Do Therapists Need A Website?

Last week I saw an interesting discussion in a Facebook Group for massage therapists about whether it’s absolutely necessary to have a website for your massage business.

As some people pointed out, no it’s definitely not 100% necessary. It is absolutely possible to find enough clients purely through social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram.

However, if you rely almost 100% on social media then your business is built on very shaky foundations that could collapse at any moment. And that’s true no matter what kind of product or service you sell.

The fact is, you have no control over social media and you’ll always be at the whim of their policies and censorship rules, which can literally change overnight.

Having all your customers come from one source is a bit like having a table with one leg. Sure it can stand, but if the leg breaks, the table completely collapses. Legendary marketer Mark Joyner speaks about the importance of making a ‘table with a thousand legs’. Think of each leg as being a place where you get customers/leads from. The more legs you have the stronger and more indestructible your business is. If you lose one, or even several, your business will remain standing.

There’s nothing wrong with using social media and it’s great if you can get clients there, but your website should always be one of your most important ‘legs’. However, it has to be setup correctly in order to work for you.

A lot of business owners get websites built (or build their own website) and then nothing happens. They get no calls or enquiries and then they think that having a website is a complete waste of time and money.

The truth is, many websites are a total waste of time and money. But that’s not because websites don’t work. It’s because most websites aren’t built with any kind of strategy in mind.

Believe it or not, a lot of professional web designers don’t know how to make really effective websites. Many of them are either graphic designers (with some tech knowledge) or they are techies (with some design skills). But rarely are they experts in online marketing.

And the fact is, you can’t create an effective website for someone if you don’t have a solid understanding of effective online marketing strategies.

Over the last year, I’ve looked at a lot of websites belonging to natural therapists, including a lot of massage therapists and I’ve noticed a lot of common issues that undoubtedly prevent their websites from being as effective as they could be.

If you resolve all these issues then I guarantee you will dramatically increase the number of clients you get from your website.

The 5 Common Issues That Prevent Your Massage Website From being Effective

1. You have no search engine optimisation (or it’s badly implemented)

Your website might be brilliant. Maybe it looks awesome, and the communication is perfect…but if nobody can find it then it might as well not exist!

Did you know that approximately 80% of people never look past the first page of Google search results? So, if you’re not ranking on the first page, most people who are searching will never see your website.

So what are people likely to search on? They’re going to type things like:

‘massage therapist <location name>’

‘massage therapist near me’

Or they might search on a particular type of massage like ‘deep tissue massage’ or ‘sports massage’.

So write a list of all the keyword phrases that your target market might type in to Google to find you.

And then search Google using all those phrases to see where you appear (it’s better to use an incognito/private window of your browser for a more accurate result.)

Are you appearing on the first page of Google? If not then you’ve discovered the first reason why you’re not getting more clients from your website.

To rank on the first page of Google you need a Search Engine Optimisation strategy.

Sometimes it can be really fast and easy to achieve, and sometimes it takes awhile. It mostly depends on how many competitors you have and the quality of their online marketing strategies.

You have two options to implement a search engine optimisation strategy. You either pay a professional to do it all for you, or you can do it yourself.

It actually isn’t all that complicated and I’ve actually created a course that will teach everything you need to know. Learn more about Effective Online Marketing for Therapists

2. You’re not building up enough trust

Trust and credibility is everything to a business! Given a choice, people won’t do business with you if they don’t trust you… period!

As a therapist, it’s especially important to build trust. Probably more so than almost any other type of business.

And that’s because, with most types of therapies, especially massage therapy, there’s a degree of intimacy between you and the client that goes far beyond what most people are used to in their normal business dealings.

And that’s because many therapies involve either the removal of clothing, or a lot of touching in some form, or the revealing of deeply personal information. And quite often a combination of all those things.

People simply aren’t going to do any of those things with you if they don’t trust you.

You may be brilliant at talking to people and getting them to trust you in person; however, your website has to earn their initial trust, otherwise you will never get a chance to speak to them.

There are many things you can do to increase trust through your website and I explain most of them in my online marketing for therapists course.

