I checked in to a hotel today in Perth … A city I am unfamiliar with.
After a five hour flight my body was screaming “massage, massage!”
So I Google ‘Mobile massage Perth’.
And the fun begins … Not!
The first two pages (yes, I was so desperate I went to page 2 of the search results) were littered with basic directory listings with minimal information, large enquiry generating sites with no personal touch and the odd individual Massuer who, upon clicking on their link, bamboozled me with irrelevant information.
Seriously, either no one has a need for mobile massage in Perth or the concept of ranking number 1 on page 1 of the world’s biggest search engine is yet to get through to this industry (as well as many others).
Seriously, how fricken hard can I be to dominate such a search?
Here’s what I’d do.
1. Create a simple website that recognized that people looking for massage are tired, stressed or sore – show that you understand how they feel. I’d also have a section telling them a little bit about me and my approach to massage and include a clear, friendly photo or two. In fact, a video of you introducing yourself and your services would be a great idea. The main section is your Services – simply describe what you offer and how much. Give each offer a cool name like the ‘Release From Stress’ package (we love to buy packages) and spray a few testimonials about as well. Then, last but by no means least – make it easy for people to contact you. In fact, I’d have your phone number at the top of every page.
2. All of the above should be short, simple copy. Headlines, sub-heads, bullet points. NOT ‘War and Peace’. And make it keyword rich … that doesn’t mean every second paragraph should start with ‘As a mobile Massuer in the Perth …” but it does mean understand what phrases your prospects are keying in to Google and include them in the copy of your site.
3. Now that the front of your site is sorted, complete the back end. This gets a little techie … But it’s worth learning. Basically, you need to ensure every page has a key word rich page title and description … If you’re website is built in WordPress, then add a plugin like Yoast and complete the empty fields for each page.
At this point, you are so far ahead of the game it’s not funny. But I did say ‘dominate’ … So let’s continue.
4. Now you’ve got a website that will resonate with prospects … Go and list yourself in all the free directories … And when I say list, don’t just put your name and mobile … Complete all the fields they give you. By doing this, you’ve begun your SEO campaign AKA search engine optimisation. If you want to take it up a notch then have a professional team do your SEO – I use these guys and they’re damn good.
5. Verify and complete your Google + Places listing. This is like a free website that Google gives you and they will always list a business’s Places listing whenever anyone does a search with a suburb name attached.
6. Finally, go ahead and create some videos. Just use your iPhone camera. Answers the five most frequently asked questions about massage, upload them to Your new YouTube channel that you’ve created, and then complete the headline, description and category information ensuring the odd keyword is used.
Do this and your on a winner. And so am I … As next time I come to Perth, you’ll be the first one I call.
What do you think? Would you add anything to this online marketing strategy?
Grab My 10 Marketing
14 thoughts on “Marketing 101 For A Massuer (Or any small business wanting to get found online).”
Love the suggestion about i-phone video. In the past I’ve stuffed around trying to make content and videos perfect and then it takes weeks to get anything up live! Im embracing the ‘Just Do It’ philosophy and we’ve got new videos making their way to our FB page this week!
Love the suggestion about i-phone video. In the past I’ve stuffed around trying to make content and videos perfect and then it takes weeks to get anything up live! Im embracing the ‘Just Do It’ philosophy and we’ve got new videos making their way to our FB page this week!
Great article Timbo, extremely relevant!
Great article Timbo, extremely relevant!
Timbo, talk about timing. A colleague of mine raced up to Newcastle after a particuarly gruelling gym session for meetings in the morning. During the break between appointments he decided in that few hours to kill he would get a massage. Using his android phone he searched “massage in newcastle nsw”. He was shocked by the search results, and more by the amount of ummmm, adult massages were the hidden service which he discovered upon ringing them. Apart from having a good laugh, it is disappointing to see that this simple marketing strategy is being overlooked in this industry search term sector. Get the basics right guys, it’s not that hard is it? Sometimes it leaves me wondering.
Timbo, talk about timing. A colleague of mine raced up to Newcastle after a particuarly gruelling gym session for meetings in the morning. During the break between appointments he decided in that few hours to kill he would get a massage. Using his android phone he searched “massage in newcastle nsw”. He was shocked by the search results, and more by the amount of ummmm, adult massages were the hidden service which he discovered upon ringing them. Apart from having a good laugh, it is disappointing to see that this simple marketing strategy is being overlooked in this industry search term sector. Get the basics right guys, it’s not that hard is it? Sometimes it leaves me wondering.
Tim I love the way you have broken this down so simply. I am also continuously frustrated, though as time goes by now more confused as to why Small businesses do not just do all of the above.
I think the biggest obstacles for them are ……..we all know it, time, knowledge and and money.
If they could find just 1/2 an hour a day, now that The Block and The Voice are finished this should be easy ;). They just need to make small actions and plug away at it.
When you have a purpose you can find the time and lets face it we are not short of access to free knowledge and technology to help us achieve your above suggestions.
