Despite all the benefits of massage therapy, on whole it is still seen by the public to be a luxury, a one off for special occasions, rather than as a treatment that is necessary to keep healthy in both body and mind. We know massage therapy has been scientifically proven to assist in a range of conditions and with a series of treatments clients can achieve, amongst other advantages, an easing of their chronic pain but how do we convince people of the benefits?
It's easy to see how massage therapy would benefit parents. Easing the pain, tension and stress held in the body, encouraging relaxation and better sleep will help mums to feel great and have more energy, mobility and flexibility to play and enjoy time with their kids.
Everybody knows that massage is relaxing and reduces tension in the muscles. But it might be helpful to remind potential clients of the following health benefits of massage therapy too:
These days capturing potential clients attention can be tricky and we all know parents have even less time than most! However, with a little bit of thought you can tweak your marketing to project a tailor made approach to worn out parents and you can really appear to go the extra mile and solve the problems of your potential clients!
Below is a great image from rmtedu that shows academic research papers that link to common conditions. The top 3 are definitely relevant to mother's and sharing is bound to impress your clients. You can read the whole article by clicking on the image.
* Click on the image to read the article *
Think about what issues you could solve for mums or, if you are trained in pregnancy massage, mums to be. Tailor some social media posts to demonstrate how your massage treatments could help ease these symptoms.
Here are some points to consider when marketing to mums:
Mums to be - they probably have pregnancy aches and pains, not able to rest when they need if they have older children. They would like their body to be well-prepared for child-birth. As bump grows, the point of gravity changes and the body needs to adapt.
New Mums - these mums may spend quite a lot of time sitting down breastfeeding or bottle feeding, they will be recovering from birth (maybe cesarean), they are exhausted. At this point, they are unlikely to be able to come for regular massages until baby is a little older. Consider including some pamper words in marketing to this group!
Mums of toddlers & pre-school children - these mums will be physically tired from running around after little ones. They probably have no time to themselves. Maybe back & neck problems from pushing pushchairs and little ones creeping into their bed at night! Some pamper words in the marketing would be useful here too.
Mums of primary school-age children - these mums may have a little more time, depending on if they work outside the home or not. They also may have toddlers, pre-schoolers or teens at home! These mums may have work-related aches and pains.
Mums of tweens & teens - oh boy does this group need help to relax and stay calm! They also might have aches and pains from sitting at work or being on their feet. They may be be experiencing symptoms of peri-menopause or menopause. These mums may have more time to come for regular massages in between taxi-ing their children around!
Mums of adults - these mums maybe experiencing symptoms of menopause and other problems such as osteoporosis if they are older. They may experience the typical issues of work-life such as back and neck problems. These mums may have more time and income to come for regular massages.
Also consider the wider problems you can address that relate to mums in a more general sense.
Through social media and some straight forward marketing tactics you can tap into the needs of a host of potential clients, best of all this may even be relevant to your existing customers or their friends and family who can come to you through solid referrals.
Once you establish your offers and content you can just tweak them slightly if required and you have a marketing strategy for your massage therapy business that you can implement quickly for mother's day each year, around the holidays or use in part year round to keep your pipeline of potential clients from drying up.
Mother’s Day is probably the second biggest marketing opportunity to boost your sales after massage treatments for Christmas gifts. So it’s important to try and maximise this opportunity as it could make a difference to your income over the whole year. Plus it’s a great way to gain more clients that come regularly for one of your wonderful massages!
Mother's Day is also a fantastic occasion to encourage referrals from existing customers and to potentially capture the attention of the public. Taking a multi-pronged attack might seem daunting but with some quick content you can easily use this holiday to boost your massage client list.
Step 1 - Decide on your Mother’s Day offer
Start by defining your special offer for Mother's Day. Keep in mind the aim is to encourage clients to book multiple treatments and to move away from the idea that massage therapy is a one-off treat, for example, you could offer 20% off a package of 3 or 6 treatments. Alternatively, you could offer a special add on such as wind-down time with herbal tea after their treatment and then offer a discount directly to the client if they book another massage within a certain time frame. You could also offer a discount to the person buying the present. For example 20% off their next massage.
Step 2 - Know who you are talking to
Mother’s Day is all about mum relaxing and helping her aches & pains. Remember, a mum with a newborn is unlikely to have the same needs as a mum of a teenager. Also keep in mind that dads will most likely be buying the gift although he may have had a lot of hints from mum!
