Sports Massage Marketing Ideas: Ultimate Guide

From referral schemes to email marketing, we’ve put together a list of the best sports massage marketing ideas to help you attract new clients and retain your existing ones.

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Sports Massage Marketing Ideas: The Ultimate Guide

Similar to personal trainer marketing strategies, there are plenty of sports massage marketing ideas to explore and use as a way to increase your client base and advertise your services to a wider audience.

#1 - Establishing A Referral Scheme Is A Simple Yet Effective SMT Marketing Tactic

If you’ve become a sports massage therapist and already have a few clients, or are looking for sports massage marketing ideas to expand that client base, you’d benefit from implementing a ‘refer a friend scheme’.

This strategy is as simple as asking your existing clients if they have any friends or family members looking to use services similar to the ones you offer.

For example, if one of your clients is a marathon runner who you see every week, it’s likely they have a network of friends with similar hobbies and interests who could be potential clients.

According to Nielsen, 92% of consumers trust their peers more than they do brands and businesses they’ve never purchased from before - showing just how effective ‘word of mouth’ strategies can be. 

If you really want this strategy to work, you should set up an incentive-based referral scheme.

Offer your existing clients an incentive to tell their friends and family about your business. For example, you could offer a discounted or free massage for every new client they bring in.

This has been done successfully by Hands on Sports Therapy and Injury Clinic, whose ‘Refer a Friend’ scheme offers existing clients £10 off their next treatment.

The best part of this strategy is you only pay out for your marketing efforts once you gain a new client. 

So, while it may cost you £10 to give your existing client a discount, this cost will be offset by the amount the new client has already paid for their first appointment.

This is something Natural Balance does to ensure they don’t lose money from their referral programme.

As you can see below, the details of their scheme clearly states a client will only receive their free or discounted session once the referred client has already paid for their treatment:

#2 – Run Paid Ads On Social Media As Part Of Your Sports Massage Marketing Strategy

If you really want your sports massage advertising to take off online, then it’s a good idea to use paid ads on social media.

Ads for both Facebook and Instagram are controlled by Meta Ad Manager, a piece of software which allows you to create ads to appear on social media feeds.

All you need to get started is to create a Facebook Business page, which you can easily create for your brand here.

You’ll then need to:

1.  Go to Ads Manager and select ‘Create’ to get started

2.  Next, enter a descriptive name for your ad in the text box

3.  Then select a Facebook Page and Instagram account to represent your business

4.  You can then choose your ad to be a single image or video, carousel, or collection

5.  Finally, select the media you want to upload for your ad

One of the best things about using Meta Ads is you can set up your ad so it reaches potential leads from your specific fitness target market.

For example, you can filter your audience by specific:

• Locations
• Age ranges
• Genders
• Interests

Meta automatically posts your ads in positions the algorithm has deemed most appropriate for your target audience, whether that’s the user’s Facebook News Feed, or Instagram Stories. 

An advantage of this form of advertising is you’ll only have to pay if your ad successfully achieves its campaign objective, making this one of the most cost-efficient sports massage marketing ideas.

For example, campaigns that aim to drive traffic operate on a pay per click (PPC) basis. This means you pay a fee each time a user clicks on your ad and is directed to your site.

Although this cost can vary, the average is approximately 78p per click. 

You can cap how much you spend on ads per day and the algorithm will then ensure your ads remain within your budget, while continuing to meet your campaign objectives.

How To Use Ads On Social Media To Market Your SMT Business

Now you know the capabilities of Meta Ad Manager, let’s discuss how you can use this software to market your sports massage business and gain new clients.

First things first, you need to choose a campaign objective, which is the business goal you hope to achieve by running your ads. 

Available campaign objectives include traffic, awareness, engagement, leads and sales.

The most effective way of using this marketing strategy to get new clients through your door is to select ‘traffic’. This allows you to create an ad that drives users to your website or landing page, where they can enquire. 

