It is commonly recognized that word-of-mouth marketing is an effective way to market and advertise your massage therapy practice. But did you know that there is more than one type of word-of-mouth (WOM) marketing that you can use?
According to the Word of Mouth Marketing Association (www.womma.org), www.1kn.org there are approximately eleven different types that could be classified as word-of-mouth marketing. Not everyone agrees with these categories but that’s okay for us.
Developing an effective word-of-mouth strategy may include one or multiple WOM types, so which types are useful for a massage therapist to utilize? Let’s take a close at a seven of them as they are defined by the Word-of-Mouth Association and how we can use them to attract and retain our clients.
Buzz…Buzz…Did you hear the news?
Buzz marketing creates a buzz by getting “high profile entertainment or new to get people to talk about your brand.”
You may not be able to afford a celebrity endorsement but you can certainly make noise by sending a press release to your local news outlets to inform their constituents about the exciting grand opening of your massage therapy practice or what’s so awesome about that new treatment you now offer. You can even celebrate the addition of a talented massage therapist on staff or your newer, better office location. Your opportunities are almost endless and limited only to your own creativity.
Grassroots Outreach
Utilizing this classic marketing technique to get others involved, this WOM has been defined as “organizing and motivating volunteers to engage in personal or local outreach.”
Organize a group of complementary and alternative medicine personnel to participate in a local wellness awareness event (or another cause marketing effort) and take it to the street. Create fliers that support your activity and spread them around to interested individuals. The key is to get others involved and active in your team effort - maybe even generating some buzz in the process!
In Search of a Cause
Cause marketing is “supporting social causes to earn respect and support from people who feel strongly about the cause.”
Choose a cause that is complementary to your own efforts or something that has specific meaning for you. There are so many great ones out there to pick from - even those locally. If you can’t find one that you feel very strongly about, create your own. Here are a couple of examples of organizations that are great ideas for cause marketing for massage therapists.
▪ “Go Green” for supporting a healthier, cleaner environment for our children from the Go Green Initiative organization. Implement a policy on only using environmentally safe products, cut down on water usage, and begin a recycling program in your practice, and so on.
▪ Susan G. Komen for the Cure that encourages active engagement in the breast cancer movement. Offer pink ribbons or pink rings to bring recognition and awareness to this silent killer. Offer to donate some of your proceeds to the foundation.
Evangelist, Evangelist, Evangelist
Cultivating advocates or volunteers that are “encouraged to take a leadership role in actively spreading the word on your behalf” is called evangelistic marketing.
Natural “evangelists” for massage therapy are those clients who are so enthusiastic about your services that they have followed you through your educational hours to your own massage therapy practice. Usually these individuals feel that they have become part of your “team” and are only too happy to help your business grow.
Other alternative health providers are also good candidates for this type of WOM, since they assist their own clients to seek other types of complementary and alternative medicine.
Checking In
Wow! We’ve only gone through just four types of word-of-mouth marketing. Are you getting some great ideas? Jot them on paper while they are fresh in your mind now. Include a list of those individuals that may play an active role in your WOM strategy.
Sampling the Service or Product
Product seeding is “placing the right product into the right hands at the right time, or providing information or samples to influential individuals.”
Offering chair massages provides clients a means to sample your work without a big investment of time or money from the buyer. Don’t offer chair massages? Provide discount rates on your lower time increment services, such as a 10-15% discount on a thirty minute massage or a lesser extensive spa treatment, such as a sample service of a body scrub or body wrap on an arm.
If you offer products, provide samples.
Conversation Starters
Send out “interesting or fun advertising, emails, catch phrases, entertainment, or promotions designed to start word of mouth activity” is called conversation creation. Design and write an adverting campaign that stimulates interest, is fun or humorous, and creativity unique. Use it on all of your adverting materials for a specific period of time. For example, you are implementing a new service. Create advanced interest with this type of WOM marketing.
Referral Programs
Yep, your referral program is a WOM marketing technique that you may have already set up. This is the most common word-of-mouth promotional method that massage therapists utilize.Your referral program is easily implemented by asking your current clients to talk about your services to their friends, family and co-workers. Offer free or reduced rates on specific services to award to your loyal client, while offering a sample service or regular discounted service to his/her referred one.
Pulling it Together
Have you remembered to write down your thoughts? You may note that several of these WOM marketing techniques will neatly work together. Now you can write out your marketing strategy - with one or more of these effective WOM marketing tactics. Specifically identify goals that you want to accomplish with your strategy and you are on your way of to a more successful massage therapy practice!
