Author Archives: Eric

Don’t Kick Yourself – Facebook Banner Offer Ends Tonight…

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The special offer for $20 banners is now over and the price is now $100. However, as a BodyworkBiz newsletter subscriber you can get your banner for just $50 until Sunday, Feb 29th by using HALFOFFBANNER in the discount code box when checking out.

Click here to order your Facebook banner now before it’s too late

Why you need one…

I’ve written a whole article on this, but in summary…

When someone lands on your Facebook Page there is no obvious way for them to contact you. Facebook likes it that way. They want to keep the visitor on their site rather than send them to your site.

A Facebook banner is a quick way to tell visitors to your Page who you are, how you can help them and how they can make an appointment to see you now. They don’t need to scroll or click. All the information is there and available for them instantly.

This is vitally important because if you make them jump through hoops to find the information they need, they’ll go elsewhere.

It’s inexpensive…

When I looked for graphic design services to refer you to they were costly – from $50 to $100.
So I decided to allow my full time graphics design guy, Bryan, to spend four weeks creating these for my subscribers and their friends.

Instead of $100, they are just $20 for a limited time.

At $20 people are buying multiple banners and are having different ones designed for a variety of purposes: Valentine’s Day promotions, gift certificate sales, Holiday wishes, vacation notices, to highlight certain modalities or benefits, etc. Click the image to the right to see how one therapist has done this.

The catches:

At this price there are a couple of conditions:

  1. You need to provide any images you want for you banner: logo, portrait, massage images, etc. You don’t have to provide images, but they do enhance the look of the banner.
  2. You don’t get unlimited revisions. After you submit all your info you get one chance to make any changes you want to your banner.

What do they look like…

Here are some recent samples straight off the presses this morning before customer revisions:

How does this work…

Click here to purchase your banner

You’ll immediately be brought to a page where you tell us what you want to appear on your banner. Use the simple tool to upload any images you want and leave us any special instructions. We will also send an email with a link to that page, so that if you want to submit it when you have more time to think about it, you can do so.

Bryan has been swamped, so I’ve hired two more full time graphic designers for the next two weeks – Thammy and Mira. They will take your information and build a unique banner for you from scratch using the information you’ve provided.

Everyone waits until the last minute to purchase, so I anticipate a rush of orders today. Despite the rush, we should be able to complete your banner within ten business days.

The designer will send you an email with a link to a page where you can download your banner and view a video that shows you how to post it to your Facebook Page. You’ll also see a place to leave feedback for the designer and if you want to change your banner you can give them instructions there. The revisions are done within one business day and you have a fantastic custom banner to post to Facebook.

This is a special one time offer for my subscribers and friends:

Click here to order your banner now for just $20 bucks

A few tips…

Here are some tips for creating an effective banner. You’ll see some of these illustrated in the samples above:

  1. At the top there is an image that draws the visitors’ eyes to your “Like” button and encourages them to click it.
  2. There is a clear call to action like “Call 416-555-1212 Today!” or “Visit our website for this month’s special!”
  3. You phone number and website address is clearly displayed to give visitors a way to easily contact you without having to hunt around for contact info.
  4. There is the opportunity to outline your service area or the benefits of your service to motivate visitors to take action.
  5. Keep text minimal. If you have many messages to communicate it is better to create multiple banners and rotate them.
  6. A logo helps brand your business and improve instant recognition.
  7. A photo of you puts a personal face to your service.

The offer expires tonight…

This offer comes off the table late tonight, so if you want to save $80 today:

Click here to order your banner now

Please share with others by clicking one of the buttons below… 

Video Marketing: A Case Study

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There is a special webinar coming up this Thursday, February 9th at 8pm (ET) that will show you a seriously underutilized method to get your site ranked in Google and set yourself apart from the competition. You can read about it below, but first, here’s a short case study video that shows you how I was able to easily get visibility on the first page of Google for a website that really had no chance for getting ranked.

The strategies outlined in this video are the ones I’ll be sharing with you on Wednesday’s webinar. If you can’t attend on this date, recorded replays will be available afterward.

Part 1. Webinar: The explosive growth of online video and what it means for you

Creating and using video for marketing is surprisingly easy. Now, with the incredible growth in online video you have an unprecedented opportunity to engage potential customers like never before. In this webinar you’ll discover:

  • Why YouTube may be the second most important site on the web after Google
  • Why you must start communicating with your audience through video
  • How video can boost your visibility in the search engines
  • Three simple ways to create video
  • How to optimize your videos to be found by the search engines
  • How to syndicate your videos to a dozen video sharing sites quickly

Part 2. View it and do it

Follow along with Eric as he leads you through the process of creating and publishing a video. By the end of this two hour session you will accomplish the following:

  • Create and optimize your YouTube channel
  • Create/download a short video
  • Optimize your video for the search engines
  • Upload a video to YouTube
  • Register for a video syndication service

The cost of the three hour webinar is only $30.

