Have you seen advertisements offering you hundreds of ways to grow your massage business? The shear volume of ways to market your massage business may have you asking: What do I do first? What methods are best for me? What are the most cost effective and efficient things to do first?

Here is how to clear it up. The simple truth is there are only three ways to grow your business.

1. Increase the number of new clients.

2. Increase the number of times your current clients return.

3. Increase how much your clients spend each time.

This is extremely valuable to know and understand. This made all the difference when I learned it to the success of my massage business. (Thanks to Jay Abraham for teaching me this!)

If you think this is obvious and not worth your time, please stick with me for a little bit. There are some hidden gems in these three statements.

Every type of marketing and growth effort in your massage business is attempting to grow one of these three simple categories. And one of these categories takes loads more money and time to grow your massage business.

Almost all businesses put 90% of their money and time into #1, trying to get new clients. Mostly through expensive advertising, or time consuming networking.

Guess what? Across all industries studies have shown it takes five to six times as much money to get a new client, as it does to get an existing client to return again (or more often).

For our goal of creating Client Problem Solving Marketing, this is a ground breaking fact!

Why? It means you can put much more of your money and effort back into your existing clients, creating valuable services for them, like an educational newsletter, and gift certificate specials. This gives energy to the big beautiful circle, of you caring for your clients in exceptional ways, and them doing it back for you.

Are you thinking, "But I need more clients"? Do you know what the very best way to get new clients is? Client referrals.

Every AMTA, ABMP & Massage Today study I have seen shows that over 55% of new clients come from referrals. This was true at my business also.

How do you get client referrals? By putting lots of great energy into your existing clients. Happy existing clients tell other people. (And I will show you how to encourage this in a big way later.) And even if you only have a couple of clients to start, this is still true and a great way to get more. But don't worry, I will also show you ways of getting new clients with other methods.

So, it is best to put most of your marketing money and efforts, at least 60-80%, into marketing that helps #2 (increase client returns).

Remember in targeted marketing when I suggested how amazing it would be if you had a targeted market list where every person on that list you know for sure gets massage and likes it? Guess what? You already have this list. It is the people who have already come to you, your existing clients.

What about using growth category #3, increasing how much your clients spend each time? Well, you can't just increase your prices all the time. But, there are several other ways to have this happen that your clients will appreciate.

• Give them the opportunity to have longer treatments.

• Create service add-ons. For instance, offer aromatherapy blends for your massage at an additional cost.

• Offer more specialized treatments like Hot Stone Massage.

• Offer products that your clients are likely to purchase somewhere else, that you may already be recommending. Like arnica gel, heat pads, exercise balls, stretching books. Products you really believe in that you know help your clients.

• Increase how much you get per massage through gift certificate sales (more about this in the gift certificate section).

Focusing on #3 helps you move away from just trading your hours for money. You make more, and provide more for your clients at your massage business, without having to work more hours.