Step 3 - Start sending Mother’s day reminders to your existing customers and email list.
Email your list to let them know of your Mother's Day offer. You could even offer them a special perk for being on your list. Remember to change the banner at the top of your email to reflect the theme of your email. Here is an example from Canva.
* Click on the image to download *
In your email, you could include a gift guide with your services and products (if you sell any). And if you collaborate with any other therapists, you could create a gift list with some of your services and some of theirs. This is a really nice way of supporting your community! Consider collaborating with florists and gift shops to promote each other's offers or to promote a package you have created together for example a bunch of flowers and a massage.
* Click on the image to download *
These templates can also be displayed proudly in your clinic but also shared on social media so you can show your clients that you are always thinking of ways to help them!
Step 4 - Use social media to promote your special offer starting a few weeks in advance
* Click on the image to download *
Turn terms like pamper or treat on their head to cleverly reinforce your ultimate goal - encouraging clients (including worn-out mums!) to have treatments as regularly as they can to avoid aches and pains building up to more serious issues.
Step 5 - Update your website, booking system, social media banners (Facebook page header etc) and posts to remind people that Mother’s Day is around the corner.
Step 6 - If you run ads, consider sending people to a purpose-built landing page for Mother’s Day rather than your generic homepage.
Step 7 - Create a blog or newsletter with Mum-focused content that is not about selling your services.
* Click on the image to download *
Turn terms like pamper or treat on their head to cleverly reinforce your ultimate goal - encouraging clients (including worn out mums!) to have treatments as regularly as they can to avoid aches and pains building up to more serious issues.
Next set up a special gift card in relation to this offer and promote in your clinic. Canva is a great tool for designing all sorts of content from posters and gift cards to social media posts and the best part is it's free! Although if you do pay for the pro version you can resize your design to fit Facebook, Instagram, a poster etc with just one click of a button!
Then get out into the real world and network your promotion on flyers in your local stores, doctors surgeries or libraries. Reach out to local parents groups and offer to give a short talk about the benefits of massage and pop your offer on a sandwich board outside your clinic.
But what about the rest of the year? How can you encourage mother's to take care of their aches and pains before they escalate?
We all know that feeling of just not knowing what to get someone. There is a whole host of occasions where people could treat a mum they know to a massage treatment but probably wouldn't even know this was a option. Think about it how many times have you had a friend, colleague or family member start their family and have no idea what to get them.
Taking time to thoughtfully create some gift certificate ideas aimed at mums could really solve someone's dilemma! Below are just some of the templates that you easily tweak on Canva to create beautiful gift cards in just a few minutes!
These templates can also be displayed proudly in your clinic but also shared on social media so you can show to your clients that you are always thinking of ways to help them!
Another great way to market your services to mums is to team up with a local mobile beautician and come up with a package for indulgent pamper parties that you can market for baby showers.
You could offer;
The key to success here is promoting this service on social media and with your existing clients. Frame the offer as taking care of all the arrangements and bringing a complete party package straight to their home. With a little bit of preparation you could be on to a real winner.
The Secret to Boosting Your Massage Therapy Business That Nobody Talks About! Don't miss these great tips that will help increase satisfaction and success in your business!
Massage tables comes in many different shapes and size. It can be confusing for you, the customer, to choose the right one but we are here to help!
A lot of customers call us up after they have bought the wrong size massage table elsewhere and we would like to help you avoid this mistake. It normally goes something like this; they like the look of a picture of a massage table on a website, they like the low price and then they check the carrying weight is ok. If the carrying weight fits their needs they click add to cart and the new massage table turns up at their doorstep in a few days. They unfortunately assume all massage tables are pretty much the same width and size.
The standard size of a massage table is 28 inches wide (71cms) and 73 inches (185cms) long. One of the reasons many "lightweight" budget massage tables are so cheap is because
Make sure the massage table is the right size for you and your clients as the narrow massage tables at 61cms can be very uncomfortable for anyone who isn't petite and many clients cannot relax with their shoulders and arms unsupported.
Almost all therapists choose the standard 28 inch wide massage table. All our massage tables are the same length so it is only the width and shape our customers need to decide on.
Your massage table should be wide enough to cater for the wide variety of shapes and sizes of your clients. It needs to be wide enough to comfortably accommodate your treatment style, while being narrow enough to ensure you don’t have to strain your own back during treatments.
