Massage Therapy News and Events!

The following pages on the Touch Of Aloha website have recently changed or been updated:

Massage Courses

Massage Course

Lomi Lomi

Lomi Lomi Training

Lomi Lomi Massage Video

Lomi Lomi Massage Therapist

Hot Stone Massage

Hot Stone Massage Training

Hot Stone Massage Therapist

Site Map

Mahalo,

James

 Aloha Bodyworkers!

Just a quick announcement to let you know that due to popular demand we’ve needed to add an additional Pohaku Hawaiian Stone Therapy (Hot Stone Massage) Course to our 2008 calendar.

Here are the dates:

September 22nd, 23rd and 24th, 2008

Tania has developed a truly amazing Hot Stone Massage treatment that has proven to be popular/successful in several of the top Spas, including the exclusive Spa At Versace here on the Gold Coast.

We’ve had hundreds of Massage Therapists complete our Hot Stone Massage course over the years and we continually receive the most amazing feedback from our graduates about how much their clients love our unique Pohaku Hawaiian Stone Therapy.

So if you’d like to be able to offer a very special treatment to your clients, one that melts away their tension with ease and sends them into the deepest states of relaxation that they’ve ever experienced, then Hot Stone Massage might be a wonderful addition to your repertoire.

Like the rest of our courses it’s ‘residential’ (3 days) and includes all of your accommodation, meals, course manuals and of course your training and is also backed by our 100% Satisfaction Guarantee.

If you’d love to come and join us, send us an email or give us a call on (07) 5531 0178.

NOTE: We already have a waiting list for our first Hot Stone Massage Course in September, so this additional course will be sure to book out quickly!

So let us know A.S.A.P if you’d like us to secure a place for you.

Aloha and enjoy the rest of your day!

James

P.S - For more information, please also visit our Hot Stone Massage page on our website at:

http://www.TouchOfAloha.org/hot-stone-massage/

Aloha Friends!

Hope your day’s going well.

Tania and I just finished our last course for the ‘first half’ of 2008 and now we’re going to take a little break.

Wow, can you believe it’s the end of June already?

Anyway, just wanted to give you a quick ‘heads up’ before we head out tomorrow and let you know that our upcoming courses in August in September are filling up fast.

I don’t like to see people miss out or send me unhappy emails because I didn’t remind them, so here’s our latest course update:

First cab off the rank is our Lomi Lomi Foundation Course coming up on August 16th - 22nd, 2008.

Currently there’s just 3 places left on that one so if you’d like to learn the most flowing, most beautiful and most healing massage style
going, then come and join us for an empowering, rejuvenating, even ‘life-changing’ 6 days at our place in gorgeous the Gold Coast Hinterland.

This massage style actually ‘gives’ you energy regardless of whether you’re giving the Lomi Lomi or receiving it. It’s the Aloha spirit in motion!

http://www.touchofaloha.org/lomi-lomi/

Next is our Pohaku Hawaiian Stone Therapy (Hot Stone Massage) course which is coming up on September 1st, 2nd and 3rd, 2008.

This course has just 2 places left so if you want to learn Tania’s truly awesome Hot Stone Massage system that has become a signature treatment in several top Spas then I guarantee you’ll LOVE this course.

The Hot Stone Massage treatment you’re going to learn will take you to levels of relaxation you’ve never experienced before. It will rock you and your client’s world - pardun the pun!

http://www.touchofaloha.org/hot-stone-massage/

Last but not least is our Spa Body Treatments Course coming up on September 5th, 6th and 7th, 2008 (after the Hot Stone course).

This one’s all about how to offer the most decadent, most divine spa therapy treatments in you own ‘dry’ massage room (no shower required).

This is a fun 3 days where you’ll be totally pampered with body brushes, scrubs, wraps, mini-facials and more and then walk away with all the ‘know-how’, while you’re floating on a cloud with the smoothest skin on earth!

Need some pampering? Come to ‘Spa Aloha’ in September!

http://www.touchofaloha.org/spa-therapies/

Anyway, these are our upcoming courses. If you’d like to come and join us, then we will fill you up with the knowledge, skills and support that you need to be successful as a practitioner of these awesome modalities.

In fact, you’ll be hard-pressed to find another Massage School with smaller groups than us, that provides more personal attention and support than us and that makes you feel more welcome, more comfortable and more cared for, than when we open our beautiful home to you.

