Massage Deals

Should You Do a “Groupon” For Your Massage Business?

(Because our Wellness Center was one of the first Massage Centers to offer a Groupon – I have now become the “Go-to Daily Deal Adviser” for Therapists across the USA.

I’m happy to help YOU sort out and decide if this is right for you and your practice!)

First, what the heck IS Groupon?

Groupon is an online promotional and marketing service that offers a “Daily Deal”. There are now hundreds of “Daily Deal” companies needing US to give them something to offer to their list of members. 

These Daily Deal companies help businesses get exposure, new clients and a big cash influx. “Groupon” calls themselves “Groupon” because they provide a “Group coupon”…  they need to sell a certain number of deals before the deal “tips”, or in other words, before the people in the group can get the deal (discounted offer).

The topic of “Deciding to Do a Daily Deal” is a big one among therapists. 

Keep in mind: If you participate in a Daily Deal, you are not lowering your fees, you are simply offering a discount to get new clients in your door. The client knows what your standard rate is, and will know they will be charged your standard rate when they come back to see you.

Groupon helps small businesses by promoting a special deal for that individual business. Once the deal closes, the business and Groupon split the revenue that the offer brought in.

Groupon was the first company to offer this type of service through the online email/ web medium. They started back in November 2008 and has daily offers in over 140 US cities. There have been many copy-cat companies sprouting up every month. (Our wellness center gets an email or call every few days from some new Daily Deal service seeing if we want to do an offer with them!)

“Pay for Performance”
Any therapist who says, “I never offer discounted sessions” is actually mistaking the truth for reality!

If you are PAYING for any paid advertising, there is a cost to you associated with your advertising. The cost you incurred to get that new client will offset the payment the client gives you. This means if you charge $100/ session, and your cost to ‘Acquire’ the client was $12- you just gave a session for $88. 

I am happy to ‘pay for advertising’ ESPECIALLY when it ALREADY resulted in a guaranteed new client. 

These online promotional services are offering “Pay for Performance”. In other words, you only pay them, once the offer “runs”, and the clients have purchased their certificates for your service. The amount you pay is deducted from the total you get when they issue you a check. 
Some companies will pay you one lump payment, others break it down into 3-4 payments, so they have access to more cash-flow.

It’s really simple to run a deal, since they create the artwork and write it all up for you once you have agreed on the offer you will run.

The thing I like the best about any of these services, is as the business owner, you have no upfront costs. Unlike traditional advertising, where you pay for the ad before it runs and you never know the response until it is over. With these online marketing services, there is no risk up front to you. If your offer doesn’t sell well, or doesn’t sell at all, you are not out anything. If your offer sells just a few, you only pay them on the total sales.

What Is The Catch?
Now, you’re probably saying, well this is great, I get free promotions for my massage business, and I only pay after the fact – but, of course, as in life, there are a few ‘catches’ to consider.

Since the business model is Pay for Performance, these Daily Deal companies will ask that you give them an incredibly ridiculous offer so they can sell hundreds of them.

Don’t be pressured to offer anything too low, because you won’t have enough margin to continue to run your practice. Remember, you will have to provide the service to all these clients and you certainly don’t want to be disliking the clients and regretting the entire experience. You still need to run a business! They will usually ask for a 60/40 split of revenue, with them keeping the 60%. This is negotiable! Start off asking for 90/10 in your favor and work from there. Play hard-ball.

Keep in mind, they need you as much as you need them.Massage is a really popular offering, so in this situation, we have the upper hand.

I also, encourage all of us as a whole massage industry to not go with such a low priced offer that we are shooting ourselves in the foot.
Let’s please be sure to stay in the reasonable range (such as nothing less than $40 / hour) 
so we don’t condition the customers to only seek low-cost massages.

I encourage you to think of this advertising as a lost leader.

 

A “Lost Leader” is a sales term that refers to an offer that gets clients in your door, even if you don’t make money on it, therefore, it leads clients in to your business, but at a loss.

 

Once you’ve got them – it’s your chance to “wow” them. Once you have provided your services, you hopefully will continue to see them again and have them refer their friends and family to you.

