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Massage Therapy Session Gift Certificates - Unlock Client Happiness, A Full Calendar, & Recurring Revenue
As a massage therapist, you need ways to create recurring revenue if you want stability, scalability, and freedom. Sure, you can increase your income by booking clients, but wouldn't it be nice to have more reliable revenue? Wouldn’t it be better if your practice was less susceptible to the time of day, season, and the ups and downs of client turnover?
With a steadier source of income, you could save more money, put more towards your financial goals, or invest in professional development. There are two straightforward ways to create recurring revenue streams for massage therapists: gift certificates and monthly memberships.
In this blog, we'll focus on gift certificates. Gift certificates aren’t just good around holidays. They can be profitable vehicles year-round, if done right. They also provide upfront income and encourage new clients to book with you (who might not have otherwise). We'll walk you through how to use them, market them, and keep clients returning after redeeming their gift certificates. Before we dive in, let's discuss why gift certificates are so valuable to you as a massage therapist and to your clients.
Step 1: Understand the Value of Massage Therapy Gift Certificates
Gift certificates may not seem like a steady income source because you might think they're a one-and-done deal. However, we’d encourage you to look at this a little bit differently.
Yes, they're technically one transaction, but the smart business owner should see it as much more valuable. After all, it's essentially a pre-paid referral!
You get that cash up front since it's already been paid for. That makes gift certificates a great way to balance your cash flow during slower seasons and around the holidays. Who doesn't need more money around the holidays?
They're also a great way to introduce people to your practice and offer a fantastic experience that will turn them into repeat clients.
Plus, offering gift certificates is straightforward and well worth the little bit of work it takes to set up and promote them. It isn’t hard to get started, yet the benefits can be tremendous for you and your clients.
Your clients benefit from giving the gift of wellness to others, trusting you and your practice enough to put money behind it. That's powerful, especially since this gives you the fantastic opportunity to turn that referral into a repeat client for, perhaps, years to come.
Step 2: Make Gift Certificates Easy to Purchase
Now that you understand why gift certificates are valuable, the goal is to make purchasing them as frictionless and straightforward as possible. Friction kills sales, so the last thing you want is for your clients to struggle to find or purchase these certificates.
If you use a platform like MassageBook, you can prevent the hassle of juggling paper certificates and use online ones instead.
Online gift certificates through MassageBook allow you to track every certificate you sell, from purchase to redemption. Since they're online, they're easy to share via email and can be redeemed through the normal checkout flow in MassageBook.
Dollar Amount vs. Service-Specific Certificates
As far as what numbers to use, it depends on your goals and your target audience, but here are the traditional gift certificate options:
- $50
- $75
- $100
- $200
In addition to offering dollar-amount gift certificates, you can designate specific services or packages that clients can redeem. For example, you can set one up for "Swedish Massage for $80" or "Sports Massage for $70." If you create these, inform the client exactly what they’re getting to prevent any confusion and friction.
Make sure that your clients can easily find the gift certificate purchase page. Include a link on your home page, social media profiles, and perhaps your email signature.
Step 3: Create Irresistible Gift Certificate Packages
While basic gift certificates are great, themed or bundled ones are even better. Why? They're more fun, and they help your offerings stand out just a little bit more.
Themes and seasonal offerings also encourage people to try new services, so why not apply that principle to your gift certificates?
Packages like "Stress Relief for Moms" or "Relax & Recharge" immediately tell the client what to expect and who the offer is for. This little bit of flourish makes the gift feel more thoughtful, making it more attractive and likely to sell.
You can sweeten the deal even further by including small perks with these gift packages, such as complimentary aromatherapy. This little upgrade enhances the client experience while requiring very little overhead.
Another way to encourage buyers is to offer deals for buying gift certificates in bulk. For example, you could offer a deal on your gift certificate page that says, "Buy three, save $20 on the fourth."
Your action step for this section is brainstorming a few themed gift certificate ideas to accompany your most popular services. Come up with two or three themes to work with and throw together some quick marketing messaging to accompany them. You can spruce them up later.
The idea here is to get you thinking about how to position these packages to your clients, so if you get stuck, imagine you're having a typical client conversation. That should make it easier to get some messaging on paper to use when the time is right.
