Can you think of someone who wouldn’t benefit from massage therapy? Whether seeking relief from pain or stress, most would find a massage helpful. However, if the universal appeal of massage leads you to think that you should be targeting your services to everyone, think again! Marketing to the masses is a mistake that many professionals make. It is neither time nor cost effective to TRY to reach everyone. You will find that it is much more effective to customize and market your services to a select group, even if the deciding factor among targets is geography. That is, the overriding consideration in seeking treatment is for “massage therapy near me.” By identifying your target client, you build your reputation among this group and so increase the likelihood of referrals, always the best source of new business.
To determine the target market that is appropriate for you, ask yourself which clients do you enjoy working with. If you love working with pregnant women, create a special marketing campaign to attract mothers-to-be. Other target markets may include athletes, infants, elders, stressed out millennials and people with chronic pain. You’ll need to customize your services accordingly. Executives may need 30-minute sessions due to their time constraints, whereas geriatric clients may need in-home services.
Since geography may help you reach your target market(s), you can get help from location analysis tools. They provide demographic and lifestyle data and competitive analyses to help find out the type of clients living in and around the location of your business. If you are locating your business in an area where there are a lot of young professionals, you might want to focus massage to relieve stress versus pain relief. Set your hours to accommodate their schedules and definitely use online booking for this tech-savvy crowd. If college students are your targets, offer them a discount and post information not only in the local colleges but other places students hang out.
Plan your target campaign
Once you determine your target market, adjust your marketing to reach it. There are a number of online resources that can help, including sites such as Google My Business. This free tool lets you manage how your business appears on Google Search and Maps. In addition to adding your business name, location and hours, your Google My Business account will enable you to monitor and reply to customer reviews during which time you can reinforce messages about your specialized services as well as learn where and how people are searching for you. You’ll want to ensure your profile includes the search engine optimized (SEO) terms that your targets use when searching for massage therapy providers in their area or that meet their needs.
You may want to make changes to the elements of your brand identity to attract your target audience. Just because you need a branding makeover, doesn’t mean you have to completely reinvent the wheel. As an example, you can refresh your company logo simply by changing the text or color. Update your marketing materials, website, business cards and social media sites with your newly revised logo. You also might want to change the background colors on your website and revise the most frequented pages - your home page, about us and product or service offering pages – to save the expense of redoing the entire site.
Your tagline can have a lasting impression in the minds of your customers. If you don’t have a tagline, now may be a good time to create one. If a current tagline no longer resonates with customers, create a new one. Spend whatever time it takes to develop the right tagline that conjures up a visual image and builds an emotional bond with your customers.
And, of course make, sure that your social content engages your target audience. If you are trying to reach an aging audience, your content should focus on the physical changes in the body as one ages, exercise and diet tips for seniors and how massage can improve quality of life, boost energy and help you feel younger and healthier all over.
Targeting your marketing doesn’t mean you should turn away other business, but by targeting you stay focused and build your expert reputation. Let’s face it – you want to spend your time on your clients not on marketing to everyone and anyone. Targeting your customer base will help you do just that.