No excuses guys, yet it still isn’t happening. A client said to me just the other night he just doesn’t have the energy and mind space for it after a hard days work and I think that more than anything is the issue.
The main take away though is not to put your head in the sand about it, work on your energy and time management and learn and apply some stuff or just bite the bullet and pay someone to help you and regard it as an investment not an expense.
Tim I love the way you have broken this down so simply. I am also continuously frustrated, though as time goes by now more confused as to why Small businesses do not just do all of the above.
I think the biggest obstacles for them are ……..we all know it, time, knowledge and and money.
If they could find just 1/2 an hour a day, now that The Block and The Voice are finished this should be easy ;). They just need to make small actions and plug away at it.
When you have a purpose you can find the time and lets face it we are not short of access to free knowledge and technology to help us achieve your above suggestions.
No excuses guys, yet it still isn’t happening. A client said to me just the other night he just doesn’t have the energy and mind space for it after a hard days work and I think that more than anything is the issue.
The main take away though is not to put your head in the sand about it, work on your energy and time management and learn and apply some stuff or just bite the bullet and pay someone to help you and regard it as an investment not an expense.
Cheers for the article Tim. I had a similar experience on a trip to the Clare Valley (a renowned wine region in SA) a few weeks ago. We heard about this great pizza bar in town that apparently did delivery (we were staying in a self-contained cottage and to be honest, couldn’t be bothered driving in to get takeaway). We searched high and low for a phone number. We went to Google. We went to the Yellow Pages (gulp!) We went to the White Pages. We called one of the wineries that told us about the place – to see whether they had the number. Nope. We spoke to the proprietors of our accommodation. Nothing.
The place had just open apparently. Maybe we could have forgiven them.
So, we drove into town and when I was placing the order I asked them how long they had been open as I realised they were quite new. They had been open for 1.5 months! Can you believe that? Open 1.5 months and they had NO online presence, not even a phone number. What’s more, I did find an article about them in the online version of the local newspaper and sure enough, no contact details there either.
Surprisingly they were quite busy, but it was all walk in customers.
Cheers for the article Tim. I had a similar experience on a trip to the Clare Valley (a renowned wine region in SA) a few weeks ago. We heard about this great pizza bar in town that apparently did delivery (we were staying in a self-contained cottage and to be honest, couldn’t be bothered driving in to get takeaway). We searched high and low for a phone number. We went to Google. We went to the Yellow Pages (gulp!) We went to the White Pages. We called one of the wineries that told us about the place – to see whether they had the number. Nope. We spoke to the proprietors of our accommodation. Nothing.
The place had just open apparently. Maybe we could have forgiven them.
So, we drove into town and when I was placing the order I asked them how long they had been open as I realised they were quite new. They had been open for 1.5 months! Can you believe that? Open 1.5 months and they had NO online presence, not even a phone number. What’s more, I did find an article about them in the online version of the local newspaper and sure enough, no contact details there either.
Surprisingly they were quite busy, but it was all walk in customers.
Cheers for the article Tim. I had a similar experience on a trip to the Clare Valley (a renowned wine region in SA) a few weeks ago. We heard about this great pizza bar in town that apparently did delivery (we were staying in a self-contained cottage and to be honest, couldn’t be bothered driving in to get takeaway). We searched high and low for a phone number. We went to Google. We went to the Yellow Pages (gulp!) We went to the White Pages. We called one of the wineries that told us about the place – to see whether they had the number. Nope. We spoke to the proprietors of our accommodation. Nothing.
The place had just open apparently. Maybe we could have forgiven them.
So, we drove into town and when I was placing the order I asked them how long they had been open as I realised they were quite new. They had been open for 1.5 months! Can you believe that? Open 1.5 months and they had NO online presence, not even a phone number. What’s more, I did find an article about them in the online version of the local newspaper and sure enough, no contact details there either.
Surprisingly they were quite busy, but it was all walk in customers.
Cheers for the article Tim. I had a similar experience on a trip to the Clare Valley (a renowned wine region in SA) a few weeks ago. We heard about this great pizza bar in town that apparently did delivery (we were staying in a self-contained cottage and to be honest, couldn’t be bothered driving in to get takeaway). We searched high and low for a phone number. We went to Google. We went to the Yellow Pages (gulp!) We went to the White Pages. We called one of the wineries that told us about the place – to see whether they had the number. Nope. We spoke to the proprietors of our accommodation. Nothing.
The place had just open apparently. Maybe we could have forgiven them.
So, we drove into town and when I was placing the order I asked them how long they had been open as I realised they were quite new. They had been open for 1.5 months! Can you believe that? Open 1.5 months and they had NO online presence, not even a phone number. What’s more, I did find an article about them in the online version of the local newspaper and sure enough, no contact details there either.
Surprisingly they were quite busy, but it was all walk in customers.
Thanks again,
That’s some great and simple advise. No i have to go and action it.
Thanks again,
That’s some great and simple advise. No i have to go and action it.