Heads up: It’s five weeks until Valentine’s Day, the second highest gift certificate purchasing occasion of the year. Have you reminded your clients you have Valentine’s gift certificates available?

My mom’s lawn guy is a total smartypants.

In the days before Christmas we got 13 inches of snow, which is a lot for OlyWa. Good Daughter that I am, I made my way to Mom’s to shovel her driveway. Lo and behold, there was Dennis the Lawn Guy on his little skid steer Bobcat neatly, quickly and (most importantly) effortlessly clearing snow off Mom’s drive.

Mom didn’t ask him to come. He just showed up. No charge. “She’s a great customer,” Dennis said. “She’s sent a lot of business my way over the years.”

This was very thoughtful. Dennis is a thoughtful guy. And when a couple of the neighbors moseyed over to see if Dennis could do their driveways, Dennis thoughtfully charged them a very fair rate (”Since I’m already here.”) and handed out a couple of his cards in case they needed any work done in the future.

Dennis is my current Shining Star. He turned an unusual situation (snow) to his advantage. He appeared (and is) generous, helpful and professional. He also created an opportunity to show potential customers the quality of his work and the quality of his service. Dennis also made it very clear he values his customers. Everyone was happy.

So how can you take this situation like this and turn it into a massage therapist / bodywork practice marketing opportunity? Here’s some off-the-cuffs. Tailor them to your taste.

Dennis took advantage of the weather. This is an easy one since you can reasonably (usually) predict what the average weather will be in any given month.

Around here January is 45º, windy and rainy. We get chilled through. Any offer to come see you and warm up will be seriously considered. How about:

Dear [Linda],
I bet your toes have been chilly all week.
You and a friend each can have a 15 minute foot massage and a long, hot foot bath. Relax with a quilt, a cup of chamomile (maybe a cookie) and catch up.
$35 for two.
Give a call and we’ll set up a good time.
[Eileen]

Park [Linda] and her friend in your waiting room (if you have one) and let them soak as long as they like. They’ll be great advertising. Maybe her friend will book a session with you. Maybe someone coming in for a regular session will be interested in a foot soak as an add-on to a future session or as a gift.

You can do something like this with paraffin dips, scrubs or wraps. Do you have a luxury shower, hot tub or sauna? (Probably don’t want to include a friend on those.) A special, heated massage table with hot stones you can tuck around someone?

With a little pre-planning, you can have your marketing materials ready to go when opportunity knocks. Get postcards or letters made up now. When the weather (or whatever) is appropriate, contact 25-50 clients you think would respond to your offer AND whom you would like to reward for being nice clients/people.

Things you could prepare for:

• First big storm of the winter (warm up)
• First good skiing weekend (leg work and warm up)
• First warm weekend of the year (aching gardening backs and blistered hands)
• Super Bowl Sunday (not all of us care)
• February/March doldrums (Mini-Vacation postcard is nice)
• Tax season (yes, we have a card for that, too)
• Post Christmas recovery
• Onset of short sleeve weather (my former MT housemate used to use exfoliation gloves on my arms and shoulders, then apply a good self-tan lotion. I loved that!)
• Randomly declare a Treat Yourself Week

It will be a nice break from the norm for everyone … and you never know what practice-revitalizing good will come of it.

All my best,
Eileen