So I’d like to de-mystify marketing once and for all. It is actually very simple. Marketing involves telling people what you do….over and over and over. The key to successfully marketing your massage therapy practice is consistency.

There is a difference between marketing a service and marketing a product.

Products are tangible…. you can touch and feel and see them before you buy. However, when a prospective client is considering coming to you for a massage, until they actually work with you they don’t know for sure if you are the right person to help them with their specific situation or challenge.

It is for that reason that the first thing your prospect has to buy is YOU, before they decide to become a regular client or patient. This is so important to remember when you think about how you want to market your massage services.

There is also an important difference between advertising and marketing. All too often when I ask therapists about their current massage marketing plan, they tell me about a classified ad in a local newspaper, or a display ad in the yellow pages.

Advertising is just that… the placement of an ad, whether on the radio, print or web-based, in the hope that a prospect will call you as a result. Marketing, on the other hand, is relationship based. It is about building a relationship between you and your prospective client or patient over time. It is about building rapport, confidence and trust.

In future posts I’ll be sharing with you the 9 elements of a simple yet effective massage marketing plan. It is so simple that you could even write it all on one page. So stay tuned….