Volume V, Issue 9

Welcome to “From The Massage Table”!

My name is Michael Humphreys, cofounder of Help Your Practice. Each month, From The Massage Table will hit your email inbox with the latest news, special offers and great massage business tips that can help you create the massage practice of your dreams.

Want to make sure you don’t miss an issue? Please add mike AT helpyourpractice DOT com to your address book and keep the spam filters from eating your subscription!

Now Available: “Keeping In Touch: Massage Client Newsletters” Volume 1 and 2

“If you could use massage client newsletters created, tested and proven to work by a successful massage therapist in his own super-busy practice… how much busier would your massage practice  become? The answer is found below…” 

http://helpyourpractice.com/massage-client-newsletters.htm

As promised, here is this month’s issue.

Motivational Monthly Tip 

This month I want to go outside of the box and share something with you that I thought was both informative and helpful. 

It doesn’t matter what type of business you have — online, offline, or a combination of both, you will run into the issue of freebie vultures.  It’s definitely true for massage therapists who meet their share of them.

Freebie vultures are the types of people who complain about giving you their contact information in return for a fr*ee 10 minute chair massage massage at a local health fair or convention. 

These are the same types who will go out of their way to give you phony contact information, just to get the freebie.

They believe you should give them a fr*ee chair massage because they want one, regardless of the fact that you are doing them as a way to attract new clients.  In short, definitely not the types of people who make good paying massage clients that respect your time and keep their appointments.

So this month I’ve decided to dedicate this spot to a special guest author, Paul Myers.

Paul writes a weekly online marketing ezine called Talk Biz News that is one of the longest running ones online.  Just as important, Paul delivers consistently a lot of great content for fr*ee. With Paul’s permission, I’ve reprinted his “rant” here about freebie vultures (my term, not his). 

WARNING: Paul does not pull any punches here.  So if you were looking for a sugar-coated fluff piece, then you won’t like Paul’s style one bit.

“TANSTAAFL, Baby”

  ===============

“I hate these e-mail opt-ins”

That is what someone just filled in as their name when signing up for this newsletter. The intent is obvious. They wanted the book they get as an incentive to subscribe, but they didn’t want the newsletter itself.

That’s fine. Hundreds of people have signed up, gotten the freebie, and unsubscribed, just in the past two weeks alone. No surprise there. It’s a known part of the business. It’s part of the cost of finding people who are serious about getting more out of life.

Besides, you never really know why any one of those people in particular chose to do that, unless they tell you. Some may have legitimate reasons.

This guy was different.

This guy told me.

….

Why should I ask you to spend time reading about this guy?

You’re going to run into him – a lot – as you develop your business online. You need to know how to recognize him, and how to handle him. Otherwise, he will suck time and resources from you that would be better spent doing something productive.

Like watering your driveway, or mowing the dog.

If you haven’t been at this online thing for more than a couple of years, you want to read this. Seriously. Even if you’ve been at it a long time, there’s a chance you’ll find some explanations in it that will help.

So, bear with me. There really is a point to this.

….

Remember: The name field in the form is clearly marked as optional.

If he didn’t want to give his first name, he could have just left it out, or used a fake one. (“Herman Munster” gets this newsletter, and has for years. I’m cool with that.)

This guy was delivering a message. The message wasn’t that he objected to the price, since he paid it, at least for a while.

The message was that he objected to the existence of a price.

The absolute ultimate in scarcity thinking. Not to mention that he outsmarted himself.

In his case, I doubt that takes much.

….

He’s a sneaky one, this guy.

One person like him wouldn’t really be noteworthy. Certainly not worth an editorial rant.

What’s interesting is that he’s just being explicit about something that a lot of people in this business say in less obvious ways. He’s unhappy about having to “pay” for something, and his unhappiness is somehow the fault of someone else.

They’re “bad” for not making him effortlessly happy.

He didn’t “pay” and then decide it wasn’t worth the price.  That’s an entirely different issue, and often a legitimate one.

He complained because the price existed at all.

I see people on the forums, regularly, whining and griping about having to sign up for a list, or pay actual cash money, or spend time or effort, or whatever… To get something they want.

Their reality checks have bounced.

TANSTAAFL, baby.

There ain’t no such thing as a free lunch.

….

Nothing is free.

I give you this newsletter without a financial cost, but that doesn’t mean it’s “free.” You have to spend time to read it.

You have to think about the contents and how they fit with your personal goals. And you have to apply what you get from it in your business and your life.

That’s your cost.

You get something from that investment. Real improvements in your profits and lifestyle, more time for the things that matter to you, and the occasional tidbit that applies to more than just business.

Hopefully, those will all be significant returns on your effort.

My investment is the time and experience to learn the things I give you, the effort that goes into writing them, and the financial cost of the servers and miscellaneous software I use to send the emails out and deliver products.

What do I get out of it?

I try to make sure I offer paid products that will actually help you in your business. Some of you will see occasional offers as being good investments and buy them. That pays some bills.

Plus, I enjoy what I do, which pays in other ways.

Some people don’t have the money for the products yet, but the information in the newsletter helps them to move forward. Those people get to learn without spending cash, but they still have to put in the effort, or it’s a waste of time.

That’s why I like email publishing, by the way. The more advanced people get the tools to get ahead even faster, and they help make it possible for guys like me to give the information to those who are not as far along in their situations yet.

It democratizes the growth process. It lets everyone get what they need as a base, from which they can earn more, do more, and be more.

Hopefully, everyone who puts something in gets a lot more out.

That works for me.

….

That is, by the way, where these guys outsmart themselves. Many of them just do it to feel like they got something over on someone. A few will grab and run, read the book, and feel a little smarter. Almost none of them will do the work of thinking that “Need to Know” requires.

Better than 90% of them will probably never read it.

Plus, they miss the other free stuff.

For instance, for those of you who signed up since the last issue and those who missed it… The 42-page report on creating an effective sales process for an online business.

It’s called, “Why Johnny Can’t Sell.” You can get that here:

http://talkbiz.com/sellmorestuff.php

That’s good stuff. When you’re done here, go read it.

….

Back to the Entitlement Kid.

When I mentioned this on a forum, a few people equated this guy with pirates and spammers. That’s a serious mistake.

Yes, there are sometimes overlapping attitudes among the three groups. This guy, though, genuinely believes that complete strangers are somehow responsible for providing him with effortless success and happiness. He believes that anyone who doesn’t give it to him – free, now and perfect – is actively preventing him from being a fulfilled person.

He doesn’t understand the value of your experience, skill and knowledge because he doesn’t have any of his own to compare it with.

He doesn’t value your time because he doesn’t do anything worthwhile with his.

If you don’t give this clown what he wants, he may just wander off in a self-pitying sulk. He may also start to scream and whine, accuse and malign, and generally act like he’s been abused and victimized.

He may even get self-righteous about his ridiculous demands and foolish expectations. That’s when this guy, who should be renting space from a woodchuck, rears his head and starts to act like he’s conquered the moral high ground.

He’ll prattle on at length, with warm-and-fuzzy sounding slogans and “humanitarian” cliches, in an effort to make the evil people who make him unhappy feel some guilt over their “greed.” If you don’t know what he’s really after, you might even be tempted to feel some sympathy for his position.