Anyway, if you’d like to make a booking or if you have any questions or even if you’d just like to say ‘Hi’, please give us a call or send us an email. We’d really love to hear from you!

Thanks for reading this LONG post. I didn’t intend it to be this long.

I’m off now to spend some quality time with my beautiful family. Little Jaden is growing up so fast.

Aloha and have a fantastic weekend!

James Thomas

Co-Founder
TOUCH OF ALOHA
(07) 5531 0178
james@touchofaloha.org

http://www.TouchOfAloha.org

Here’s a link to a new article about our Hot Stone Massage Training, what sets us apart from other  Hot Stone Massage training schools and also a link to the Hot Stone Massage Kits we offer exclusively to participants of our Pohaku Hawaiian Stone Therapy courses.

Here’s the direct link:

Hot Stone Massage Training

Cheers

James

Aloha Bodyworkers,

I’ve just posted a new article about Lomi Lomi Training to our website that talks about how Lomi Lomi was taught in Ancient Hawaii and how it is generally taught today. It also includes a link to a 5 minute Lomi Lomi Massage Video demonstration by Tania Hodder.

Aloha Lomi Lomi Bodyworkers!

This is a quick update to let you know that we now have just 2 places left on our upcoming Lomi Lomi Advanced Course in June.

Here are the dates:

Lomi Lomi Advanced Course

June 7th - 13th, 2008

Tallai, Gold Coast Hinterland

If you’re one of our Lomi Lomi Foundation Course graduate’s and you’re feeling like you’re ready to take your knowledge and skills to a whole new level, then we’d love to have join us on what is going to be an awesome 6 days!

You will learn A LOT of brand new techniques including underbody work directly on the table (no sheet), arm and leg rotations and stretches, pregnancy massage, extended massage sessions and Deep Tissue Techniques!!! 

You’ll also get to review what was covered in the Lomi Lomi Foundation Course, so don’t worry if you haven’t been getting a lot of practice in.

Anyway, that’s all for now. If you’d like to take one of the last 2 places on this course, then send me an email or give our office a call on (07) 5531 0178.

You can also visit our Lomi Lomi webpage for more information.

‘Manawa’ - Now is the moment of power!

Aloha nui loa,

James

Aloha Bodyworkers!

On the weekend we finished another Spa Body Treatments Course up here in the beautiful Gold Coast Hinterland.

We had 6 ladies (nearly everyone experienced MTs) come and learn these decadent Spa Body Treatments that you can practice almost anywhere, without needing a shower.

It was really satisfying for Tania and I to see them confidently performing our complete sequence of Spa treatments by the last day of the course.

Even more so was seeing these normally very busy ladies get to receive such beautiful pampering during the 3 days with us and to leave us feeling rejuvenated and glowing.

Anyway, I just wanted to share with you the feedback they gave us before heading back into their busy lives…

Just click on link below to read what they said:

http://www.touchofaloha.org/support-files/indulgence.pdf

Thanks for your time and have a beautiful day!

James Thomas
Co-Founder
TOUCH OF ALOHA

P.S - If you’re interested in learning more about this course, check out our Spa page at:

http://www.touchofaloha.org/spa-therapies/

NOTE: We only have 2 places left on our Spa course that starts in 4 weeks time.

Aloha Friends & Marketers of Massage!

In my last post I covered just how important massage testimonials are when it comes to marketing your business and attracting new clients.

But what it is that makes a great massage testimonial?

Well, other than talking about how professional, nice or wonderful you are, a great massage testimonial will ideally ‘prove’ how your massage effectively solved a ’specific’ problem for your clients.

Your testimonials should also address any specific ‘hesitations’ (if any) that your clients had prior to booking in with you, which we’re ultimately proved to be unfounded.

If you have a specific ‘target market’ that you are focusing on, then you should ideally have lots of great testimonials from people from within that market.

For example, when I used to practice massage from home, I would always target one primary market - stressed out, white collar professionals aged 35-55.

Want to know why I always target that particular market?

Well, other than the fact that their bodies are screaming for massage and I want to help them, they also have the disposable to income to ‘afford’ regular massage.

This makes your marketing that much easier, because if money is an issue for the people you are targeting than you will need to be all the more convincing in your message and your offers all the more appealing (value-added).

Plus, we usually always live in areas where ’stressed out, cashed up’ professionals are abundant.

