The Ultimate Guide to Email Marketing for Massage Therapists (Part 1)

As massage therapists, you are also business owners. So whether you like it or not, it is down to you to help your business grow and thrive!

As therapists who help people feel better and heal, we want as many people as possible to benefit from massage! Now the importance of marketing to bring in NEW clients is obvious. But have you also considered the importance of retaining clients long-term and recapturing those clients who may have had a break from massage?

Email marketing is an excellent way to retain clients because it is the perfect tool to build and nurture relationships. And best of all, it’s free!

We have put together ‘The Ultimate Email Marketing Guide for Massage Therapists' because we feel very strongly that email marketing is under-used by massage therapists. Some therapists think email marketing is only for businesses selling physical products, others get put off by the tech involved, some say they just don't know what to write.

Well, we are here to put this right!

Here at Massage Warehouse, we feel confident to talk about email marketing because we have a large email list and a popular weekly newsletter that we work hard to make interesting and informative for massage therapists. You can sign up here. And when Instagram recently and unexpectedly closed Massage Warehouse’s Instagram account with many thousands of followers due to hackers (GRRR!) we were very thankful we had put so much effort into growing our email list because we still could reach our audience.

So here is our complete overview of how sending out a regular newsletter could work for you as a massage therapist!

What Is Email Marketing?

Email marketing is sending out a message to a group of people via email. Its purpose is usually to sell a product or service.

Digital expert Neil Patel says:
“It may be one of the oldest forms of digital communication, but email still reigns supreme when it comes to usage. Sure, there are other newer methods of communicating with your audience and customers. Communication methods like social media etc… but email is the king of marketing channels.”

Email is ranked as the most effective marketing channel by digital experts, beating social media, SEO (Search Engine Optimisation), and affiliate marketing. Experts agree, that despite the rise of social media, email is still used more than these other platforms.

Why Could Email Marketing Be Useful To Massage Therapists?

Email marketing is a great way for massage therapists to reach their clients and also to potentially get new clients! In this guide (part 1), we talk about sending out a weekly, bi-weekly or monthly newsletter to the people on your email list.

Marketing your services via email is not only a very effective way to reach your clients but it’s also a VERY cost-effective way to build and maintain a relationship with your clients. Email platforms such as MailChimp and Mailerlite are totally FREE for email lists of up to 1,000 people which is plenty for most independent massage therapists! Your booking platform may also have an email option.

People on your email list are already VERY interested in your business and your massage services because they signed up for your newsletter. So it shouldn’t take much to encourage them to book a massage with you! Besides, open rates of emails are much higher than engagement on social media platforms.

Emails help you interact directly with your clients because clients can instantly email you back clarifying any doubts. This is great for building relationships based on trust - very important in our line of work!

In addition, using email to reach your massage clients gives you independence from the mercy of the giant social media platforms and their algorithms. In fact, very few of your followers on Facebook and Instagram will actually see your social media posts but with a good open rate of your emails, you can grow your massage therapy business. 

Your email list will become your most valuable business asset!

How Does Email Marketing Fit Into Other Marketing Strategies?

Email marketing is a great complement to word of mouth referrals, your social media posts, flyers, Facebook, Instagram ads & Google ads (if you run them) plus any real-life marketing you do such as sandwich boards and in-person marketing events you participate in.

In the email you send out, you can put links to your social media accounts and share the information of any special offers you have running and any events etc you may be participating in.

What Do I Need To Run An Effective Email Marketing Campaign?

You need 3 things:

An email list - these are people who have expressed an interest in receiving communications from you about your business. They may have signed up for your newsletter through your website or agreed to receive marketing emails when they booked through your booking system. We will talk more about the rules of who you can email under the section GDPR.

An email provider - this is a platform that helps you manage your email marketing such as MailChimp or Mailerlite. It helps you automate sending out your email to a group of people, helps you with the visual design of your email and analyses the data of open-rates and unsubscribes. You may have an email tool through your booking platform such as Fresha or Cliniko.

A goal - there can be many different goals of email marketing. For massage therapists, the main goals will be nurturing relationships with your existing clients & your potential clients, sharing & showcasing your expertise, educating your clients and promoting your special offers/events if you run them.

Emailing your clients regularly keeps you and your wonderful healing massages, fresh in their minds!

What To Write About In Your Email

We recommend thinking about the emails you subscribe to and why you like them. What made you open their email? What do you like about it? Is it the tone of voice, the helpful content or the great special offers inside? Try and pick up tips from others.

If you haven't already, have a think about your ideal client. Maybe have a real client in mind if that helps! What do they want to hear about? What motivates them? What struggles do they have? Speak to their pain points.

What To Include In Your Email

Obviously, this depends on your type of massage business (holistic, sports, remedial etc) but here are some broad areas to consider including:

• Start with a short opening paragraph that is topical for the time of year or what is currently going on. It could be based on local or current events.

