Massage Marketing with Groupon

This is what Susan Epperly, massage business ROI (return on investment) diva, answered questions about on the inaugural Professional Massage Network Live Q&A on September 22nd, 2011.

Susan and Shane also run Tiger Lily Studios and the Being a Massage Therapist page on Facebook.

This woman knows how to network as well as work every last nook and cranny out of a social discount program like Groupon. Seriously, if you've considered marketing massage with Groupon, Living Social or another program to grow your business, you will want to learn from someone else who has done it successfully.

Susan and Shane have done the marketing massage with Groupon deals twice. Once they sold 500(!) deals, and rebooked 60% of the voucher redeemers! They had to evaluate carefully how many deals two therapists could effectively see, without leaving them exhausted, and the clients dissatisfied.

Q: How do you offer a Groupon or Living Social discount? Do you contact them? Also, can you control the discount and time the offer is good for?

Susan: It can actually work either way. You can approach the social buying site and inquire about partnering with them. But Shane & I have certainly been fielding numerous sales calls from reps on a daily basis lately. Each site has its own set of parameters and policies, but generally you should be able to expect the opportunity to limit your offer. And I believe that any site that doesn't intend to allow you to limit your offer is one from which you should probably walk away.

You will work with the rep from the company in order to arrive at a discount, service, and number of vouchers with which you're both comfortable. In my audio book on the subject, I emphasize the fact that you *must* be completely comfortable with the deal that you offer. Make sure that the deal is sustainable and realistic for you, and that you won't wind up feeling resentment for being over-worked and under-paid.

Offer clients the utmost in professional service, and make it clear that you offer a great value, and they'll either come back or they won't. You can't waste your time crying about the ones who don't come back, but rather pour your energy into the ones who actually appreciate the exceptional service that you offer. As I've mentioned, going overboard on the up-selling is likely to leave a bad taste in clients' mouths, and it doesn't establish a solid foundation of trust on which you want to build a therapeutic relationship.

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Q: Would you suggest massage marketing with Groupon or other like-sites for a deal in a small town where there is really not a lot of competition but clients are not coming in for massage because MT is new to area/massage?

Susan: As I mentioned, when we were first featured on Groupon, our info. was blasted out to over 35,000 subscribers in our area. Whether they actually bought a voucher or not, they were introduced to our brand, and since our initial offering, we've had a fair number of folks come in and say, "Well, I first learned about you when you ran your Groupon, but I didn't buy it." - Winning!

So yes, I would say that that would be a situation that could have the potential to be very effective for that MT.

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In reference to the use of discounts too much in our field in relation to massage marketing with Groupon, Susan had this to say:

We are happy to use *discounts* sparingly and effectively, but we don't work for free. We also make is a policy t require something in return from clients in order for them to acquire a discount (pre-paying, referring a new client, etc.). Otherwise, one runs the risk of cultivating the dreaded "coupon culture." I talk about this in the audio book a lot: basically, the message is "use it, but don't abuse it."

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Q: I am in an area with over 200 bodyworkers. (population in my city around 28,000) People around here are Groupon hopping from one therapist to the next as there is at least one massage deal per week. Colleagues have shared that the rebook rate stinks (less than 1%) because people just want a cheap massage. Do you think Groupon really works in an area so heavily saturated with bodywork and offers happening so frequently?

Susan: Well, Shane and I practice in Austin, TX, which, according to various industry statistics that we've seen, is the second most saturated massage therapy market in the US, only after LA. So, the first part of my answer to this question would be that "if we can make it work, then anybody can."

Shane and I have enjoyed over a 60% return rate among our voucher redeemers. This type of marketing is certainly not for everyone, but I do believe that a lot of practitioners make an assumption about the clients that they would see as part of a Groupon (or similar) offering. Are they *all* going to just show up for the discount and move on? Not in our experience.

The story we heard over & over again from our Groupon clients was that they had been searching for a regular MT, but that they found it to be cost prohibitive and frustrating to try MTs at their regular rates, only to be disappointed by the experiences. These same clients were more than willing to "give us a try" at a discounted rate, and once they realized that we were offering the kind of experience that they were seeking, they happily returned to pay our regular rates.

We have had some clients come in and we've been left with the distinct impression that they were just here for their cheap massage and would never be back. However, once we provided them with an exceptional therapeutic experience (with "no strings attached" and no preconceived notions), educated them about what we could do for them, and sent them happily on their way, we were pleased to find that (sometimes after having tried other practitioners in town at a discounted rate and having been disappointed), they enventually wound up returning to see us at our regular rate.

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Q: I would like to know what kind of upselling is done for your new clients when massage marketing with Groupon and other deal sites?

Susan: Not much. That's actually one of our specific strategies. We provide new clients with plenty of *information,* but I believe that much of our re-booking success has been due to the fact that we made sure that our new voucher clients didn't feel "suckered." You know how you feel when you *think* you've found a great deal, and then you're hit with the "hard sell," and you think, "Well, so much for that so-called 'deal.' I wound up paying for it in anxiety and guilt over having to turn down the upselling tactics." We wanted to ensure that our clients NEVER felt that way. And it has paid off, and clients have told us specifically that they've appreciated the fact that "what they see is what they get."

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Massage Marketing with Groupon - Specialty Services

Q: I specialize in CranioSacral Therapy. Do you think something like Groupon works as well for some of the more 'unknown' therapies (even if the Groupon description is great)?