Click here to register for this special video marketing webinar now

You can get this session and access to nine other special web marketing sessions by registering for the Web Marketing MBA program. This is an online group coaching program and will lead you through the process of getting clients through the web. When you register for all ten sessions, you get them for just half price.

Register for all ten sessions for just $150 (regularly $300)

(Note that six live sessions have already been done, but recorded replays are available for you to access anytime for up to one year.)

Register now and I’ll see you there

Take care,

Eric Brown

www.bodyworkbiz.com

PS If you can’t attend the live event, you can access a recorded replay immediately after.

Please click one of the buttons below to share with your friends…

What’s a Facebook banner and why do you need one?

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Facebook is one of the most popular web services online and should reach an incredible 1 billion users this year. That’s right: A billion users!

Marketing gurus over the past few years have been singing the praises of Facebook as one of the most effective ways to get new customers. The most popular way businesses promote themselves on Facebook is through a Facebook Page, often called a Fan Page.

Although Facebook encourages businesses to set up these Fan Pages, they don’t really give visitors much opportunity to find out more about you or to get to your website. Just check out any small business Fan Page for yourself and see how quickly you can find a way to contact the business, by visiting their website, by emailing them or by phone.

From the perspective of Facebook, it makes sense to make this process as difficult as possible so that you stay on their site and view the Facebook ads that provide their revenue.

So when a potential client reaches your Facebook Page you want to make it as easy as humanly possible for them to be able to contact you.

That’s why it’s vitally important that you create a custom banner for you Page, so they know instantly who you are and how to contact you.

Take a look at screen shots of these two Facebook Pages. Which therapists would you be most likely contact?

 

 

The one to the right, of course!

The phone number and website address in that custom banner catch the eye immediately. The branding is obvious. It’s clear what this business is and what they do. There is no hunting around trying to figure out how to contact this therapist. The website address and phone number are prominently displayed. And the top of the banner invites the visitor to “Like” the Page as it draws their eyes toward the Like button.

How do you get your own eye catching banner?

I was surfing through Facebook to find example of people who use banners effectively. Examples were difficult to find.

Then I started searching for designers or services who would create these. I had a difficult time finding any providers to refer you to. One I found charged a minimum of $50 and more were in the $80 to $100 range.

I have a full time graphic designer named Bryan on staff and I am setting aside a large portion of his time for several weeks to work on creating Facebook banners for you.

How much?

Just $20! That’s a price anyone can afford. And is a fraction of the price you would pay elsewhere.

Update February 8th, 2012: The sale is now over. The banners are now priced at $100. For the straglers that are just finding out about these now, use enter the code HALFOFFBANNER iln the discount code box when checking out to get $50 off the price. This coupon will be active until Sunday, Feb 12th.

I’m only going to do this for a short time, then I’ll have to put him back to work on other projects. So if you want to make your Facebook Page more effective instantly, then order your banner today.

Click here to order your customized Facebook banner now

Here are some examples of what these might look like:

Making your banner work for you

You can request any information you like on these, but I’ll point out some of the features that will make your banner effective:

  1. At the top there is an image that draws the visitors eyes to your “Like” button and encourages them to click it.
  2. There is a clear call to action like “Call 416-555-1212 Today!” or “Visit our website for this month’s special!”
  3. You phone number or website is clearly displayed to give visitors a way to easily contact you without having to hunt around for contact info.
  4. There is the opportunity to outline your service area or the benefits of your service to motivate visitors to take action.
  5. A logo helps brand your business and improve instant recognition.
  6. A photo of you puts a personal face to your service.

Also notice that you can choose a portion of the banner to use as a thumbnail. Your thumbnail appears beside every post you make to catch people’s attention and to reinforce your brand image.

So get your banner made today. The offer expires at the end of the month and that’s coming up fast.

Click here to order your customized Facebook banner for just $20 ($100)

Your banner will likely be complete within three business days (note: because of the large volume of orders the estimated delivery time for orders placed after January 20 will likely be about five business days) and I’ll send you a link to a video that explains exactly how to get it on your Facebook Page. It’s a very simple process. This offer expires February 8, 2012. That’s just days away, so order now.

Please click one of the buttons below and share this with your friends and colleagues before the offer comes down.

Make your newsletter sign-up viral

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Here’s an interesting approach to spreading the word about your newsletter used by Get Response that I thought I’d share.