He wants you to feel responsible for making him happy.

Don’t bother. This guy is incapable of more than thin, momentary pleasure. Real happiness is beyond him.

The closest he gets to happy is when he’s tearing someone else down.

Why?

It makes him feel powerful, which lets him think he’s competent, for just that little while. But then he sees that you’ve survived and are back to building something valuable, and that there are too many people in the world who enjoy life for him to tear them all down.

Most of them give up on a given target after a while. Some get obsessed, and become the virtual equivalent of stalkers. Some hide behind the game of serial-refunder.

Some find more clever ways of masquerading their real motives.

They become “scam reporters” and “guru killers.”

Starting to see how this relates to you?

Do any of these guys look familiar?

….

One of the most common ways to spot these people is to look for any quote or comment that sounds like, “Information wants to be free.” It sounds profound, and most people don’t know how to argue the point.

They don’t know that what he’s saying is only part of the original context, and was stated by Steven Brand at a hacker’s conference some 25 years ago.

Here’s the full quote:

    “On the one hand information wants to be expensive,

     because it’s so valuable. The right information in the

     right place just changes your life. On the other hand,

     information wants to be free, because the cost of getting

     it out is getting lower and lower all the time. So you have

     these two fighting against each other.”

Very different meaning than these intellectually destitute frauds would have you believe.

The tension Brand refers to, by the way, is visible in the process I call commoditization of knowledge. I’ve mentioned it here before, so I won’t get into that again right now.

Understand that Brand doesn’t mean the word “want” literally in his presentation. He’s using it as shorthand for a natural social tendency of valuation.

Despite what the Entitlement Kid believes, information has no desires, any more than his socks do.

….

When these guys complain, they’re not just venting. They’re actively trying to put pressure on people, and get others to give them some degree of moral sanction.

Do not do it.

Give them nothing.

Unless you’ve got a high tolerance for bull droppings, and a well-developed ability to dismantle spurious logic, just ignore them.

Surprisingly, that is your best defense against these leeches.

Don’t ignore them in the sense of not responding. Ignore them in the way that says, “You do not exist, so you have no power in my world.”

If you can’t do that, laugh at them. Or, for fun, do both.

I didn’t bother wasting any time replying to this guy. I just got a chuckle at the idea that he thought he was accomplishing something. That his message was somehow going to convince me of some unstated belief, or annoy me, or whatever.

He’s powerful and clever in his fantasy world. I’m happy to let him play there.

Pleasant dreams, Kid.

….

There will be times when these ‘people’ will forcibly intrude on your existence. They just don’t always have the brains needed to keep their mouths shut, and they have to announce their idiocy to the world.

This is a small percentage of any group. There are some of them reading this email right now. Some others will have it shoved in their faces in the form of forwards or other reprinting.

This next part is addressed to these tiny creatures.

….

To every person out there who thinks about price and ignores value, I have some advice:

If you don’t want it bad enough to pay the asked price, or if you just can’t afford it… Learn to do without.

If you’re not willing to put in the effort and investment to have a business of your own… Get a job. Or starve.

If you’re not willing to invest the attention required for healthy relationships… Be alone.

If you’re unwilling to research, read and think to improve your understanding… Remain ignorant.

Those are all valid choices.

Just don’t whine at the rest of us because you don’t have what you’re unwilling to earn.

TANSTAAFL, baby.

We don’t owe you a thing.

About the Guest Author: Paul Myers is the author of one of the longest running online marketing ezines.  You can get the full scoop on Paul’s great ezine at http://www.talkbiznews.com

Monthly Massage Marketing Tip 

This month I’ve decided to cover one of the biggest holidays of the year that happens within the next month: Mothers Day.  While other holidays might get more publicity, it’s been my experience that Mothers Day is often one of the top 2 or 3 gift certificate sales periods of the year.

If you aren’t already planning to do a Mothers Day promotion, then hopefully you’ll get some ideas from this article. 

Of course, if you don’t even offering gift certificates in your massage practice, then you are making a *huge* mistake! (Gift certificates are such a vital client attraction and sales-producing weapon that I dedicated an entire chapter in my massage marketing manual Help Your MASSAGE Practice strictly on gift certificates.)

When it comes to Mothers Day promotions, here are some general guidelines.

1) Your targeted prospects may be mothers but it’s not limited to strictly to them.  You will discover that other people will buy gift certificates to give to their moms… but they will also buy them for:

* mother-in-laws

* grandmothers

* mothers to be

A few years ago, a male client of mine came in and bought 4 one-hour massage gift certificates for his wife who was 6 months pregnant.  He wanted her to be able to come in and get a massage whenever she needed or wanted one. (Talk about a thoughtful gift!)

2) It needs to *look* like a gift.  If your gift certificate looks like you drew it on the back of an old envelope then you need to go back to the drawing board.  Better yet, get them printed by your local print shop or even a website like VistaPrint.com.  That leads into my next point.

3) Your gift certicate needs to look like it cost *a lot* of money… even if it didn’t. The little details like using high-quality linen or granite paper matter.  So do things like adding in foil envelopes, themed seals or ribbons, and even floral bouquets.

Here’s a simple test: Take one of your gift certificates and show it to a female friend.  Ask her how much she would guess you paid for it.  If she guesses less than you are planning to charge for the gift certificate, then you need to improve your gift certificate appearance.

4) Offer a holiday special promotion or package.  Ideally, it needs to be something that you don’t offer any other time of the year.

For example, one gift certificate promotion I did that did well for Mothers Day was a gift basket filled with high-quality bath products and the massage center’s gift certificate.  I made the package only available as a pre-order item so no one could order one the day before Mothers Day.  That’s because each basket was custom-made by a local supplier.  I struck a deal with a local supplier who agreed to produce the baskets based on the number of pre-orders we got.

5) Another option can be to package two or more services that you offer at a special price. 

For example, one of our popular Mothers Day promotions was a fr*ee paraffin hand treatment included with any one-hour massage gift certificate purchased.  Sometimes the buyer even kept the paraffin treatment for themselves instead of giving it with the massage gift certificate!

Be creative.  Have fun with your promotion.  Most of all, take action and do some type of promotion.  Your bank account will thank you.

********************************************************************

Got Feedback Or A Success Story You Would Like To Share?

Drop Michael an email at mike AT helpyourpractice DOT com and tell him now.

********************************************************************

That’s all for now. I look forward to talking with you next month.

Seize the Day,

Michael Humphreys

Help Your Practice

P.S. Do you know someone who would enjoy reading this newsletter?

Please forward this newsletter to them and help share the wealth!

Better yet, use the Recommend Us page on our website and tell them about Help Your Practice.

March 20, 2009
Volume V, Issue 9

Hello,

Welcome to “From The Massage Table”! My name is Michael Humphreys, cofounder of Help Your Practice.

Each month, From The Massage Table will hit your email inbox with the latest news, special offers and great massage business tips that can help you create the massage practice of your dreams.

Want to make sure you don’t miss an issue? Please add mike@helpyourpractice.com to your address book and keep the spam filters from eating your subscription!