Susan: Yes, I think it could, BUT, here's the thing: Focus your feature on WHAT your therapy can DO for your clients, not what your therapy is. Many folks, while they've never heard of CST, know that they have headaches, neck pain, back aches, etc. (or whatever complaints you most often use CST to address). Focus the marketing message in your feature on the potential RESULTS, rather than on your qualifications in your modality (which likely mean nothing to most clients).

Also related to the return rate for 'specialty' services:

Susan: When we were featured on Groupon for the first time (in Nov. of '09), we offered a 60 min. massage for $35 (regularly $80) and our info. was delivered to the inboxes of over 35,000 Groupon subscribers in our area. We reached our "limit" by selling 500 vouchers by 4pm that afternoon. The second time we were featured (in March of '11), we ran a much more targeted feature ($35 for a 30 min. cold laser therapy session, which is regularly $80), which was shown to just as many or more subscribers, but which sold significantly fewer vouchers (only about 100). This might have had something to do with what I call "deal fatigue" among subscribers (there are sooo many deals out there now), but mainly, we chocked it up to it being a more "specialty" service.

However, while we sold fewer cold laser vouchers, we've seen a much more dramatic return rate among these purchasers than we ever saw among our massage purchasers. Many of the massage purchasers simply saw "cheap massage!" and forked over their credit card info. without so much as glancing at our credentials. The folks who bought the cold laser offering were much more deliberate in their intentions: namely, to solve a very specific pain that, in many cases, had them at the end of their rope. And, since pain relief is our specialty, those folks have stuck with us at a much more impressive rate.

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Q: It seems as though every other day I am receiving an offer for massage marketing with Groupon and others for massage therapists in my area. Does Groupon have any restrictions to how many of the same type of business can advertise at any given time?

Susan: When we have worked with Groupon, our rep has assured us that no more than one MT or spa will be offered in a given week. However, this is something that you should discuss with your rep. Different companies likely have different policies on this. AND, MTs & spas make up a large portion of the businesses with which these sites regularly partner, so it may become difficult for the sites to limit their MT & spa features to once a week.

But another point to make here is the importance of making your speciality or niche crystal clear in your feature. Just because you & Julie Smith both offer massage, and maybe one of you is featured on Monday & the other is featured on Tuesday on the same site, if you are a Clinical Massage Therapist, specializing in pain relief, and Julie Smith offers primarily relaxation, spa-style massage (and that is made clear in the features), then different buyers will be be attracted to the different offers, and there will be less concern over the "competition" factor.

Designing your feature effectively, when massage marketing with Groupon and others, is a huge part of having a successful feature, and I go over some specific strategies in my audio book that will help folks ensure that they're doing all they can do to make sure that they're doing so.

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Massage Marketing with Groupon

Do You Have Any Control?

Q: How much control do you have over the wording of the deal when massage marketing with Groupon and others? Do the companies have complete control over how they promote your deal?


Generally, you will provide them with information, and then they will write the copy. Many of the bigger social buying sites kind of pride themselves on the hip, edgy, humorous copy that they use. While they are likely to want to retain "creative control," it's important that you feel completely comfortable with the text. If you feel that it's inappropriate, or compromising in any way, you need to voice your objections as soon as possible so that the appropriate changes can be made.

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Q: I have been told by a few folks that the percentage you pay to them is VERY negotiable, have you found that to be true within our industry and the social discount sites?

Susan: This depends on the site with which you're dealing, but generally, yes, I would say that "everything's negotiable." The price, the discount, the split, the service, the number of vouchers that will be offered. However, most of the best know sites will expect you to offer *at least* a 50% discount. And furthermore, they will likely expect you to split the remaining revenue 50/50. However, that being said, that is just a "rule of thumb" where negotiations are likely to start.

( In massage marketing with Groupon and others...) Never be afraid to ask for what you want, and especially in this situation, doing so may make or break your ability to successfully run such an offer.


If one company tells you, "no," don't be afraid to move on down to the road to one of the other similarly-structured sites to see if they might be willing to work with you.

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When it comes to massage marketing with Groupon, we are a proud affiliate of Susan and Shane's audio book, "Using Online Social Buying Platforms to Promote Your Business". They *really* know what they're talking about. So, you can go straight to their store and buy Using Online Social Buying Platforms To Promote Your Business through this link. Susan and Shane have a lot of experience building their busy practice together...beyond massage marketing with Groupon! "As Massage Therapists explore the many online marketing opportunities that are available today, the use of social buying sites (such as Groupon) inevitably enters the conversation. My husband, Shane, and I have used social buying sites to sustainably grow our two therapist practice, and we have found that this type of marketing platform has enabled us to be introduced to a large group of clients with whom we have built the kind of quality client relationships that we all treasure. The tips and strategies that we’ve developed have allowed us to enjoy more than a 60% return rate among our discount voucher users. Join me for Professional Massage Network’s “Lunch & Learn Chat,” where I’ll share some of these tips and strategies, as well as discuss my recently released MP3 audio book that outlines our experiences with social buying sites, titled “Using Online Social Buying Platforms to Promote Your Business: A Massage Therapist’s Success Story from the Trenches,” produced by Tiger Lily Studios. Since I've been approached by so many MTs wondering if this is a viable option for them (after having been quoted in Laura Allen’s article “Successful Promotions without Breaking the Bank” from the January / February 2011 edition of Massage & Bodywork Magazine), I decided to compile our experiences and lay out all the pros and cons that we have encountered. I hope that others will find it to be helpful as they make the decision as to whether or not to pursue these types of platforms."

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