A Lesson Learned From Miley

Planned PR stunts come in many forms. You could hold a press conference where you hand a giant check with lots of zeroes to a worthy organization, you could hire a stunt man to para-glide into your Grand Opening, you could even rent a famous person to make an appearance and pretend they are close friends with you for a special occasion. These are all wonderful ways to gain positive attention for your business.

Then there are planned PR stunts with negative connotations. Follow me here. A celebrity is a branded business. It has income streams, expenses, and a thought over marketing plan. To include PR. They have a target market. The fastest way to gain widespread loyalty within a target market is to do something terrible enough that your fans come to your defense, but not too terrible that they abandon you. It is exactly the root of the Paula Dean "scandal" and it is exactly the root of the Miley Cyrus mayhem. Guess what folks, if you are unhinged by her skanky "dance moves" - you aren't the target market!! You are the other side of the global conversation happening where Miley fans are becoming diehard Miley fans. Yes it's wrong, disgusting, a terrible example for children... But that, my friends, is marketing.

There is no denying her antics, or that of her publicist, raised her exposure. Every media outlet has covered the story, its all over your newsfeed, hell it made you open this very blog! Every page view adding advertising value to the source site. It flat out pays to stir the pot. So how can the small business owner cash in on this calculated marketing move with dignity?

Now I'm not suggesting you strap on a nude colored bikini and parade around a stage in front of millions of people to move more units. But I am suggesting you analyze your target audience. What dumb thing can they relate to doing and then do that dumb thing. Or at least write about doing that dumb thing. An embarrassing error in an email, a misuse of a texting term ("here I thought my associate was proclaiming his undying love for me and it turns out LOL doesn't mean "lots of love"), use your media of choice to embarrass yourself, just enough that your target relates, not enough that they abandon you. The more public the better. If done right, you get a conversation started where your loyals reLate and say "we've all been there", increasing loyalty, word of mouth advertising, thanks for the teaching opportunity, Miley.

DIY Easy Peasy Retail Cards

Retail Cards are small signs that provide information about your retail products available for sale. Also known as "shelf talkers", retail cards help attract your client's attention in your waiting area. For the purpose of today's blog, I have created very simple retail cards with an image, product name, and price. More elaborate shelf talkers may include details about where or how the product is made, it's benefits of use, and possible gifting ideas.

Needed for this Project: *Computer, *Printer, *Cardstock, *Scissors or Paper Trimmer

Step One: Create a new document in Word or other word processing software. Select a Business Card Layout.

Step Two: I chose a pre-made business card design with a flower. You could create your own with logo or other design.

Step Three: Delete rows 1 & 3 and the right portion of row 5 (side folding tent card). These will be the back half of your tent cards. Change the placeholder information to your custom descriptions. (For my example I am only putting product name and price).

 

Step Four: Print. I used colored cardstock to stand out and stand up straight.

 

Step Five: Chop.

Step Six: Once you have your cards all trimmed up, the next step is to fold the tent cards in half and display them with your retail items.


I think this looks much better than the price stickers we had been using and we can change the cards quickly and easily when we need to. We will make seasonal cards for the same products to spark interest in slow moving items around different holidays.

Here's how they turned out:

 

 

What do you think? Can you spice up your retail displays with this fast and easy retail card display? Comment below!

Becoming a Destination Spa is Easier Than You Think!

Yesterday's thread on the Facebook group Massage Practice Builder had my mind racing! There is so much more I want to share about my experiences with TripAdvisor that I just can't fit it all on one thread. 

Getting Listed
As discussed yesterday, this is the super secretive link to getting listed as a Thing To Do in your town. You fill out a description, name, address,etc. Same ol' same ol'. They may send you a postcard to verify you are a real business, I can't remember. But once you are approved, you can really jazz up your profile! Add photos of your office, your staff, or your services. Add your hours of operation, and do not forget to include a phone number! You can link your website and a variety of social media. Did I mention this is all free?