Step 4: Promote Your Gift Certificates with Targeted Marketing
Even the best gift certificate offerings won't make a difference if nobody knows about them.
If you want to sell them effectively, you need to consistently work on some simple marketing tactics. You're already using email blasts and social media, so let's start there.
Remember, just like marketing your services, you want to position gift certificates in a way that speaks to specific client needs. In this case, your goal should be to address the client's desire to give meaningful gifts. They're certainly in luck now that you're offering the gift of wellness as an easy-to-purchase certificate.
Also, don't worry about repeating cliches. "Give the gift of relaxation" is a classic example. It works because it touches on that desire to help others, is emotional, and speaks directly to the outcome.
So, use your social media account (or accounts) to post about gift certificate availability, especially around holidays and special events. Take advantage of themes and seasons. Incorporate testimonials, pictures of your space, and photos of you with happy clients.
Likewise, use your email lists to promote your gift certificates and make it easy for customers to click a single link to the purchase page. This way, they won't miss your special themes, bulk certificate options, or occasional limited-time gift card discounts.
In fact, why don't we give it a try? Put together a brief email or social media post promoting your gift certificates and reminding your clients why they’d make great gifts for someone in their lives.
Step 5: Encourage and Lock-In Repeat Visits After Redemption
Gift certificates are a great way to attract new clients, but your primary goal should be to turn them into repeat customers.
To do this, you need to give them an incredible experience during their session. Of course, this should be true for all of your clients. Whatever you do, do it exceptionally well. This is enough to help you stand out as a professional who delivers value and results.
However, you can enhance these experiences with a few extra touches that encourage clients to book with you again.
For example, you could send a "thank you" follow-up message after their initial visit. To make it doubly effective, include a small discount for a return visit and clearly personalize it just for them.
Another idea you can try is to create special "welcome back" offers that target gift certificate users. You can send something simple that says, "Thanks again for coming in. If you'd like to come back, I'm offering $20 off your next session if you rebook within the next two weeks."
If you know they had a great experience, ask for an incentivized review that comes with a small perk, add-on, or future discount. This way, you get a positive review, they're more likely to return, and you can leverage the feedback to bring in new clients.
Step 6: Track, Measure, and Adapt
You need to track sales to determine whether your gift certificate strategy is paying off. MassageBook makes it easy to track and analyze your progress, providing clear insights into the number of gift cards purchased, their amounts, and the number redeemed.
(image from: https://pro.massagebook.com/features/business/gift-certificates/)
However, if you use a different platform or prefer paper gift certificates, you must find a different way to track your sales. For spreadsheet lovers, you can include fields for date of purchase, purchaser, recipient, amount, service, and whether or not it's been redeemed.
If you track it closely enough, you can start to notice trends, such as whether sales pick up during certain times of the year or which dollar amounts (or services) are most likely to be redeemed. You can also see how many one-time gift certificate users become regular clients.
MassageBook allows you to quickly view insights on the tracking page to see how they are performing.
If you haven't sold any yet, at least take a moment to see what's on the page so you know what you're tracking. If you're not using MassageBook, create a system for tracking gift certificate sales, whether a spreadsheet or a different platform.
Either way, take a moment now to schedule a monthly review so you can regularly assess what's working and what needs to be adjusted in gift certificate sales.
It's up to You to Boost Your Business with Gift Certificates
As long as you follow these steps and make it easy for clients to find and purchase gift certificates, you'll quickly see how effective they are at balancing your cash flow. By introducing this simple yet effective way of building a steady income, you'll be that much closer to reaching your financial goals and creating your ideal future.
Check out our blog "Building Recurring Revenue in Your Massage Business through membership programs" for another great proven method to enhance your business growth.
Looking for a little more insight for your MT journey? Unsure of how to navigate every step from beginning to running a fully booked practice? Check out our blog "Client Success Stories - Building Your Practice with MassageBook" which features an in-depth testimony from a real MassageBook user who built his practice into an award-winning, multi-state organization.
Money Moves
Need some financial tips that can positively impact massage businesses? Check out our blogs on the following topics:
1. Knowing your Massage Business Numbers
2. Five unique ways to fund your new Massage practice
3. Bookkeeping for Massage therapists
4. Overcoming your money blocks as a Massage therapist
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