Typically after a person signs up for your newsletter they are brought to a generic thank you page that simply says “Thanks”. Since these people who have just signed up for your newsletter are obviously like what they see on your website, why not give them an opportunity to take some action.

At BodyworkBiz, I provide new subscribers with a special one-time offer as a thank you for signing up. They get a great deal and many of them take me up on that offer.

Get Response does something different. They want new subscribers to let others know about the newsletter by asking them to share it on social networking sites. So their thank you page looks like this:

The results: Approximately 18% of subscribers shared a link to the newsletter signup on Facebook or Twitter. That’s almost one in five subscribers!

Making a small change like this can really help spread the word and increase the number of newsletter subscribers.

How do you do this? Get Response provides some direction and you can check out their original post here: http://blog.getresponse.com/how-to-make-your-sign-up-form-go-viral.html

 

Touch ambassadors?

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It’s great to see David Palmer actively writing again and I’m thoroughly enjoying his TouchPro blog. It was about 18 years ago that I first met David Palmer, the “Father of Chair Massage” at a marketing workshop in Toronto. (Note: Although I’m very much associated with developing chair massage in Canada, I didn’t come up with the concept. I’m just the “Son of Chair Massage.”)

That meeting had a profound impact on the way I looked at my role as a massage therapist and in a broader way on my life’s path. There were a couple of ideas in particular that he communicated that changed my thinking about massage and caused me to make a 180 degree turn in my professional life:

1. An important distinction: The difference between massage being acceptable vs. massage being accessible.

In the early 90′s I was fully engaged in the trend to “medicalize” massage in an effort to gain some acceptance by the mainstream. At that time I had taught well over a 1,000 therapists in 2,200 hour massage training programs and was writing a research-based textbook for a large American publisher. I was on a mission to see massage become more accepted by other health professionals, but making that distinction stopped me in my tracks.

As service professionals, we’re not here to serve health professionals or even insurance providers for that matter. We’re here to serve humanity. And the simple fact was (and still is) that massage as it is widely practiced today will never achieve widespread utilization by the public. David Palmer suggests that only 3% of the American public receives regular massage. Therapists can’t believe the number and get upset by it, but he’s right. Having taken considerable time over the years to analyze the numbers from major association surveys, I think he’s probably even a little generous with his estimations.

Bottom line: People need the touch that massage provides. We need to focus less on being accepted by the medical community and insurance providers and focused on making our services more accessible to the mainstream public – creating a grassroots revolution of sorts.

2. Touch as a positive social value

One of the reasons that massage has never achieved a high level of popularity is because of the negative associations with touch. Besides the obvious associations with sex in our culture, it is also associated in a more negative way with abuse, coercion, power and danger, thus creating a touch-phobic culture. As a result, we have a situations where teachers are fearful of comforting young students in any kind of physical way and touching is increasing being banned in schools even between students.

It’s proven beyond a doubt that we need touch as much as we need food and sleep. So we need to transform perceptions around touch and make touch a positive social value.

These two goals, making touch a positive social value and making massage more accessible, have been a driving force in my career much to the dismay of my colleagues.

At the risk of sounding preachy, I have to say that as massage therapists we are uniquely positioned to be ambassadors for positive touch. We have the ability to go far beyond helping a strained hamstring and have the power to change people’s lives in very profound ways through touch.

I encourage you to think about how you can contribute to the cause. What can we do as massage professionals to change attitudes towards touch and make massage more accessible to every man, woman and child? Are you ready to start a touch revolution?

I’d love to hear your thoughts on the issue. Tell me what you think by posting your comments below.

Happy Thanksgiving!

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Happy Thanksgiving!

I’m Canadian and we’ve already had our thanksgiving celebration. In my mind however, every day is a day of thanksgiving.

Every night, I lay in bed with my son for a few minutes and we talk about the best parts of our day and what we’re thankful for. It’s a ritual that we’ve done pretty much every night since he could talk and continues to this day (even though he’s now 12!) Here’s a little video that I took a couple years ago of our ritual…

I’m thankful for so many things in my life…

  • I’m thankful for having a comfortable home
  • I’m thankful for my loving partner
  • I’m thankful for a beautiful son
  • I’m thankful that I’m financially secure
  • I’m thankful for great health
  • I’m thankful for my fantastic friends and family
  • I’m thankful for the support I receive from you and the other BodyworkBiz subscribers
  • And because I’m eating a piece of toast with Nutella as I’m writing this, I’m especially thankful that someone discovered chocolate

I know there are many people that are not as fortunate as me and who may be struggling in various areas of their lives. My heart goes out to you. Just know that you can change your future. It is possible and it starts with believing you can.