What To Offer?
I suggest your offer be something you already have that is lower priced, such as a 30 minute session, or a package like 30 minute Swedish massage with aroma therapy and foot-bath. Total Package Value =$84.selling for $44. ($54- massage, $15 aroma therapy, and $15 foot bath) So when they come back they know your regular rate is $54 for the 30 min massage which is not much different from what they paid for their deal certificate!

Here is an excerpt I took from a discussion I was involved with from www.massageprofessionals.com/forum.
This comes from a very successful San Francisco massage therapist, named Paul Brown.

“I did a groupon voucher as a solo practitioner. Last November, I sold 200 vouchers for a half-price hour massage session. I received my cut and groupon took their cut, and I had lots of massages to do by May 6th of this year.

The first thing I did was limit the hours that I accepted clients – eliminated evening and weekend appointments for them so I could continue to see my existing clients.

Next thing I did was to offer a small discount on their next massage if they booked one right then at the end of their session within 2 weeks. This helped me convert many, many of these clients to become regulars.

Finally, the voucher expired, and I have been booking some of the expired voucher clients using the voucher as a gift-credit applied to a full-rate session instead of for a whole massage – one of the expired certificate clients booked a two-hour session with me recently and paid the difference – which means I made money off of that voucher. Others are doing the same thing. Almost 30 percent of the vouchers expired, so that’s cash in my pocket for no work. Granted they will have to be honored as coupons if they decide to book a session, but that means that I make almost all of the money I would have made on a massage session.

The key to doing a successful voucher with groupon, though, is knowing how many massages you think you can safely and comfortably add to your book in the time period.

Of the vouchers I did in the active period of the voucher, I rebooked 20 percent of the clients – that’s a fantastic return on my investment, and I look forward to these new clients for a good long time to go.

I would totally do a groupon voucher again.” said Paul Brown, MT www.PaulBrown.net

What To Do:
1- Get Sample Ideas - Look on the websites of these online promotional services (list of a few below) and see what their past offers have been to get ideas of what you can offer.

2 – Decide how many new clients you can handle. - There have been numerous reports on how solo and small businesses have been swamped with too much business and ended up with many disgruntled clients complaining visibly in online web reviews.

3- Develop your offer- One example is to set a rate for a service, such as $49. for an hour massage. Or you can do a discount on services such as $100 worth of services for $50.00.

4 – Define your fine print -  I suggest you limit the number of certificates each person may purchase, put a minimum age of person redeeming service, have a 6 month to a year expiration date. (The longer the period they can redeem, the more you will sell, but also, the more certificates that won’t be redeemed (but you still got paid), and if you live in an area with tourists, put a restriction to local residents only, and the hours they can redeem certificates.

4- Determine your Upsell -  Once you have the new client in the door, what will you do to keep them coming back to you?

You absolutely need to WOW them! I suggest you come up with a really irresistible offer that they can’t help but say yes to! (I’m not talking about discounts only) 
Remember, these people will continue to get new offers each day in their email box, so your offer has to stop them for just waiting for the next ‘good massage offer’ because you just blew them away with your service. It’s OK to compete on price to get them in the door – but keep them with your skills, service, ambiance, etc…

Take a look at what this smart therapist did: 
Ben Crabtree from San Antonio, Texas had an offer on Groupon and sold 359 certificates! He knew he would be having a slew of calls, so he posted a page on his website to answer questions so he could focus on providing the massage.  This link will bring you to his “FAQ” page (Frequently Asked Questions) http://massagebyben.com

   

 

If you’re considering working with one of these services:
Here are a few companies to look into: LivingSocial.com, TownHog.com, YouSwoop.com, Joffer.com, WeGiveToGet.com, and TwoBuckDuck.com

So, as usual, I have questions for you:

#1. Will you do a promotion through one of these companies?

#2. HAVE you done a promotion with one already? (If so, what was your response and reaction)

#3. What will your offer be?

 The button above is for you to help more therapists with a share the link to this page with others in your industry. There is no fee- just a Face Book post or tweet!
http://www.successfulmassagetherapist.org/public/264.cfm

About the Author

Irene Diamond is an energetic, inspirational author, speaker and therapist’s business coach who enlightens her audience with strategies, tactics and skills to succeed in business beyond their wildest dreams. Through her online coaching business (http://www.MassageSuccess.org)  live seminars, articles, and workshops, small business owners experience rapid security, stability, increased visibility  and profitability. Plus a renewed love for their therapy.

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