Having a blood glucose meter allows you to test your blood sugar levels at the comforts of your home. Aside from a sensible diet and exercise, your blood glucose meter is essential for you to be able to practice proper diabetes care. If you don’t have the means to test your blood sugar levels, you may not realize that you should do something about your condition. Regular testing with your blood glucose monitor will be able to help you determine whether you need to do something to normalize your blood sugar levels or not.
Depending on the experience of physical symptoms to be able to tell whether there is a fluctuation in your blood sugar levels is highly inaccurate. For one thing, most people with diabetes rarely ever experience symptoms that come with having either low or high blood sugar levels. Most people who have been living with diabetes for a while can get accustomed to the symptoms and lose the ability to tell whether they are experiencing indications of blood sugar fluctuations or not. Therefore it is better to depend on a blood glucose meter to correctly monitor the levels of sugar in your blood.
Remember though that the result from your blood glucose meter is not absolute. There can be many factors that can affect your test results and therefore making the readings from blood glucose tester incorrect. For instance, if your fingertip from which you have drawn a blood sample from is dirty or covered in some small amounts of food and other substances, the reading of your blood glucose monitor will be incorrect. You may also accidentally use the wrong test strip on your blood glucose meter and in which case, again, your results will be inaccurate.
You will have to do your part in ensuring that your blood glucose meter is able to give you the proper results every time you do a test. If you do not take the time to be meticulous in this process then the fact that you have a good reliable blood glucose tester is pretty much irrelevant. You will need to learn how to properly use your blood glucose meter and you will need to learn all the dos and don’ts in using it as well. Getting accurate test result from your blood glucose monitor is important. The right results can mean the difference between losing your sight and keeping it as well as many other serious complications that can arise from irregular blood sugar levels.
In this sense, your blood glucose meter can be your best friend or your best enemy. Be sure to learn all about how to use this device properly as well what to do and not to do when doing tests at home with your blood glucose tester. Things like proper calibration, proper conversions and the like are essential to learning how to use your blood glucose monitor correctly.
Remember that your continued health depends on your ability to manage the risk of fluctuations in your blood sugar level. The blood glucose meter and the proper use of it is the right tool to help you monitor blood sugar levels correctly and manage risks. However, you still should have regular lab testing scheduled to ensure the accuracy of your device.
Premature ejaculation is the most common sexual problem for men. It is a lack of control over ejaculation so that it always happens sooner than the man or his partner would want. How soon depends on the individual. Some men ejaculate as soon as foreplay starts. Others lose control when they try to insert their penis, while some ejaculate very quickly after penetration. Whatever the case, premature ejaculation can create tension between a man and his partner.
Occasionally losing control is normal Premature ejaculation is only a problem if it happens all the time. It’s important to remember that most men occasionally reach orgasm sooner than they’d like. For instance, it is normal for a man to ejaculate quickly the first time he has sex. It is also normal if a man hasn’t ejaculated for a long time. The occasional loss of control doesn’t mean the man has a sexual problem.
Most cases of premature ejaculation do not have a clear cause. With sexual experience and age, men often learn to delay orgasm. Premature ejaculation may occur with a new partner, only in certain sexual situations, or if it has been a long time since the last ejaculation. Psychological factors such as anxiety, guilt, or depression can cause premature ejaculation.
Since alcohol can delay orgasm, stopping the regular use of alcohol before sex may also play a role in this problem. In some cases, premature ejaculation may be related to an underlying medical cause such as hormonal problems, injury, or a side effect of certain medications.
One thing is sure, satisfy your women or any women in bed and they will remember you forever, you can be filty rich, a movie star, rock star but if you can’t satisfy your women sexually , everything you can bring her won’t matter much, of course love might be a reason why she won’t seek satisfaction elswhere but, face it she will never be fully satisfied and content as a women , she will seek pleasure elsewhere eventually, she will always seek that sexual satisfaction no matter how much you spoil her financially , most women won’t tell you how they really feel being afraid to hurt your feelings. This solution will cure your problem once and for all and will give you confidence to approach women.
Terry Areford of Morgantown, West Virginia is one patient who wasn’t told by his cardiologist that the option of adult stem cell therapy existed for him. He was a patient at the prestigious teaching hospital attached to the University of West Virginia where he could reasonably have expected to receive the best and most advanced treatment options available to medical science. He believed that his imminent death was unavoidable because he did not want a transplant and after several heart attacks, six bypasses and more than half a dozen operations to insert stents he had only one small vessel left pumping blood to the front of his heart.
