5 QUICK WAYS TO GET MORE MASSAGE CLIENTS
You finished school, you’re so excited to start working, and……now what? You know you have skills that people need but you’re not sure where to start. Massage is a passion of mine and that’s great because massage is taking off! More than ever, people want to experience the benefits of massage. Here are 5 ACTUAL ways that I landed clients straight out of school and grew my business quick enough to start hiring people to work for me.
1) Leverage Your Facebook Page
This sounds like a no-brainer but it kind of is. Love it or hate it, social media is such a vital part of marketing for a massage business. And guess what? Facebook is still king. Just setting up the page is a good first step but you should commit to doing posts. Yes paying for ads on Facebook can absolutely be worth the cost but there are things that you can do that are free. I threw a video on my facebook page that was super homemade. I was doing a quick tutorial on how to do massage on your own face. I thought it was just going to be a filler post as something to throw out there but I kid you not, I got new clients who saw that post and booked with me. It actually made me laugh the first time someone references that video as a catalyst to book. Be a real human on Facebook and people will trust you more. You DO NOT have to have professional editing equipment or a glam squad to make your posts work for you.
2) Email Realtors
Moving is one of the most stressful things we do. People who have recently moved need a good massage and likely don’t know a good massage therapist in their new area. Realtors are the gate keepers for those clients. Realtors usually publish their email addresses right on their websites. I gathered the top 40 realtors in my area and sent them a super casual email. Here is what they actually said:
My subject line was “something to run by you” and the text was simple and to the point. I offered every realtor a free massage so they could see what I was offering. Now before you worry about giving your services away for free, most people will not book this offer with you unless they are seriously considering buying. I spent one day sending these emails. I massaged 3 realtors for free. I sold 20 gift certificates which made me more than $2000. The best part is that many of the people who received the gift certificates have booked multiple times since. It was well worth my time in emails and free massages to get my name out in the community.
3) Hang Door Flyers
This might seem a little outdated but for every 100-150 of these that I hang on doors, I usually get 1-2 clients. Then those clients refer other clients and so on and so forth. Half of the clients that I current have are a direct or indirect result of these flyers. I didn’t even splurge on the one’s that have the built in hanger for the door. I bought budget friendly flyers that I designed myself and used a little piece of clear tape to hang. I can order 500 of these for under $50 so they are worth every penny. In the beginning when I had more time than clients, I would hang the flyers myself. Then as time went on, I was able to hire a local kid to hang flyers when needed.
4) Contact Specialists
Each of us massage therapists has a specialty massage that we like to do. If your thing is sports massage, start contacting gyms and personal trainers. If you like to do oncology massage, reach out to the cancer centers and doctors in your area. If you do energy work you could contact some spiritual leaders or yoga teachers. Your specialty client has other specialists that they are already working with. For me, I love doing lymphatic and prenatal massage. I contacted most of the doulas and midwives in my area and again offered them a free massage in order to show them how I do prenatal massage. In exchange, I asked that they carry my cards in their offices and asked them to refer to me. This was an easy completely free way to grow my clientele. I also reached out to some surgery centers near me. I took around some very simple baskets with flyers explaining what lymphatic massage is and who it can help along with some simple treats for the staff. It’s easier to reach your ideal specialty clients through the people that they already trust.
5) Make a Yelp Page
Yelpers are very serious about Yelp. There are a good amount of people who will look for services in their area on Yelp alone. While running ads on Yelp has not been worth it for me (there are more cost effective ways), I do think it is very helpful to have a business page on Yelp. If you do a business page, you can also get alerts when someone is looking for a quote on massage in your area. You have to be fairly quick in responding however since the alert goes out to everyone.
Running your own massage business can be tricky. It takes a lot of hard work, a lot of money, a lot of patience, and a little bit of luck. Bouncing ideas off of other massage therapists and feeling their support is very important in keeping you on track and pumped up. We have a group of amazing massage therapists who network together and help each other build our dreams. Click the link below to learn how you could be a part of this group.