I recently had the opportunity to speak at a conference for massage therapists. As is true for most professionals, word-of-mouth, or referrals, was cited as the most important marketing strategy in building their massage practices.
It was also the general consensus that more could be done to receive referrals on a consistent basis.
Here are some of the items we discussed that help build a referral marketing system:
- The importance of having strategic referral partners – many of the participants mentioned how their partnerships with chiropractors and other professionals were key to building their businesses.
- Rather than trying to get ALL of their clients to give them referrals, those who are successful with referral marketing tend to focus on clients who seem to naturally want to give referrals.
- Those who made referrals a game, usually by providing rewards for multiple referrals, reported nice success stories.
- Many times, referrals do not fit the therapists “ideal client profile” so it is important further qualify referrals. The more successful practitioners had partners that they could refer these “non-ideal” clients to. This allows them to still help the client and also build their relationships with their referral partners.
These items, which emerged during our discussion, apply not only to massage therapists but equally well to other service-based businesses.