Low Maintenance
Once your listing is active and you've added your content you are done! You will receive an email to notify you of any new reviews. If you want to you can log back in to your account and under Management Center you can opt to reply to the reviews as the owner of the business. It's a good idea to thank people for taking the time to post positive reviews and earnestly and honestly reply to the negative ones. Negative reviews will affect your rank within the system, but customers often report they chose a location because the owner replied to address complaints. You can't delete them as far as I know so might as well pull a PR move: own up to the problem, take responsibility as the owner, and list the solutions you have taken to make sure it never happens again.

Okay great you have an active listing, who is going to find you here?
Travelers! Hotel guests! Full-time RVers! People in town for a family or work function. Lots and lots of people who are potential clients of yours pass through your town every day. They don't live there, they don't read the paper or subscribe to the local things you may be spending your advertising dollars on. This is how you reach them! Their money is just as good as your local's money.

Not Always Planners
I'd say 75% of the clients who call us from TripAdvisor need a same day or next day appointment. They see that we are here once they are already here. Sometimes we can't accommodate them and we refer out to another therapist or two in town.

Frequency
True, a lot of these people will never come back again, but not because they didn't love you, they just have to go home sometime. But some will come back to town annually, maybe even monthly, so repeat business is certainly an option! 

They Value the Experience
These are not discount seekers! They make their buying decisions on reviews not on prices. So when you are ranked #5 thing to do in Hoboken, with 30 five star reviews singing your praises, it doesn't matter what your price is because chances are good you are worth it! They are coming because your business adds value to their vacation.

They Write Reviews
Because they found you on TripAdvisor, they are extremely likely to review you on TripAdvisor and help you increase your rank and find even more new customers!

You Are the Destination.
They found you, discovered you even, they've seen your pictures, they've  read the reviews and now they are counting down the seconds until they get to be the one on your table. You, my friend, are a destination in your town! Now maybe you didn't go into your business to be a luxury day spa, maybe you cater to a sports crowd or a medical crowd. This listing is not supposed to change who you or who your business is. It is supposed to highlight you as a fixture in your community.


Donna Kopf,
Owner LMT Marble Falls Massage Therapy Center
Owner LMT Kingsland Massage Garage
Marketing Director, Sway Marketing

Are You Staring At My Belly Button?

Raise your hand if you have heard of Belly?

Anyone?

Anyone?

Bueller?

I hadn't heard of Belly until I got my hair cut last week and the salon had this sleek iPad on their counter with the Belly screen pulled up. The stylist handed me a card with a unique QR code on one side and instructed me to scan it on the iPad. Okay! I like scanning things!

The magical ipad then instructs you to register your QR code card with an email address. Done.

I now have 5 points in my belly and my belly is full. The next time I come back to the salon I can check in again, get another 5 points, and work my way up to some cool rewards for my loyalty.

A few other places in town are hoping on the belly-bandwagon. After watching the video on their website, hosted by their mascot Flop, the belly dog (LOL), I was sold.

So here is my belly:

So far I have pretty boring rewards, free bag of tea, half off a popular product line, free company t-shirt, free upgrades with purchase of massage, and the big mac daddy prize is after 50 visits (250 points) I'll pamper you and two of your friends for 2 hours.

The website has lots of cool examples of rewards. Like if you were a baker, after 100 points you'd let your best customer throw a pie at your face. Hilarious! I'd work for that prize!

So check out belly. I'm not rewarded in anyway if you sign up, but there is a spot on the sign up form that asks where you heard about belly. Mention the Marble Falls Massage Therapy Center and maybe they'll send me a nice Thank You card. I like thank you cards almost as much as I like scanning things.
 

Alternative Uses for Your Massage Studio: AKA Party Central!

Before we renovated,  I had one big open space separating the reception area from the single established treatment room in the office. I had plans to use this space as a community learning center. Where folks would come from far and wide to hear me speak about the wonders of Massage Therapy. Group Couples Workshops. Lectures on aromatherapy and alternative health information.

