Marketing to Women With Your Holiday Promotionals
This month, let's look at marketing your massage business to the women in your practice. According to the latest AMTA survey, at least twice as many women are getting massage as men. So if your practice is typical, you are probably speaking more often to women when you promote your services, and your gift certificate sales.
Women tend, more often than men, to both plan for the holidays and look for health solutions for their friends and families. In addition, this time of the year many women are up to their necks with keeping up with their kids, holiday functions and the pressure to buy gifts, in addition to the usual work and domestic stresses. You can be sure your female clients will be interested in buying massage for their loved ones — as well as for themselves. You do, however, have to remind them that: (1) you have gift certificates, (2) it's easy to acquire them and (3) they can add massage to their own wish list.
First of all, consider your female clients. Maybe they are stay-at-home moms, sports enthusiasts or professionals competing for their place in the corporate or academic world. Think about which ones are most likely to buy gift certificates. Who do they need to buy gifts for? And which clients would place massage gift certificates at the top of their list to receive?
Here are some examples of gift certificate promotional text that may speak to the concerns of your female clientele.
Health and fitness enthusiasts.
"Give your friends a gift that is not an excuse to skip their exercise class or fall off their diet. Give the gift of massage."
Professionals.
"We live in a fast-paced world. To keep going, the people you care for need a time and space to let go. Give the gift of massage."
Married with children.
"Lighten up for the holidays. If your special someone has not been feeling his best, make the holidays better for everyone. Give him the gift of massage."
Take this idea even further. As part of a gift certificate purchase, offer to add useful information to the envelope. Our Massage for Men and Massage Therapy for Sports and Fitness are just two of our brochures that explain why and how massage helps. You can even offer women an actual script to help them convince their partners to use their gift. Here's an example.
"For those of you who would love to see your partner come in for a session, here's what I often say to reluctant men. 'Men often want to accomplish a lot at work, at home and in the gym or on the field. You have high expectations of yourself and want to stay energetic and fit. Massage can help you keep going. It can help you reduce stress and restore energy reserves.'"
Write this up and hand it out as a flyer, email it to selected clients or add it as your own article to our client newsletter.
Many women have partners who rush out to the mall on Christmas Eve to spend too much money on outfits that will never be worn. Make it easy on both parties, and send a promotional to the women, with this catch: the message is aimed at their guys. For example, send a postcard that essentially reads, "Honey, what I would really like is massage." Make it clear that the postcard is something your female clients can give to their men suggesting they would like to receive a massage gift certificate. Eileen gives some good examples on her blog.
If you don't yet have a plan for promoting gift certificate sales to your clients, create one now. Let your clients know that you make gift certificates easy to purchase and give. And to make the most of your efforts, remember to focus a good part of your efforts on the women in your practice.
For more on writing promotional messages for particular groups of clients, read "Target your clients' real concerns. Messages that work for your holiday promos." |
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