Now Available: “Keeping In Touch: Massage
Client Newsletters” Volume 1 and 2

“If you could use massage client newsletters created, tested and proven to work by a successful massage therapist in his own super-busy practice… how much busier would your massage practice become? The answer is found below…”

http://helpyourpractice.com/massage-client-newsletters.htm

I had originally planned to finish this up last weekend but family duties called and this newsletter had to be postponed. As promised, here is this month’s issue.

Motivational Monthly Tip

This month I want to share something that has been on my mind lately. Part of how I stay fresh mentally is chatting with old business allies each week.

Yesterday, I had a lunch meeting with another marketer who I called Mark to protect his privacy. During lunch, Mark was telling me a story about promoting his latest product which is a collection of website graphics. This collection has over 1300 graphics that retails for about $150, or about 8 cents per graphic.

Mark was telling me that he had placed an ad on a marketing forum promoting his product and one of the forum members had posted a comment complaining that he couldn’t afford the graphics package. But when Mark went to their website, he learned that this forum member charged more than $2K to write marketing pieces for other people!

Mark and I had a brief chuckle over the irony of the situation. Then he said something that has stuck with me since:

“Mike, I would be willing to help this guy with his business… but I don’t want to deal with someone who has such a scarcity mindset. It’s a real downer to deal with someone like that. The thing is, it wouldn’t matter how much it cost because he doesn’t believe that he could ever afford it.”

It reminded me that your mindset doesn’t just affect how you think and feel.

* It affects how other people respond to you.
* It causes people to decide if they want to be a massage client of yours… or go somewhere else.
* It can make another business owner think twice about referring their customers to you.

Take a look around you. There’s plenty of gloom and doom everywhere. It’s not hard to find negative things to dwell on.

But successful people don’t want to dwell on the negatives. Instead, they want to focus on things that keep their spirits up. They want to bring more positives into their lives and decrease the amount of negatives too.

Most of all, they find ways to keep their mindset positive and energetic.

Successful people don’t say something costs too much. Instead, they say that they can’t afford it right now. Or they might say, “What do I need to do so I can afford it?”

Successful people don’t say they aren’t good enough at something. They say that they need to get better.

The next time you catch yourself saying something like “It costs too much”, remind yourself that there’s a reason why you can’t afford it right now. It’s a temporary reason and not some type of a permanent financial ailment.

If you start mentally beating yourself up and find yourself saying that you aren’t good enough… then tell yourself that you need to work a little harder to get better instead.

Focus on your mindset.

Do what successful people do.

Stay focused and positive!

Monthly Massage Marketing Tip

This month I’ve decided to share another email I got from one of this newsletter’s readers. This time, I received it after the January issue was sent out with my answer to another subscriber “Jim”.

Again, I’ve changed the subscriber’s name and removed her website address to protect her privacy and correct a few typos of mine. I’m sharing this because I believe my answer will be helpful to many of you.

“Michael,

Thanks to the recession, my massage practice is really struggling right now. I’m not seeing as many clients as I used to and those that are coming in, well, they aren’t coming in as often. What should I do to revive my massage practice? I was thinking of buying your Instant Massage Marketing product would help me?

Sincerely,

Jim”

Hi Jim,

Thanks for your email. Believe me, you are not the only business owner that has taken a financial hit thanks to the U.S. recession. I know of some business owners in non-massage niches that have seen their businesses almost completely wiped out.

Let me start by saying that any massage marketing product (even ones that aren’t sold by my websites) that you were to buy can help if you take the time to use it and put it into *ACTION*. Could my product Instant Massage Marketing help you? Sure. But if you do decide to buy it (or any other product of mine), then please make the commitment to use it right away. Because if you don’t put it to use, then you will have wasted some of your hard-earned money.

Having grown my massage business through more than one recession/economic slowdown to date, I can share with you some insights I’ve gained which I believe will help you.

1. Relying on just one or two methods to generate new clients is dangerous because if they ever slow down or dry up, then you’re in serious trouble. That’s why when I owned my massage therapy center, I would use 25-30 different methods to get people booking massage appointments. Use multiple methods every month and track your results. There is a tracking form included in Instant Massage Marketing or you can choose to create one on your own.

2. Instant Massage Marketing doesn’t focus exclusively on getting new clients because that is only one way to grow a massage business. Getting more repeat business and increasing the average amount spent per visit is just as important. That leads into my next point.

3. By my conservative estimate, it’s 5-10 times easier to get a client who hasn’t been in for a massage in awhile reactivated than to “convince” someone new to try your services. That’s why marketing like a birthday postcard work so well. It’s “non-salesy” marketing and offers a gift. My birthday postcard that I’ve used for years has converted for me between 2-5% conversion rate, depending on the time of year (i.e. January is traditionally a very slow month). Client newsletters are another easy way to get in contact with your client base and remind them that they are overdue for a massage.

4. Two of the top ways to get new clients into your massage practice, once you are out of “start-up” mode, is gift certificates and referrals. Gift certificates are really just a paid referral. If you aren’t promoting referrals and gift certificates every day, then you’re costing yourself thousands of dollars in income — this year and future years.

5. The referral program that is included with Instant Massage Marketing works very well with limited income folks because they will love the idea of saving money. It doesn’t work as well with affluent clients because they are less swayed by discounts. Use multiple referral systems and methods. Let your clients and business allies help bring you more business. If you prefer to get a wide variety of ideas for referral systems, then you may want to check out my Easy Massage Referrals product. Regardless of where you get the idea for a referral system, you need to pick one and start *USING* it right away!

6. Just because many people are experiencing a recession-induced financial shortening doesn’t mean every person has been affected. Some people who could become your weekly clients won’t be affected at all. For example, a doctor who does exclusively insurance billing patient care, won’t be affected by the general public’s lack of disposable income. Someone who is a high-income earner or is financially independent won’t affected by the economy as much either. Stop worrying about what your clients can or can not afford and market your massage practice. It’s been my experience that clients will figure out how to afford their massage appointments if it’s something that they need or really want.

7. It doesn’t matter how many other massage therapists are in your area… it’s HOW you position yourself as being positively special that makes you stand out. Last time I checked, I had 50 other massage therapy providers within 5 mile radius of my office… and 99% of them weren’t anywhere near my business size or scope.

8. People who are happy with their existing therapist aren’t your target market. People who don’t have a massage therapist that they are working with AND people who are unhappy with their current therapist are potential clients for you. If you sell yourself as the unique solution that they are looking for, you’d be surprised how many new clients you’ll get.

Hope that helps,

Michael

************************************************************************

Got Feedback Or A Success Story You Would Like To Share?

Drop Michael an email and tell him now.

************************************************************************

That’s all for now. I look forward to talking with you next month.

Seize the Day,

Michael Humphreys

Help Your Practice

P.S. Do you know someone who would enjoy reading this newsletter?

Please forward this newsletter to them and help share the wealth! Better yet, use the Recommend Us page on our website http://www.helpyourpractice.com/recommend_us.php and tell them about Help Your Practice.

Like many newer therapists, when I started my massage practice in 1993 I did it with practically no money: $100 to be exact.