If you choose this objective, Meta Ad Manager will allow you to create your Ad with either a link to your landing page or a button that takes users to your site. 

For instance, this Facebook ad for John Burrell’s SMT services features a link to his website/landing page as well as a ‘learn more’ button which also takes users to his website.

These links and buttons are called a Call to Action (CTA), and their inclusion on adverts is what takes an Ad from simply generating awareness of your business to actually getting you new clients.

So, what is a landing page? A landing page is a single webpage designed to guide users to complete a specific action. 

Such an action could include:

• Make an enquiry
• Book a session
• Book a consultation 

For example, John Burrell’s landing page features the ‘Book Now’ CTA, to encourage visitors to book a treatment with him.

By directing users to his website or landing page, this ad makes it easy for users to either book a session or hand over their contact information, which John can then use to turn them into a paying client.

You can learn to make your own fitness landing page here.

#3 - Create Google Ads For SMT Marketing

Aside from asking friends and family for recommendations, the majority of people looking for a product or service head straight to Google and search directly for it.

Your target audience are doing the same thing - searching terms such as ‘Sports massage therapy’ or ‘Sports massage therapist near me’.

So, if you’re not using paid Google Ads in your sports massage therapy marketing strategy, you’re missing out on a lot of potential clients.

With Google Ads, you can pay a Cost Per Click (CPC) to appear on Google’s first page for specific searches, as shown below for ‘Sports massage in Milton Keynes’.

Appearing this high up on the results page is hugely beneficial, as a study conducted by Search Engine Land found businesses on this page generate 80% of enquiries for that specific search term!

This is because potential clients are more likely to see the link to your landing page through the ad.

As they’ll be searching with the specific intent of finding an SMT local to them, they’re likely to click on this link and enquire about your services.

Therefore, this will hopefully generate more traffic to your website and bring you more leads, as it has done for OriGym.

As you can see from the image above, our various landing pages have generated over 20,000 leads from Google Ads alone in just one year.

It also means every time someone clicks on your ad and goes to your website, you pay Google a fee for their role. Popular terms are at a higher price point than more specific keywords.

Google allows up to 4 paid ads to come up at the top of the page and up to 3 to appear at the bottom. So, the position your ad will appear at is also dependent on how much you will pay for your ad.

To do this, we’d recommend putting bids on terms that describe your business, followed by your location to target potential clients looking for sports massage in your area.

Some examples of local key search terms you could use if you’re based in Liverpool include:

• Sports Massage Liverpool
• SMT Liverpool
• Liverpool Sports Massage Therapist
• Sports Massage Therapy Liverpool

If other SMTs in your area aren’t taking advantage of Google Ads, then CPC will be relatively low, meaning it will be cheaper for you to bid for these local search terms.

For example, there are currently no businesses ranking in the ad space for the local search term ‘sports massage Liverpool’, meaning this will be a relatively low price for you to bid for.

You’ll also be the go-to SMT users in this area will see when they search on Google!

Creating your Google Ad is a simple process:

1. Tell Google your marketing goal and they’ll tailor your ad based upon the results you want. For instance, your goal may be to drive more traffic to your fitness website.
2. Next, choose whether you’d like to advertise locally or globally. For an SMT business, we’d recommend trying to target potential clients in your local area.
3. You’ll then get 3 short sentences to highlight what’s best about your businesses. Alternatively, you can create banner ads by adding images.
4. Set a financial cap, to ensure you never go over your budgeted costs.
5. Finally, you’re ready to publish your ad and go live.

#4 – Register On GoogleMyBusiness If You’re Looking For Sports Massage Marketing Ideas

As well as using ads, another of the best sports massage marketing ideas on Google is to set up a Google My Business account.

This is a completely free feature that allows you to create a profile for your business, which is Google’s term for your business listing.

