Your Marketing Headspace: What's True For You?

Two weeks ago I talked about general rules for marketing. These are truths that are generally true for all businesses or at least for massage therapists. We need to keep these in mind when thinking about how we market our practices.

There's a second side to this marketing headspace: what's specifically true for you. Some of the marketing decisions and realities you have to deal with are unique to you. When I sit down with MTs to help them jumpstart their marketing efforts, I explain that they need to have a clear picture of three things:

• What they're offering
• Who they're marketing to
• Themselves

What You're Offering

You aren't selling massage therapy. If you were, everyone with the same educational credentials would be the same. They aren't. What we're really offering is (1) an experience and/or (2) a particular outcome.

Are my sessions sports-oriented or am I all about the energetic body? Do I prefer working with athletes or geriatrics? Is my office warm and fuzzy or neat and medical? Am I likely to engage you in an extended intake or will I stay tightly focused, gettin you on and off the table as quickly as possible? Do I tend to form long-term relationships with clients or am I more focused on helping you rehabilitate a problem and move on?

How will you be different after a session with me? Lighter? More graceful? In less pain? Centered? Able to run faster and jump higher? More in touch with your own body? More flexible? Less emotionally "gummed up"?

This is a one-on-one industry. Each of us offers a different kind of experience and are better at helping to produce particular outcomes. What's yours?

Who's The Best Person For You To Market To

I've said this many times before but what the heck, I'll say it again: most of us are functioning with limited time, energy, and money especially for marketing. It makes sense to spend those resources connecting with the kinds of people that are the very best fit for us. It doesn't mean we won't work with someone outside that profile but our energies and resources are focused on the clients that are the best fit for us.

I don't market to athletes. If you're hardcore about your training or competition, there are other local MTs who are a better fit for you and I'll happily give you their name and number. On the other hand, I particularly like working with people who are using massage to endure the slings and arrows of middle age or of long-term conditions. I like ongoing relationships.

I'm going to use language and images to speak to these people. I'm going to put myself in places these people are more likely to be. I can't be everywhere and I can't be everything. I have to choose. We all do.

Who Are You

You are at the epicenter of your practice. Baby, it is all about you! What are you good at? What are you lousy at? What energizes you? What drains you? When are you at your best and your worst? You might as well accept these truths about yourself and take them into consideration when planning your marketing efforts.

I don't do networking events because I'm an introvert and they drain me completely.

I write newsletters and blogs because I'm a professional writer and I enjoy it.

I will build my own website (after finishing my WordPress class) because I've got some rudimentary technical skills. I pay people to provide graphics because I don't have those skills.

I will talk to groups because I'm comfortable doing that (despite being an introvert) but I know I may need extra downtime afterwards.

I will donate chair massage to organizations I am strongly attached to.

I don't offer a lot of discounts because, honestly, I get confused about what I'm offering at any given time!

I don't answer the phone after 9 pm.  :)

It does me no good to try to fit myself into someone else's model of the "perfect marketer" because the odds are very high that I won't fit. If I had the money to hire a professional marketer I would but I don't so I'm stuck with me in all my glory and mess. When you are honest with yourself, what kind of marketing efforts make sense for the person you actually are and what are things you're just not going to be good at?

What are you offering?
Who are you trying to reach?
Who are you?

When you have solid answers to these three questions, you are well on your way to making better marketing decisions.