In my last post, MT and coach Felicia Brown shared the story of her wildly successful summer promotional.
Instead of doing a Groupon deal or some other ad to the general public, Felicia offered a special on a package of sessions to her regular clients, including those she hadn’t seen in a while. She also asked that they spread the offer to others who might appreciate it.
Steal Felicia’s ideas
And make them your own.
Don’t even think you have to have eight hundred and three clients to make this work for you. Even if you are barely starting out, give it a try.
Start with Felicia’s first idea — business cards with an offer. In addition to your standard business card, get yourself an additional one. Add these words to either the front or the back, “Half Off Your First Session With This Card.” Give them to everybody who experiences your massage and likes it. And that includes your mom. Give each person a few and ask them to pass it on to people they know. If you like, tell them they can also use it for their next massage.
Now here’s the caveat. Only give them to people who normally pay your standard fee. In other words, people who value you and your work. Ask those people to pass them on to others who actually need what you offer. This is what Felicia calls “qualifying” your prospective clients. Someone who is moving from special deal to special deal is not a “qualified” client.
There’s nothing wrong with people trying out bodyworkers until they find a practitioner who is a good match. But if what you do best is helping people recover from sports injuries, say, and someone comes in just because it’s a half- off special, then that person is not likely to become a regular, “qualified” client.
Get ready for new clients
Be ready for those who take you up on your offer. Add extra hours on the evening or weekend if you need to work new people in at their convenience. Invest in a few gift certificates, and display them for people who get inspired on the way OUT of your studio.
Okay MT’s, got other ideas for promotions that give you a better return than Groupon? We’d love to hear ‘em!
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10 users commented in " Just Say No to Groupon: “Qualify” Your Clients "
Great post. I do what’s suggested myself with flyers. It does bring me additional clients…
I also offer buy 6 sessions and receive 1 free. Keeps my clients happy and they become regulars. Of course with them leaving me a ‘nice’ tip, the free session still gives me a little something.
there’s another promotional site I just saw…www.seizethedeal.com.
Has anyone had success with this?
You will go broke trying to onoly work on people who are “just right” for you…
LMT for 27 years… I work on anyone who comes in the door once and retain the clients who need what I do therapeutically because they choose me as a fit… I average 27 massages a week. Owned my business here in Florida for 19 years.
I have been using coupons for several years. They go out every other month in a magazine to my local city or the surrounding area near my office. I do prequalify clients when they call for an appointment. If we are not a match, they do not book. I have an 80% retention using this method. I offer Buy 1 get 1 free to new clients. If someone was just shopping for a great deal, I would be a likely target, but it hasn’t worked out that way. With groupon, you lose control of who gets to book an appt. Don’t rule out all coupoons – you can maintain control with some of them.
Thank you, Diane,
I just endured a horrendous experience with Groupons that were forced upon my massage group. Research shows that the success rate is about 3%, so we were wearing ourselves out giving massages to people who only wanted the discounted session. I really like your alternative and will use it.
Hello!
I send birthday cards to everyone whose ever crossed my threshold, regardless of when they last visited and I offer a discounted ‘birthday’ massage. I also send personal, hand written thank you cards to all new clients & those who referred them to me. Those who referred them get a discounted massage too.
Lastly, when I receive new training, I always offer whatever it was I learned for the remainder of the month at a discounted rate; letting everyone know via a blind email.
Great ideas, Kaci. All these offers seem to be focused on clients who have seen you at least once, so they know you and your work already (unlike Groupon buyers). They must be working for you — I get the impression you’ve been doing them for a while.
Good luck, Leah! I am sorry that you and other MT’s had to learn first hand the downside of “the daily deals.” Thanks for sharing your experience.
Personally I use both Groupon and Living Social. I have had great success with both and client retention from both social marketing groups.
I market to the new clients, and old, through my newsletter. I offer a monthly special that keeps the clients coming back; who can’t afford a full price massage.
The big key in retaining these new clients from the social marketing is you have to treat them just like a full paying client. Give them your best work.
I have had so many clients come in from other massage establishments using Groupon or Living Social and tell me the massage they received at the other place was terrible.
I have learned the owners were paying their therapists a pittence of what little they make from using this social marketing stradegy. So the therapists were not giving the massage they should have been giving. They were just going through the motions. To bad for them.
The idea of these social marketing groups is to get you clients in the door. It is up to you to retain them. These clients want massage, but in this economy its hard to justify our normal prices for some people. If you don’t do your best, well you can’t expect to have a client return.
Hi Andrea and Massage in Lenexa,
I just picked up your messages from the 7th for some reason.
Both of you seem to have found strategies that work better than Groupon. Lenexa, that is a great point about coupons. As long as you can be control of who uses them (which you can’t with Groupon), it sounds like they are a great pull for new clients.
I give each of my clients an envelope with 3 promotional gift certificates to give to 3 people to get a 30minute massage or 1/2 off if they wish to purchase a 60 minute. Its a one time deal. Most of the time the purchase the 60 minute massages. It works out great. Groupon is a great thing in the sense of new business open house or you have moved to a new town or state. Groupon a one time thing.
With the economy being so slow, I have been experiencing a slowdown also, not only regular clients booking less often, but fewer newer clients coming through the door. I did decide to try Living Social for the first time. The ad ran this week and I had 320 purchases. I’ve already seen a few of them and at least two have indicated that they are looking for a theraist to see regularly, so hopefully they will return. A couple of them have also indicated that this is the first time they’ve tried this kind of social marketing, so perhaps not everyone is just in it for the deal. We shall see how it goes.
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