Giving It Away for Free (or not)

Question: how effective is it to give massage for free as a way to attract clients?
My experience: it's not

How many times have you heard a massage therapist suggest (or have thought it yourself) that you should give away free massages to "market" your practice. I suspect the thinking looks something like this:

• Once people get a massage, they'll pay anything to get it again since it feels so damned good.
• The benefits they experience from that free session will be so great that people will gladly shoe-horn it into their budget.
• They'll be so grateful that you gave it to them for free that they'll happily pay you for it forever after that.
• People don't know hardly anything about massage and need it to be free to get over any reluctance they have to try it. But once they do....(see above).
• It will raise your profile higher than any other local MT so it will give you a competitive edge.

I suspect there is also more-deeply-buried thinking that might look something like this:

• I'm not comfortable with what I'm charging / massage is too expensive / I could never afford these prices so I have to lure potential clients in with freebies.
• I can't believe someone would pay me that much money.
• I love massage so much I'd do it for free so why not do it for free? After all, it doesn't cost me anything.
• I can't talk about massage well (much less talk about myself and my practice) so I'll attract people by giving stuff away (and everyone loves free stuff).
• I am deeply uncomfortable with marketing / sales but giving things away is easy and feels good.
• I'm too new / inexperienced / not good enough (and/or the market is too tight) so I've got to give it away for free.
• People will feel guilty if they don't pay for a session after getting one for free.
• Nice people give things away; greedy/mean people demand money for it.

I know there are MTs who have used free massage to successfully promote their practice, I know many many more who have found it to be a terrible way to promote their practice. I'm one of those.

Why doesn't free work?

Going from $0 to $60 / $70 / $80 is too big a leap.

What if a merchant gave you something new for free, you discovered it was something you really wanted, and then the merchant said "yeah, next time it'll cost you $70." How would that feel? I know the technique works well with, say, heroin or cocaine but would it work as well with chocolate or a cable package? Or massage?

Budgets are not bottomless.

I don't care how much I love that tricked out high end luxury car. Or even how much easier it would make it to do outcalls (on board nav and it will parallel park itself? Be still my beating heart!). I can't afford it. Go ahead, let me drive it for a week and really fall in love with it. I still can't afford it. Giving it to me for free -- once -- does not make my budget magically grow large enough to accommodate it.

Once a product is in the "free" section of our brain, it's hard to move it out of there.

What happened to Napster when it went from free music sharing to for-pay?
What happened when newspapers went from offering their content for free online to trying to charge for it?
Do you order water at a restaurant if they don't give it to you for free?
Do you donate every time PBS / NPR asks for money??

Once we've gotten used to getting something for free, we discover how much we can live without it when we have to pay for it.

Most business don't give away valuable services for free.

I charge $90 for a hour of massage. Here are some comparable services and products in the DC area:

Dinner out for 2:  $85 (includes tax and tip)
Virus Protection (one year): $95
Cable: $100
Washington Gas: $88
5 sets of sheets @ Target: $90
Haircut + tips = $80
monthly cell phone bill: $70
3-hour ethics class: $75
National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center: $75 (good seats)

How many of these companies are giving their services away for free to entice you in and then honestly expect you to pay full price? HBO does it but only when there's a really popular show and only for a limited amount of time. The gas company never does it. Target offers sales but not freebies. I might be able to find reduced price tickets for the Kennedy Center but it isn't going to give them to me for free, hoping I'll then want to plunk down $75 every week / month.

They know the value of what they offer. They know people can and will pay for it. Not everyone but enough people to keep them in business. Maybe they've even learned that too many consumers do this kind of math: 

free = not very valuable
free = desperation
free = not important

Or worse (think of pharmaceutical reps):

free = very deep pockets, can afford to keep giving it to me for free

Free is worth nothing if I can't get to you

"Geographic desirability" is not just for dating. If it's going to take me an hour to get to you (and then an hour to get home) then "free" will not convert to "paying". Especially if that hour of driving is during rush hour or bad weather.

If you don't practice in my part of the state / country / continent, then a free massage is never going to lead to a paying massage. Take note of that when event organizers are saying you can "market" your massage to an event that draws from a wide geographic area, like marathons, walk-a-thons, or other big-name fundraisers.

Let's say you provide free massage at a corporate event. But your hours of operation are Monday - Friday 9-5. The people you're providing massage to can't come to you during your office hours because, hey, they're already working those hours!

One hour of massage may not be worth it

Look at that list of comparable services, above. Is one hour of massage worth  more than a month's worth of gas for my home? Will it give me more pleasure / entertainment than a month's worth of cable TV? Which one will I regret most if I skip it this month -- a massage or a haircut?

Massage doesn't exist in a vacuum. It exists in the larger context of our (potential) client's lives. It is always going to be measured against the relative value of something else. Even if you give it to me for free, I am not forgoing my next haircut so I can get another massage (because skipping a haircut makes me look like a Yeti on a bad hair day).

Free / deeply discounted massage tends to attract deal-hunters.

Ask most people who've tried Living Social / Groupon / etc. There is a huge group of people who cruise these sites looking for deals for things they will never pay full price for (maybe that includes you?). When people are in the market for a massage therapist, Groupon / Living Social / etc. is not where they start their search.


Does that mean we can never give massage away for free?

No. But you have to do it strategically.

• Is this being offered one on one to someone who has expressed a solid interest in your work? And has a history of paying for this kind of service?
• Are you offering a free massage to introduce an existing client to a new modality?
• Is the person actually able to pay full price for a massage? Do they know what massage can do for them (meaning they already assign value to it)?
• Is there a very specific population who won't find you any other way?

Instead of free, think about this:

Is there a way to offer discounts rather than freebies?

Can you charge for your massage at a volunteer event and donate all the proceeds to the event? Then people experience your work in the context of money leaving their hands (and you look like quite the philanthropist).

Can you make the free part an add-on to a session someone is already paying for?

Can you create a sliding scale / Pay What You Can / etc. to help people who genuinely have trouble affording massage?

Get creative, think strategically, think prosperously, and don't automatically go to "give it away!" as a way to promote your practice.