One of two things happened. Either I didn't market it enough (entirely possible) or people just weren't interested in me talking about Massage. They would rather my hands do the talking. Which was great! That's primarily what I do. So eventually we built two treatment rooms in this space. To give the people what they want.

While I continued promoting our very first fundraiser, I had an idea. One last hurrah before the walls went up. A Customer Appreciation Event! The event was co-hosted by two friends in related businesses, Virginia Walker of Special-Tea Occasions and Amy Montandon of Rodan + Fields skin care. They each set up a booth for product demonstrations and at the end of the party I hosted a free Reflexology workshop. The party had a beach theme. Photos Here!

It even got us in the paper. 

Once the walls were installed, and two big spaces became one big space and two medium spaces, we still managed to host events in our Center. Events that focused on bringing our clients exclusive access to products that they would enjoy. 

In April, we had another Customer Appreciation Party. We invited Judy Landry, a Dove Chocolate Representative, Patsy Wiley of Juice Plus+, the McReynolds Winery, and our favorite Tea Lady, Virginia Walker of Special-Tea Occasions, all of whom graciously came out to treat our clients to samples of their very best products. 

Of course for these small business owners to make it worth their while to come and demonstrate for two hours they had items available for sale, catalogs to take home, and drawings to collect contact information. Our then staff of 5 offered complimentary chair massage in a quiet room while the guests went from room to room sampling the different vendors. It was a TON of fun! 

Today, we are hosting our third Client Appreciation Party since our opening 14 months ago. And today it is all about purses. Our very own Massage Therapist, Amy Lescoe-Hall is a Miche Representative. She will be sharing with us the latest styles to the Miche line. Party attendees will also be treated to free chair massage and yummy healthy snacks.

Reasons you should have parties at your business:

• You get to hang out with your clients, who are AMAZING people to hang out with. When they come in for appointments it is their time and their time alone. To protect professional boundaries I try not to socialize outside of appointments. Which really sucks for me, because my clients are ridiculously awesome people. The more appreciation parties I have to more chances I have to actually get to know them.
• It shows your clients that you can fit more than two people in your room. They start thinking to themselves, "hey, I bet this would be a great spot to host my daughter's baby shower!" and then they could all have foot massages and paraffin after they play how-many-squares-of-toilet-paper-around-the-baby-bump.
• Advertising! Even if they can't make it to the party, an invitation in the mail puts your business back in the front of their eyes. Hit up the local party supply store and make it a theme. Have some fun! 
• People don't go to parties alone. They bring their friends. Friends that may have never heard about your business otherwise. And what an endorsement! Every potential new client that walks in your door that day is extremely qualified to become a repeat customer.
• It shows you care. You are giving back! Go you!!

I'm missing plenty more reasons that you should have a party next week (tax deduction, staff motivation, etc. etc. etc.) but I'm trying to get this second 31 in 31 blog post out before September. Please add your reasons and party ideas in the comment section to share with others!

Couples Massage Sign Language for Massage Therapists

(This post is in part of the 31 in 31 blog challenge.)

I love doing couples massage. I love when two people choose to share this serene environment we have created. I especially love it when a client mentions that their couples massage was selected as a preferred birthday/anniversary gift- what a honor!

In a solo massage room clients are free to talk, or sleep, or drool. Whatever floats their boat. They are the captain of the USS Serenity. If talking helps them to relax, then let's chit-chat!

But, in a couples massage a strange thing happens. To ensure a peaceful atmosphere for both of our clients our staff becomes extraordinarily quiet. Now, obviously, if both clients are the talkative type then we can easily accommodate that. But if one client needs the peace-and-quiet, well then it is our job to make sure you can hear a pin drop. And if we see a pin falling we will do our best to catch it in between our toes so that our clients are not distracted. I may be exaggerating.

In these silent type scenarios, our talented staff does an amazing job of combining their individual massages into a semi-synchronized spa service without words. We still manage to communicate. If a client were to peak under their eye pillow at an opportune time, well they may see one of these humorous scenes:

We have scheduled buffer breaks after every appointment. If we become delayed for any number of reasons we can still give our clients their full time. This means the start and stop time is not set in stone. Both therapists need to be able to end at the same time so this is an important conversation to have.

