The Massage Marketing Connection

As a massage therapist we are forced to make decisions every day. Really, as human beings we make decisions every day. Ranging from what to make for dinner, to who you should hire to fill a new position, the consequences of our decisions can be long lasting. Making decisions feels very permanent with far reaching effects which causes us to over-think, rather than make the right decision.

This is why many people hesitate and second guess themselves when the time comes to make a decision. When it comes to making the decision they start to think about how they will implement their decision and what could happen if they make a particular decision.

Before they decide, they run through their head how they will implement their decision, what it’s going to cost them, what will happen if they fail….all the reasons they shouldn’t make a decision.

I would like to suggest a different process to use when making a decision. I was taught this technique from David Neagle and it works very well.  

First make the decision. Put the “how am I going to make this happen” aside. Don’t think about what others are going to say or think – put your energy into making the right decision for you. If you need $20,000 to invest in your business, but you have terrible credit and nothing in your accounts receivables, you may start thinking about why you can’t get $20,000.

What I am asking you to do, before you think about how or why, is to make the decision to move your business forward. Make the decision that you are going to manifest $20,000. Just make the decision you are going to do it and nothing else.

Once you’ve made the decision (whatever it is) write it down on a piece of paper. Draw a line down the center of the paper. On the left column write down these words “Why I can’t”. On the right column write down “How I can”. Cross off “Why I can’t” with a big X. You are done with that column. Why I can’t is no longer an option for you. You’ve made the decision to manifest $20,000. The Universe will bring it to you once you make the decision.

Now write down every single thing you can think of for “How I can”. EVERYTHING; even if it seems crazy and impossible. Once you’ve written everything down, methodically exhaust every item on the list. Somewhere on that list is the solution to making your decision a reality.

It may be that one of the items you wrote down leads you to something else, which makes your decision a reality. The answer is somewhere on that list.

The key is to make the decision without thinking about the how. The universe will make the how happen. Your job is to go through that list tirelessly until you find what you are looking for. In this case it’s raise $20,000.

Here’s an example:

Decision:    raise    $20,000  

      Why I can’t      How I can

                                    Loan from bank
                                    Money from mom
                                    Sell 30 ebooks
                                    Gain 25 new clients
                                    Ask friends
                                    Have a sale
                                    Partner with Marathon
                                    Etc.

Try it. See if it works for you.

About the author

Founder of A Marketing Connection and The Copywriting Institute, Kelly Robbins, MA, is an award winning author, copywriter and healthcare marketing coach/consultant. Kelly is a blogger for both ChiroEco and MassageMagazine and is the author of Marketing 101: Why Successful Alternative Healthcare Practitioners Specialize as well as co-author of The Practice Evolution Success Kit. 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.

Do you know what you are doing wrong?

Today’s massage marketing environment is substantially different than it was even ten years ago. If you’ve been doing the same types of marketing for years and they were once successful but are not as effective now there is a good reason for that.

Pull vs Push your messages to others

Society has changed and the way people expect to hear from you has changed. Where marketing and communications used to be your practice sending information “out” or pushing information to patients and prospects, it is now about you brining them in or “pulling” them to you. Communicating in our society has changed and your marketing communications should reflect that change from a push to a pull strategy. Pushing your information out to anyone that would listen in order to initiate a conversation worked in the past, but no more. Now there is a need to pull prospects and clients into your sphere – this is today’s communication. This is how to connect with people today.

How Obama changed the face of social media

A great example of this was Obama’s presidential campaign. I did a ton of research on this for the healthcare conference I did a workshop in January. Obama did an awesome job “marketing” his campaign and run for presidency. His messaging played an important role (for change) as well as the WAYS he connected with people.

Obama was able to raise over 200 million dollars through a pull marketing strategy. He did this by pulling people in one small step at a time. He received absolutely none of that money from businesses. He built an email list of 3.5 million people in a very short time span. In a very easy and nonintrusive way he simply asked people to join his list to keep up to date on what was going on. He would then ask them to donate small amounts, $10, $15, $20 increments (this is just like asking people to take small steps to improve their health). He spoke to them through short text messages through twitter and YouTube. All with their permission. All through short, concise marketing communications.

How do we know this? Simply take a look at what’s going on with new communication trends. Social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn are all about sending short, concise messages to people that asked to or agreed to hear from you.