Unlike many current massage school graduates, I had zero training on the business side of running a massage business (I was privately mentored instead of attending massage school but that’s another story for another time) too.

I spent a lot of time fumbling around, trying to build up my massage business. To be painfully honest… About 4 years worth of fumbling.  It took me getting fired from my full-time job in physical therapy to force me to turn my massage business from struggling to successful and turn it fast.

Over the last 15+ years, many other therapists have asked me what was the one thing that made all of the difference. My answer has never changed: It took changing a number of things of how I ran my massage business to make a big difference.  It took me learning how to effectively market my massage business in multiple ways as well.

But even with those positive changes I made, there was one fundamental error that I kept making… and it’s the same one that I’ve seen (and heard) many other therapists make.

I didn’t give client retention the amount of attention or effort that it really needed.

Why Was Ignoring Client Retention A Huge Mistake?

Well, it all boils down to the lifetime value of a client.  That’s how much money a client is going to spend with you during the entire time that they are one of your valued clients. The longer your clients remain part of your clientele, the better.  You’ll get more repeat business from those clients.  You won’t need to rely on finding as many new clients each month just to maintain your current weekly schedule.

In fact, you could say that increasing client retention will supercharge your massage marketing.

You see, by taking some of the pressure off your marketing to produce more and more new clients, you can focus on landing better quality clients… instead of any person who is willing to come in for an appointment because they have a coupon for their first appointment.  Better quality clients means more repeat business and higher levels of respect for you and your massage skills.

In 1993 when I was just starting out as a massage therapist, clients didn’t stay with my massage practice very long.

I was pretty green in the industry in terms of hands-on skills. Heavy-handed but still green.  So new clients would have one… maybe two appointments with me and then they were gone. My no-show rate was off the charts… about 25% of my appointments would no-show each month and in the beginning I was only getting a few appointments each month.

Looking back, I’m bit embarrassed to say that in 1993, the average value of a client for me was $50.

Worse, in 1993 I was charging $36 an hour because the facility where I started my practice had a price control on what we could charge.

Fast forward to 1999.  As I learned more about business and marketing and really started to focus on client retention, the lifetime value of a client skyrocketed for me. At that point it had jumped up to about $3,000 per client on the average.  Over the years, it only increased even more from there.

Let me give you another reason why client retention is so important.

When you look at the cost of acquiring a new client versus keeping an existing one coming back to you again and again, it can be a real eye-opener. Depending on the kind of marketing or media you’re using, it can cost you eight to ten times more to acquire a new client versus keeping an existing one happy.

Does Client Retention Have To Be Complicated?

Not at all.

If you use a series of small but important tactics, it can have a major positive impact on your business.

For example, one of the ways I’ve blown new clients away is by how quickly they get a return phone call.  In the rare cases where a client didn’t get a live person on the phone when they called, they didn’t have to wait long for a return call.  My massage center used to routinely return phone calls within 2 hours during office hours.  For calls that came in after the center closed, we still called them back the very next morning.

Sounds simple, right?

Well, it turns out a lot of therapists don’t do it.  Many of my competitors didn’t either.

Believe it or not, many therapists wait DAYS to return a phone call… and then wonder why they don’t have a busy schedule.

Clients don’t want to wait days to find out when they can get an appointment.  They want to schedule right away and if they can’t do that then they will find another massage provider who will give them a prompt return phone call. (Think about it: Would you want to wait days for your dentist to call you back about getting an appointment with them? I sure wouldn’t.)

Here’s another great example: According to my extensive research, you can boost your client retention rates by more than 60% simply by asking your client to book their next appointment before they leave your office.

The honest to goodness truth is if you want to improve your chances of getting the rebooking then using a memorized sales script that sounds natural is a must.  This one of the biggest stumbling blocks for many therapists. Probably 95% of the therapists who ever worked for my massage therapy center needed help with this and I would personally coach them to overcome it.

Let me share what is probably the major key on overcoming the fear of asking for the rebooking.

The key is to ethically focus on how rebooking will benefit the client and telling them exactly that.  You need to mentally put aside whatever financial benefit you would gain from the client rebooking and speak with the clients best interests at heart.  Because if you don’t then you will come across as insincere and only interested in emptying your client’s wallet.

“Michael, Is That All There Is To Great Client Retention?”

I wish it was. I spent alot of years doing painful trial and error to find what worked and what did not.  I recorded my tests and the results every step of the way — that way I didn’t have to rely on my own memory to remember what worked best.

Fortunately, I can offer you a much quicker and easier option. Recently I did a live paid webinar on client retention which was recorded.  I took the same client retention system I used in my massage center and added even more great material to it.  The end result was over 80 minutes of jam-packed content that I called “Keep More Massage Clients”.  I even gave the attendees the same worksheets that I used to use to track my staff’s retention rates.  I also gave them transcripts and recordings of the live event (both audio and video so they could choose how they wanted to review what I shared on the live event.)  I’m now making those recordings available to the general public.

Want to know more? Simply head to this page and you can get the full scoop: http://www.keepmoremassageclients.com

In closing, I’ve shared some great tips on improving your client retention rates.  If you can put a bit more effort into your client retention skills, then your bank account will reap the rewards and so will your clients with better health.

Until next time,

Michael Humphreys
Help Your Practice

December 22, 2009

Seasons Greetings!

I’ve decided to write a full newsletter this month for two reasons. First, I’ve been able to carve out a bit more time than usual than I had initially expected. Second, I also wanted to make a public acknowledgement of the passing of one of my mentors — a man who is deserving of way more than a quick comment.

“From The Massage Table: Marketing and Motivation That Works”

Welcome to “From The Massage Table”! My name is Michael Humphreys, cofounder of Help Your Practice.

Each month, From The Massage Table will hit your email inbox with the latest news, special offers and great massage business tips that can help you create the massage practice of your dreams.

Want to make sure you don’t miss an issue? Please add mike AT helpyourpractice DOT com to your address book and keep the spam filters from eating your subscription!

Now Available: Instant Massage Marketing

Imagine if you could take proven massage marketing pieces and just add your own name and contact information…Well, imagine it no more!

Michael has taken some of the most successful massage marketing pieces from his own massage practice to create Instant Massage Marketing.

To learn more about Instant Massage Marketing, please click here.

Monthly Motivational Tip

On December 5, 2009 I learned that Jim Rohn had passed away at the age of 79. In my opinion, the world has lost a wonderful man.

I was devastated when I got the news. Weeks later, I’m still saddened by his passing.

Since then I’ve learned that for over 18 months, Jim battled Pulmonary Fibrosis before finally losing the battle.

Despite being very ill, many people have spoken publicly that Jim never lost faith or his constant positive spirit. It’s the same spirit which has influenced millions of people for the last 46 years.

While I never spoke to or met Mr. Rohn, I was one of those lucky ones who found life-changing wisdom in his teachings.  Many times, when I was stressed out by life, I found wisdom and inner peace simply by listening to one of Jim Rohn’s CDs or reading one of his articles.