It goes like this: Therapist A waits for Therapist B to open their eyes and scan the room. It could take awhile. Therapist B may be really into what they are doing, really in tune with the music, unable to feel the eyes of the other therapist. Then, their eyes lock and Therapist A gives the signal. Maybe a simple raise of the eyebrow while pointing at their wrist. Maybe a head tilt with eyes darting back and forth to the clock. The response from Therapist B normally comes back with easy numeral hand gestures. "5 after" they may signal.

The massages continue. A little while later Therapist B's throat becomes inexplicably dry. She waits to recapture the attention of Therapist A to make the drinking mime dance to ask which of the two identical water cups on the shelf is theirs.

The massages continue. It's half way into the treatment and it is starting to get warm in the room with four bodies, two table warmers, and a steam towel cabinet. Therapist A gives the universal rapid hand flapping to signal Therapist B to turn on the table top fan and aim it her way.

Suddenly, a client snorts! The zen has been threatened! The client's partner lets out a little giggle at their loved one's ability to snore them self awake momentarily. As the therapists gently restore the atmosphere, one may give a quiet "Whew!" and wipe of the forehead.

Finally, at the end of the session. Therapists lock eyes and give the headnod to signal they are ready to walk out together. Share your massage-mime situations in the comment section!

This 31 in 31 is going to be fun!

Our Valentine's Day Promotion: Behind the Scenes

Before today, we had a very simple online gift certificate sales system. It looks like this: CLICK HERE. Our gift cards are made from Vistaprint business cards with the appointment reminder back side changed up to look more like a gift card. (250 for $3.99 versus paying $1+ per gift certificate elsewhere on the same site).

Marble Falls Massage Therapy Center Gift Cards

Being the size of a business card makes for really cool gift presentations (in flower arrangements, greeting cards, stuffed animals, etc). Plus smaller size also makes it easy to keep in your wallet, which clients report they appreciate.

Our system is very simple. Our website has a main page dedicated to purchasing gift certificates. This page shows an image of each gift certificate with a PayPal button underneath with a simple form for the purchaser to complete "To & From" prior to check out. Once we received the e-mail of their payment we mailed the appropriate gift certificate and new client brochure to the recipient specified during check out. This gave us contact information for both purchaser and recipient that went into our database for future marketing promotions.

It works okay. What we found is that people like to wait until the last minute to purchase gift certificates for Holidays and 90% of the time a gift certificate purchased online and put in the mail will miss it's intended deadline. So we end up needing someone in the office for clients to swing by and pick up the gift certificates they purchased online. Online gift certificates sales are supposed to be more convenient than in-store gift certificate sales. That's the whole point.

A lot of massage businesses take advantage of printable gift certificates on their websites. And I started to look into this more and more. So we are trying something new today and tomorrow. Sticking to what I know and understand (very little on the interwebs), I stuck with my handy dandy PayPal buttons. I created a new internal page on my website for a special Two Day Couples Massage Sale with a PayPal button for the offer amount. In the programming of the PayPal button code I have it written to redirect to a hidden page on my website upon completion. This hidden page has a large image of a blank Gift Certificate partially completed with the item on sale (in this case a One Hour Couples Massage), the expiration (one year from Valentine's Day), and my authorizing signature.

After the purchaser prints their gift certificate they can personalize the card with the To: and From: sections. Going from buying to printing to gifting in seconds! Now, there is nothing unique about the gift certificate image on this page and nothing stopping someone from printing a million of them. To ensure a gift certificate coming in for redemption has actually been paid for I have included a line on the gift certificate image that says "Email Used At Check-Out". If a gift certificate is missing this line it can not be redeemed.

We've promoted this new concept on our facebook and to our email contact list. I'll post a follow up blog to let everyone know if it was successful. 

Their is also a note about how I would like for them to schedule and our cancellation policy on the gift certificate image.