Why the change?

There is so much “noise” going on around us and we are all so bombarded with advertisements that we simply can’t process it all.

So healthcare consumers are electing who and what they want to hear about, just like consumers in any other industry.

Bringing this back to you and your practice, look at what types of marketing you are doing. Are you sending things out, out, out and not asking for a commitment or an action from your community? Are you doing the same old post cards, the same old grocery cart brand awareness?

If you are not asking prospects to say “yes” to hear from you they are probably not listening. You don’t have their buy-in. You are pushing.

What are some pull strategies that work well?

Anything where you are getting your client or prospect to say “yes I want to hear from you”. An ezine or this blog is a perfect example. You agreed to receive it. You learned a little bit about it, obviously are interested in healthcare marketing, and gave us your name and email address to learn more.

Blogs, podcasts, newsletters and ezines where the reader has asked to receive the information (rather than just sending it to them), are just a few examples of ways to incorporate a pull strategy into your marketing rather than the current push strategy you may be using.

If you are seeing your marketing is not as effective as it once was understand there is a reason. Look at how you are connecting with both your clients and your prospects.

Contact us at Kelly@AMarketingConnection.com or call 303-460-0285 for more information.

About the author

Founder of A Marketing Connection and The Copywriting Institute, Kelly Robbins, MA, is an award winning author, copywriter and healthcare marketing coach/consultant. Kelly is the author of Marketing 101: Why Successful Alternative Healthcare Practitioners Specialize as well as co-author of The Practice Evolution Success Kit.

Kelly Robbins 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.

1. Life and success are all about how you are BEING, not what you are DOING

2. Know in the depth of your soul you are here to serve others

3. Selling is about something you do FOR someone, not TO someone

4. Quiet your mind enough to listen to your intuition

5. There is no competition. Your success or failure is all about you and only you

6. Always BE 100% your true self. Not how you think you should act or how you perceive everyone else to be

7. When you are serving others act as a channel for spirit. Forget about your needs for the moment and focus solely on theirs

8. Be vigilant in controlling your thoughts

9. Set your intention, then see and feeeel yourself achieving it

10. Look for opportunities in unexpected places. Always

About the author

Founder of A Marketing Connection and The Copywriting Institute, Kelly Robbins, MA, is an award winning author, copywriter and healthcare marketing coach/consultant. Kelly is the author of Marketing 101: Why Successful Alternative Healthcare Practitioners Specialize as well as co-author of The Practice Evolution Success Kit.

Kelly Robbins 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.

 
If you’re anything like me, you’ve got a million goals, plans and ideas and not enough time in the day to put a dent in any of them. I may pick one or two of my ideas and go gang busters working to get it going, and then another fun thing comes along and I get excited and go gang busters getting that one up and running.

There are a few downsides to this. The biggest being I am in the middle of a bunch of really great projects that aren’t done! It’s easy to see how this can happen next year too with all of us excited about our New Year’s resolutions. What happens to a lot of us is either my scenario above or the opposite happens – nothing because you don’t know where to start.

With that said, I have a recommendation on how to handle this strange phenomenon this year….make very small commitments that you know you can fulfill. By keeping your commitments small and simple you will have more flexibility to change, and more freedom to try different ways to keep your commitments.

Here are a few examples of what I’m talking about…

You may commit to doing one additional marketing piece or trying one new marketing strategy a month. Something simple. By the end of the year that really means that you will be trying 12 different marketing methods.

Another idea is to commit a certain amount of time to a specific project. For example, if you have a goal to write a book this year or develop products to sell online, set aside one hour a week (or a day – whatever you can commit too) that is devoted to meeting this one goal.

I am not going to say I am going to work out every day after I drop the kids off at school. Yes, while being healthy is important, making such a stringent commitment realistically won’t happen. A better commitment may be to promise myself that I will work out consistently this year. For me that could be two times a week as opposed to my sometimes every day and other times nothing for three months.

Other ideas of small goals that can make a big difference in your day are to:

– Only check emails at 8:00 and 6:00
– Have a cup of coffee once a week with a new friend or business acquaintance
– Take two hours off in the middle of the week that’s free time
– Do one self-improvement tool or book or something a month
– Post on other people’s blogs once a week

But the deal is whatever commitment you do make, you HAVE to stick to it. So keep your promises simple and realistic.