The My Business feature is a great way of marketing your services, as it allows potential clients to view information such as:

• Contact information, such as phone number or email
• Location
• Links to website and social media profiles
• Reviews

For example, this is the information displayed when you search ‘OriGym’ into Google:

To set up your account, simply follow the steps on the Google My Business profile creator:

1. Sign in or create a Google Account with your business email domain.
2. Go to ‘create a profile’ and enter the name of your business.
3. Search for your business category, which in this case will be sports massage therapist.
4. Choose whether you have a location that customers can visit. The answer here is likely to be yes, unless you run a mobile SMT business.
5. Enter the service area of your business based upon the cities or postcodes you serve. It’s recommended not to extend the boundaries of this area further than 2 hours driving time from where you’re based.
6. Enter your phone number and website URL to allow potential clients to find and contact you.

Once your profile has been set up, your business will then appear on the maps for local search results.

For instance, if a potential client looking for a sports massage in Liverpool types this search term into Google, they will see the following top three ranking results in their area.

If they clicked on one of these listings, they’d be taken to the page below which has an expanded list of businesses alongside a map detailing all of their locations.

To increase the likelihood of potential clients clicking on your links and hence being redirected to your website or social media pages, it’s important your profile ranks within the top 3 listings.

These listings are known as ‘The Local Top 3’ or the ‘Google 3-Pack'. Research from Brightlocal suggests 93% of consumers use online searches to find a local business.

Backlinko statistics also show 42% of local searches involve clicks on the Google 3-Pack. This highlights just how valuable ranking in the Local Top 3 is to your SMT marketing strategy!

To ensure your GoogleMyBusiness profile ranks in the top 3, you should optimise it so it’s:

• Relevant – Make your business information as detailed as possible, to help the algorithm match your profile to relevant searches for the target user.
• Location-based – Specify an exact location on your profile so those looking for an SMT in a particular area will find your profile.
• Prominent – Factors that can influence how well known you are online include the number of positive reviews you have and how often you are mentioned favourably online. This means you’ll rank higher on Google’s algorithm.

For example, as the top-ranking business for the search term ‘Sports massage Liverpool’, the profile for JM Sports Massage has a specific address, as well as plenty of positive client reviews.

It also has a direct link to their website, so when users follow this link, they’ll be directed to a landing page with the CTA button encouraging them to ‘Book Now’.

Therefore, by creating a fully optimised fitness GoogleMyBusiness profile, you’re likely to rank higher than your competitors, generate more clicks, and gain more traffic to your website or landing page.

This means you’re likely to get more inquiries and gain plenty of new clients!

#5 – Optimising Your Website For SEO Is A Must For Sports Massage Therapy Marketing

SEO, or search engine optimisation, is the process of optimising your content to make it more visible for search engine users looking for products or services related to your business.

According to the same Backlinko statistics we referenced in the previous section, only 9% of users searching on Google make it to the bottom of the first page of the search results. 

Also, only 17% of users go back to the search results page after clicking on a result.

This shows that the more visible your website is in search engine results, the more likely you are to generate clicks, therefore driving traffic and potential clients to your website.

For instance, these businesses have optimised their website content to allow them to rank on the first page of results for the search term ‘mobile sports massage Birmingham’:

To ensure your sales pages are optimised effectively, you should consider the following SEO factors when designing your fitness website:

Keywords Are A Crucial SEO Factor When It Comes To Sports Massage Advertising

Keywords are one of the most important SEO features to help you rank highly in search results, as it shows Google’s algorithm what your page is about.

When users search for that keyword, your website will then rank highly on Google’s result pages.

To find relevant keywords to incorporate into your website or landing page, you can use Google’s keyword planner tool:

This will give you keyword ideas relevant to your sports massage business and will help drive your target audience towards your site.

For example, if you’re wanting to rank highly as a mobile sports massage therapist, type ‘mobile sports massage’ into the keyword planner.

As shown above, you’ll then be given a list of keyword ideas you could implement.

We’d recommend choosing one with a high traffic and low competition score, as this will be a search term your target audience will be using.

However, it also ensures your website won’t get lost amongst other sites using the same keyword.