{SIDENOTE: Take a drive, walk, ride around the area surrounding your practice. What kind of houses are there? What kind of cars are in the driveway? What kind of businesses surround you? This is your most easily accessible market, so you would do well to get to know it so you can tailor your marketing so that it speaks to them directly.}

Anyway, I had built up a number of regular clients from the ’stressed out, cashed up’ professionals market mainly by going into office buildings and asking if I could put my flyers up in the staffrooms, which worked beautifully.

However, one day it occurred to me that my clients we’re primarily male and I wanted to balance this out a bit by attracting more female clients from this market.

So I opened up my marketing file and took a closer look at my flyers, brochures, ads etc and I made an interesting discovery.

Every single testimonial I had used was from a male. No wonder I had been attracting primarily male clients.

I also felt that there may have been some reservations from potential female clients because I was a male massage therapist.

So I mailed out a card, a Feedback form, a $50 massage gift voucher and a self-addressed postage paid envelope to 5 of my female clients that I felt I had a good rapport/connection with.

In the card I asked if they would kindly fill in the Feedback Form and send it back to me.

Here are the 5 questions I asked them on the Feedback Form:

1) Did you have any hesitations at all about booking in for a massage with me?

If so, what we’re they?
(example: being a massaged by a male, or concerned that the massage might be not be firm enough etc)

2) How did you feel at the beginning of the massage?

Did you have any specific aches, pains, injury or discomfort?
(example: tight neck and shoulders, headache, sore legs etc)

3) How did you feel at the end of the massage?

Did you get what you needed from the massage?
(example: pain relief, relaxation, rejuvenation etc)

4) Was there anything about the massage you didn’t enjoy or that you feel I could improve?

5) What did you enjoy about the massage?

I then asked them if they could write me a testimonial that I could use in my marketing and that they could simply refer to the answers they gave to my 5 questions to help them write it.

I also gave them a few examples of testimonials I have received in the past.

{SIDENOTE: Asking these specific questions and also providing examples of past testimonials you have received actually ‘trains’ your clients to give you great testimonials. Provided you’ve actually given them a great massage treatment of course!}

So, within the week I had 4 out of the 5 ladies return their Feedback Forms / Testimonials to me and they we’re just fantastic.

I then called up each of the 4 ladies and thanked them and asked them when they would like to book in for their next treatment and use their $50 gift voucher.

{SIDENOTE: I only offered 90 minute massage treatments in those days at $100, so the $50 gift voucher was effectively a 50% discount, without calling it a discount. Promoting discounts to your clients and using the word ‘discount’ can be very damaging to your business, but that is a subject for another post.}

When they came in for their treatments, I kindly asked if I could take a small photo of them with my digital camera so I could include it with their testimonial and they all agreed without hesitation. Note: I emphasized that the photo would be small.

In less than 10 days I now had 4 really great testimonials, all from women in my target market.

One of which I’ve included below:

So let’s take a closer look at it and see why this is such a great testimonial…

If we take a look at the first paragraph we can see that Anna did in fact have reservations about being massaged by a male therapist, so my intuition was spot on there.

However, in the second paragraph she comments on how professional I was and how I made her feel ‘comfortable and safe’.

This is huge because other females within my target market will be able to relate to her initial reservations BUT at the same time they will see that I am a ‘good guy’.

If we look at the third paragraph we see that my massage effectively ’solved a problem’ for Anna.

Before the massage she felt stressed and tense in her neck and shoulders and  afterwards her stresses had melted away and the tension had been completely dissolved.

Now this is very important because I know that pretty much everyone in my target market sits at a desk, works on a computer and usually has a heavy workload that must be completed by deadlines, so there are many other women in this market that are going to have this exact same stress and tension.

Anna’s comments in the third paragraph ‘prove’ that MY massage is an effective ’solution’ to this common ‘problem’.

In the last paragraph, she goes on to say that it was the best massage that she has ever had and that she highly recommends me to anyone wanting a truly excellent massage.

Now that is a powerful and convincing endorsement and a great way to finish the testimonial strongly.

If we look at the bottom you will see that I have included a photo of Anna, along with her full name, her age, her occupation and the suburb where she lives.

Including all of these details, makes your testimonial both credible and believable.

Some marketers will tell you that you should also include their phone number and email address for maximum impact. However, while this would definitely increase your testimonial’s ‘believability’, I have not found it to be necessary in the massage industry. Besides, I wouldn’t feel good about plastering my client’s private contact details all over the place.

