Build Your Book with Chair Massage

I hated chair massage. It hurt my hands, and it didn’t bring in many new clients—that is, until I figured out what I was doing wrong. In this article, I am going to show you my step-by-step process for using chair massage as a marketing tool to build your book without sacrificing your hands. Let’s start with taking care of your hands.

Step #1: Don’t squeeze all the time and use massage tools.

Chair massage is an invitation to squeeze the upper traps, but repetitive squeezing will quickly fatigue your hands. To get out of the squeezing game, try pressing between two hands to produce a squeezing effect without actually squeezing. In the picture below, the bottom hand is providing the platform for the top hand to press against.

Thumbs can also get overused when doing chair massage. A round-tip L-bar is a good thumb replacement. Use it to apply precise pressure or to glide over clothing.   

As you practice with the round-tip L-bar, don’t be surprised if your ability to gauge and regulate pressure improves. Even through clothing? Yes, if you do this: Press with your fingers and thumbs to figure out how much pressure you want to apply to a particular area. Then match that pressure with the massage tool. This process of calibrating pressure provides constant feedback, and that feedback allows you to refine your sensitivity.  

If you incorporate massage tools and squeeze less, you’re ready to do chair massage without being in pain. Now let’s build your book by getting people in your massage chair.   

Step #2: Select a business that is a good prospect to do chair massage.

To decide if a business is the right place for you to do chair massage, ask yourself these three questions:

1.  Does the business fit my massage style and client demographics?

2.  Can I build a relationship with this business?

3.  Is there potential for the business’s customers to become my clients?

A while back, I focused on my teaching business and my massage practice suffered. To recharge my massage practice, I decided to do chair massage, and I made a list of businesses that would be a good fit with my massage style. Physical therapists, personal trainers, chiropractors and running stores were at the top of the list since I was experienced with pain-relief and sports massage.

I then did a local Google search for each business category and wrote down the businesses that didn’t offer massage as part of their services. Next, I came up with an offer.

Step #3: Create a chair massage offer.

The offer will spell out the details of what you are agreeing to do. Are you going to provide chair massage at your normal price, a discounted price or for free but on a limited basis? From a marketing standpoint, my number-one priority was getting bodies in my chair so I could sell my massage. That’s why I chose free but on a limited basis. Here’s what a successful, free offer looks like:

I researched and found a chiropractor, Bernie, who didn’t offer massage in his office. I approached Bernie with a proposal of doing two hours of free, 10-minute chair massage for his patients on a day of his choosing.

He loved the idea and renamed my proposal Patient Appreciation Day. By changing the name, he was taking credit for providing his patients with free massage. I was fine with that because by allowing me to come into his office, he was essentially endorsing me, giving me instant credibility in the eyes of his patients. The only thing I needed to do was to relax and provide pain relief to his patients. That I could do.

The maiden event was successful and some patients made appointments right on the spot. Bernie suggested we run the chair massage gig once every other week for a month or two. We did and I got more name recognition and more of his patients as clients.

After two months, it naturally petered out. But now my book was getting full and Bernie was referring patients to me on an ongoing basis because of chair massage.

The Misses

Not all offers worked out for me. I did a two-hour, free chair massage gig at a local PT office. They seemed to enjoy the massage, but after the gig was over, I couldn’t get their attention again.

Years later I approached the PT office again. This time the office manager explained that their PTs see hip and knee replacement patients from the hospital across the street and never refer out.

Another time I did free chair massage at a retirement community. I didn’t do any follow-up because, ultimately, the retirement community was too far from my office.

By the way, if the chair massage gig is not a good fit, no problem. You have no obligation to do it again. Simply move on to the next business on your list.

Chair Massage Marketing for a Massage Business

Currently, I don’t use chair massage to market my private practice, but I do use it to market my massage business. That means I pay therapists to do chair massage, and I have to pick my venues carefully so I don’t burn through my marketing budget.

I use the same business selection process as I did when I was doing chair massage for my private practice. Is the business a good fit and does it have potential to generate clients and build a relationship?

What has changed is where I put the emphasis. Before, with my private practice, the emphasis was on bringing in clients ASAP. Now, it’s about relationship-building because strong relationships can lead to ongoing client-acquisition opportunities.

Here’s how I fostered a relationship using chair massage: On our grand opening at our new massage location, which is in a pharmacy’s wellness center, we offered free chair massage. We extended the free chair massage to pharmacy employees. Some employees took us up on the offer and the word around the pharmacy started to spread that the people at PressurePerfect Massage are really nice.

We kept the momentum going. A few months later, the pharmacy ran a big sale. We did chair massage to support their sales event. This time we only picked up one client, but more importantly, we continued to build a positive relationship with the pharmacy.

Step #4: Use chair massage for relationship building.

Later we celebrated our one-year anniversary at the pharmacy. Can you guess what we did? You got it—more free chair massage for our clients and the pharmacy’s customers and employees.  

What was our return on investment (ROI) in terms of dollars earned and relationships built with chair massage?

On the dollars spreadsheet, we paid for 20 hours of chair massage for the year. Some chair massage recipients became clients. Some of them referred friends and family members who also became clients. Add that up and we more than covered our yearly chair massage costs. In addition, as chair massage clients and their referrals continue to come in, we continue to generate ongoing revenue.  

Harder-to-Measure Stuff

Let’s look at the ROI spreadsheet for relationships. I’m going to change the currency on the relationships spreadsheet from U.S. dollars (USD) to goodwill dollars (GWD). Why? If you do something nice for another business, you are not expecting to be paid back in cash, right? Your expectation is the other business will do something nice for you. That said, you’ll need to spend some GWD, to get some back.

At our grand opening and throughout the year, we paid the pharmacy in GWD with chair massage and other nice things, like a free lunch when they won the Good Neighbor Pharmacy of the Year. The pharmacy paid us goodwill dollars back. First, they allowed us to use the small fitness center for our wellness workshops for free. Next, they allowed us to store laundry and supplies in the fitness center at no charge.

Once this GWD exchange was established, it became easy to ask for a favor. To the pharmacy: Can we promote our workshop event through your email list? Yes. From the pharmacy: Would you ask your clients to vote for us in the Good Neighbor Pharmacy Contest? Of course!

USD and GWD are Not Mutually Exclusive

When a chair massage marketing plan is working well, you are connected to another business both through USD and GWD. Here’s what I mean: Our town borough closes down the main business street to vehicles so that restaurants can spill out onto the sidewalks and street every first Friday of the month. To get our name in front of the First Friday crowd, we will be doing chair massage.  

All Kinds of Fast, the running store I contacted when I was rebuilding my book years ago, has allowed us to put our massage chairs on the sidewalk in front of their downtown display window. The running store is paying us in GWD because we do free chair massage for their Saturday run group once a month. They also send us clients. We send them customers. And we’re friends. It doesn’t get any more connected than that.

Don’t Overthink It

You do not need an MBA to figure out how to make chair massage produce a positive ROI. First, adopt ways to save your hands so you don’t burn out doing chair massage. Then select a business whose audience is in your massage purview.

Next, reach out and make a chair massage offer and look for ways to nurture the business relationship. In short: Create the plan, sell with your hands and spend some goodwill dollars.