How To Easily Get Massage Clients With St. Patrick's Day

Here's an 'outside-the-box' way to tie St. Patrick's Day into your massage practice. And the best part is, absolutely no other massage therapist is doing this!

To begin with, you should always be thinking of ways to blend massage therapy with a holiday. Christmas, Mother's Day and Father's Day are easy because they're the best times of year for selling gift certificates, but there are problems with that as well.

First of all, every massage therapist/day spa/holistic center is also promoting their massage gift certificates. You have even more competition during those times of the year. And not just them - almost every business on the planet, it seems, is offering some form of gift certificates or gift cards during those times.

Now, you also should be promoting yourself during these times of year, of course, but there is a goldmine of clients that you can easily and quickly generate from holidays that are usually ignored by other massage therapists and day spas.

St. Patrick's Day is only a couple of weeks away. Let's use that as an example. First, I'm going to tell you what NOT to do that most massage therapists and day spas do. DON'T just offer a '50% St. Patrick's Day Special'. Why not? For starters, what's the reason for the sale? Why is St. Patrick's Day so special? What's the connection?

I'm sure you'll still get some sales if you did this kind of promotion, but that's not the angle I'm suggesting. What you should always be thinking to yourself is, "What problem does (blank) have that massage can solve? How can I tie massage into (holiday/trend/niche)?"

Now, take a close look at St. Patrick's Day. How do most people celebrate this holiday? By drinking - sometimes to excess. What do people experience if they drink too much? Hangovers - nausia, headache, dehydration.

What's one of the most common features that every single massage practitioner has in their literature? "Massage flushes out toxins". I'm sure you have it written somewhere in your marketing material. But let me ask you this: Are you getting enough clients that way? Are people really making appointments with you because they read in your brochure that, "...massage flushes out toxins..."? I'm guessing probably not.

You see, people just don't respond to boring, overused phrases that don't mention specific benefits to them in language that they understand and respond to. Phrases such as, "...massage flushes out toxins..." just doesn't inspire people to pick up the phone and schedule an appointment with you. Yes, massage does fush out toxins. But it's also a cliche anymore. And it doesn't spark interest. Does getting your toxins flushed out sound like a lot of fun? Me, neither.

It almost sounds like nuclear waste. The words - toxins, waste & nuclear - usually appear together in some combination. Most people already have that connection somewhere in the back of their minds, so you don't want to use that angle in your marketing. Many therapists who specialize in lymphatic drainage massage make this mistake in their marketing.

What does lymphatic drainage massage do? It helps flush out waste products from the lymph system. You can now design a 'St. Patrick's Day Hangover Helper' massage session that helps the body flush out all the toxins from imbibing a little too much (you can come up with a better name for it than I just did, just be sure to give it a name using common language - not some massage terminology that no one understands but us in the business).

You should incorporate any other modality you know that helps people feel better from the effects of too much glug, glug, glug such as a using effleurage strokes, aromatherapy oils that helps cleanse the lymph system and/or liver, specific reflexology points that correspond with the liver and lymph system, Bach Flower Essences, bottle of water to rehydrate themelves, ginger tea to help settle their stomach, etc. You get the idea.

This benefits both you and your clients in many ways:

1. You're offering a specific massage package that no other therapist or day spy is offering. That alone separates you from the herd and gives you a big advantage over anyone else.

2. You're offering a massage package that many people can easily relate to, even if they don't celebrate St. Patrick's Day or don't drink at all. It's still well known that many people do drink to excess that night and 9 out of 10 will feel hungover to some degree the next day - sometimes days. The topic of hangovers from celebrating St. Patrick's Day is talked about on every morning news show in America that day - year in, year out - but YOU'LL be the only massage therapist smart enough to tap into that market!

3. You don't have to slash your prices to get business! Because you literally are the only massage therapist offering this kind of package during this particular holiday, they can't compare apples to apples. They have nothing to compare it to. It's special. They can't call the next massage therapist listed in the phone book, ask for this type of massage, and get it. You can offer a small discount if you want, but you're not going to have to fall into the trap of drastically undercutting yourself like many therapists, unfortunately, do.

4. Generate even more business by creating a sense of ugency. This type of offer would make more sense if it only lasted a few days. You can use this to your advantage. You can say in your sales letter that you're only offering this type of massage this week only. It's not part of your 'menu', for lack of a better word. People are naturally drawn to things that only have a limited number or time available. If something looks too available, many times it's not taken seriously. You'll be surprised at the number of people who will take advantage of this massage package simply because they know they can't get it any other time of year. It makes it look much more attractive.

5. Press coverage! If you know how to write a press release (if not, go to http://www.hartunian.com/. He's the master of press releases). The medial loves new and interesting things like that. It wouldn't surprise me if you actually got picked up by stations like CNN and MSNBC. And why wouldn't they? Heck, I've seen them do spots on kosher dog food. Your local media would probably eat it up!

How long should this promotion be? I'd offer it during the week of St. Patrick's Day only. It would have lost it's momentum by April 1st, which is only two weeks away. This is, I believe, a little more time sensitive than other offers. Again, make it sure you state that this is a very limited offer and either won't be offered again this year, or may never be offered again - which very well may be true.

If you really don't get a strong response from it (maybe your clientele isn't interested in this particular offer), you can simply drop it. No need to try to push it down your clients throats, which I've actually witnessed some therapists trying to do with certain massage modalities (that's a topic for another blog altogether).

The beauty of this kind of massage package is that even for people who don't drink, or don't drink to exess, or even celebrate St. Patrick's Day can still relate to this package and take advantage of it. It's a great way to keep that connection with your current clients, reactivate past clients or entice new prospects.

However, in order to be able to craft the best message you can, you need learn the most effective massage marketing strategies (and here's a hint - your massage school didn't teach them to you).