• Share a health & wellness tip or interesting resources you have found. This could be a link to a blog you (or someone else) has written or a video you have made.

• Share an inspirational quote

• Share something interesting about one of your staff if you have a team or something about you.

• Tell them about any specials or promotions you have coming up or currently running.

• Share your available slots for the next week (2 weeks or a month) depending on how often email your list.

• Include links/buttons that stay on your email every time to your social media platforms, your website, booking system and instructions on how/where to buy a gift certificate.

• Consider including a GIF if it suits you and your business style!

• Include a catchy email header that encourages people to open the email and edit the preview text that goes next to it.

Planning Your Email Content

Plan your email content ahead of time to avoid stress. Consider making a monthly plan, you can tie this in with your social media too. The month of March for example has some special days such as International Women’s Day and Mother’s Day. You might want to create an offer or at least talk about them in your email. This keeps it up to date and relevant for the people on your list.

People are very busy and get lots of emails so make it easy to read! Try not to use long sentences and complicated words. Avoid long wordy paragraphs and try using bullet points sometimes.

How Often Should I Email My List?

The answer to this is that it depends on how often you think you can do it consistently! We recommend sending an email once a month, bi-weekly or once a week (on the same day) if you can. If you send emails too sporadically, the people on your email list might not remember you and won’t bother to open it!

Remember, emailing your massage clients regularly and consistently helps to build trust.

If you are too busy or struggle with the tech, we have heard of some massage therapists writing the email themselves but then outsourcing to a VA (Virtual Assistant) to help set up and send out the email. Alternatively, you might hire an expert to set up the tech and newsletter template for you. They can show you how to create and send out a newsletter and you do it yourself from then on. If you would like more help on this, you can ask other therapists in our private Facebook group to make recommendations for good VAs. You can join here.

When Should I Send Emails?

All email platforms give you analytics on your emails, even the free versions. It includes data such as the number of people you sent the email to, how many opened it and if you included links, you will see a breakdown of what people clicked on. This is very useful to inform your content for future emails. What are your readers most interested in?

The email platforms also recommend the best day of the week and time of day which can make a huge difference to your open rate! You can also test different times and days to see if it makes any difference to your results.

Who Can I Email? Email Marketing Laws and Regulations

Don’t let GDPR scare you off email marketing! We know you wouldn't anyway, but the general rule is to not buy email lists. Also, consider using a double opt-in. This means people receive an email to confirm they actually want to receive your emails. You must also make it easy for people to unsubscribe.

IMPORTANT - Massage therapists who use an automated booking system such as Setmore, Acuity etc. must make sure that new clients at the time of booking OPT-IN to receive their newsletter. You cannot automatically assume that somebody booking a massage with you also wants to receive your newsletter. There must be a separate opt-in box for it. Most email marketing platforms will give you help with this if you have doubts.

We also highly recommend joining the Information Commissioners Office (ICO) if you are not already a member. The ICO is the UK’s independent authority set up to uphold information rights in the public interest, promoting openness by public bodies and data privacy for individuals. Here's the link to their electronic marketing rules.

How Can I Grow My Email List?

So you have decided that sending out a regular email to your massage clients is a good idea. But what then? How do you grow your email list?

• If you have a website, you can add an opt-in form or pop-up for any website visitors to sign up to receive your newsletter. Some businesses offer an incentive such as a discount on the first purchase if you sign up for the newsletter. Bottom left is the newsletter signup on our website.

• Add an option to your electronic booking system, so that clients can OPT-IN to receive your newsletter. Alternatively, you can tell them they are automatically opting in to receive your newsletter but give them the chance to opt out. It would not be GDPR compliant to assume they want to receive your newsletter now you have their email address.

• Mention your newsletter in your social media posts. Don't forget to tell clients HOW they can sign up! This is an example of one of our Instagram posts.

* Click the image to join our newsletter mailing list *

• Add the link to sign up for your newsletter to your bio on Instagram. You can use a tool such as ‘LinkTree’ or ‘lnk.bio’ if you would like more than one website URL there. This is Massage Warehouse's link in bio tool. You can see we have a subscribe button to our newsletter plus we post our latest editions of our newsletter for easy access.

• Pin a post about your newsletter (with the link to sign up) to the top of your Facebook page so visitors to your page are more likely to see it.

• Make special offers (such as a discount), especially for your email list subscribers and mention them in your other marketing such as social media posts.

• Create a page on your website where your past newsletters are available to read. If someone likes them, they can sign up.

We truly believe email marketing is a marketing tool that shouldn't be ignored!

We hope that this guide has given you the motivation and the confidence to explore email marketing for your massage therapy business! Look out for The Ultimate Guide to Email Marketing PART 2 coming soon, where we will be exploring further how another area of email marketing involving lead magnets and funnels can help grow your client list.

Whatever you do, don't put this off any longer!  The best time to start an email list was several years ago.

The next best time is TODAY!

We'd love to hear if you have found this useful in the comments below!