Q&A with massage business mentor Helen Hunter
Does your website pass the 3 second rule? Does it attract the right clients for your business? Helen Hunter, founder of Massage Business Hub, will be giving her top tips for creating ‘websites that work’ in a Business Clinic session at camexpo (next weekend!). For those of you that can’t wait – here’s a sneak preview of what’s to come.
Helen practiced as a massage therapist for 22 years. Her previous roles were in office management, HR and finance, where she gained business skills and experience that were invaluable to her as a self-employed therapist, and subsequently as a massage business mentor.
Who or what has been the biggest influence on your career?
My first massage teacher Alex who gave treatments that were hugely effective but felt sublime too, with a quality of touch that set a benchmark for me very early in my massage career. The college also stressed the importance of excellent client-handling skills, devising individual treatment plans, and putting the client at the centre of everything you do.
Also my boss in my last ‘proper’ job before I became self-employed. He built an international, multi-million pound publishing business starting with one magazine that no one else thought would be a success. He was absolutely tenacious and pursued every opportunity, however small. He taught me a lot about persistence and resilience in business. A journalist by training, he also wrote beautifully.
What do you love most about your work?
I’ve always loved sharing information, teaching and mentoring. I don’t see it as knowing more than others, because I’ve always learned just as much from my students as I’ve been able to teach them. It’s more about being further down a certain road, and being able to pass that knowledge and experience on to others just starting out.
With the massage business mentoring I’m doing now, it’s a real joy and a privilege to watch therapists overcome their blocks around building their practices, particularly the things they struggle with most such as marketing themselves and re-booking clients. Teaching therapists client-centred skills that will significantly grow their practices, as well as benefiting their clients, is absolutely the best of all worlds.
What are the biggest challenges for small businesses/sole practitioners trying to build a brand presence online?
The internet has levelled the playing field so much for small businesses – but that also means that the competition is enormous, creating an epic battle for people’s time and attention too. So it’s absolutely vital to get a clear brand message across as quickly as possible – what you do, what your own personal philosophy is as a therapist and, most importantly, how you can specifically help the group of clients you serve.
What are your top three tips for creating a ‘good’ website that attracts the right clients?
1. Going back to the last question, make sure visitors to your website can see immediately who you are, what you do, and how you can help them. You have a maximum of 3 seconds to do just that…if you haven’t grabbed their attention by then they’re probably gone – for good.
2. Be prepared to invest in creating a professional looking website – it’s one of your most valuable business tools. That doesn’t mean spending lots of money – there are many inexpensive ways of building a very effective website, but it does need to be done properly.
3. Creating the right content is the key to attracting your ‘right’ clients. They’re the ones who help you build your practice more quickly, easily and profitably. Come to my presentation to find out more!
What is the one thing you want camexpo visitors to take away from your business clinic session?
How important it is to have a professional, effective therapy website – it’s your most valuable online marketing asset.
Anything else you’d like to add?
As therapists, our business model is very simple – there are just two main business activities we need to focus on:
1. getting clients
2. keeping clients
It really is that simple and both of these activities are equally important – neither is much use without the other. That’s why having a really effective website is vitally important - it will generate enquiries from potential clients, who are already searching for what you have to offer. But you then absolutely need to make sure you have the skills and systems in place to convert those enquiries into bookings, and those first clients into long-term regulars. And that’s why good practice-building skills are so crucial too. It’s all about having the full skill-set needed to build a thriving practice.
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