Each therapist's postural training and ability is different, so only you will know what massage table width you can handle. We have spoken to therapists who are five feet tall and get the wider 30 inch massage tables, and we speak to six foot therapists who have back problems and go for a 25 inch wide massage table. Everyone is different.
Generally speaking, if you are of smaller stature, you may do better with one of the narrower 25-inch massage tables. If you're quite tall, or are particularly keen to offer your clients a very spacious experience, a 30-inch massage table might be more suitable.
If you are in doubt, see if you can go into your local training college and see whether the massage tables there suit you. However, there is another way to get a feel for what will work of you don’t have access to a couch when you are deciding:
Cut out a piece of cardboard to the dimensions of both sizes you are deciding between. Put it on top of the kitchen table and lean over it. Visualise a client lying there, and see which width will suit you and your client best.
Make sure you can get close enough to the table that you can pivot at the waist and have your shoulders squared to the clients hips, with your hands parallel to the clients' spine. Working in this position will ensure an injury-free career, so it's an important factor in your decision.
The most popular massage table widths are 28 and 30 inches. We sell 25-inch massage tables but you should really only choose this width if you are shorter in height and having a wider massage table might put your own back at risk over the course of your career.
You can also choose the 25-inch if you want to have the lightest massage table possible. By reducing the width of the massage table, the weight is also reduced. Now, this can mean a trade-off of some client comfort, but this trade is often worthwhile if you are a fully mobile therapist and use public transport frequently, where saving a kilogram or two will make a difference to you over time.
Nowadays, almost all portable massage tables come with height adjustable legs. Whichever massage table you choose should come with a large height range to accommodate you, and to cater for a broad range of therapies.
A common height range of massage tables is between 60 to 80cm, and this height range should cater for everyone. To check which height you need your massage table to be at follow this rule of thumb:
1. Stand up straight with your hands by your sides. Clench your fists.
2. Measure the distance between the floor and your knuckles
3. This distance should equal the height of your massage table.
4. Add a few inches in height to allow for the body of the patient on the massage table.
The height of a massage table is usually only adjusted when different therapists are using the same massage table, or if you have a client that is outside the average size you normally treat. So for example, if someone with a lot of body depth comes for a treatment after an average size person, you may need to adjust the height a notch or two.
You should be able to adjust the height of a massage table in just 2-3 minutes. Even though you mightn't adjust the height very often, the faster the better when you do have to!
There are 2 types of height adjustment mechanisms found on modern massage tables.
1) Twisting knobs (found only on wooden massage tables):
If you are working with a wooden massage table, it is better to have two knobs on each of the four legs for greater strength and reliability. When buying online, make sure to check how many knobs are on the legs. Cheap massage tables often only have one knob, and when you raise the legs to the highest heights they are less stable and have been known to snap.
2) Telescopic push-buttons (found only on aluminium massage tables):
The mechanism to adjust the height of an aluminium massage table is much the same as the push-button method on aluminium crutches. It only takes a few seconds to adjust each leg, and the mechanism is very reliable. Check out the video to see how it’s done.
The following are the different shapes of massage tables on the market.
1. Rectangle shaped with square corners
This is the traditional shape of a massage table and the one you are probably familiar with seeing. Our Combi-lite 3 in 1 and Affinity Portaflex are shaped like this.
2. Rectangle shaped with rounded corners
Same as no 1 above in every way except the corners are rounded. Does not affect function in any way, just a different design/look.
3. Hour glass shaped with gradual gradient
A fabulous massage table innovation in recent years, which solves a lot of the problems around choosing the correct width is the hourglass shaped massage table.
This style of massage table is wider at the ends, and tapers somewhat at the middle. This provide a spacious and comfortable experience for your client (as the shoulder and feet area are 30 inches wide) without compromising your own posture and health, as the middle of the couch where you lean over is a much narrower 26 inches wide.Having recently upgraded to one of these hourglass massage tables myself, I can vouch that my working days are much more comfortable, and many of my clients have commented on the extra comfort from the wider shoulder area.
The name says it all! There are no corners on the massage table. Therapists normally choose this for one of two reasons. They simply like the look of this massage table and it is aesthetically more pleasing in their treatment room and/or they find it easier to move around the massage table during the treatment without having to side step the corners. This is particularly handy when space is limited in your treatment room.
Samantha Jenkins
Author