Marketing After 20+ Years? Oh My!

Last night I was enjoying a glass of wine with a massage therapist I’ve known for years. She’s been in the biz for more than twenty years and teaches at a local massage school.

She proclaimed in frustration to me:

“I’m having to go back and market myself all over again after all these years. Doesn’t the marketing ever end?

She needed some SOS marketing to get her client base full and the cash flow coming - fast!

No, the marketing never ends. Sorry. It does get easier, and I’ll explain that in a moment, but if you work for yourself you’ll always have to do some degree of marketing.

If the thought of marketing forever terrifies you, think about going to work for someone else who can handle the business aspects of your practice, or consider turning your practice into a hobby instead of a business.

Did I just offend you? Good.

That means you really want to own your own business and will do what it takes to get your clients in - even marketing.

The good news is that marketing gets easier. To start with, my friend Lucy knew exactly what she needed to do.

Three SOS Marketing Steps Lucy took:

• She called her whole client base - even people she hadn’t heard from in years. In her call Lucy didn’t expect anything, she was just keeping in touch and letting people know she was still around. Lucy wasn’t interested in ’selling’ anyone anything.
• Then Lucy sent out postcards to everyone on her mailing list. (She’d been keeping a list going from day one of her practice). On her postcard she offered 15 minutes extra for FREE for anyone who scheduled a one hour massage during the month of August. (about 2 weeks out as I write this).
• Lucy asked her clients as they came in if they had other friends who would also like to take advantage of an extra 15 minutes on the table, or if they would like to schedule a second massage before the end of August.

Just doing these three things got Lucy’s practice completely full again in just a few days.

The lessons to promoting your massage or therapy business are:

• Don’t be afraid to pick up the phone and just chat.
• Keep ongoing mailing list - both email and snail mail.
• Ask your present clients to help you build your practice - by coming in to see you again and through referrals.

Easy stuff this marketing - with quick fantastic results.

Her marketing effort was easy since she’d already built up a client base. She nurtured them and kept all their client information easily accessible as soon as she needed it.

Additional Resource:

Marketing for the Holistic Practitioner -e-book

Any of my readers here still have to market themselves after years of a full practice?