Motivational guru Anthony Robbins credits Jim Rohn as being his mentor. Self-help author Brian Tracy recently said “There are a lot of speakers who have similarities to other speakers, and many times people can get them mixed up. But not Jim. There is nobody like him in the world. There is – and always will be – one Jim Rohn.”

Unlike many other motivational speakers, Jim Rohn wasn’t a ‘rah-rah’ type of person. Instead, he was better known as a business philosopher… the type of person who was sharing timeless wisdom that rings true for everyone who was willing to listen.

I’d like to share a few quotes of Jim Rohn’s that really show how powerful yet “simple” his advice could be.  They are courtesy of Jim’s Treasury of Quotes book which I highly recommend.

Skills: “Don’t wish it were easier; wish you were better. Don’t wish for less problems; wish for more skills. Don’t wish for less challenges; wish for more wisdom.”

Change: “We generally change ourselves for one of two reasons: inspiration or desperation.”

Success: “Success is what you attract by the person you become.”

I could talk for hours about everything I’ve learned from Jim about life, relationships, and business philosophy — but I won’t.  I realize not every subscriber would want to read about Jim Rohn’s teachings for hours.  For those of you do want to learn more about Jim Rohn, you can find a number of his articles on his website http://www.jimrohn.com

My heart goes out to the family of Jim Rohn for their loss.  Jim Rohn… I will miss him greatly.

Massage Marketing Monthly Tip

Since we are heading into the holiday season, I wanted to give something special to all of our subscribers.

So in the spirit of giving, here’s an excerpt from the deluxe version of Help Your MASSAGE Practice. It’s an even dozen tips massage marketing tips, shared from the chapter of 81 additional MASSAGE Practice Marketing Tips.

Without further ado, here’s a dozen fresh ideas to help you get your marketing juices going:

1.  Develop a Unique Selling Proposition, or USP. A USP tells any prospect why you are the best choice for their needs.  Use your USP to stand out from the pack!

2.  Don’t be cute or creative in your marketing or advertising. The purpose of your marketing or advertising to create a new client, not create a laugh.

3.  Keep the creative graphic artists away from your marketing and ads. Words sell, graphics on their own rarely do.

4.  If you offer the same service, same offers, and features as another massage therapist, the prospect will consider one of you to be unnecessary. A classic example is your local Yellow Pages…everyone’s ad looks the same!

5.  Pick a specialty or niche. Specialists are more valuable, sought after, and paid more than a generalist.

6.  A general practitioner usually needs up to 20 times more money to properly market their practice than a specialist. Why?  They have a lot more people they need to reach to find each new client.

7.  Pick a strong, positive name for your business that accurately communicates what you offer or what you do. If your significant other can’t say your business name with a straight face, you need to come up with a new business name.  If your clients can’t tell a friend where they go for a massage without making someone laugh, head back to the drawing board for a new business name.

8.  Skip the “hands” reference in your massage business name. We can’t tell you how many massage therapists we’ve seen with business names like:

Cloud Hands            Power Puff Hands        Healing Hands
Helping Hands        Strong Hands            Tranquil Hands

Are you saying your “hands” are the same as every other set of “hands” in your town or city?

9.  Focus on giving clients what they “want” and not what they “need”. They want a great massage.  They may need to relax more, decrease pain, eliminate muscular spasm, and so on.  “Wants” sell…”needs” wind up on the bottom of their “to do” list.

10.  Use comparisons that favor your business. If you have 17 years of experience, mention it in your marketing.  If you have office hours at night and most of your competitors don’t, you better mention it in your marketing.

11.  Create a sense of tremendous value in the minds of your clients. If your client feels they are getting $200 worth of value from your service, they won’t complain about paying you $100 for one hour of your time.

12.  Never aim to be the lowest priced massage therapist in town. There will always be someone who will be able to go cheaper.

That’s all for now. I look forward to talking with you next month.

Happy Holidays,

Michael Humphreys

Help Your Practice

P.S. The feedback on the Holiday Special for the fr*ee deluxe upgrade on Help Your MASSAGE Practice has been overwhelmingly positive. Due to numerous subscriber requests and the fact that my family is hosting a Christmas Eve get-together — which I had forgotten about and my wife kindly reminded me of — I’m going to extend the Holiday special from December 24th until December 30th at 10 p.m. EST.   You can get the full scoop by going here:

http://www.helpyourpractice.com/hymp_holiday.html

P.P.S. Do you know someone who would enjoy reading this newsletter?

Please forward this newsletter to them and help share the wealth! Better yet, use the Recommend Us page on our website http://www.helpyourpractice.com/recommend_us.php and tell them about Help Your Practice.

Here’s a question I get from massage therapists frequently. Many therapists ask me how to deal with local competition.  The truth is, if you aren’t marketing yourself effectively, it can seem like there is always too much competition around you.

I just checked with the online Yellow Pages to see how many massage therapists, massage therapy centers, day spas, or medical offices offering massage were in my area.  That online search came back with a count of 84 options within a 5-mile radius of my massage office!  That’s double the number of competitors than were around me just 4 years ago.

Am I worried?

Not at all.

Even when I owned my massage therapy center, I didn’t worry about my competitors.

Will I lose any sleep over the thought of losing clients to one of these other massage providers?

Not even a wink.

These days, I not looking for any massage clients so, I’ll use my old massage therapy center as a better example.  It’s a more accurate comparison to most massage therapy practices because I was actively looking to attract more massage clients then.

With my massage center, I knew I had some major competitive advantages, even over any competitors who offered more therapists, a bigger location, or even more upscale decor (like granite tile in their lobby).

Let me explain what two of my competitive advantages were.

Advantage #1: I focused on getting specific types of clients.

In countless studies, a specialist will command more money and social prestige than a generalist.  In my professional massage experience, I have found this to be true. As I explained in my article, “I Don’t Want To Limit Myself To Getting Any New Massage Clients” http://www.helpyourpractice.com/massage_marketing_limiting.html if you try to go after every type of massage client, you’ll wind up attracting few or practically none of them.

Take clients who are looking for the day spa experience when they get a professional massage.  Since I wasn’t interested in spending $100K (or more) to create another day spa in my area, my massage therapy center wouldn’t appeal to them since we didn’t offer showers, fluffy robes, hair styling, mud wraps, and the other pamping services of the typical spa.

Of course, the massage therapy client who was looking for a quiet, relaxing place to get a great professional massage, then my massage center sounded just perfect to them.

I took the time to do some research on the target markets I wanted to go after and how to get them to respond to my marketing.  I developed and refined my methods for doing so, which I share in several chapters of “Help Your MASSAGE Practice”.

It’s such a critical step, yet so many massage therapists don’t do it and will continue to struggle financially instead.

Advantage #2: I Out Marketed My Competitors

After doing some informal surveying of my clients, I discovered 5 interesting facts.

1. Many of them had tried a competitor before they came to me.  A few had tried a competitor when they couldn’t get a last minute appointment at my center.

2. NONE of my competitors ever sent them any follow-up mailings.  No welcome letters. No special offers.  Nothing to recognize their birthday or special occasions like the birth of a child.

3. Many of them looked forward to getting mailings from my massage therapy center.  From the client educational newsletters to postcard mailings, over 85% of them reported that they read or looked at everything we had sent them.

