The following blog post is sponsored by MassageBook.
We keep hearing from our members that using MassageBook really makes a difference in their practices. What makes it so special?
Having been a massage therapist with my own practice for many years has allowed me to directly solve the unique challenges therapists face. MassageBook’s mission is to help minimize the routine, pain-in-the-butt tasks associated with operating a practice. We also want to help practices grow by simplifying and automating marketing, and provide our members with a reliable source of new clients from the MassageBook directory. Another thing that makes a big difference to our clients is knowing that we have an amazingly kind and caring support team that understands bodywork practice challenges—and is always there to help.
With over 8,000 massage practices using MassageBook—and over a million appointments being made each year—what trends do you see that might help practice owners?
It’s true! It’s absolutely fascinating to see the dramatic effect even small changes in a practice’s approach can have on its growth. A few things that work particularly well are:
- Making an effort to do a really good job with the practice’s website. Quality photos, well written copy, and showing customer reviews have a huge impact on attracting new clients.
- Making sure to have a fully completed Google My Business page set up to help rank higher in local Google searches.
- Noticing that there’s a direct correlation between sending email campaigns to clients and how often clients make appointments. You wouldn’t believe how few practices send their clients regular informational emails or incentives to book more frequently.
- Understanding how powerful a driver of growth monthly membership plans are—even for single-person practices. It certainly surprised us! MassageBook just added a membership management feature this past summer, and we’re seeing the practices who are using the membership feature doing really, really well with it.
Let’s dig into what you said about more frequent communication with clients. Can you be a little more specific about what is working well for practices?
Of course. I view effective marketing through client communication like baking a cake. There are a number of ingredients necessary for success, and the ratios of each ingredient do matter. If we look at what the ideal email marketing approach would look like, it would mostly be comprised of emails focused on client education. Some examples might be:
- Breathing Techniques for Stress Reduction
- Evening Routines for Better Sleep
- Top Anti-Inflammatory Foods
These educational topics are designed to keep your business name in front of clients at regular intervals, to gently remind them you’re there. Then, every third email or so, you can mix in a more sales-oriented message. All of this can be done in MassageBook, and the Promotions feature can allow you to create custom offers, get the message out, and get clients to book more appointments quickly and easily. Clients can also buy gift certificates or sign up for a membership plan.
Any final thoughts?
Just that we’ve created some really helpful articles and videos around effective ways to simplify the day-to-day tasks of running a practice and growing a successful bodywork business. Just go to the blog section of www.massagebook.com/marketing.