Consider Dwell Time When Implementing Sports Massage Marketing Ideas For SEO

Dwell time is the amount of time users spend on your website. The more time they spend, the higher you’ll rank on Google for the relevant search term.

An efficient way of increasing your dwell time is to use short paragraphs to describe your services, rather than big blocks of text, as Fit and Running have done on their homepage.

This is because they’re more visually appealing to users, as well as being easier to read and digest, meaning users are more likely to stay on your page and book an appointment.

- - - -

Aside from providing you with plenty of sports massage marketing ideas, here are some articles to help develop your business and skills:

• Sports Massage Equipment 
• Sports Massage Business Cards
• 5 Exciting Sports Massage Therapist Career Opportunities

#6 – Establish An Effective Email Campaign For Your Sports Massage Therapy Marketing Strategy

If you’re looking for sports massage marketing ideas, creating an email marketing campaign is one of the best and most cost-efficient ways of engaging new and existing clients.

According to Mailchimp, the average email newsletter open rate is 21.33% - 20 times higher than the engagement rate for Facebook posts!

Having an email newsletter gives you a direct line to your potential customers and a much higher success rate when it comes to turning enquiries into clients.

Email campaigns also help with client retention, as sending a newsletter detailing updates and special offers allows you to create a sense of community within your existing client base.

There are 3 key steps you should follow when setting up an email marketing campaign.

Step 1 - Deciding On The Purpose Of Your Email Campaign For SMT Marketing

The first, and perhaps most important, stage of designing an email marketing campaign is to decide what you’re hoping to achieve.

This is because the purpose of your campaign will determine the kind of content you include, as well as the metrics you’ll track to see if your campaign has been a success.

For instance, if you’re hoping to build your pre-event massage clientele base through your campaign, you may want to create content which illustrates the benefits of this.

You could also advertise promotional deals within these emails, to encourage those thinking about booking an appointment to go ahead and enquire.

The purpose and content of your strategy should also be determined by the audience you’re trying to target. 

This should be informed by market research, as well as your SMT business plan,  so you’re aware of the best ways of engaging them. 

This could be based on factors such as their age, or their occupation and hobbies. For example, your target audience may consist of runners, footballers, or athletes.

Step 2 - Choosing What You’ll Offer The Subscriber Is An Important Part Of Email SMT Marketing

Once you’ve determined the purpose of your campaign, the next thing you need to do is decide how to build up your list of subscribers.

To do this, we’d recommend creating a lead magnet, which is something that encourages potential clients to sign up for emails, be contacted further, and potentially become paying clients.

Your lead magnet should be on your landing page or website, offering something to users in exchange for subscribing to your emails. This could be:

• A free consultation
• Discounts on bookings
• Free eBook on topics such as anatomy 

For example, in exchange for providing their contact details, City Rehab offers subscribers a free 30 second diagnosis, as shown below.

This is because people will be much more willing to provide their details in return for something.

Offering a helpful resource also helps demonstrate to potential clients you’re reliable and trustworthy.

This makes them much more likely to pay attention when your email drops into their inbox and will be more inclined to become loyal, paying clients.

Step 3 - Designing Your Email Funnel Is The Final Step When Setting Up Email SMT Marketing 

An email funnel is the process through which a subscriber goes from a potential lead to a paying client through the medium of email.

When it comes to sports massage advertising, the funnel you design should guide a potential client to eventually booking a session with you.

For example, your email funnel may consist of a potential client:

1. Visiting your landing page
2. Signing up to receive your newsletter 
3. Receiving a welcome email, explaining your services and offering them a free consultation
4. Booking their consultation
5. Continuing to receive emails and becoming a loyal client

This process also makes it easier to retain your existing clients, as you’ll maintain a direct channel with them even after they’ve made their first purchase.

That’s why this is one of the most effective sports massage marketing ideas!