If you’ve taken the time to develop long term goals and strategies for your business (or your personal life) that is great. You’ve done more than most people I know. If you don’t want this years resolutions or commitments to fall by the wayside, break those long term goals into super short smaller commitments that you know you can keep.

In issue 50 of our ezine, The Healthcare Marketing Connection, I talked about discipline and keeping your word to yourself. Now is the time to be thinking about what commitments you do make and your ability (or inability) to keep them. For us entrepreneurs and small business owners, oftentimes ANY commitment we make is one we make to ourselves only. No one knows about them, and no on else will hold you accountable to keeping them. Plug your commitments into a calendar, schedule the time with yourself to get them done, and don’t make a commitment or resolution unless you know you will keep it.

No one else knows you are making it, and no one knows if you break it.

Except the all important you.

Contact us at Kelly@AMarketingConnection.com or call 303-460-0285 for more information.

About the author
Founder of A Marketing Connection and The Copywriting Institute, Kelly Robbins, MA, is an award winning author, copywriter and healthcare marketing coach/consultant. Kelly is the author of Marketing 101: Why Successful Alternative Healthcare Practitioners Specialize as well as co-author of The Practice Evolution Success Kit.

Kelly Robbins 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.

There are many ways to generate leads for your massage practice. One of the fastest, least expensive and most powerful ways to generate leads is through joint ventures.

Having a joint venture with another business means “joining forces” with another business or practitioner that has a similar target market. By joining forces you are able to benefit each other and each of your prospective clients.

Some examples of joint ventures may be an acupuncture practice and a yoga studio working together to help clients reduce stress. A massage therapist and a local health club or personal trainer referring clients to each other. A vitamin shop and a running store teaming together to promote techniques on optimizing performance to both of their clients.

Joint ventures work in a variety of ways. Businesses can advertise together, refer clients to each other, create packages together, and share client lists to name a few things. Truly, your imagination is all that stops you from coming up with other ideas.

Let’s take a detailed look at some common joint venture techniques massage therapists have successfully used in the past:

• Joint marketing. Joining forces in marketing and advertising endeavors can both reduce advertising costs as well as improve the reach of an advertisement. Look outside the massage therapy arena as well as in. Stretch yourself to think outside the box. You can implement a formal referral program with specific businesses. 

• Creating “packages” with another business. Look for businesses that your existing client base has an interest in, and that complement your business and that are easy to integrate products and services with each other.

For example, a massage therapist that has a patient base consisting of many young mothers may partner with a local dance studio or mother of preschoolers group (mops) to give talks on health and safety.

Another idea is to partner with local sports teams. A massage therapist may be the “official sponsor” of the local recreation center as well as most of the sports teams (such as soccer, golf, lacrosse, etc). They often have staff at events and publish health articles in rec center publications as well as have handouts, etc at the front desk. In return, the rec center and sports teams offer more value to players and their families for no additional charge. The clinic also has information for their patients about what’s going on at the rec center. It’s a win/win for both.

Another example may be a massage therapist that partners with a local restaurant and health spa to create a “bridal party package”. Brides can purchase these packages as thank-you gifts for their bridesmaids or for a “pre-wedding party” for the bridal party itself. By working together these three businesses are able to help the bride with the problem of a meaningful thank-you gift for her bridesmaids and three businesses are able to attract new clients in a unique, easy and fun way.

• Refer clients to another business exclusively. Referring clients to another business is an inexpensive and solid way to grow your business. Forming an exclusive relationship with another business creates a strong relationship and a solid referral network for all involved. You may find your clients are familiar with one business, let’s use the yoga studio example, and are likely to have a positive impression of them. If you are affiliated with the yoga studio, even recommended by them that immediately separates you in the clients eyes from most other options, simply because you are referred.
   
• Sharing client lists. This is an easy and popular joint venture opportunity for businesses large and small. Think physical mailings, handouts, email and ezines. Joint venture opportunities can range from swapping ads and sponsorships to recommending each other as resources with discounts and coupons. Having links to each other’s websites is a common technique that is simple to do too.

Joining forces with other businesses allows you to serve many of your patients needs – even ones that you don’t provide. And it allows you to connect with people that you otherwise may not have.