Anyway, this post has ended up being much larger than expected so let me wrap up.

Once I had my 4 ‘you-beaut’ testimonials from women in my target market, I then updated all my marketing pieces (flyers, brochures etc) and included a 3 testimonials from my male clients and 3 testimonials from my female clients.

I then set about placing them in all the office staffrooms that allowed me to place them there.

Within just a couple of weeks, the number of female clients that booked in for treatments increased and within a couple of months my male/female client ratio was very close to 50/50. How’s that for ‘balance’.

When I asked each of my new female clients what made them decide to book in for a massage, every single one of them said that it was the testimonials from other women!

So this case study goes to show you just how much your testimonials can influence both ‘how many’ clients make contact and book in for a massage AND ‘what type’ of clients make contact and book in for a massage.

So if you have a specific ‘group’ of people that you target with your marketing, make sure that you use plenty of testimonials from people within that group. This will serve to attract and ‘persuade’ more of the same people to come and try out your services.

Anyway, I hope you found this information useful.

Keep doing the great massage work that you’re doing and be sure to keep gathering great testimonials for your marketing.

To your massage success,

James Thomas
Marketing Director
TOUCH OF ALOHA

Lately as I look around at the marketing efforts of lots of massage therapists I’m left scratching my head asking, “Where are your massage testimonials?”

I mean, when it comes to marketing massage (or any business for that matter), testimonials from happy clients are an incredibly powerful motivator in getting potential new clients to make contact with you and book in for a massage treatment.

Just look at the wildly successful acne product, ‘Proactiv Solution’ for example. I’m sure you’ve seen their infomercial at least once. (One of my core marketing mentors Dan Kennedy was a consultant on this Guthy Renker campaign as well as on the Tony Robbins infomercials). Anyway, three quarters of the infomercial are testimonials from extremely happy customers which include before and after shots of their skin.

Do you think ‘Proactiv’ would have been anywhere near as successful had they not used testimonials? Absolutely not!

No matter what it is you’re selling/offering (acne cream, weight loss programs, fitness equipment, massage etc) testimonials will go a long way in ‘convincing’ your target audience that what you’re offering really works. In fact, they are absolutely essential!

When it comes to massage, you’ll want your testimonials to ‘prove’ that you are professional and truly excellent in providing your clients with what they want, whether that be relief from back pain, stress or just a totally relaxing and pampering experience.

We are funny creatures in that what other people say about a person very often influences our opinions/beliefs a whole lot more than what that person says about themselves.

Although it is our job to sell ourselves as the best solution to our potential client’s problem, this means nothing if we then don’t provide testimonials to ‘back up’ what we are saying about ourselves and the services we offer.

Testimonials are the ’social proof’ that what we say about ourselves as massage practitioners is true. Without them, our marketing will be left weak and ineffective.

So, if you are not yet including testimonials in every single marketing piece that you do, please, please start doing so A.S.A.P!

As someone with over a decade of experience in marketing and promotion, I cannot make a stronger recommendation to you!

Stay tuned for Part Two of this article where I explain exactly what makes a powerful massage testimonial, as well as how to get them from your clients.

Until then, I wish you much success!

James Thomas
Marketing Director & Co-Founder
TOUCH OF ALOHA

Aloha Friends! 

Just a courtesy announcement to let you know that we have added in an addition Hot Stone Massage Course in June.

Both our April and May Hot Stone Massage courses are now fully booked with waiting lists and we have now started taking bookings for June.

June may seem far away however we are already in March!

Can you believe how fast the year is moving?

Anyway, if you’d like to learn an amazing Hot Stone Massage that has proven to be very successful in the nation’s top Spas, we’d love to have you join us for an intensive and ‘fun filled’ 3 days at our mountain retreat in the Gold Coast hinterland.

You’ll walk away with the ‘know-how’ and equipment to give an incredible and ‘unique’ Hot Stone Massage treatment that your clients will simply rave about. YES, it really is that good!

To learn all about the course and what our graduates are saying about it, please visit our Pohaku Hawaiian Stone Therapy page at:

http://www.touchofaloha.org/

Alternatively you can call our office and speak with Tania Hodder directly on
(07) 5531 0178.

We’d love to hear from you and answer any questions you may have.

Mahalo (Thankyou) and enjoy the rest of your weekend!

James Thomas
Marketing Director & Co-Founder
TOUCH OF ALOHA