, energy worker and healthcare marketing coach/consultant. Kelly is a blogger for both Chiropractic Economics and Massage Magazine and is the author of Marketing 101: Why Successful Alternative Healthcare Practitioners. She also publishes The Healthcare Marketing Connection, a free e-zine on healthcare marketing tips. Contact Kelly to receive her free report, “5 Critical Mistakes Healthcare Marketers Make that Lose Sales and Plummet Profits” at www.AMarketingConnection.com or 303-460-0285.
As a massage therapist in the healing arts we understand the importance of a person’s physical health. We also understand the role a person’s mindset has on their ability to heal and live a healthy life.
As we stretch ourselves, reach to expand our practice, and create more prosperity in our lives, it’s important we understand the role our own mindset has played in the experiences we are having right now.
In order to achieve prosperity in your life and your business, you must first know what prosperity means to you. Prosperity to you may be much different than what prosperity means to me. Understand that developing a prosperity mentality is the foundation of success for your practice.
I chose to discuss money and prosperity today because the belief that it’s difficult to make money in the healing arts is the most common block that holds massage therapists back. It’s not that these practitioners are not great healers and it’s not that they don’t try hard enough. It’s that they believe creating a prosperous practice is difficult – and so it is.
What you believe is your reality.
I want you to engage in thought processes that allow prosperity. Understand that YOU are in control of your prosperity – not anyone else. Developing feelings of lack happens over time. As things happen in your life, you internally consider them “evidence” to back up your “beliefs” about money and prosperity.
I also want to talk to you about scarcity thinking. When you believe that there is not enough of anything; paying clients, food, money, love, etc., you will never have enough of it. Scarcity thinking is the opposite of prosperity thinking. As children we are taught “money doesn’t grow on trees” and “I’m not made of money”. We are raised to believe this because this is what our parents believe. The same holds true for what we are taught in school.
Instructors are often practitioners that weren’t successful in their practice. They share their beliefs of lack with us, unknowingly teaching us about lack rather than prosperity. Understand that your conscious thought can be controlled. Train yourself to consciously be aware of your thoughts. Make a choice to focus your attention on what you want, instead of what you don’t want.
When you notice that you’re sinking in anxiety, depression, doubt, or confusion about your practice, know that your focus is on what you don’t want. Consider this a red flag that you need to mindfully return your focus to the qualities, behaviors, and actions that uplift and excite you. Overcoming your unconscious chatter takes strength, discipline and patience with yourself.
If you find your thoughts scattering away to worry and negativity quickly, change the path. Each morning when you wake up immediately access your thoughts and make a conscious decision to not be attached to them. One technique that works well is having a “default thought” to fall back on. I recommend you come up with a positive thing about yourself, or something you’ve done, that you can “default” your thinking to whenever you catch your mind wandering into the lack zone.
If you can even take this a step further and spend the first and last 10 minutes of your day – the time when you are half asleep and half awake – thinking positive thoughts and feeling love and prosperity you will change your life. Mantra’s such as “I am worthy to receive good things into my life” or “I am free, I have choice, all is well”.
It’s important that you develop an awareness of how your thoughts and feelings are distorted by your negative interpretations of events that developed into beliefs.
Remember, your mind was programmed to focus on lack based on the past. It will only change if you consciously set the intention to change it. This can feel awkward and scary at first because it is a new way of perceiving yourself and the world. But it is crucial to your success because your massage practice will only grow to the extent that you do.
The perception that it is difficult to make good money in the bodywork industry is ingrained in our heads in school. Do you remember instructors telling you how difficult it is to make it as an LMT, or that they are supplementing their income teaching? That you have to have a “second job” to make it in the beginning? One strong word of caution….Don’t let THEIR beliefs of lack become your beliefs of lack!
We consist of four things: Our mental self, our emotional self, our spiritual self, and our physical self. To make a change, to shift a belief, or to touch a life, we must connect with all four aspects of a patient.
This may mean taking your massage therapy practice to the next level and going deeper with treatments and therapies. Treating a symptom is much different than helping a client create lifelong change by changing a nonsupportive behavior.
How we change behaviors now Simply throwing facts and statistics at a patient is not going to motivate them to change a behavior – no matter how harmful that behavior is, or how beneficial making the change will be. Showing massage patients an x-ray alone or discussing why their energy is not flowing optimally will most likely not change a behavior, at least for the long-term. What you’ll experience is the patient will change their behavior for a little while or until the pain stops and then they will quit coming in.
To change a patient’s harmful behavior the bodyworker must connect with the patient on all four levels; mental, emotional, spiritual, physical.
