How to get massage clients….   there are several free ways to do it and paid ways.  Here’s a few to get you started.

Three free ways to get massage clients are word of mouth, social networking, massage directories, and information marketing.

In this article and the next one I’m going to cover social networking and information marketing because those are less understood by massage therapists than word of mouth.

The more active you and your site visitors are on your social networks, the higher on search result pages you’ll go.  Google, Facebook, Youtube, Twitter, Instagram, etc. put the most active sites with the most interaction on them first on search pages.

So learn how to use a couple social networks to start with and be very active in them.  Adding daily valuable information to your site is what is called “Information Marketing”.  People love and are always looking for  information or enjoyable content online.  If you provide that information, they will pay attention to your posts.

Start with one social network and add valuable information to it DAILY.

Sync with other social networks as you go.  That way when you post for example on Facebook it automatically goes out as a Tweet and onto Instagram.  If you create a Youtube video it can be posted on Facebook and so on.

Post things that people will “Like” or “Follow” or comment on or share.  Before long search engines will notice you.

Use Facebook To Get Massage Clients

If you don’t have one already you NEED a Facebook account.  Facebook is a fantastic way to collect all your friends and family in one place.  That’s where people keep up with each other and even make new friends through friends.  Just please remember that the spirit of Facebook Timelines is PERSONAL, not business.  Friends and family don’t mind seeing a very occasional advertising update from you to announce a seasonal special or great information, but keep it to a limit.  Facebook timelines are for personal updates.  That’s good though, because if your Timeline is at least partly public, then new customers who look you up will see the more personal side of you.  This is usually great for business… because it makes people like you and often trust you to see what your personal life is like.

Use Facebook Pages and Groups To Get Massage Clients

Facebook Pages and Groups can be used for business and people understand that.  Make your Facebook Page a local business and Facebook will HELP you find local people.  Placing ads on Facebook is fairly easy and very inexpensive.  I’ll write more on that later…. but if you need to know how right now..  well I use Youtube for learning how to do everything.  Try it!  There is TONS and TONS of free information on how to advertise on Facebook, Twitter, Youtube Google+ etc.

Just remember that THE BEST way to write ads on Facebook Pages or Groups (or anywhere else for that matter) is to offer valuable information that people WANT to read.  I’ve noticed you don’t have to always just share your own info….  You can feel free to share other people’s interesting information.  When you do that regularly, people who follow you will notice that the info you share is VERY interesting and they’ll begin to pay closer attention to notifications of your status updates.  That way, they’ll like you and trust you more.  So when you announce a seasonal special you’re running, you’ll get a much better response.

Sync Twitter With Facebook and Other Social Media

Twitter is cool to sync with Facebook and Youtube because you can autopost to Twitter and spread the word further VERY easily.  It’s also easy to create new friends with Twitter, by following their tweets.  Twitter makes it easy to find people of similar interests and locations.  My opinion is not to look for people who have massage as an interest… because those are probably massage therapists nationwide.  Instead, find local people looking for local news and entertainment.  (Unless you have a need to connect with massage therapists nationwide.)

It’s so easy to post to all your social networks these days by clicking on the little icons people place in their web pages.  Don’t over use those, but those can be helpful to keep up the momentum on your social networks and keep good info always coming.  Remember, the more active you are in your social networks, the more Google and other search engines index you.  The more valuable the info is that you add the more people pay attention to you.

Use Instagram and Pinterest To Get More Massage Clients

Instagram and Pinterest are quickly becoming very important to social networking.

Take your pictures with Instagram and they can be shared automatically to other social networks.  Keep people interested in your personal and business life.  Make it fun, personal and interesting!

Pinterest is used to save all the things your think are awesome online as you browse.   You can have different boards for different interests.  One may be for places you want to travel to.  One for fashion.  One for food.  One needs to be all about health and massage.  How it works is that Pinterest helps you find people who are already in your other social networks… and helps them find you.  Also, the things you Pin that interest you can be shown publicly, so people can follow one or more of your boards that they find interesting.  Fill your Massage Board with all the things on the internet that you find interesting related to massage.  Then once in a while add a pin that links to your own website or Facebook Page or Youtube video, etc.

REALLY Use Youtube to Get More Massage Clients

Youtube is GREAT for embedding videos into your Facebook Timeline and Pages and even post to Twitter.  People love to watch informational videos much more than reading.  So the more videos you create the better.  Make one for each massage modality you specialize in.  Make them about special products you use in your massages.  Be creative and have fun and people will pay closer attention when they notice you’ve published another on your social network.

Don’t expect one video to be able to do all the work for you.  Make all kind of videos.  Create an interesting Youtube channel of the different massage modalities you offer.  You can even ad fun personal videos once in a while about your life. People love that.  They may subscribe to your channel and watch all your videos if you make them interesting enough.

So….  let’s get down to business!

• Step One…. Create an online presence.
• Step Two….  Post daily! So learn how to post from your smart phone or get online daily somehow.
• Step Three…  Friend, Follow, Join, Like, Share, Comment on other people’s posts Daily!

So…. that’s a short lesson on  how to use social networking and information marketing to get massage clients more easily…. and keep them!

Don’t forget to get your FREE directory listing in your city!! 

Hope it helped!  If you’d like help in building your massage business, you can join my business building forum in the Massage Community.  It’s free.

Regina Walker