4. Approximately half of them requested that I send them educational materials, both online and offline, more frequently than I already doing!

5. None of my competitors had ever sent them any educational content.

Most of my competitors relied on their Yellow Page ad and periodic referrals to attract new clients.  In contrast, I frequently used as many as 30 different marketing and advertising methods in a given month to attract new clients and make more sales.

Your clients are bombarded daily by thousands of advertising, marketing, and sales pitches. Your clients are constantly being pitched to, to give someone else their hard-earned money.  After a while, it’s only human nature to start to tune out all of the sales pitches.

Yet, I’ve used a different approach with my clients. I give them great, useful information in the form of free reports, client education newsletters, and so on.  I have become a trusted health advisor instead of an annoying, whiny salesman.  So they look forward to hearing from me because I’ve become a welcome addition to their lives.

Think about how you can create similar types of advantages for your massage business.

Your bank account will thank you!

Until next time,

Michael Humphreys

During the course of the massage, my massage therapists decided to talk about business with me.  She asked me how business was and I told her that I was very busy and had no complaints. 

It was her reply that spurred me to write this article.

She said to me “Well, I wish that was the case here!”  She proceeded to tell me how she worked part-time at a medical office as a secretary in order to make ends meet.  She mentioned that she wished she were busier in terms of massage.

During our conversation, I couldn’t help but notice how bad her mindset was.  You see, she kept talking about how she didn’t have enough work.  How she didn’t think that she could get enough massage clients.  How the work was so physically demanding that she didn’t know how anyone could possibly do massage on a full-time basis.

Unfortunately, she’s not alone.  I’ve had the pleasure and opportunity to talk with hundreds of other massage therapists throughout the world. 

And there’s one major difference that I spot right away: It’s a therapists mindset.

When I was struggling early in my massage career, I thought like many other massage therapists.  I really had a negative mindset… I even referred to the monies I made doing massage as my “social fund”.

I used to think that there was never enough money.  I’d worry that there was never going to be enough clients for me.  I’d stress that I would never get busy with my massage practice, and maybe it was time that I look at a different career.

For some of you who are reading this, my old thoughts may sound familiar to you. Even though I had taken plenty of psychology classes in college, I had forgotten how powerful the thoughts that you think and speak really are. 

In psychology, they call it a self-fulfilling prophecy.  That means whatever you think will happen, you draw it into your life.  Often those negative thoughts that you draw towards you become a painful reality.

I like to refer to this negative mindset as a scarcity mindset.

When I talk to massage therapists who are extremely busy, it never fails that they have a very positive mindset.  For these therapists, they are confident that:

• They are making enough money,
• They have enough massage clients and welcome more who need their services,
• They are confident that they will stay consistently busy with their massage practice,
• They are doing what they love as a career.

I call this an abundance mindset.

Other people automatically notice your mindset too.  Don’t believe me?  Have you ever walked into a room and seen a friend or loved one with a troubled expression on their face?  Was the first thing that you say?  “What’s wrong?”

If you are in a scarcity mindset, other people will notice it and respond accordingly.  Subconsciously clients will feel more pressure. 

Some clients will respond by scheduling more frequently to provide you with a business that you need just so you can just cover your bills. 

But most clients will start feeling repelled by you or negative mindset. 

The clients used to come in for regular appointments suddenly stopped scheduling for no apparent reason. 

I hate to say this but most clients don’t care if you’re having a bad day.  Chances are, they have come in for a massage to forget about their bad day!

So how do you go about changing your mindset from scarcity to one of abundance?  Here are a few tips that I use to get myself in the right mindset if I’m having a bad day:

1. Fake It Until You Make It.  If you’re not feeling upbeat and cheery than start acting like you are.  Focus on what IS going right in your right and give thanks for those good things.  Before you know it, your mood has changed for the better.
2. Whatever Is Bothering You, Isn’t Going To Get Solved During Your Client’s Massage Appointment.  If you need to make an extra $100 this week just to meet your bills, and you are getting ready to work on a prepaid massage appointment, you need to forget about your money worries during the appointment.  Anything that is bothering you isn’t going to get solved while you’re doing a massage and your client will notice that you seem distracted.
3. Listen To Motivational Music, Tapes, or CDs To Lift Your Spirits.  I like to listen to something that gets my adrenaline flowing as I drive to my office.  Sometimes it’s music that I would normally do an exercise program to.  Other times, it’s some type of motivational speaker.  Find what works for you and use it.
4. Expand Your Business Knowledge.  If you’re feel you need to learn how to market yourself more effectively, study marketing.
5. Always Be Marketing.  The most successful massage therapists (and businesses) are always marketing and promoting themselves.  Most of all, they market themselves even when they are already busy. 

Do whatever you have to do to change your mindset in position yourself for success.

Until next time,

Michael

How are you doing?

Today, I’d like to talk to you about the concept of Commitment.

When I say Commitment, I’m not talking about romantic relationships. Granted, the word commitment is often used in that part of our lives. No, this is a massage business building site, so I’m talking about being more commitment to growing your own massage business.

As many of you may know, I read on the average 2-3 books per month.  This month, I wanted to share with some of the insights I’ve gained from a book that I’ve read and how it could be applied to your own massage business.  The book is called “Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion” by Dr. Robert Cialdini and I would definitely recommend it.

Let me tell you what this book is NOT.  Despite the title of the book, it’s not a book about mind control or suckering people into buying stuff from you. Instead, it’s a fascinating look inside human psychology and why people do the things that they do.

In fact, Dr. Cialdini has done extensive research on human behavior and the factors that affect behavior in both social and personal life settings.  This research was done and verified over a 3 year period of observation.  In addition, Dr. Cialdini has gathered other outside research and discusses how it is relevant to his findings.

Let me share some of those findings with you.  Then I will explain how to apply them to your own massage business.

For this article, I’ll apply them to one method of generating additional massage business: business networking.

Take the concept of commitment.  Once you have made a choice or taken a stand on an isssue, you will likely encounter personal and social pressures to behave consistently with that commitment.  Those pressures can even cause you to respond in ways that justify your earlier decision.

Have you ever had a discussion with someone and heard yourself saying, “I don’t know why I feel that way but I just do”?  Well, that’s an example of self-applied pressure to stick to your previous decision.

Socially, there is a high value associated with being consistent.  In many cultures, having a high degree of consistency is normally considered to be a sign of high personal strength and intelligence.

Now, here’s another key to being consistent.  If you make a personal commitment to yourself to do something, then you will have set the stage for you to stick to that commitment automatically.

How do you get started? By setting small commitments initially, so your natural instinct is for being consistent causes you to stick to it. Anything that is associated with that big commitment will increase automatically in importance.

If you put those commitments in writing, it reinforces your commitment even more.  First, it provides physical evidence that you made a commitment or goal.  Once you have written out a commitment, it becomes much more difficult to believe you had done so.  The written commitment is right there where you can read it everyday and be reminded that you made a commitment to yourself.

Once it is in writing, you can show it to other people.  While it can persuade other people to make the same commitment, it actually helps reinforce the importance of the commitment to yourself.

