Massage therapists know that it can be difficult to grow the business, especially at certain times of year both you and your customers are pushed for time for various reasons. Christmas is certainly one of those times, as your time is stretched with other duties and social engagements can take their toll on your vitality as well as your pocket! Customers may also be reigning in their spending for obvious reasons, and pampering themselves drops down the list of priorities; this often continues right through January and sometimes into February while the average person is laying low, recovering from overspending, overindulging and trying to overcome the January blues!
The latter could just provide you with a foot in the door, but let’s not clutch at straws. Realistically, how can a massage therapist bring in more customers over a quiet period?
Give your customers package options and loyalty cards
First things first, securing your massage clients’ loyalty and making them feel they’re getting a bargain is an obvious tactic. If they’re used to paying a certain amount for your services, giving them something extra or more for their money will tempt them back a lot more quickly. They are happy with a discount or free additional treatment, and your money keeps rolling in. Sure, you might have to work a little bit harder for it over the period but that’s better than losing business. Loyalty programs work a treat as well, provided that the reward is not too far off in the distance. It’s a tried and tested method and if your customers love your massage treatments – which they clearly do – they’ll see no reason at all not to sign up. You could even offer ‘two stamps for the price of one’ on your loyalty card over the Christmas period to bring their freebie forward a little. This is also a potential draw for new customers too. There will always be those that want to pamper themselves any time of year – perhaps especially at Christmas – so offer some Christmas packages and an introduce a friend scheme at the same time and you may find yourself with more business than you can handle!
Get an online booking system
Taking calls can be time consuming, and you can find that you miss many opportunities if you’re not picking up while carrying out massages on other customers. Why not get yourself anonline appointment service. Customers will always be happy to have the option; it’s convenient and there’s no need for to-ing and fro-ing, waiting for callbacks. It will also make you more easily accessible online, giving you a professional edge.
Get in with the corporations
Christmas would be a good time to start getting in touch with local corporate businesses and offering them packages for their employees – it may just be the Christmas gift the employer hadn’t thought of yet, and it could lead to ongoing business too. It makes sense to contact the HR department first and explain what you’re doing and what the benefits of your services are.
Properly utilize social media
Connecting with your customers on the internet is important in this day and age. If you’re familiar with your customers they won’t mind you asking them a few questions about their favourite websites and social media channels. Setting up business pages is a good idea, and Facebook is a brilliant promotional tool these days. You can offer discounts on future treatments for liking and sharing your page, or writing a testimonial for you. Sharing educational material relating to the massage industry and your clients’ health and wellbeing will keep them coming back to you, and you can keep them updated about all things relevant to your business this way. The page should be updated regularly or you will drop out of people’s awareness pretty quickly!
Online marketing and blogging
Another way to keep in touch with your customers is via email and phone. When they fill out their consultation forms, make sure there is a box that they can tick to say it’s ok for you to contact them regarding promotions and new services etc. Most will be happy for you to do so, so if they’ve given you the go ahead then sending out text messages is a great way to make sure that your message lands where it needs to. You can offer discounts for last minute appointments that way to fill up your calendar. This way the client feels that you were thinking of them personally and that the deal is exclusive to them – and perhaps that is the case! If you have a website and you are able to write blogs about your products and services, this is a great way to get more traffic to your site. If writing isn’t your thing, you can always share others’ articles about the massage industry and the health benefits it gives. You’re not limited to this either – anything remotely interesting and relevant is good! With this in mind, we hope you have a prosperous festive season as a massage therapist!
If you haven't implemented a strategy for sitting down regularly in your massage treatments, now's your time to start thinking about it. Go on, take a load off!
And if you do already sit down while massaging, we hope this article inspires you with some more ideas.
