Marketing is something that massage therapy practices should be doing all year long, but it is especially important during the holiday season, when consumers are generally willing to open their pocketbooks just a little bit more.
The question is, how do you make the most of your holiday marketing strategy? There are several options.
Gift-Giving Promotions
According to the National Retail Federation, during the 2017 holiday season, consumers will spend an average of $967 on gifts for the people they love. That makes this a great time to build your massage therapy practice by offering options that fit into this particular realm.
What options are those?
- Offer gift certificates. The great thing about gift certificates is that the gift giver doesn’t have the risk of buying something the receiver won’t like. Instead, the recipient is able to pick out the services that he or she would enjoy the most, creating a more pleasurable massage experience without the worry of how to budget the cost. Offering this particular option for online purchase can help make the process even easier for gift givers who prefer to shop from home.
- Market discounted double bookings. “In the spirit of Christmas, massage therapists could offer a discount for bookings of two people,” says Laura Hall, marketing executive at Shiply, an international shipping company. This type of promotion could be marketed as an opportunity for people to “bring a loved [one with them for massage] between Christmas day and the middle of January,” says Hall.That makes this a great gift idea for the person who either wants to participate in the experience or wants to give the gift of massage to someone who has never had one and may be a little apprehensive.
- Create holiday gift packages. Another gift-related idea is to create holiday packages that customers can buy, providing an option for those who like to give physical gifts. Spread them along many different price ranges, so the gift giver can spend as little or as much as he or she would like. For instance, you could buy a holiday-themed container and fill it with candy, a gift certificate and one or two massage oils. Or you could make up a package containing a self-massage tool and lotion. Be creative and see what you can come up with.
- Develop holiday-inspired treatments. Because the holidays are busier than usual, people tend to have less time to tend to their own personal needs. Why not appeal to them by offering a 15-minute massage directed at their shoulders and upper back—areas where many people carry stress? You could also add inspiration into longer massage sessions by offering promotions on services that use traditional holiday scents, such as cinnamon, peppermint or pine.
Give Your Clients Gifts
Another way to get more clients in your door is to offer them gifts for coming in during the busy holiday season. These don’t have to be expensive gifts. Even something as little as a couple of sample packs of different massage oils placed in a holiday-themed bag can make your customers smile.
You can make this particular option even more effective for your massage therapy business by including a coupon that your clients can use toward a future service.
If you tend to be slower after the holidays, you may decide to give an even bigger discount for massages booked during those particular weeks or months.
Think About Your Promotional Position
Regardless of how you choose to promote your massage therapy practice during the holidays, Joshua Feinberg, chief thought leader, vice president and co-founder of SP Home Run, a firm that helps businesses with marketing, says that you must also think about how you should position your promotions so you get the best results.
“[One option is to] position massage therapy as a perfect holiday gift for a stressed-out friend, family member or co-worker,” says Feinberg. That gets gift-givers thinking about how they can offer the people they love some much-needed relief, adding to the gift’s value even more.
Or maybe your approach will be to appeal to the gift-giver him or herself, something Feinberg says you can do if you position massage therapy as a way to better manage the stresses of the holidays.
With this approach, you appeal to everyone who has ever felt the pressure of preparing for holiday parties, cooking endless amounts of food and stretching an already tight budget.
You could even use your promotion to appeal to both giver and receiver by offering a promotion that allows gift givers to also receive. One way to do this is to create a promotion like “Buy Two $50 Gift Cards and Get a Free $25 Gift Card for Yourself,” says Feinberg. This enables customers to buy for those they love, while still enjoying a little something for themselves at no extra cost.
Another option is to “position massage therapy as a way to get a jumpstart on your 2018 New Year’s Resolutions around health and fitness,” says Feinberg. This increases your reach to people who are thinking beyond the holiday season and want to get a head start on next year’s goals.
Feinberg adds that you can even reach out to specific groups, such as moms, seniors or millennials to better target your promotion’s appeal.
Marketing Your Promotions
Once you decide which promotions you plan to run, as well as how you intend to position them, the next step is to actually market them so the rest of the world knows that they exist.
One way to do this is to make sure you’re included in any holiday mailings or campaigns directed toward the local community. Your chamber of commerce may send out notifications or an area newspaper may print a special insert. Work with them to make sure your promotions are included.
You can also market your holiday gifts and promotional discounts by sharing them on your website and social media accounts. Provide the links to the pages where customers can make their purchases. The easier you make the process, the more likely it is your customers will buy.
Marketing your massage therapy practice during the holiday season is a great way to help your customers satisfy their gift-giving needs while boosting your revenue a little bit too.
These are just a few ways to achieve both of those goals, while also providing a valuable service to the people who would enjoy it most.
About the Author
Christina DeBusk is a freelance writer dedicated to providing readers relevant, research-backed content related to health and wellness, personal development, safety, and small business ownership.
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