As a professional massage therapist or bodyworker, you have at your fingertips an incredibly long and diverse list of continuing education classes geared toward you and your field. When you first think about continuing education classes, what may come to mind is learning new techniques or advancing one of your current hands-on skills. However, there are many continuing education classes for massage therapists and bodyworkers that are not based solely on the work you do in the session room.
One example of a category of continuing education classes for massage therapists and bodyworkers that is not focused on a specific technique or hands-on skill is a course that teaches practitioners more about marketing their services. This is one area of expertise that may not have been covered extensively during one’s massage therapy or bodywork education, especially if that education took place quite some time ago.
Even though today’s massage therapy and bodywork schools are making efforts to educate their students on how to market themselves and their services, this is still one area where many massage therapists and bodyworkers could use a bit more focus. After all, not a huge number of hands-on practitioners entered this profession in an attempt to use their marketing and business skills, but rather to use their talents for helping and healing others.
Therefore, as you consider enrolling in continuing education classes, you may wish to think about whether you could use a brush up or even an advanced education in marketing for massage therapists and bodyworkers. If you feel as if you are not bringing in the number of clients you would like for your practice, or that there is a certain segment of the population you would like to bring into your practice but are unsure how, then a marketing course might be right for you.
Start by taking a look at the variety of continuing education classes on the topic of marketing specifically for massage therapists and bodyworkers. By perusing the course offerings, you should be able to get a fairly good idea of what is out there, in terms of the types of continuing education classes and what angle they take on marketing.
For instance, you might find a continuing education class for massage therapists and bodyworkers that is centered on writing press releases and other text-based marketing materials. Such a class would likely provide templates and other helpful material to assist you in creating marketing materials, from your practice menu to handouts and brochures.
Another continuing education class for massage therapists and bodyworkers might be more focused on providing presentations throughout your community, to market yourself and your services. In a class such as this one, you may gather tips for garnering invites to speak to various local groups, from hospitals and senior organizations to sporting clubs and schools. This kind of continuing education class would also be likely to teach you how to give an effective presentation.
Think outside the session room as you approach the idea of continuing education, specifically if your practice could use a boost from professional marketing methods.
—Brandi Schlossberg