At the bare minimum you need to display your star ratings (from the likes of Google, Facebook and Yelp if you use them).

People are far more likely to trust you if they see that you’ve got a high amount of 4 and 5 star reviews. If your rating is less than 4 stars then that’s something you need to work on asap!

3. You’re not capturing email addresses

Did you know that as much 80% of people visiting your site are in research mode and not ready to call you immediately?

Therefore, the majority of people who land on your site are not going to call you or book an appointment straight away. However, the odds of them ever coming back to your site are quite low.

So, how can you follow-up with people who are just browsing for now, but potentially interested in your service? 

The best way is to try and capture their email address and build a mailing list who you can send regular newsletters and offers to. 

However, most people do this the wrong way. If you put something like “Subscribe to my Newsletter” then virtually nobody is going to give you their email. Nobody cares about your newsletter. Instead, you have to offer them something of value. In marketing speak we usually call this a ‘lead magnet‘.

There all kinds of different things you can offer as a lead magnet, but the simplest idea for a therapist is to offer something like a discount on their first treatment.

You’re also going to need an email marketing service. Most of then cost money; however, there is one that allows you to use nearly all their features for free until you reach 1000 subscribers. And that’s MailerLite. Sign-up for free at https://www.mailerlite.com/

4. You don’t have a clear call to action or it’s not easy to book

A call to action (or CTA for short) is a key element of any webpage, and it acts as a signpost that lets the user know what to do next.

Without a clear CTA, the user may not know the next steps to take and is more likely to leave the site without accomplishing what you want them to do.

So you should always tell people exactly what you want them to do next.

As a therapist, you are most likely going to want your site visitors to do one of three things.

1) Call you to book an appointment or a consultation

2) Book an appointment using online booking software.

3) Sign-up to your mailing list so that you can continue to market to them by email.

So your whole site needs to be designed to achieve at least one or two of those three actions.

Always make sure that your call-to-action stands out in some way. What stands out gets clicked. Meaning, your call-to-action button or links shouldn’t be the exact same as the rest of your design.

5. Your design isn’t professional enough

We all know that we shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, but let’s be honest, we all do it to some degree and this is especially true of websites.

Did you know that it takes 0.05 seconds for users to form an opinion about your website?

Web design accounts for an overwhelming 94% of how first impressions are formed on the web.

And the fact is, first impressions are important, and you only have one chance to make the right first impression.

According to web credibility research from Stanford University, 75% of users admit to making judgments about a company’s credibility based on their website’s design.

So, if you want to be seen as someone who is credible and professional, it is important to have a good looking website.

In this day and age there’s really no excuse for having a bad looking website. Even if you’re on a really tight budget, and can’t afford a web designer, you can use a low-cost DIY web builder like wix.com which provides you with dozens of professional looking templates to choose from.

However, it’s far better to work with a decent web designer who can build you a beautiful website that not only reflects your style and personality but also instantly appeals to your target audience. And perhaps more importantly, a good web designer will also help you develop a solid online marketing strategy.

Over the year, I’ve probably looked at close to 1000 websites belonging to natural therapists and health centers. And, I have to be be honest, a lot of them didn’t look that great. 

I can’t stress how important it is to make a good first impression with your website.

Would you like a low cost web solution that addresses all these issues?

Introducing The Effective Therapist WordPress Theme

I developed a WordPress Theme especially for therapists and natural therapy centers. It gives you everything you need to get results.

It’s comes optimised for Search EnginesYou can easily add reviews & social proofYou can easily capture email addressesIt has clear CTAsIt’s mobile friendlyIt looks professional

You also get my Online Marketing For Therapists Course for free

Watch the video below to see how it looks!

It comes in two versions.

Starter Package (Partially done for you)

In the budget version we do all the setup for you and we do your search engine optimisation for you.

All you have to do is add your own text and images/photos. This is very easy to do but we also provide a lot of training videos.

Professional Package (Everything done for you)

Well almost everything, you need to provide us your text and images (and we’ll give you some guidance on that), but we’ll deliver you a completely finished website. And if you don’t have your own photos we can source quality stock photography.

Limited Time Special Offer (Ends 10th October)