{"id":90,"date":"2006-08-17T11:09:37","date_gmt":"2006-08-17T11:09:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.integrativehealthcare.org\/wp_temp_dir\/?p=90"},"modified":"2018-12-11T20:51:30","modified_gmt":"2018-12-11T20:51:30","slug":"get-your-massage-practice-online","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.integrativehealthcare.org\/mt\/get-your-massage-practice-online\/","title":{"rendered":"Get Your Massage Practice Online"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>by Bonnie Garvey, CMT<\/p>\n<p>Imagine that you, representing your bodywork business, have been given an invitation to sit down at a vast banquet table. While this table has certain offerings and conversation you would rather pass on, there is a seemingly unlimited supply of sustenance for you and your business. The banquet table and its all-you-can-eat feast is an analogy for the Internet. If your business currently lacks an effective website, it\u2019s undernourished in the current market.<\/p>\n<p>Bodywork professionals who do not have a strong online presence are overlooking a significant portion of their potential client base. Karen Torbett, writer for Entrepreneur.com, observed that the decision for business owners to have a website \u201chas gone from IF to WHEN.\u201d She added, \u201cIn this day and age, your business card is a website.\u201d What should compel business owners to buy into this?<\/p>\n<p>In February 2006, Nielsen\u2019s NetRatings showed that 74% of Americans use the Internet, and those users averaged 30.5 hours online per month. InternetWorldStats.com puts the percentage of Internet users in the United States at 68%, or 204 million people out of a population near 300 million. With upcoming generations fully accustomed to using the Internet as a primary source of information and services, these percentages will only increase.<\/p>\n<p>In 2005, Interland, Inc. conducted a survey of owners of 780 small and medium-sized businesses. Samplings of the poll\u2019s findings follow:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>72% have a business website<\/li>\n<li>57% say business website generates purchases<\/li>\n<li>78% believe website gives business a competitive advantage<\/li>\n<li>76% say website generates leads for their business<\/li>\n<li>49% of small-business leaders use website to market and generate sales<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>There are a myriad of uses for a business website. Individually, these components can greatly empower and expand your business; collectively, they provide can\u2019t-miss tentacles into the market.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Include an online scheduling feature. Clients can schedule appointments with you at their own convenience, and you don\u2019t lose business due to missed phone calls while in session. This also cuts your administrative time dramatically.<\/li>\n<li>Widen your customer base by reaching regional, national, and international markets. Travelers and visitors to your community will increase your bottom line. Many non-local customers also purchase gift cards online for their friends and families in your city.<\/li>\n<li>Market through website content, including a business profile, rates, and customer testimonials.<\/li>\n<li>Make your business accessible to customers and business partners 24\/7.<\/li>\n<li>Increase sales through e-commerce. Investigate the many online \u201cshopping cart\u201d services that can be easily added to your website. Bodywork professionals can increase their bottom line by selling products used during the service.<\/li>\n<li>Save on advertising through website presence and promotions.<\/li>\n<li>Include streaming video that showcases your talents or appeal of your products. You can also use video to instruct and educate clients about the value of bodywork.<\/li>\n<li>Improve internal and external communication through e-mail and electronic newsletters. Newsletters can be used to inform customers of company specials and events, and to establish yourself as a trusted expert.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Once you have established your website, make sure it gets noticed. Submit your website name for free to search engines such as Yahoo and Google. Put your website link in the signature of your email, so that every email you send is a marketing message for your business.<\/p>\n<p>Ultimately, a business website\u2019s potential invites numerous creative uses. Don\u2019t let the transforming market pass you by. Get online and put yourself fully in the driver\u2019s seat of your business\u2019 evolution. The change isn\u2019t just good \u2013 it\u2019s great!<\/p>\n<p><em>Author and Certified Massage Therapist Bonnie Garvey is the owner of Wizards of Aahs Massage Therapy in Sacramento, California. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration with an emphasis in Computer Information Systems. To see how the Internet enables today\u2019s bodywork professionals to thrive, visit WizardsofAahs.Com.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This changing marketplace is an exciting one, filled with opportunities to expand your practice and improve results. If you haven\u2019t entered the Internet marketplace yet, learn from one of our readers how important the World Wide Web can be for small businesses and how to benefit from the increasing number of people researching massage therapy on the Web. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-90","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.integrativehealthcare.org\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.integrativehealthcare.org\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.integrativehealthcare.org\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.integrativehealthcare.org\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.integrativehealthcare.org\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=90"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.integrativehealthcare.org\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2299,"href":"https:\/\/www.integrativehealthcare.org\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90\/revisions\/2299"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.integrativehealthcare.org\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=90"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.integrativehealthcare.org\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=90"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.integrativehealthcare.org\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=90"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}