By making an active commitment, your self-image is squeezed by consistency pressure. There is pressure from the inside to bring your self-image into line with the needed action.  From the outside, there is pressure to adjust your self-image based on the way others perceive us.  Since others see us as believing what we have written, we will experience another type of pull to bring our self-image into line with the written statement.

Third, making a written commitment requires more work than verbal ones.  It’s very easy to say that we should be doing more business networking.  It’s a lot harder to put it into writing, show it to others, and then work on doing that commitment.

Okay, so how do you apply this to your goal of doing more business networking?

• Let’s say your commitment is to do business networking to grow your massage business.
• For your business networking goal, you would schedule a series of smaller activities that are networking-related or are actual networking events.
• You take the time to write out your own written commmitment to do more business networking.
• Show your written commitment to a trusted friend or family member.

Give this exercise a try and stick to it for the next 30 days.  You’ll be pleasantly surprised how much progress you will have made on achieving your goal!

Until next time,

Michael Humphreys

Enjoy,

Michael

Chapter 24
Public Speaking

Why public speaking?  Here are three major reasons:

1) It gets your message out as to your uniqueness in the massage therapy realm.

2) Public speaking enhances your reputation and grows your business.

3) It’s an effective marketing weapon that requires little or no money to use.

Public speaking has a remarkable effect on your wallet.   As you become more effective as a public speaker, your reputation and your business continue to increase.

Many massage therapists fear the area of public speaking because they have to “put up or shut up” when it comes to expounding their beliefs.  We are in the business to show people that our techniques will help them feel better and make a difference in their lives.

Everything with effective public speaking starts with developing the belief that you know what you are talking about.  You know that your skills or system of techniques work in helping people.  It’s one thing to “talk the talk” and quite another to be able to show that you are competent and very skilled.

Where To Start

Ok, we have established that you are competent in your abilities.  How do you go about finding public speaking within your field?

First and foremost you would Research, Research, Research and one of the most valuable tools for research is the World Wide Web.  You will find countless topics for ideas on public speaking on the Internet and some will pertain to massage therapy.

Research the topics that indirectly relate to massage.  For example, if you are planning on doing a speech on the benefits of massage for diabetic patients, take the time to research what the common problems of diabetic patients may be.

Let’s get right to the point of why public speaking can become an integral part of your business.    By speaking to groups, you reach a higher group of prospects than one-on-one marketing can ever do.  Let’s look at that again.  You will increase the potential client base for your business.

A massage therapist who stands in front of an audience is in a position of authority.  Your audience is craving for and eager to hear your knowledge, and you’re the person who can deliver it.  You will get responses if your presentation is relevant, entertaining and interesting.

How To Break Into Public Speaking

What does one need for breaking into public speaking?  You might say, “Just a voice”, but that is only a small portion of the equation.

You need a package that will sell YOU before you speak.  It should include a bio, brochure, business cards, letters of recommendation, photo, and a fee schedule.

The initial presentation should catch someone’s attention so that they will then hire you to speak.  You can also include an audio or videocassette of a prior speaking engagement, but this is optional.  These audio or videocassettes are also products to sell within your business that we will discuss in more detail later.

In terms of how to get your first booking, there are many ways to gain access to a speaking gig.  You should always start with your circle of friends and family.  Because he has done it several times, Eric has had great success with creating speaking engagements through friends or family.

Your first line of communication to the outside world is your immediate contacts.  Start with them because they know you and will do the legwork for you.

The next logical step would be going to local or regional associations.  These are the people looking to book speakers.  Frequently, they are in need of speakers to add to a conference or special event.

Next, go to corporations and speak with a CEO (who is more accessible than you think) or someone in the Human Resource Department.  For small to medium size businesses, you can frequently meet these people at local Chamber of Commerce events or business mixers.

Ask for that first booking. It could not hurt!

Finally, what should you charge?  The massage therapist should look at the low ($100-$500) to the medium ($500-$1000) for their initial journey into public speaking.  As you become more confident and more importantly, better known, you will be able to charge the “big bucks”.

Copyright 2004-Present Day Help Your Practice All Rights Reserved.

I happened to look at the calendar today and realized that 2009 is almost halfway over.

I quickly reviewed the goals I set for this year.  A few of them I had already achieved.  I’m on pace to meet some additional ones before years-end.  There’s also a few goals that I’m miles away from reaching this year.

The goals that you have already acheived can be a tremendous confidence booster. So can the ones that you can honestly say you’re on your way to reaching.

It’s the ones that you set the bar too high that can really squash your spirits… if you let them.

Many therapists will automatically put themselves down for missing the mark… that’s why the cliche “I am my own worst enemy” holds a lot of truth for them.

Please don’t put yourself down!

Tearing yourself down will only knock your self-confidence even lower and make it much more difficult to achieve all of your goals.

Instead, take the time to reassess each goal that looks like you won’t meet this year. 

Ask yourself these questions:

1) Did I set an unrealistic goal? If so, readjusting the goal to a more realistic level could be a great decision to make.

2) Did something happen that was out of my control and prevented me from reaching my goal? Don’t put the blame on yourself for missing a goal if it wasn’t your fault.  Sometimes life truly does hand us lemons.  It’s best to acknowledge that something happened that was out of your control.

Let me give you a great example.

When 2008 started, I had set a big goal for my income.  Both my consulting and massage businesses were doing very well, so I honestly felt I had a really good chance to have my best year ever financially.

That was before my then-pregnant wife was in a really bad car accident in March. She then gave birth to our son in May.  The good news is both of them are completely fine.

Unfortunately for my big goal, I had literally no shot of reaching it.  That’s because I had to massively cut down my work load for almost 5 months to help my wife care for our children and assist her recovery.  While I felt “bad” about missing my big goal, I quickly dismissed the bad feelings because I knew I did the right thing by being there for my wife and children during their time of need.  At the end of the day, my family means more to me than any amount of money in the world.

3) What can I do or do differently to reach that goal? Ask yourself: is it a matter of needing more information or a better strategy to reach your goal?  If it’s needing more information, then start looking for that information.  If it’s a matter of strategy, then take 30 minutes and sit down in a quiet place and brainstorm.  You’ll be surprised by the number of great ideas or even a step-by-step plan your mind will produce.

Let’s take one of the most common issues that I hear other massage therapists talk about: not making enough money.

Many therapists tell me that the reason they aren’t making enough money is because they don’t have enough clients.  It’s been my experience that’s only part of the problem.

It’s not just getting new clients… althought that is important.  It’s getting all of your clients to come back for more appointments again and again.  Getting loads of new clients won’t help you build a full-time busy massage therapy practice if they don’t ever come back again!

You see, studies have shown that it costs 6-10 times more to get a new massage client than to reactivate an old client.  So why not do marketing that gets your current clients coming back again and again?

It’s such an important strategy that I cover many tips, tactics, and techniques in Help Your MASSAGE Practice to get more repeat bookings.  Add in all of the ways I share to get more clients and ethical ways to make more money per appointment, and suddenly a lack of money is no longer an issue.

More clients.  More repeat bookings.  More money made per appointment.

