Now is the time to go online… well actually it was a couple of years ago but let’s not waste time on worrying about that and let’s conquer what is in front of us – the Google search.
When someone is searching for a therapist (let’s say a massage therapist), they would once ask friends, family or co-workers for recommendations. Sometimes that might still be relevant but rare for that massage therapist to be in the right location and provide the exact services the customer is looking for.
Nowadays, we find that the web has replaced ‘ask a friend’ and you can find and buy anything you desire at the click of a button. When searching for a massage you just open Google and type ‘massage in [city name]’ or ‘best massage therapist’.
The massage therapist needs to make sure their website and platforms show up on that google search.
1. Blog
Blogs are online journals, they can offer advice and information to your potential clients. Keeping your website up to date and adding content regularly is very important if you want to improve your chances of being found.
Where to start with your blog?
First of all, do not make your blog self-serving, no one wants to read ‘5 reasons I am the best massage therapist’. Instead blogs should be useful advice for readers, such as:
- Worried about hair loss? Tips on how to self massage your head.
- 4 ways to instantly cure bloating
- First Massage? The nitty – gritty of what to expect
- Which massage style best suits you
Blogging offers fresh content to your website with ‘key-words’ which will help the search engine optimisation (SEO) … we talk about this more in tip number 3.
2. Social Media
Think of social media as a way to introduce yourself, update your accounts with relevant information and really showcase your personality.
Social media accounts such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram are a good way to show potential customers that you are active and trustworthy.
Do not focus on the amount of followers you have, focus on the interactions you have with your followers. This will show people are interested in what you are saying and want to interact with you.
3. SEO (Search Engine Optimisation)
When you search in google you type something in and it comes up with a list of relevant pages, those pages at the top of the list are the ones most likely to be clicked on, no one really scrolls page after page.
SEO (search engine optimisation) is how to get your page higher up on the lists and that is obviously valuable to your business.
So, how to make your website higher up on the list?
- Updating your pages every so often, keeping the content fresh
- Reduce the size of the images on your website so that the page loads faster
- Creating unique titles for your pages and blogs, think about what questions some people might type into Google.
These are just some of the things you can do, look out for our blog on ‘SEO’s for beginners’ which will go into more depth.
4. Email
Email newsletters are still the KING of marketing for most industries and definitely for therapists. Building your email database is a fantastic way to engage clients that are already interested in your service.
Use the email newsletters to showcase your blogs (include links to your website). Let your clients know of other events happening that might be of interest. Use this marketing tool to let them know of any of your offers or discounts.
Remember to keep the reader engaged with your emails: adapt the 20/80 rule here, promote yourself 20% and engage your audience for 80%.
We hope that you found this blog interesting.
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Thank you,
Naturally Minded