Many of us talk or may share an x-ray with a patient and show them how their injury or pain is blocking the flow of energy – causing the physical experiences they are having. Showing the patient the x-ray is fine, but you must take that to the next level. Explain to them how this blockage is what’s causing them to miss out on baseball games with their kids or preventing them from fully enjoying their work or missing out on opportunities in life. Make it real and if you can touch on an emotional aspect of their pain. “It must be difficult not being able to golf with all your co-workers. How is that affecting your job?”
As healers, the x-ray may make a strong connection for us simply because of who we are – it doesn’t necessarily cause a connection with the majority of our patients. You have to take that a step further and connect with them on another level.
There are several ways you can do this:
Tell them verbally
Have them touch and feel something such as an anatomical model. Use metaphors and dramatizations to actively involve the client.
Provide them with handouts or written materials explaining their condition so they can digest the information at a later time and possibly research the information online later.
Have them move if they are experiencing physical symptoms. If they have a hard time standing on one leg because of lower back pain, have them stand on one leg so they experience the pain again. The pain reinforces the message you are giving them.
Have them repeat specific messages you want them to walk away with. THEY have to say it, not just listen to you.
Finally, for you to be present in all four quadrants I recommend you empty yourself before you do a treatment to allow spirit to work through you. Empty yourself so your beliefs and problems are not in the way – allowing you to fully serve. If you’re thinking about your next patient or all the emails waiting for your response you are not fully present.
If you experience problems with massage patients coming in for an appointment or two and then not coming back, it may be because you are not connecting with them on all four levels. Try incorporating these techniques and see what a difference they make.
The newest advertising trend today is the daily deal. In the US there are several large daily deal companies the two largest national brands are www.Groupon.com and www.LivingSocial.com. Many cities have their own smaller daily deal companies – in Denver we have www.weeklydeals.com, Los Angeles has www.SocialBuy.com.
The premise for all daily deal companies is the same…they act on the long used marketing technique of “you have to act fast to save money”. The deal is only available for a limited time (usually one day) and the company must sell a minimum number of the deal on the same day in order for you to share in the deal. This encourages purchasers to share the deal with a friend which virally spreads the daily deal concept to other like-minded individuals.
Groupon is the most successful of the companies so let’s use it to explore how the daily deal works…
About Groupon
Groupon, which derives from “group coupon”, is currently the fastest growing company in web history. The Groupon business model is simple, it shares a large discount (50% – 90%) with its’ online audience on a product or service in a local community.
As I’m writing this article the Groupon deal today in Denver is for laser hair removal: $99 for 4 zones— normally a $345 value. I received this information through an email I receive every morning. As you will see I am the typical Groupon customer: female, single and employed. Over the past few months I’ve purchased restaurant coupons, white water rafting adventures and discounts at a local furniture store to name a few things. The typical Living Social demographic is similar, with a slightly older average age of 35-49.
Demographics and your health care business
According to Groupon their demographics are mostly single women that work and have a fairly decent income. Of their typical subscribers 70% make over 50K and 30% make over 100K. According to their website Groupon has a high percentage of users, 68%, that are 18-34 years of age and 18% are 35-44. It’s a younger demographic and may not be the right fit for all healthcare providers. The Groupon clients are also highly educated. 50% have a bachelor’s degree and 30% a graduate degree.
Groupon also states that their readers are socially active online and off. They use Facebook and twitter regularly and 50% go out twice a week or more. 66% also state they use Groupon primarily as guide to explore their city. As an example I tried a vegetarian restaurant with my kids she may not have otherwise tried. Who can pass up a ½ price offer? Not me!
According to an article I read in Forbes magazine (August 30, 2010), one of Groupon’s most lucrative sales was a 90-minute hot stone massage at SpellBound BodyWork in Chicago. The retail price was $220, Groupon price $55 (great deal!), they sold 4,960. Groupon also states that users generally spend 60% more than the value of the Groupon – which is a big plus considering Groupon gets on average 50% of the sale.
Marketing Benefits for your massage practice
While companies are unlikely to make millions off of the initial Groupon sale, they do get exposure to thousands of local folks they may never have before. As a consumer you’ll save 50-90% off regular retail price, as a vendor you’ll get your name in front of thousands of locals you may otherwise never reach. Here are a few other benefits for healthcare practitioners using daily deals to promote their practice:
Groupon naturally increases word-of-mouth referrals. If you see a good deal you copy all your friends on it to make sure everyone gets it together, and they do the same for you. Groupon has a built-in reward system that encourages purchasers to share the deal with friends (you get 10 groupon bucks for every friend you recommend a deal to that purchases).
