Protect YOUR Marketing Dollars with the Art of War.

Growing a business is hard work, but you CAN make things easier for yourself. It’s about what you know.

“If you know the enemy and know yourself you need not fear the results of a hundred battles.”

-Sun Tzu, the Art of War

Small, wisely made investments can have huge returns, but you need a battle plan, a strategy that outlines what you want and how you plan to get it.

Before you walk away from this article, let me be clear.

It doesn’t have to be complicated, it can be written on a napkin if necessary, as long as it keeps you focused on your goals.

Complicated budgets and plans are great when your going to the bank to ask for money — but unless your looking for a loan you can let go of those formalities.

YOU can decide how long or short your battle plan needs to be. Remember, this is for YOU.

Try this. Get yourself a piece of paper and write down some important questions, like this:

• What do I want?
• When would I like it?
• What am I doing to get it?
• Is what I’m doing now working for me?
• Do I want to improve upon, or stop doing any of these things?
• What else could I be doing right now to get what I want?

REMEMBER: THIS DOES NOT HAVE TO BE COMPLICATED.

Your notes could be as simple as:

What do I want?

More Clients.

When Do I want it?

This month I would like more new clients than last month.

What have I done in the past to get more clients?

Post Card Mail-Out.

How did that go?

Did not see very good results. Only 2 people responded.

Is there anything I can do to improve on that?

5% discount might have been too small. 10% would probably be better.

What else could I be doing to get what I want?

People keep hanging up on the answering machine rather than leaving a message to call back. Should add my website and the booking instructions to my message.

Congratulations. You have just taken the first step to improving your business, and saved yourself a lot of time and money on business consultants. Now all you need is a good battle cry.

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How to target your advertising to bring in the clients YOU want to work for

Your first step is to determine the type of clients you want to attract. Who are your current favourite clients? What do they have in common?

Take a moment to write a brief description of your ideal client. Be specific, and keep in mind any modalities you wish you could practice more often.

If you specialize in prenatal massage, your ideal client might look something like this:

“New mothers looking for relief from tension in the neck, shoulders, lower back, abdomen and thighs.”

This description offers two very important pieces of information. It identifies who the client is (an expectant mother) and what the client needs. (Relief from the tensions and stress associated with her pregnancy.)

Now that you know who you are trying to reach, and what they are looking for, the next step is to determine how best to reach them.

Why convenience is important to good customer experiences.

When setting up your waiting area, did you consider customer experience? If you have magazines, music, or comfy chairs, chances are you did.
Clients often show up early before an appointment. Giving the client a place to sit and something to read or listen to will allow them to relax and be comfortable while waiting for their appointment.

Your client’s experience with you does not begin when they enter your practice, and it does not end when they leave.

Customers understand the value of convenience. Shops with longer hours and better selection will often do more business even if their prices are higher than the competition. Customers are often busy, and are in a hurry to get the item or information they are looking for.

Have you ever had someone simply hang up when they get to your answering machine? What happens when your phone line is busy, or after hours? How many clients and appointments do you think you are losing when this occurs?

What about clients who are at work and do not have the time to make a phone call in the first place? How can they find you?

Make it easy for clients to find information about your practice. Often the perfect combo will be a yellow page ad or bolded listing with a link to your website. For much less money than you will spend on a full page ad, you can support a website with as much information as necessary to educate your clients.

Make a checklist with things your clients may wish to know about your practice, such as your hours, services, rates, and modalities. Then make a list of how many places your clients can go to get this information.

Are you listed on Google maps? Does your website appear on a search for your practice name Remember, your website will not do you any good if no one can find it. Clients are more than willing to go somewhere else if it is more convenient for them.

Most major theaters now offer the option to purchase tickets online in order to make it more convenient for people to see their favorite movies and even reserve tickets before the movie is released. People use this service because it is more convenient for them to do so.

Convenience is not intangible to the client who has something else to do. Many people simply do not have the time to call your clinic during regular business hours. If your website allows the client to book appointments online, make sure that you mention this in all your advertising materials, along with your website’s address.

Remember, you and your receptionist are only available during regular business hours. Your website is available 24/7!

Allow gift certificates

Massage manEdger now includes the ability for you to add gift certificates to your business.  Gift cards are a great way to bring extra revenue to your business as most gift certificates are used in full value to help decrease a more expensive service.

Contact our sales team to get your gift certificate page setup before the holiday season and help grow your revenue as well as bring a helpful service to your clients this year!

Site Design

I know I have said it before, but I just had to post again on the look and feel of your site.  Your site is your online identity. As we take time to get dressed, do our hair and make sure we’re ready to greet clients face to face – your website is doing just that for you online.
How does it look?

Little things make the site look more polished – ready to great your clients.

• Are page headers formatted the same?
• Are images used on the site appropriate?
• How many colors are you using on the site?

A common question we get asked is

Can you clean up my site? Make it look more professional?

It’s no great secret to what I will then do. I clean up fonts, sizes, colors, headers and organize data on the page so the eye can easily read all that great information you have taken the time to put up!  Next time you take control of your content editor, take a moment to review what your site already has in place and try to compliment it – not compete.

I know in the end, it will look wonderful and help drive more clients through your doors!

Getting your business out there!

