Marketing And Advertising

Massage therapists have been taught that successful marketing attempts are primarily word-of-mouth (WOM) advertising. We are influenced to use advertising tools such as business cards, coupons, fliers, and newsletters to help generate customers. To many, these epitomes are the Holy Grail in becoming successful but much to their disappointment, these efforts fail to generate a sufficient number of customers.

Many advertising tools used by massage therapists are used in a manner that results in disappointment. Learning how these advertising tools should be used in a well thought out marketing strategy is paramount to a successful advertising venture.

A marketing strategy is a planned selling effort that utilizes the most effective advertising tools directed towards a preferred customer. Mistakenly, many massage therapists are taught that everyone will benefit from their services; therefore, everyone is their preferred customer. Although the demand for massage therapy services is increasing, there are still a number of individuals for which massage will not be an option whether it is by choice or health.

Massage therapy customers can be categorized into three primary groups.

▪ Stress and Tension Reduction

▪ Pain Management or Injury Care

▪ Pampering and Self-Wellness

Identifying which category your primary customer belongs will help you to direct your marketing efforts towards the correct audience. Those that are already familiar with and interested in your services will give you the more successful results.

For instance, one massage therapist had blogged that her most successful advertising attempt was through newsletters with a $10 coupon. Whether she was aware of it or not, she aimed the newsletter to individuals that were already within her preferred customer group.

This is even true with whom you choose to leave your business cards. Your business cards are an excellent way to attract customers to your practice. Recognizing where these potential customers are categorized will help you to develop a strategy to lure them to make their first appointment by using the back side of the card. Use it as a punch card for a free or reduced rate treatment, to announce a discount rate for bringing a friend or family member, or as an appointment reminder.

Fliers have long been a traditional method of advertising for massage therapists, even for Phoebe on Friends. Distribution to your preferred customer is the best route for these popular circulars; not on the random windshields of uninterested and environmentally conscience individuals. Get permission from local businesses where your preferred customer frequents and leave them there for interested parties to pick up.

Yes, the many different variances of word-of-mouth marketing are excellent ways to attract customers and even retain customers, if you know the “who, what, when, where, and how” of your preferred customer. Starting with that understanding will save your much time and resources. Try these tips here and begin your journey to a more successful massage therapist entrepreneur.

Small business owners tend to confuse marketing and advertising as the same thing. Advertising is a very important component of marketing but not the same. Marketing is the process of creating customer interest in products and services. Marketing generates the strategy that underlies sales techniques, business communication and business development. Marketing is the whole package and advertising is a component.

Advertising is an important element of the marketing strategy and probably the most expensive. Advertising is about sending messages about a company, its products and services. Advertising also includes putting together a series of methods to target viewers and interest them in becoming customers. Advertising includes placing ads, deciding what media to use, the frequency and the time the ad will run. Different types of media are used to distribute the ads. TV, direct mail, newspaper, Internet, emails, radio, magazines, text messages, flyers, billboards, etc. are among the different media used to distribute ads. Different media for different businesses, not all media is for everyone.

Advertising is simply a part of the marketing mix. The other parts include product research, product design, media planning, public relations, product pricing, customer satisfaction, customer support, and the list goes on and on. All these elements work independently but they all work towards achieving the goals and objectives set by the company, sell products or services and build market reputation. Advertising alone will not produce results and copying what others are doing will certainly fail. What works for some does not necessarily mean that it will work for others.

Advertising is not effective if proper research was not followed. Research is the understanding of needs and expectations of the clients. Designing of the product comes next and can be time consuming. Followed by advertising and sales. Marketing puts everything together as it creates strategies to succeed.

Advertising can become very expensive and worthless if not done properly and if important steps are not followed. Branding is important, but a logo does not guarantee sales, a logo represents the values and the reputation of a company and it takes time to build and to be recognized. Small business owners have to first invest time and money in knowing their clients, finding out their expectations and educating them. After getting to know their clients and building aggressively a database then they should engage in advertising and promoting their products and services. A complete marketing campaign will in this way be successful and generate sales.

Resort Creative Solutions helps hotels, resorts, travel destinations and developers retool under-performing marketing programs to accelerate sales performance. We build brands; we make relationships; and emotionally connect them in engaging, entertaining and interactive ways. It’s quite simple and profitable.
Resort Creative Solutions’ team is skilled in all areas of Executive Management. We have been successful in developing and streaming operations, implementing innovative training programs that work and building successful premier sales & marketing campaigns.