One of the best ways to find joint venture partners is to have a clear vision of your target market and a clear understanding of what niche is attracted to your practice. Our “Practice Specialization Package” at A Marketing Connection may be just what you need to get your marketing out of stagnate mode and into profitability.

Contact us at Kelly@AMarketingConnection.com or call 303-460-0285 for more information.

About the author

Founder of A Marketing Connection and The Copywriting Institute, Kelly Robbins, MA, is an award winning author, copywriter and healthcare marketing coach/consultant. Kelly is the author of Marketing 101: Why Successful Alternative Healthcare Practitioners Specialize as well as co-author of The Practice Evolution Success Kit.

Kelly Robbins 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.

Some MT’s think if they invest thousands of marketing dollars into a high-quality brochure, patients will be attracted to it simply because it’s there and looks nice. The truth is that massage therapists should really use a brochure as an educational marketing tool that patients can use to answer questions on their own. They key to an effective massage therapy brochure is to provide patients with something new that makes them want to pick it up, read it, and keep it around long after they leave your office.

Here are a few tips to keep in mind when creating a massage therapy brochure:

• Include helpful information that makes clients want to keep it, such as three tips to reduce neck pain, or five steps to stay relaxed after your massage.  

• Share benefits rather than updates on new features or equipment. For example, describing new technology or equipment available in your office doesn’t attract interest, but showing clients how and why the new equipment helps them through less pain, faster appointments, etc will make them want to learn more.  

• Provide a strong sales message on the front cover. For example, “Your health is our priority”. This is your chance to grab the patient’s attention and make the brochure keepable.  

• Move the reader forward in the sales process. Accomplish an objective, such as answering common questions, and then ask the reader to call to make an appointment or visit your website for more detailed information.  

• Ensure your contact information is easy to find and up to date. Always include your phone number, web address, hours of operation, location and directions.

Don’t print expensive brochures simply because you should have them. Set objectives and make sure your brochure leads the reader to specific and helpful information about your practice.

About the author

Founder of A Marketing Connection and The Copywriting Institute, Kelly Robbins, MA, is an award winning author, copywriter and healthcare marketing coach/consultant. Kelly is a blogger for both ChiroEco and MassageMagazine and is the author of Marketing 101: Why Successful Alternative Healthcare Practitioners Specialize as well as co-author of The Practice Evolution Success Kit. 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.

Marketing to Moms

Mothers control 85% of the household income in the US, and their buying power tops $2.1 trillion annually, according to a special report by Marketing Sherpa. There are approximately 75 million moms in the US alone.

Match these statistics to the fact that women are the primary healthcare decision makers in the US, and you’ve got an audience you should be talking to about your massage therapy business.

No matter what type of massage you do, rehab to stress reduction, it’s important to know that mothers control a large percentage of the clients you see. As a mother myself I know this is true. From dental appointments to acupuncture treatments, to the massages we get on the weekends, the approval runs through me. My husband jokingly says he has to “check with corporate” before making a decision on some things, our healthcare tops this list.

What do these statistics mean to you and how should it affect the marketing you do?

Moms are everywhere

For starters, regardless of what niche you’ve chosen, understand you are marketing to moms. Moms work, moms are athletes, moms plan the vacations…so whether speaking at a corporate health fair, or training a group of athletes on injury prevention – chances are you’re talking to a mom.

And according to Marketing Sherpa, one of the most important things you can do to connect with moms is build a relationship with them. An example given in a recent report discusses a tactic whirlpool has used for the past three years; running programs that have nothing to do with appliances.

According to the Marketing Sherpa article, “Whirlpool has been doing weekly podcasts ‘The American Family’, for three years. The podcasts get 25,000 to 40,000 monthly downloads” says Audrey Reed-Granger, Director Marketing and Pr, Mass Brands. “The content includes interviews with experts on topics such as shaken baby syndrome, workplace bullying, traveling with kids, and weight loss and management.” (Notice how many of these are health-related. Moms are actively searching for health information, both online and off)

As a healthcare marketer it’s important you know moms are busy, digitally savvy, and are online daily. Moms often feel overwhelmed and look for healthcare services that not only keep their families healthy, but make parenting easier and enrich the lives of their children.

