I got a lot of response from my recent article on how much money massage therapists can make. The over-riding theme was “how do we make more?” Or more importantly, “how do we better market our services?”

That, really, is what it is all about. You can be the best therapist in the tri-state area, but if no one is aware you exist, it really doesn’t matter.

Massage schools do a terrible job of teaching the business side of massage, which is a real shame. I feel lucky that I spent 15 years in sales and marketing before becoming a therapist…it made the transition easy for me. I already know how to sell, and specifically how to sell myself, which is what it is mostly about.

But, back to the biggest question, how to better market our services? Well, that is too large of a subject for one post, but I will give a little rundown of my thoughts and then follow up with several more posts going into more specifics.

If I was starting my practice today, or if I was going to try and leave a spa or massage clinic to start my own business, the first thing I would do is get a website. They are cheap and great ways to market. The key to marketing is time. You can’t go out and sell one-on-one everyday if you need to be giving massage to make money. There are other forms of advertising, but they can be cost prohibitive in the beginning. A website is the best option in my mind. Or, if you want, you can skip the website but produce a blog or an e-zine (an e-mail magazine, newsletter, etc.) The e-zine and blog can be powerful marketing tools by themselves. Of course, a website combined with an e-zine or newsletter and a blog is very powerful.

One thing you must understand about marketing is something called the 7-to-10 Rule. This basically says that prospects need to see your message (sales pitch basically) 7-10 times before they will buy. That is where the e-zine comes in. If you provide great information about the benefits of YOUR massage on a weekly basis, people will get the picture and realize they NEED your service. This is a very powerful and effective way to reach more people with little effort…again, very important in marketing.

Well, I could go on, but I will stop here. Keep an eye on my blog (or better yet, subscribe to it using one of the tools on the left side of the page) and I will go into more detail about how to get a website as well as starting an e-zine or newsletter.

Until then, happy palpaiting.

Oh, by the way, I have a quiz posted at the top left-hand side of my blog. Please check it out, I would love to get your opinion. Thanks!