So how can we take a wimpy marketing tool like your massage therapy business card and give it muscle? How do we put it to work so that it actually does something for our business? How do we adapt these little cards to elicit a response from potential clients?

My suggestion is this...

Include a direct response message on your card. Make them an offer that will make people take action.

How about this as a little two-line message:

"Get a FREE half hour massage with the purchase of 30 minutes (limit one per person)"

Then give your business card out like crazy. Give each of your existing clients six cards and ask them to hand them out to people they know who may need massage. Give them to your family and your friends to give to people they know.

But before you give them out, add one more little note. Write this by hand and sign it with your first name only:

Expires: February 28th

Eric

Of course you don't actually write "February 28th", but put down a date that is two to four weeks from the time you hand the card out. Then sign it with your first name. You have to attach some sense of urgency to using the card or like I've already said, it's going to sit around forever and never get used. Putting an expiry date makes people take action today.

I like the hand writing stuff. Not only is it practical i.e. your printed business cards won't get out of date, but it's also a really nice personal touch.

But you can print any kind of offer that you think your potential clients might respond to. You can invite them to your massage therapy website to take a free stress assessment online. You may invite them to sign up to your ezine for announcements of special offers for subscribers only. You may offer them a free paraffin wax treatment or body scrub with their next massage.

You decide what offer will work best for the type of clients you want to attract.

The important thing is to take the necessary steps and turn your passive and wimpy little massage business card into an action-generating (and appointment-making) powerhouse.

So put your current cards aside and use them for writing your clients' appointment times on them as a reminder for their next appointment. Then get some new massage therapy business cards printed with this idea of eliciting a direct response at the top of your mind. And watch the difference it makes in your practice.

There's still more that you can do to boost the response to your massage business cards and we'll look at that in Part 3 of this article.