When you opened your business doors, I’m sure you were excited and told all your friends, family and neighbours.  When you opened your online business doors – did you do the same thing?

Did you go out and Twitter your new business? Did you put it on Facebook? Did you create a local business center in Google?

All these places are FREE to use and have a wonderful audience already using them!! Take some time to think about places you go to find information online. Are YOU listed at these places as well??

Are You Visible and ACTIVE online?

Once you have your massage, chiropractor or multi-practice website up and running – what are you doing to help drive in new traffic?

Take a few hours and look for online community sites in your city. Is there a community forum, parent site, sports community website in your town?

If so, these are possible communities that you can be involved in and let them know of your services. Many online communities have a spot on their site for local business to advertise. Others give away free draws.

These online communities are a great way to reach a new audience and usually at no cost to you!

Make your own business cards

Starting up your business can be financially daunting the first few years.  With a few great resourses, you can help lower your start up costs.
One great resource, design your own business cards and then send them to be professionally printed on a heavier weight paper. The end result? Great looking business cards at a fraction of the cost!

Use this great online resource to get you started!

Need a bit of help? Give us a shout, we’d love to give you a hand.

Referral Marketing – A Case Study

Jane’s Story

This is the short story of a massage therapist named Jane Doe who dared to market her business, and her Massage manEdger website.

Jane was a recent graduate of a very good Massage Therapy School; she had just opened her massage practice, and had acquired a web presence using the Massage manEdger system. She had a few regular clients but needed more to be successful.

To attract new clients she needed a marketing strategy that would generate results and would fit her limited budget. She decided to give referral marketing a try.

First, she determined that she would specialize in the General Wellbeing / Relaxation, Sports, Pregnancy and  Infant massage market areas. She decided to target the relaxation market first, as she felt it had a broader audience.

The next step was to make a list of her existing personal and business contacts in the relaxation market; which including her current clients, her hairdresser, manicurist, florist, a local coffee shop and a local video store. Generally, it was a list of people she knew she would be comfortable approaching in person and by email.

Jane then made personal visits to each business owner to let them know more about her business and to tell them about her new Massage manEdger website. Jane asked each of them for their contact information and specifically for their email address. This information was then added to her Massage manEdger contact database.

She followed up each meeting with an email message. The message thanked the business owner for their time, it restated her service offerings and included a link to her website. The emailing task was simple using the Massage manEdger communication tools. She made use of the �Email Group� feature and separated her contacts into logical groups (business, client, and friend), so that she could send separate, targeted messages to each group.

This simple step gained Jane a number of new clients. She was pleased to discover that her local florist, hairdresser and coffee shop offered to display her business cards in their shops in exchange for a mention their services on her website. Jane was starting to see how referral marketing worked.

Jane also tracked her referral business. When new clients booked appointments using her Massage manEdger website, Jane always asked them how they came to hear about her.  When they had been referred, she made sure that she sent a personal email to thank the referrer.

She continued to use her Massage manEdger email function to send periodic follow up emails to her contacts to announce special offers, new services and to remind them of her website’s on-line appointment booking feature.

Wanting and needing more business Jane set out to repeat the process for her two other target markets. Her contact lists included:

• For the Pregnancy Market – maternity fashion stores, prenatal specialists, medical doctors, pediatric clinics, postnatal fitness centers, etc.
• For the Sports Market – local sports clubs / teams (soccer, baseball, football, basketball, ice hockey, etc.), retail sports stores, fitness centres, etc.

Fast forward six months…

Jane’s marketing efforts are paying off.  Although a number of her contacts were not interested in referral marketing, Jane found that many were interested.  Jane received dozens of new clients as a result. These new clients were happy with her services and began spreading the word about Jane to their friends and family.

Jane discovered that marketing her massage practice can now be done with very little effort. Her, now established, referral network is easily managed with her Massage manEdger contact database / communication tools. She recognizes the value of her Massage manEdger system and acknowledges that without it, potential clients would have trouble finding out about her practice, qualifications, and specialties.  Her clients love it too, especially the convienence of her online appointment book!

The power of the Internet, coupled with Massage manEdger’s business tools is now indispensable to Jane’s massage therapy business.

Remember, a lot of your marketing efforts can be done with very little investment, when you combine the right tools with creativity, determination and desire.

Show your clients appreciation and they’ll return the favor

My massage therapist brought in a new program into her business to thank her repeat clients for coming back and as well as bringing in new clients. I was impressed and was surprised that I have not heard of this before.

Maybe this is becoming more common practice but to be honest, it’s the first time I’ve seen it in the massage therapy industry.

It’s no new idea to give a value customer card and to give clients points for each visit with the (pick a number) visit free. Shoe stores have been doing this for years, along with hair salons, but my massage therapist has taken this idea to the next level.

For each appointment I make (and keep), I get a point. If I book a longer appointment, I get an extra point.  Now this is the part I liked! If I give a gift certificate for someone else – I triple my points! If that person then books their own appointment – yup – I get rewards for that too! (first time visit only – we don’t wanna create too much work for my wonderful massage therapist)

She printed up a bunch of business cards that have boxes in them were she writes in my points when I come in and in my client file she records if one of my friends booked their first appointment.

I like this idea as I get discounts off my next massage – which makes me want to book more often and it thanks me for referring clients to her as well.

How come more massage therapists don’t have this type of program in place!