Exposure to tens of thousands of local prospects you may not have otherwise met.
No up-front costs. Unlike many other marketing opportunities with Groupon you are not asked for money up front. This can be a perfect opportunity to market your business if you are short on cash. However, Groupon doesn’t promote just anybody. They only take companies they know will sell well so it’s important you put a good package together when approaching them.
Tips from a top-seller – Spellbound Bodyworks in Chicago
I spoke with Elle Rodriguez, owner of SpellBound Bodyworks in Chicago, about her phenomenal success using Groupon.com. She told me she had a positive experience with the Groupon campaign and does recommend it for other practitioners. “The key to making the campaign a success”, she shares, “is in retention. And you retain clients by providing the BEST service to the Groupon clients you can”. She says being able to project and balance the Groupon clients with your existing client base is a key factor to success as well as ensuring you are prepared for the volume and don’t bite off more than you can chew (she sold close to 5000 Groupons). Booking the Groupon clients during specific days and times helped her to manage the flow.
Rodriguez shares that she sees some employees of businesses treating Groupon clients with less respect than traditional clients because their services are discounted so much. “If the main attraction to Groupon is retaining new clients, having a phenomenal experience with you is key to having a successful campaign”, says Rodriguez. “Keep your staff motivated and positive and have a proactive attitude.” Rodriguez recommends practitioners know their costs and come at the campaign with client retention in mind. Many of her Groupon clients have rebooked and purchased items during their visit and she highly recommends the Groupon service to other healthcare practitioners.
No one likes to miss a good sale. However, businesses I’ve spoken to are strategic about what they offer on Groupon. What do you have that doesn’t cost you a lot of money or that has a high mark-up? Be strategic about what and how you discount and don’t lose your shirt in the process by over incenting or not having a strategy in place to retain clients. Spellbound body works offered discounts on a hot-stone massage. Something a little different people may want to try that doesn’t have a high-cost to serve.
A few weeks ago I did a marketing workshop for the Colorado Chiropractic Association. We discussed tried and true marketing strategies as well as some of the newer methods of connecting with people such as Facebook and SEO marketing. Many of the attendees shared what was working for them and what wasn’t in today’s market.
As a marketer, I am a firm believer that every business needs a clear understanding of their target market. Choosing a niche or specialty to market to is the foundation of any good marketing. We talked about this quite a bit in the workshop. I believe the right niche contains a group of people you are passionate about helping and you enjoy learning as much as you can about their problems and needs. Your niche should also be large enough to support you, has plenty of room for growth, and you thoroughly enjoy working in it. Your passion in serving this niche plays a huge role in your success and is the place I see many practitioners struggle.
Most practitioners just don’t have a niche – which makes their marketing ineffective and costly.
In lieu of choosing a niche I am seeing practitioners
Put pressure on themselves and almost try too hard to make things happen
Are afraid to choose a niche because they are fearful they are turning away business that they could be earning
Aren’t sure what they are passionate about and just keep floating from here to there without putting roots down and nurturing their practice.
After targeting a niche traditional marketing then takes several next steps including completing a competitive analysis, researching your competition, finding a “competitive advantage” and then differentiating yourself from these competitors you’ve identified.
In actuality this competitive analysis contradicts what I also teach – that you should just be you and not worry about what everyone else is doing. Concentrate on discovering and being your authentic self and serving the people you are meant to serve rather than looking at what everyone else is doing and comparing your practice to theirs.
Practitioners that have successfully specialized or chosen a niche will tell you their niche is filled with people that they naturally connect with – people that love them and tell everyone they know how great they are.
I wanted to share this today because one of the chiropractors at the workshop I did called me out on this during the workshop. She has a very successful practice and reiterated the fact that she built her business not based on what everyone else (her competitors) were doing, but on what was right for her. And it worked. She said I was contradicting myself when I brought up competitive information, which I had done several times.
What’s right and what’s wrong? Is it wise to look at your competition when you are choosing a niche, specializing, or marketing your practice? Should you not pay any attention to what everyone else is doing and just do what’s right for you?
If you ask naturopathic physician (ND) Catherine Darley that specializes in sleep disorders she’d tell you she’s always been fascinated with sleep. The naturopathic way of treating sleep disorders was a natural step in her growth.
She didn’t investigate who else specialized in sleep disorders or what practices around the country were doing this in a naturopathic way. She just did what felt right to her and MADE it successful. Her passion and enthusiasm for sleep disorders is contagious to everyone that comes in contact with her.
What’s slowing down the success of most massage therapists?