Focus on doing something in each category and you can create a massive surge in your sales.

Not sure how to do exactly that?

No problem. I want to help you reach your massage practice goals so here’s two of the most popular options.

Option 1: You can read any of the back issues of “From The Massage Table” to get some ideas. Pick any of the ideas that you like and put them into action for your own massage business.  Over the last 5 years, I’ve written a lot of newsletter issues that you can review.

Option 2: Check out our ultra-popular massage marketing manual Help Your MASSAGE Practice instead.  There’s over 200 pages of in-depth tips, tactics, and techniques inside it that are proven to work.

Let me sweeten the pot a bit for you. Simply go to this page here by Friday June 19th and you can grab the deluxe version of Help Your MASSAGE Practice at the standard version’s price. That’s a $20 savings for you and even more great business building information at your finger tips too. But don’t wait because this massage practice “check-up” won’t last long.

To Your Success,

Michael Humphreys

Welcome to “From The Massage Table”! My name is Michael Humphreys, cofounder of Help Your Practice.

Each month, From The Massage Table will hit your email inbox with the latest news, special offers and great massage business tips that can help you create the massage practice of your dreams.

Want to make sure you don’t miss an issue? Please add mike@helpyourpractice.com to your address book and keep the spam filters from eating your subscription!

Recently, I switched to putting the issues of “From The Massage Table” directly onto Help Your Practice instead of emailing it to you.

Why the sudden change?

Four big reasons really.

First, thanks to spammers and other nasty folks, it’s become extremely difficult to deliver all types of email — even the ones you want to send to your favorite aunt. If it’s an ezine or newsletter like “From The Massage Table” there’s even more work behind the scenes to get it delivered.

Some hosting companies want you to “register” with them and promise that you won’t send spam to their customers.

Second, to combat the flood of spam hitting everyone’s email boxes, many people have started using spam filters or verification services like SpamArrest.  Every month, I get dozens of SpamArrest verifications from new subscribers who sign up for my free newsletter… and then I have to verify that I’m someone that they truly wanted to get email from.  It’s a major time burner for me, especially for offering a free newsletter.

Third, I used to send each newsletter out by email and then when time permitted, post it online as well. That was making double the work for me and as I got busier with my businesses and family commitments, I found myself getting further and further behind on posting the issues as webpages.  So I’m literally cutting this task down a great deal because Help Your Practice is now powered by a word press blog so there’s no web design software needed to post an issue online.

Finally, search engines love seeing websites that are updated regularly and reward them with higher natural search engine rankings. By putting the new issues directly on this site, it accomplishes that task beautifully.

Each month, I’ll send a quick email alert letting you know that the current issue is now available for reading online.  You’ll be able to read any or all of the past issues that currently available (with more past issues to be posted as I am able).

Check It Out: “Instant Massage Marketing”

Imagine if you could take proven massage marketing pieces and just add your own name and contact information…Well, imagine it no more!

Michael has taken some of the most successful massage marketing pieces from his own massage practice to create Instant Massage Marketing.

To learn more about Instant Massage Marketing, go to:

http://www.helpyourpractice.com/instant-massage-marketing.htm

Monthly Motivational Tip

This has been a challenging month for me to say the least.  With Mothers Day and both of my children’s  birthdays this month, it’s been a lot of extra planning to do.  I don’t enjoy shopping so having to go gift shopping for each special day requires a self pep-talk beforehand.

To add insult to injury, I had some major problems with internet hackers. My home and office computers were both hit with a hacker’s computer virus which I didn’t discover until after three of my websites and personal Ebay account were attacked. 

The websites (none of which were this one) required a complete rebuild of all of the files. The Ebay account… well, 14 days later I’m still getting that mess straightened out and waiting for Ebay to refund monies. 

It turns out they wrongly removed over $250 from my personal bank account because someone else rang up in fraudulent auction charges after hacking into my Ebay account. Talk about an attention-getter!

In short, this month has been extra stressful.  It’s been enough to make me angry at the world… or even depressed… but it hasn’t.

Instead, it makes me thankful.

Thankful that I’m not leading an “ordinary” live.  Thankful that this is just a bump in the road of life.

A good friend of mine recently introduced me to a great program called Six Days To Saturday by Sam Crowley.  I’ve been listening to it every day and one thing that Sam said really hit home for me.

To paraphrase, “Life isn’t supposed to always be up.  It’s supposed to have it’s ups and downs because that’s life.”  

It served as a strong reminder to me that just because life isn’t currently rosy doesn’t mean it’s going to stay that way.  In fact, in the journey called life, it’s only a small bump in the road.

Remember, life is a journey, not a destination.  You don’t have to become a very successful therapist overnight.  You do need to enjoy the ride as you rise upwards toward your dream of being a full-time massage therapist.  You do need to remind yourself that the low points are only temporary and not a permanent destination.

The possibilities are endless and you can reach as high you believe is possible.  Just build upon your successes like little stepping stones.  Your bank account will thank you!

Massage Marketing Monthly Tip

As a father of two, I’m going to come right out and say what most of my fellow dads won’t say: Fathers Day is often an afterthought. 

I regularly see Mothers Day promotions.  I almost never see Fathers Day ones, especially for massage!

That’s a big mistake because dads are stressed-out folks too.

Just as important, most men are terrible at taking care of their health.  If I had a nickel for every male client that was sent in for a massage by their wife or girlfriend, then I’d be a very rich man.

That’s a big reason why you need to dare to be a little different.  Most of your competitors will ignore Fathers Day… or will just give a half-hearted marketing effort.

In other words, it’s a golden opportunity to grab a bunch of new clients and most of your competitors will completely miss it.

Focus on telling your prospects and clients why they need to treat the stressed-out dads in their life to an overdue massage.  It can be a direct mail piece.  It can be an email blast.  Heck, it can even just be a few signs in your massage office and treatment rooms.

Make them a great offer on a massage appointment or gift certificate so they want to pick up the phone and call your office right away.

“Okay, Michael, I got a bunch of stressed-out dads in my massage office… Now what?”

Now, show them what they have been missing.  Turn that stressed-out guy into a sleepy pile of “man mush” on your table.  They will be amazed at the difference.  So will their families and significant others.  As I talk about in multiple sections of Help Your MASSAGE Practice, you don’t want to settle for just a single one-time appointment.

No way.  The lifetime value of a massage client is quite significant so we want to tap into it.

In fact, this is the perfect time to tell them about your regular monthly treatment programs for men.

Don’t have one?  Then I suggest you create a monthly program right now.  There’s countless ways to setup monthly programs — just use your creativity to name and design one.  (If you’re really stuck, then grab your own copy of Help Your MASSAGE Practice where we cover monthly programs in more detail.)

Fathers Day used to be a forgotten day for massage marketing.  Try this 2 step marketing plan and you should be pleased with the results.  The only thing you have to lose is blank space in your appointment book!

Got Feedback Or A Success Story You Would Like To Share?

Drop Michael an email at mike@helpyourpractice.com and tell him now.

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That’s all for now. I look forward to talking with you again soon.

Seize the Day,

Michael Humphreys

Help Your Practice

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