Groupon and group buying is becoming the new online marketing tool for many companies. The group buying process is offered by many companies like Groupon.com, livingsocial.com and mycouponbuilder.com. Offering massage services through one of these companies can drive clients to your door but it can also be at a great cost if it isn’t done right. I was just trying to find where I read about a few horror stories of people offering massage through one of those sites. They had such bad reviews on the page that it just made their business and the profession look bad.
When you are looking at promoting your massage business with one of these companies be sure you know what you are getting into. They usually ask you to discount your services by 40-50% . What they do is make people pay them up front for the service and then they pay you something out of that amount taking their share for promoting you so after it is all done you prices are really at a huge discount. You have to decide if your business will be able to handle offering massage at that rate and how you will get the clients in. There is usually a time limit on the offer. Most of the companies will actually screen you to see if your company would work well with their services and will help you to prepare for the high number of clients. Here are some things to be sure you ask about or figure out for your business before you advertise your services in this way:
- Find out when you will be paid for the services. One company I heard wasn’t paying the therapists for 3 months or so after the offer. You should be paid very quickly.
- Set up limits on the offer- number of coupons to be sold, time available for appointments, new clients only, local clients only and anything else you can think of
- Figure out your cost per client and see how many massages you will have to do to break even or make a profit. Figure out how many clients you will need to convert into regular clients to make the numbers work.
- Look at other offers on the sites if you can to see what others are doing. Decide on your offer based on your own financial needs, budget and how many therapists you have and the time you have available.
- Make sure you create a schedule that you can still accommodate your regular clients.
- Be prepared to handle all the client inquires.
- Create a page on your website with all of the frequently asked questions like this savvy massage therapist did. It can help save time and having to make phone calls to just answer simple questions
The concern in offering massage at such discounted rates also requires that you do some careful thinking about what you are offering. Some of the negative comments I saw (but sorry can’t find right now) about the whole process was about poor service from massage therapists. If you are a sole proprietor and doing all of the massage yourself, you will have a lot to handle. If you are giving the work to independent contractors, be sure they understand the goal and don’t feel resentful of working for such low wages. It will show in their work.
The main goal in promoting yourself in one of these group buying places is to get a lot of people in the door to experience massage. Many will be in mainly because of the low clients and won’t really meet your vision of an ideal client which is someone who values massage. You will have to keep focused on the end result and showing clients the results that massage can provide to them. Have a marketing packet made up that has a few articles or research studies on something like back pain or depression to hand out to clients. Have the articles also on your website. It will take much more to try to convert people into a repeat client let alone a regular weekly or monthly client.
Here are some good suggestions in the www.massageprofessionals.com forum. Here is also a good video on how to do your own groupon offer from spaboom.com
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I have a friend that, on Groupon, sold 874 massages on her one day run.
This is a great way to get people in the door, obviously.
Pros:
* A lot of people coming through the door.
* A sizeable up front payment.
* Not everyone will use their groupon coupon.
* You get your hands on A LOT of people, which makes you a better massage therapist.
Cons:
* The ad was $40 for an $80 massage. Groupon takes half. So it’s $20/massage.
* The down side of selling 874 massages is that you just sold 874 massages. At 5 per day 7 days per week that’s 6ish months of $20 massages 5/day 7 days/week.
* Huge scheduling rush at the beginning, requiring serious schedule time and strategizing for non groupon business. Not necessarily a bad problem to have.
* If you don’t have a system of offers and invitations, the conversion ratio for repeat customers drops heavily
* Most people are just there for a cheap massage. Still, you will retain some number of new customers.
* If you have employees or peers doing the massages, there’s no profit ifyou’re giving them the $20/massage, and possibly even a negative per massage due to sheets, utilities, etc.
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My stance as a Professional Massage Provider is to not do coupons of deep discount. Period. These are ruining the profession and turning the spa industry into a fast food joint. If your good at what you do, and offer a slight discount or other perk…the word of mouth will take care of the rest. The only word of mouth from deep discount spa coupons is…”hey…that’s cheap!” Do you want to be associated with being “cheap”? Even if you get a couple or a few new clients? Or do you want to be looked at by other medical professionals (as you should realize you are) and be respected. My doctor laughed when I said…hey…how about a 90% off coupon for an exam? Part of the underlying problem is what has lowered wages throughout the country…there will always be someone that will do something just to put a few bucks in their pocket, if you don’t do it. Again, in closing…I have to ask. about other major issues, such as companies working their employees without proper breaks, companies taking gratuities, lack of medical insurance, lack of respect. All those coupon companies should be getting nothing but a “click” of your phone when they call you.
Comparing massage to being a doctor is not logical. A doctor has many many years of training. Offering massage at a discount has no effect on respect unless the massage is done poorly or with bad service. They aren’t ruining the profession. There is no proof of that. In WA State where I am, we are health care professionals and are contracted with Major medical insurance companies and there are also many low cost massage franchises here offering massage. The low cost group buying coupon offers bring usually hundreds of clients in the door. If done right with lots of planning and followup, it could essentially get a business started or help it grow. Getting more respect by the medical community and the public is really about respecting yourself and the profession – low cost massage and all. The medical community only understands research and evidence. That is what is needed to get their respect. The other issues that you mentioned like working long hours without proper breaks, lack of medical ins. etc comes because the MT do not respect themselves enough to ask for those things and they take the jobs. We teach people how to treat us. Until MT start saying no to low paying jobs and working to create higher paying jobs they will continue to do so. Thanks Julie