The number one thing that was slowing down the success of the chiropractors that attended my marketing workshop was not having a clear idea of who their target market was and how to reach them. I can say the same is true for massage therapists as well.
I’ve done something to help you with this. I’ve created a coaching and marketing package just to help you get that first most important part of your marketing down, the niche. The package includes:
Ebook Marketing 101: Why alternative health practitioners specialize
One hour mp3 recording of a previous teleseminar on choosing a niche.
Individual workbook to help you uncover your niche
Putting “emotion” into your massage therapy marketing is something that most marketers don’t talk about. It’s not always the easiest or most natural thing to do. The natural thing to do is for you to talk and sell to your prospects logically. We usually do this by talking about our features.
Your sales massage therapys messages should talk to your prospects like you would talk to a friend. In an advertisement, newsletter, or other mass communication you may not be able to call your prospect by their name, but there are other ways to “talk” to the reader in a more personal tone.
Here are a few different ways you can put emotion into your massage marketing messages:
Don’t talk corporate speak. Use terms like “you” and “your” rather than “the”. For example, “your coffee” versus “the coffee”. Be a person! People want to deal with people – particularly when it comes to their health – not a large, cold, impersonal corporation. Be human.
Know clearly who you are talking to in your advertisements. Picture one specific person you are talking to, not all of the people reading the ad. I tell my copywriting students to actually put a photo of this person (their ideal client) on the monitor while they’re typing so they remember to talk to that one person. The picture helps you stay focused. You are more likely to make a connection talking to one person than a group.
Talk to your customers and prospects like you would a friend. Be conversational. One way to check your copy is to read it out loud. Does it sound like you talk or does it sound like you write? These are different. In school we are taught to “write” scholarly, not conversationally. Throw everything you learned out the window when you are marketing – write like you talk.
Let your personality shine through. It’s ok to be different – people like you for it. People “see” you because of it. If you like to travel, have three crazy kids, or love bungee jumping – share that with your readers. Your personality will make you stand out from the other 3,000 advertisements your readers are exposed to each day. I say it again, be human – not a company.
Talk about the benefits of your services, not the features. Benefits tend to be more emotional versus features which are logical. People buy based on emotion, not logic.While it is important you include logical reasons in your advertisement to justify a purchase that should be a small part of the actual selling you do. Talk to prospect’s emotions by addressing the benefits your services provide. Talk emotionally about how it will help them, not intellectually about how seeing you is the right decision.
Putting emotion into your massage marketing is an important part of making a true connection with readers and allowing prospects to know who you really are and what you stand for. As you know, when it comes to their health people are particularly looking for someone they connect with. Be that person! Look through some of your existing ads and see how well you’ve done.
We consist of four things: Our mental self, our emotional self, our spiritual self, and our physical self. To make a change, to shift a belief, or to touch a life, we must connect with all four aspects of a patient.
Simply throwing facts and statistics at a massage client is not going to motivate them to change a behavior – no matter how harmful that behavior is, or how beneficial making the change will be. Showing clients an x-ray alone or discussing why their energy is not flowing optimally will most likely not change a behavior, at least for the long-term.
To change a massage therapy client’s harmful behavior the massage therapist must connect with the patient on all four levels; mental, emotional, spiritual, physical.
Many of us may share an x-ray with a patient and show them how their low back pain (or whatever applies to your practice) is blocking the flow of energy – causing the physical experiences they are having. Showing the client the x-ray is fine, but you must take that to the next level. Explain to them how this blockage is what’s causing them to miss out on baseball games with their kids or preventing them from fully enjoying their work or missing out on opportunities in life.
As massage therapists, your words or the x-ray may make a strong connection for us simply because of who we are – it doesn’t necessarily cause a connection with the majority of our clients. You have to take that a step further and connect with them on another level.
There are several ways you can do this:
Tell them verbally
Have them touch and feel something such as an anatomical model. Use metaphors and dramatizations to actively involve the client.
Provide them with handouts or written materials explaining their condition so they can digest the information at a later time and possibly research the information online later.
Have them move if they are experiencing physical symptoms. If they have a hard time standing on one leg because of lower back pain, have them stand on one leg so they experience the pain again. The pain reinforces the message you are giving them.
Have them repeat specific messages you want them to walk away with. THEY have to say it, not just listen to you.
Finally, for you to be present in all four quadrants I recommend you empty yourself before you do a treatment to allow spirit to work through you. Empty yourself so your beliefs and problems are not in the way – allowing you to fully serve.
If you experience problems with massage clients coming in for an appointment or two and then not coming back, it may be because you are not connecting with them on all four levels. Try incorporating these techniques and see what a difference they make.