How can you apply this information to your practice? Let’s take a look at what works when reaching out to the mom market…

• Home parties (think of “girls night out” at your practice or a massage party at someone’s house). Moms want to learn, have fun, and be social. Parties are a great way to meet several of these needs.
• Blogging – studies show that 53% of moms are bloggers. Do you blog? Do you use key words when you blog so your practice is found in the search engines?
• Podcasts – moms can learn about caring for their family while exercising, cooking dinner, or gardening. Busy moms often don’t have time to read, but they can download information to their mp3 players and multitask.
• Email – Moms are active, informed online users. They are, however, not intrigued by cutesy graphics or long-winded offers. Ezines can be a great way to keep busy moms informed without wasting their time. Ensure your information gets straight to the point and includes high-resolution graphics.  
• Discounts go a long way with moms. Show the discounted price, not just the percent off. We don’t want to figure it out, but we love a good sale!

Odds are a large percentage of the decision making in your client base comes from mothers. Are you incorporating their wants and needs into your marketing? Are you connecting with them in a manner they relate to?

If you’d like help connecting with the moms in your community, call us at 303-460-0285 and inquire about your new media marketing package.

About the author

Founder of A Marketing Connection and The Copywriting Institute, Kelly Robbins, MA, is an award winning author, copywriter and healthcare marketing coach/consultant. Kelly is a blogger for both ChiroEco and MassageMagazine and is the author of Marketing 101: Why Successful Alternative Healthcare Practitioners Specialize as well as co-author of The Practice Evolution Success Kit. 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.

Many LMT’s spend the majority of their time, energy and marketing generating new clients. They advertise market, sell, network….whatever it takes to bring new clients in the door.

Let me ask you a question though. How much time and energy do you put into keeping the clients you’ve got? It’s called client retention. Did you know that you spend eight times as much to gain a new client as it does to keep your existing clients/patients? In today’s economy you it’s imperative you at a minimum maintain your market share and not lose it. It’s worth your time and energy to keep the clients you’ve worked so hard to earn.

Here are a few customer retention basics:

• Provide excellent customer service. Notice I didn’t say ok customer service. Or be nice when you’re in a good mood customer service. To keep clients from leaving you, be excellent.

• Acknowledge clients and let them know you appreciate them. Little things like remembering their birthday or anniversary go a long way when it comes to relationship building.

• Smile, be happy. Make sure you’re office is a pleasant place to be. Whether you communicate with clients via email or over the phone you also need to provide a positive experience. Be pleasant to be around – and ensure your staff or assistants are pleasant too.

• Use client’s names often when talking to them. It personalizes the conversation and lets them know you recognize them as a person and not simply your next client.

• Educate and inform your clients all the time about how you are helping them.

• Always be looking for new ways to help your client. This can provide new avenues for your business to grow and allow you to help others in a bigger way at the same time.

Investing your efforts into client retention can really pay off. If you are attracting ideal clients who happily refer you to other ideal clients you need to consistently ask them how else you can help them. In what other ways can you serve them.

Keep in mind that most people don’t tell you they are leaving. They leave quietly. Keep your eyes open, listen, and pay attention to the small things in your business. It all makes a difference.

To your success!

Kelly Robbins

Kelly@AMarketingConnection.com

About the author

Author of Healthcare Copywriting Secrets Revealed and The Practice Evolution Success Kit, Kelly Robbins is a healthcare copywriter and marketing coach/consultant. 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.

 This week I’ve spoken with quite a few LMT’s about their practices and why they have ups and downs in their business cycles. We talked about why they never seem to have a consistent stream of clients (and income). Some of them assume they are working with the wrong group of people, the wrong niche. Or that they don’t have a niche and that’s why they aren’t making any money. Others tell me they aren’t making the money they deserve because they are in a small town and there isn’t much business there. Some don’t specialize, some don’t have a web site.

There are a lot of excuses I’m hearing.  

After talking to these folks for a few minutes, I realized that while these excuses may be contributing factors, this is not the reason why they don’t have a thriving business.

They don’t have any business because they aren’t marketing to ANYBODY at all.

Yes, you need to be strategic about your marketing. Yes, it’s smart to chose a target group of people that have a need for your services (and the money to pay for it) and spend your time and energy on them. Choosing a niche is a term for this.

It’s important to know who you are marketing to and to understand WHY they would hire you, what they are looking for and how you could best and least expensively get in front of them.