#7 – Offer A Free Consultation To Kickstart An SMT Marketing Campaign

As we’ve mentioned frequently throughout this article, offering free consultations is a great sports massage therapy marketing idea for generating new client leads.

This gives prospective clients a chance to try out your services for free, without having to commit to making a purchase. 

Whether a client has been considering booking an appointment or is checking out your services alongside your competitors, this may be the push they need to go with you!

During the free consultation, you can conduct movement and postural assessments on the client to help determine what may be causing any pain or limited mobility they’re experiencing.

After assessing whether it’s safe to proceed and deciding whether you have the right skills to treat them, you can then talk the client through how you can help resolve these issues.

By conducting a thorough postural assessment, this is your chance to demonstrate your skills, knowledge, and experience, and convince the client you’re the right therapist for them.

Knowing they’ll have a bespoke treatment plan designed with a solution at the end is likely to lead to clients wanting to book further appointments with you.

Offering a free consultation is also a great way of gathering client details and encouraging them to take the first step into the sales funnel. 

This is because in exchange for your time, you’ll ask clients for their details, as Simply Body Sports Massage Therapy does successfully:

A member of their team will then directly contact the client to discuss further details of the consultation.

This will help them feel valued from the start, meaning they’re more likely to book further appointments and become loyal to this particular SMT.

For instance, this testimonial for Simply Body demonstrates the impact a free initial consultation can have on a client’s attitude towards your services.

As discussed in a previous section, these details could be used to sign up for your newsletter, meaning you’ll be able to maintain constant contact with them.

In the long run, this will encourage greater client loyalty, meaning that offering free consultations is a great way of retaining clients as well as attracting them!

#8 - Upskill With Level 4 Specialist Courses To Enhance Your Sports Massage Therapy Marketing Strategy

Having advanced qualifications as a sports massage therapist helps you stand out and attract new clients. Not only is this a great way to expand the services you offer but clients are willing to pay more for a specialist service, meaning you can earn a higher wage too.

The more services you can offer, the greater chance you have of attracting a range of different people and appealing to a wider demographic.

Specialisms you can use to compliment your sports massage therapy services include: 

Level 3 Exercise Referral

By becoming an exercise referral specialist, you can tailor fitness programmes to help those with physical illness or conditions to improve their health. You can take referrals from GPs or private medical professionals, advertising both your sports massage and exercise referral service to help clients physically recover in the quickest way possible.

Level 4 Lower Back Pain Management

As sports massage therapy is about helping your clients recover and improve injuries, having a qualification in lower back pain management is ideal for marketing yourself as the someone who can effectively help clients get back on track. Having a well-rounded understanding of physical aid, you can combine this knowledge to ensure clients get the right help.

Level 4 Advanced Sports Nutrition 

Not only is nutrition important for fuelling the body, it's vital for helping the body recover. Having this advanced qualification means you can market and advertise yourself as both a sports nutrition coach and sports massage therapist. You'll be able to provide clients with both knowledge on healing physically and using their diet to heal their muscles and effectively recover.

Acquiring different qualifications is important for finding success in the fitness industry as it allows you to appeal to a wider pool of clients instead of being limited when you only offer one kind of service.

#9 – Display Testimonials As Part Of Your Sports Massage Therapy Marketing Strategy

Written by clients to share their experiences with your services, testimonials are great for sports massage advertising as they demonstrate your credibility as an SMT.

Fitness industry testimonials are a great form of social proofing, which is based upon the idea that consumers follow the actions of others to get the same results as them.

Other forms of social proofing for an SMT may include:

• A strong social media presence
• A website advertising your experience
• Business credentials, such as certifications and awards you’ve received

Displaying positive testimonials from previous or existing clients on your website is a great way of validating your services for prospective clients. For example, My Body Therapy displays their testimonials on their website:

In fact, 72% of consumers say positive testimonials increase their trust in a business, according to Big Commerce statistics.

Testimonials are effective as they give clients time to accurately articulate what they want to say. As well as attracting new clients, testimonials also help to increase client loyalty.

