Why Being a GREAT Massage Therapist Isn't Enough

There’s something that nobody tells you when you're training to become a massage therapist: being very, very good at your job only gets you so far.

I taught massage for over 15 years, and I saw many wonderful therapists who were struggling to make the money they wanted to in their businesses. It was heartbreaking to watch, because I could see that the problem was never their hands-on skills.

You can have the most magical hands ever, and yet you can STILL find yourself with a half-empty diary, wondering why the therapist at the salon down the road (who you knowisn't as good as you) is fully booked for the next three weeks!

So what's going on? What do some therapists do really well and some not,even when they’re brilliant at massage?

The answer, almost always, comes down to one thing: therapists who do wellhave made themselves the go-to for a specific group of people.

Let me explain what I mean.

You Can't Be Everything to Everyone (and don’t try to be!)

When most therapists set up their business, they do what everyone else is doing: they offer a long list of treatments - everything from Swedish to Deep Tissue, to Hot Stones to Pregnancy Massage, (via Sports Massage and Myofascial release!) Their website says something like, "I specialise in relaxing and revitalising massage for aches, pains, injuries and stress."

And I totally understand. You want to attract as many clients as possible. You've trained hard, you've done a ton of courses, learned so many skills and modalities -  whywouldn'tyou advertise all of it?

Here's why - When you speak to EVERYONE, NO ONE hears you!

Meaning, that when you try to include every possible client type in your business, you end up sounding so vague and bland in your marketing that no one really notices you.

Think about it like this: Someone types "massage therapist near me" into Google and gets six results. Five of them say more or less the same massage-y type thing. Then there's one that says: "Specialist sports massage for runners - helping you train harder and recover faster."

If that person is a runner with tight hamstrings, which website do you think they’re going to click on?

That specialist isn't necessarily better than the others. They're just morerelevant. And relevance is always going to make you stand out to someone who doesn't know you yet.

Picking Your Person (this is the biggie)

So the question you need to ask yourself is: who do you want to be the go-to therapistfor?

This is where a lot of therapists get stuck, because it feels like you're turning people away. You're not. You're just getting very clear about WHO you're talking to and who you’re trying to attract (and don’t worry! Other people will still book with you!)

Here are some examples of the kinds of people you could choose to work with:

By life stage - Pregnancy massage. Postnatal recovery. Massage for older adults dealing with mobility issues. These clients have specific, emotional and physical needs.

By lifestyle or hobby - Runners, cyclists, CrossFit enthusiasts, office workers with desk-related tension (there areso many of these!)

By condition or goal - People managing chronic stress or anxiety. People recovering from injury. People with migraines, fibromyalgia, or frozen shoulder. People who want help sleeping better. Just choose one!

By vibe or values- Some clients want clinical and no-nonsense. Others want something more holistic and nurturing. Some want a therapist who'll explain what they're doing and why; others just want floaty music and a candle-lit room. Some want a mix of both!

None of these is right or wrong. But picking one (or a combination) changes everything about how you talk about your work, who finds you, and who refers people to you.

So start there. Just pick something to specialise in!

What You Do With That Clarity

Once you know what your specialism is, you need to do a few things:

Your website needs to speak directly to your person.Very clearly articulatingwho you work with and how you help them. If you're targeting office workers with neck and shoulder tension, your homepage shouldn't start with "I offer a range of holistic therapies." It should say something like: "Spending your days hunched over a laptop? I help desk workers finally get rid of that stubborn neck and shoulder pain." That person reads it and thinks, "She's talking about me."

Your social media (if you use it) should do the same.You don't need to post constantly, but what you DO post should speak to the person you're trying to reach. You could give some tips about desk posture. Talk about why runners get tight calves. Explain what actually causes tension headaches. Just make sure you’re being useful to yourperson.

Use it to get referrals. This is one of the most underrated parts of the whole thing. When you have a clear speciality, it's much easier for others to recommend you. A yoga teacher, a physio or a personal trainer is so much more likely to send clients your way when you’re KNOWN for a specific something. 

"She's brilliant, she does all kinds of massage",  won’t get you many referrals. While: "She's the one I send all my post-injury clients to", absolutely will!

Being Known in Your Community

Here's an “old-fashioned” idea that everyone seems to have forgotten about:actually show up in your local community as the expert.

So that might be something like offering a free 20-minute talk at a local running club about injury prevention. Or you could write a post for a local mum’s group about managing stress during the school holidays. Or partner with a yoga studio to give a talk to their members on your speciality subject.

This does one very powerful thing - it puts you in front of exactly the right people, in a way that you're already positioned as an authority i.e. as someone who has something specific to say that is worth listening to.

Word of mouth is still the single most powerful way for a massage therapist to get clients. But word of mouth can be very hard to make happen. The trick is to give it a DIRECTION. When you're known for something specific, word of mouth works very, very well (and calls in the right clients for you.)

Playing The Long Game (i.e. consistency beats perfection)

I think a lot of business advice can set unrealistic expectations, so I’m going to be honest with you:

Becoming the go-to therapist in your area won’t happen immediately. You don’t post about your “speciality” for a month and go back to normal. It's a slow accumulation of showing up consistently, being useful to the same group of people, and building your reputation one client, one social post, one community talk, at a time.

But one great thing about this strategy is that itcompounds. Every happy client will tell someone else about it. That someone then tells someone else. Your Google reviews start to say the same things about you -  and those things happen to beexactly what your ideal client is searching for!

I've seen this happen all the time with therapists I work with -  just 4-5 months of consistency and they’re putting up their prices because they’re getting recognised and referred. A year in, they’re the ones with the 6-week waiting list!

So, back to that therapist down the road who's fully booked. They didn't get there just by luck. They got there because at some point - consciously or not - they got themselves a speciality. And they became the go-to for a certain kind of person.

One Last Thing

If you're sitting here thinking,"but I love doing all kinds of massage, and I don't want to give any of it up" - know, you don't have to!

This is just about what you say in your marketing.

You can offer whatever treatments you like to whomever you like,inside your treatment room. What you're doing is just changing how you talk about your treatments to the outside world. You're giving people a reason to choose YOU over everyone else, based purely on your marketing.

I call itsetting out your shop window. Think about walking down a high street - you don't look into every single shop. You stop at the ones where something in the window catches your eye (usually because it’s relevant to you in some way). That's all you're doing here - arranging the window so your person stops walking and looks in.

So arrange your window. Pick what you’re going to lay out there. And get really, really known for the thing you do brilliantly.

You’ll become the go-to from there!

I talked about exactly this with Chris Maddon in a recent episode of The Massage and Physical Therapists Podcast. If you fancy having a listen, you'll find it here. 

About the Author

Business mentor for massage therapists, Nikki Wolf has over 20 years in the industry, including teaching, owning a massage school, and managing spas. Nikki is on a mission to demystify marketing for therapists and empower them to build their own thriving businesses. When she isn't massaging or mentoring, she’ll be walking on the beach with her dog, Storm.Find out more about mentoring at Orchid Massage Academy.