That’s all important, and you should do it. If you don’t do those things and you aren’t strategic about your marketing, you will waste your time and your money. But the bottom line is…you still have to market yourself. If you don’t do something, no one will know you are out there.

Write articles and publish them. Go to networking events. Make a point to have coffee with one person a week. Send postcards. Make cold calls. Whatever you chose to do – do something. Take action.

Your marketing doesn’t have to be perfect, but it does have to be happening. Now, this is a non-tangible thing I am going to say and some of you may just laugh at me, but you have to get that marketing engine in motion and get that energy moving. Go. Go. Go. It’s all about the moving energy.

If you are in a place (like starting a new business or trying to kick-start an existing business that is not living up to your expectations) and you are uncomfortable with where you are at or with the results you are getting, you need to change things. You have to move.

Imagine being in a stale or stuffy room with all the doors and vents closed. New air can’t come in and the stuffy, stale air is just sitting there and can’t get out. No one likes the way this room feels, but no one is doing anything to change it. No one wants to be in this stale and stuffy room. New people rarely if ever come in, and the people that are in the room are too hot to talk or be friendly with each other because they are miserable.

But then…you come in.

You open the windows and the door, maybe bring a fan in and start moving the air around. You get the air to circulate. Suddenly it’s easier to breathe and new people start to come into the room and socialize.

You need to do the same thing with your marketing. Of course you don’t have a room with stuffy air, but the energy around your marketing is stale and is either not attracting clients or not attracting the right clients. You need to change the air – i.e. your marketing energy.

If you are doing nothing but thinking about what you are going to do, nothing is moving. Including your energy.

The funny thing about doing this, about taking action, is that people start coming to you that you aren’t even marketing to. It’s something about getting your marketing energy moving around, just the act of doing it and building the momentum up starts to make things happen.

The moral of my story….get marketing. Do something. Move your butt.

About the author
Author of Healthcare Copywriting Secrets Revealed and The Practice Evolution Success Kit, Kelly Robbins is an award winning copywriter and marketing coach/consultant. 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 Kelly@AMarketingConnection.com or 303-460-0285.

Why don’t we market our massage therapy practice? What are some of the things holding us back, or causing us to procrastinate putting that flyer together, or calling that other practitioner and inviting them to lunch? Do you find yourself busy and saying “I’ll do that tomorrow” when it comes to activities you don’t enjoy?   

I was thinking about this yesterday while writing a sales page for alternative health practitioners. Why don’t we do something that we know is going to help us? All of us want to make more money. All of us want to serve more clients. All of us want to create a successful and prosperous business doing what we love.  

So why don’t we do the one thing that we know will lead us to achieve these things? 

In many ways, marketing for massage therapists is like working out for some people. You know it’s good for you. You know you’ll feel good after you’re done. Ultimately you’ll lose weight, look better, feel better, and live longer. So why doesn’t everyone work out even a little bit? 

Because getting started is hard. It takes discipline. It takes overcoming fears you have. You are putting yourself out there – other people may judge you (or even worse, you may judge yourself and compare yourself to others).  

Plus, working out is hard! It’s not an easy and fun thing to do in the beginning. Once you get into the swing of things it becomes fun, but starting out doesn’t work that way. 

Let’s take a look at some of the reasons why massage therapists don’t do marketing. Perhaps we’ll uncover some beliefs you have. Awareness is the first step to overcoming unsupportive beliefs.  

“Marketing is expensive”“Marketing is time consuming”“Marketing doesn’t work”“I tried marketing once and didn’t get any new business”“I’m afraid” “I’ve never done it before”“I don’t know where to start”“My business will grow naturally through word of mouth referrals”

“I don’t have 3 hours a day to devote to that”

“Marketing is hard”

These beliefs you have about marketing are nonsupportive. Doing something different requires YOU to make a change.  

There are three key elements to change:

1. Awareness
2. Understanding
3. Reconditioning

Let’s start with awareness. Are you AWARE of what excuses you’re using for not proactively growing your business?  

For help overcoming your marketing procrastination, contact us for an initial marketing coaching review at info@amarketingconnection.com

About the author

Author of Healthcare Copywriting Secrets Revealed and The Practice Evolution Success Kit, Kelly Robbins is a healthcare copywriter and marketing coach/consultant. 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 Kelly@AMarketingConnection.com or 303-460-0285.