Testimonials work particularly well when they’re gathered after you’ve resolved a client’s problem or helped them reach their fitness and mobility goals.

Once you’ve asked a client to write a testimonial after achieving their desired outcome, you can then display it on your website.

You may choose to place your testimonials on your website homepage, as JM Sports Massage does:

This is an effective SMT marketing strategy, as prospective clients visiting your website are likely to scan the homepage for valuable information to see whether you’re the right match for their needs.

The testimonials will be one of the first things they see and so they’ll instantly gain a positive view of you and your services.

You could also dedicate a whole page on your website to testimonials, allowing you to display longer and more in-depth testimonials than you’d be able to fit on your homepage.

For example, as well as displaying testimonials on their homepage, JM Sports Massage has a ‘Testimonials’ section displayed on their navigation bar. Along with your website, you’ll also want to display testimonials on your social media pages.

According to GlobalWebIndex, 54% of consumers use social media to research products and services, and 71% are more likely to make a purchase based on social media referrals. 

One method you may utilise is posting them on your Instagram Story, which can then be saved as a highlight on your profile. 

This can be seen in the screenshot from Sports Massage by Lauren below:

Creating a story highlight allows the testimonials to remain present on your profile and will be one of the first things users encounter when they click on your username.

They’ll then be able to look through and re-visit these testimonials at their own leisure.

Along with utilising the Instagram Story feature, you may want to dedicate whole posts to your client testimonials.

As you can see, Lauren has used both methods as part of her sports massage marketing strategy.

This allows her to highlight the detailed testimonial left by a client and also gives her the opportunity to demonstrate her appreciation for this review.

By doing this, she’ll not only attract new clients, but will also encourage more clients to provide testimonials.

Video testimonials make a great alternative for users who don’t wish to read written testimonials.

Some clients may find this type of testimonial more trustworthy, as they’re able to see the client giving their opinion in real time.

You can then either edit several testimonials together and post them as a reel or put them onto your story and save them as a highlight for users to browse through.

#10 – Create Relationships With Local Businesses To Supercharge Your SMT Marketing

As a sports massage therapist, forming relationships with local businesses is a great way of building trust with prospective clients in your area.

This is because you’ll begin to be associated with the success and reliability of these businesses and will become a credible source within the community for helping people improve their health and wellness.

Whether your clients are professionals or everyday gym-goers, as an SMT you’re likely to be working with people who enjoy being active.

If there is no demand for a sports massage therapist to work in your local gym or health club, you could choose to directly connect with independent personal trainers.

Establishing a partnership with a PT means they will have an extra service to offer those clients who may be struggling with injury or are simply wanting to improve their performance.

An example of this marketing method at work is the partnership between Fulham Massage & Wellness and personal trainer Ben Simpkins.

To help both businesses attract clients, Fulham Massage wrote a blog post detailing the benefits to their clients of investing in both personal training and sports massage, as shown below:

At the end of the post, they provide their own and Ben’s details, to encourage readers to investigate both of their services further and perhaps make a purchase.

To ensure the partnership is mutually beneficial, we’d recommend setting up a two-way referral programme. This could consist of the PT offering clients a discount if they choose to use your services and vice versa.

You could also create a joint package system, whereby the client can purchase both sports massage and personal training sessions in one purchase.

For example, Leyton Sports Massage offers a range of PT and sports massage packages, which gives clients the opportunity to try out both personal training and massage.

Another idea you could incorporate into your marketing strategy is to create a joint loyalty scheme with the trainer. When a client reaches a certain number of sessions across both businesses, they’ll then receive a discount or free session as a reward.

This highly encourages client retention for both you and the personal trainer.

Before You Go!

There are plenty of sports massage marketing ideas to help your business thrive. Now you’re caught up, it’s time to implement some of them and begin seeing the results for yourself!

Expand the range of the services you offer with OriGym's Personal Trainer Courses to increase your client base!

To find out more about how you can do this, download our course prospectus here.