Introduction When I was in massage school, I knew I wanted to write a book about marketing. It was a subject that was sorely lacking in our education, especially for those who wanted to start their own practices. In fact, marketing was scarcely mentioned. As I was planning my business and developing my business plan, writing a book became part of it, and after I started my practice in 2000 I was convinced of the need for it. Clients and other massage therapists often remarked that they were impressed with the growth of my business in such a short period of time. I developed a plan to start writing this book after my first year in business. My original intention was to write a book on marketing in general, including the statistics from each method I tried during that first year. I finished the book in October 2001, my first anniversary in business, and I started sending the manuscript to publishers. As I went about that process, I happened in to a bookstore, found myself scanning the Alternative Health section and saw a book called Marketing Massage by Monica Roseberry. My first thought was that I was a day late and a dollar short. I flipped through her book and read a few sections. Some of what she said I didnt agree with but I began to have second thoughts about the content of my book. The reason was that there are a lot of great marketing books out there, so why repackage that information here. I began to wonder how I could differentiate this book from others on the market. The result is the content you are about to read. What is does that is different is tell you the steps I used to create my vision and my marketing plan and how you can do the same thing the marketing methods I used, why I used them, whether I would use them again pitfalls to look out for, and the steps I used to reduce the amount of money I was spending on marketing efforts after the first year while increasing sales and building my business every month. This book is written both for those who are already in business but would like to start a marketing plan as well as those who are thinking about going into business and want to start out on the right foot. While I cant guarantee you success, I think you will find several nuggets of information that will get you on the right track. I would consider this book a great success, if every massage therapist who reads it can take at least one piece of information and use it in their business to help them grow their practices. Linda Steele
Chapter 1 Creating Your Vision Before you can create a vision of what you want your business to become, you will have to understand what marketing is all about. It is not the combative advertising so many people associate with it. Rather, it can take many forms many of them comfortable and familiar. So What is Marketing Anyway? Many massage therapists cringe at the term. They are professionals, and professionals dont market themselves because they provide a service that enhances a persons health and well-being. Are you one of those? Well, I am here to tell you that you shouldnt be afraid of marketing. Everyone markets every day, in our work and even in our personal lives. We market ourselves to potential friends, the one we week as our life mate, or to gain a position that we really want. Since we are not dealing with our individual lives but with our business or one we are about to start, I will give you a different perspective on marketing as well as a different definition of it. Simply put: Marketing is any method that encourages potential clients to come to you for your services. There is an endless variety of marketing tools to promote a business. There are no-cost and low-cost methods such as: word-of-mouth, referral incentives, business cards, brochures, and direct mail. Newspaper and telephone directory advertising and Web sites represent a somewhat greater investment. High cost methods are radio and television ads. With all of these choices, how do you decide which ones to choose? The answer: Your marketing plan should be aligned with the scope of your vision. And that scope is the first thing you should determine. Creating Your Vision First, you need to have a clear idea of what you want your marketing to do for you. When you picture yourself as successful, what do you see? I cant tell you this because your definition of success is different from mine. Are you happy having ten clients a week? Or is maybe 20 enough? Do you want all of your treatment rooms fully booked seven days a week. No one has that vision but you. And you must know what it is so you can see if your plan will work the way you want it to. So right now, take the time to write out exactly what you want. It is important to write it because writing creates the energy that transforms thought into action and gives your subconscious mind the ability to make it happen for you. Here are the ground rules: Write out what you want, not what anyone else wants you to want or thinks you should want. Do this when you are in a positive state of mind. Find the right time. You may want to meditate first to get there. Write what you want in the present tense--as if it were already reality. Assume that you cannot fail. Remember that you are writing it in the present tense, so if you already have it, how could you fail? Go ahead. Dare to dream! 109
4
|