Although my ability to help you is limited, I will do my best to provide you with accessible and practical business resources that you can use to build your practice. My sincere wish is to see you prosper now and into the future.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Eric Brown
www.bodyworkbiz.com
www.worldmassageconference.com
www.thermalpalms.com

6 Steps to Build a Better Practice

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I’m happy to announce that I have the feature story for the November/December issue of Massage & Bodywork Magazine. It’s not my first cover story, but I have to say it’s a darn good article and I’m quite proud of it. You can view the digital edition here: http://massagebodywork.idigitaledition.com/issues/21/34

For more practice building resources from Eric Brown and a free subscription to the BodyworkBiz Marketing Tips newsletter, go to: http://www.bodyworkbiz.com

Binge Marketing

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What Is Binge Marketing and Why You Should Never Fall Victim to It…

Don’t do it!

Don’t do binge marketing. I see this all too often where therapists suddenly find that their appointment book is looking a little light and figure they had better do some marketing. It was illustrated in an email I received today where the therapist mentioned that “Marketing may be important to me in a FEW WEEKS.”

The unfortunate part is this is an attitude that is widely shared. It’s not an isolated occurrence.

Where I see Binge Marketing in a big way is immediately before holidays like Christmas. I get panicked emails from BodyworkBiz newsletters subscribers asking, “How can I sell lots of gift certificates?” or “What can I do for a promotion for this holiday?”

The thing is, marketing is not something you just do in a few weeks to fix a slow practice. That’s like pulling out a Band Aid from the medicine cabinet to fix a gushing chest wound.

If your practice is not at the level you want it to be, I can almost guarantee that it’s not a techniques issue. You are probably very talented. Your massage does not suck. Taking another techniques class as a way to help your practice is a mistake.

If your practice is not at the level you want it to be, I can almost guarantee that it’s a marketing issue. You didn’t get 500 hours of practical business training in massage school. Your marketing probably sucks. Learning simple ways to incorporate ongoing marketing activities into your practice is the smart thing to do.

I’m not trying to insult anyone. I’m just tired of seeing talented therapists barely scraping by. I’m tired of seeing fantastic therapists leaving the profession because they can’t make a go at it. It’s painful for me to watch great therapists hit the ground, kamikaze style.

So I beg of you, don’t fall into to binge marketing mindset. Binge marketing might keep your business alive, but in the long term it just is not the answer for a satisfying and sustainable practice.

So what’s a therapist to do?

Start by learning more about marketing. If you do not have a highly successful business, then invest at least twice as much time, money and energy in your marketing education as you do in advancing your massage skills.

You can study with me or you can study with someone who you resonate more strongly with. Whatever you decide, make sure that the marketing person you work with is highly experienced and has not just personal success, but is able to translate that success to others with a proven marketing strategy.

For example, before I released the 60 Clients in 60 Days program, I tested the ideas on groups of massage therapists to make sure the strategy worked on a broad range of practices. It allowed me to create pretty much a foolproof strategy. You can read about the successes of the participants here. This is just one of many pages of success stories illustrating what happens when things are done right.

More recently, I’ve turned my attention to web marketing because it’s an important area, but one where most therapists are extremely weak. I have a great deal of expertise to share. Not only do I do large scale web projects like World Massage Conference, the largest event in the history of massage, but I’ve personally developed over 100 websites for massage therapists of which over 95% ended up on the first page of Google within weeks.

For this reason, I developed the Web Marketing MBA program that will pretty much allow someone to learn how to master web marketing. It’s not a binge marketing solution. In fact, the ten sessions are spread over almost a five month period to help encourage sustainability in your practice. I’d like to see you helping people through your hands on skills for the long run. I want you to be successful by taking regular action over the long term in a way that’s practical and doable. I welcome you to take advantage of this valuable and low cost resource:

http://www.bodyworkbiz.com/webmarketing

Whether you decide to join me or not, I want to do whatever I can to discourage you from doing any more binge marketing. Don’t do it. Learn some solid strategies that work and incorporate them into your daily practice to develop a strong sustainable practice that will allow you to benefit increasing numbers of people.

That’s all my ranting for today,

Eric Brown, Grand Massage Poobah
http://www.bodyworkbiz.com

Do you believe that more therapists need to avoid binge marketing. Vote “yes” by clicking the Like button below.

The top social networking sites

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Here’s a comparison of the top social networking sites today and my recommendations on which ones to use in your marketing efforts for your massage business. This is an excerpt from a social media webinar hosted by Ben Benjamin. For more information on how to use social networking sites to grow your massage business go to http://www.bodyworkbiz.com/webmarketing.

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