How to get Clients from Social Media

Social Media Mastery for Massage Therapists

“I spend ages posting about my treatments on social media, but it just doesn’t work!”

Do you feel like this too? You’ve poured countless hours into writing posts and promoting your treatments but feel like you’re getting nothing back from it. You’re not alone, This is a common problem for many therapists.

So what’s going on, – How can you make social media work for you, when it seems as though nothing works?

There are 3 mistakes that therapists often make when it comes to posting on social media. In this blog post we’re going to have a close look at each of these and I’ll give you pointers for overcoming them.

Ready? Read on!

MISTAKE NO 1: No Strategy

Most therapists don’t have a strategy around what they post – they think as long as they post a few times a week, that’ll do. While posting regularly is important - it’s not enough to make you stand out in the crowded online world. Churning out posts without thinking about their relevance to your audience is not the way to get clients.

SOLUTION: Be Strategic!

If you want to make an impact on social media - you need to go beyond the basics and make it work for you. You need a strategy. You need to understand what people are looking for when they’re scrolling on social, and you need to create engaging content to stop that scroll! Go beyond the basics of just posting regularly and focus on posting the right type of content in the right places, at the right times.

Here's some tips for being more strategic:

Go for Quality Over Quantity
Instead of going for quantity, try to produce quality content that adds some value to your audience's lives. Share longer, informative posts, helpful tips, and stories that show off your massage expertise and your personality. If you can create a bank of good-quality posts and then schedule them ahead of time, it’ll make everything so much easier!

Focus on Visuals
Don’t just write – use eye-catching visuals too. Create images and videos, (and if you’re creative – whip up some infographics) to capture people’s attention and make your posts more engaging. Get some professional photos taken – but also take some candid personal snaps. You don’t need to be too polished here, you just need to be seen!

Take Timing into Account
Pay attention to when your audience is most active on social media and schedule your posts to get you the best visibility. If you use the professional dashboard on Instagram and Facebook, you can easily see when it’s a good time to post.

Mix it up
You want to be seen in as many different places as possible. Only a small number of people will be shown each post, so you need to widen the net. If you’re currently only posting on your business page, think about posting on your personal page too. Your friends and family should be kept in the know about what you do – if they are in your local area, they can be great ambassadors for your business by spreading the word about your treatments. Consider posting in local Facebook groups too, as these could be full of your ideal clients.

MISTAKE NO 2: Content Crisis

Do you find it hard to think of what to post? Are you wondering how many more posts about "The Benefits of Massage", you can possibly get away with? There are, after all only so many things you can say about massage! Struggling to come up with engaging content that resonates with your audience can leave you feeling stuck and frustrated. So how to unstick yourself? Content Pillars is the answer.

SOLUTION: Create your Pillars of Content

For this, it’s so important to know your ideal client (ie WHO you want to attract into your business with your posts.) Once you know your ideal client, the next step is easy – just follow these guidelines:

Identify Your Pillars of Content

Take some time to identify 3-5 themes or topics that would resonate with your ideal client. These pillars of content will be the foundation of your social media strategy, giving you a framework for all your posts AND giving your ideas and inspiration when you can’t think what to write about.

When you’ve chosen your pillars. Put them in a document with separate sections for each pillar. Then every so often (monthly, weekly, or whenever you get some inspiration), sit down and pop any ideas that have come up around that topic into your document.

That makes it easy to find something at a moment’s notice to write about. Once you’ve got your ideas down, you can batch-create your content for the next month or so, all together in one sitting.

Choose an angle

Now you’ve got your pillars, you can use those as the focus of your posts. For a multitude of topic ideas to write about, try coming at each pillar from a different angle.

Here are some ideas for “angles” you could base the posts around :

1) Be The Expert
Share your knowledge and expertise around your ideal client’s problem or challenge. For example a “how-to” video or a list of top-10 ways to get a certain result.

2) Time-based topics
Use the time of year for inspiration. Think about seasonal holidays, National day of…(whatever) or a topic that’s trending at the moment.

3) Personal
Share something personal. Let your audience get to know you as an actual human being with a real life! (side note - these sorts of posts often get good engagement, so do add them in regularly; engagement aids the algorithm!)

4) Uplifting
How can you make your ideal client feel better today? Post something helpful, inspiring or motivational.

5) Promote your work
Yes! you are allowed to sell your therapies too! Just make sure you stick to the 80/20 rule where 80% of your content is value for your audience and only 20% is self-promotion.

MISTAKE NO. 3: Not Using Social Media in the Right Way

A lot of therapists use social media posts to sell their treatments. But while direct bookings CAN happen from one post, usually they don’t. That’s because social media was never supposed to be used for selling (even if it is now!) It’s important that you understand why people are on social media in the first place. Once you get that, it becomes much easier to write posts that work for you.

SOLUTION: Shift your perspective

Social media is not built for selling, it’s built for connecting. People are on social media for interaction and conversation, not for buying products or services.

If you bear that in mind when you are creating your posts and engaging with people online, it will massively change what you create and how you come across (and get you more clients in the process!)

Here’s how to do it:

1. Go for Engagement Over Sales
Building relationships takes time! It is possible to generate immediate bookings from social media, but it's more common for potential clients to need time to get to know you before they're ready to book a treatment. So you need to focus on building genuine connections with people instead of trying to get them to book immediately.

To make the most of this, communication and connection need to be your priority in your posts. Design your posts to create engagement, interaction and conversation. Bookings will come later. Engage with your audience. Start conversations. Get to know people. Give information and help freely.

That doesn’t mean you can’t sell your treatments too; you can, but you need to be subtle about it. See below for tips about selling.

2. Build Know, Like, and Trust
Most people don’t wake up one day and out of the blue, decide to book a treatment with you. More often they need to be in your world for a while before they are ready to book a treatment. People buy from people they know, like, and trust. So, you need to develop that “know, like, and trust” BEFORE you think about doing any selling.

It’s a journey. It can take months before a person is ready to book a treatment. All the conversations and engaging you do with them on social media help them along that journey. Putting up a post saying, “Book Now!” isn’t going to work if they don’t know you well enough; you need to build credibility and trust first.

3. Balance Selling with Engaging
If you promote yourself too often, you could end up irritating your audience. So how do you sell your treatments, without annoying people? It’s a delicate balancing act. You need to be able to juggle selling AND engaging.

Mix up your posts. Have a rule that you’ll post ONE promotional post for every THREE or FOUR that engage and give value. Of course you can still talk about your treatments and services all the time in your posts – but do it from a place of informing rather than selling.

Find your balance and don’t overdo it. Think CONNECTION before SALES.

Getting social media working for you needs some planning and a lot of patience. Make sure you connect genuinely with your followers, mix your promotional posts with more helpful content, and use tools like content schedulers to make things easier.

Social media isn't just about advertising – it's about connecting with people. By doing it right, you can boost your massage business and make real connections with clients online and offline.

And THAT’S how you get clients on social media!

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.