Everyday for Terry was characterized by chest pain and shortness of breath. He could not walk a hundred feet without tightness in his chest and at only 60 years of age wanted to be around a little longer to enjoy his family and grandchildren. He was upset and felt that there must be something else out there for him. Fortunately, his daughter scoured the internet and searched until she found that there was, indeed, grounds for hope.
‘I think it’s a real shame that I cannot get the help I need at home. I found out that there is some research going on with adult stem cells in the U.S. but they are like five year trials. I couldn’t wait five years. There’s going to be a lot of people dead in five years and they wouldn’t have to be dead if they knew about adult stem cell therapy,’ he said.
‘I hope ten people read my story and go out and tell ten more people so that everybody comes to understand what this is all about. I was using my own body to help, or perhaps cure, my own body. There is no rejection factor and it took only a small incision in my chest wall and an injection of my own stem cells into the heart. Once implanted these cells do what they are programmed to do – revascularize to improve blood flow to my useless heart muscle. While my wife shopped and visited the temples and markets I lay back in a superb hospital with fantastic care to get well,’ he added
We hear a lot about heart disease and other problems of the cardiovascular system. It has been a problem that has been faced by scientists and health professionals over many decades. We can be forgiven for thinking that with all the attention it has received and all the money that has been spent in trying to find treatments and cures that the problem would have been solved and that the number of people who are dying from cardiovascular system problems would have decreased. This does not appear to be the case. I find the following information alarming.
Piscatella and Franklin (2003) estimate that cardiovascular disease afflicts 100 million Americans (about half the population). One person, in the United States, dies from cardiovascular disease every 34 seconds. This means that by 7 am on any day of the week, 741 have already died of cardiovascular disease, by noon the figure has risen to 1,271 and by the time the day has ended 2,488 have died. Let’s put this another way. The American odds of contracting AIDS is 1 in 1,000,000. The chance of being murdered is 1 in 10,000. However, the risk of dying for cardiovascular disease is 1 in 2.
It has often been thought that this is a man’s problem. However, there are almost as many women with heart problems as men and it is the leading cause of death among American women. Over 250,000 women die of heart disease each year - which is more than the next 14 causes of death added together. More women than men die of heart disease each year. Twice as many women die each year from cardiovascular disease than from all forms of cancer combined.
Answers to questions about heart disease
What is a heart attack?
A heart attack - also called a myocardial infarction (MI) or coronary occlusion (coronary) occurs when blood flow to a part of the heart muscle is blocked. It is caused by a blockage of the coronary artery, or more commonly one of its sub-branches. This usually results from the movement of unstable plaque on the artery wall, a blood clot or a spasm that seals off the artery. The section of the heart muscle that is without blood supply eventually dies and this produces permanent damage to the heart muscle tissue, which comprises the bulk of the organ.
What does a heart attack feel like?
The most common symptom is pain or pressure or a sense of fullness in the chest that lasts for two or more minutes. Men sometimes say that it feels like having a vice squeezing their chest or an elephant sitting on their chest. Women typically experience a milder pain. The pain or sensation may (or it might not) also be in the shoulders, neck, jaw, back, arms or abdomen. Men tend to have sharper pain than women and also often in their arms and shoulders. Dizziness, sweating, nausea and shortness of breath may also occur.
If you have ever run very hard without proper training you will have felt the pain in your muscles caused by lack of oxygen during the time you forced them to work. Well, your heart muscle always has to work for you to live, so when part of it is suddenly deprived of oxygen the pain can be extreme, resulting in loss of consciousness.
When are heart attacks most likely to occur?
Men may first get the signs of heart disease between the ages of 35 and 40 years. The condition doesn’t usually affect women until between the ages of 45 and 64 years.
There are differences in the time of day and the time of the week when heart attacks are most likely to occur. Between 6 am and 12 mid day are the riskiest time of the day - possibly because of the increases in hormone levels and blood pressure and artery stiffness in the morning. More heart attacks happen on Mondays than any other day of the week - sometimes called “Blue Monday”. It is thought that the stress of the work environment - especially after a period of relaxation may be the cause.
What is angina?
There are often no warning symptoms in the early stages of heart disease. However, as the arteries that feed blood and oxygen to the heart muscle (the coronary arteries) become gradually narrowed many people experience angina or angina pectoris - “chest pain”. The heart muscle itself is receiving insufficient oxygen for its current level of workload, just like the untrained runner’s legs mentioned above.
Angina is a sharp, sudden pain - a feeling of tightness, heaviness, squeezing, numbness, burning or pressure. It may move into the arms (often the left arm), neck, jaw, back and shoulder.
Angina is a symptom, not a disease. It is progressive - the pain can becomes more frequent, more intense of both.
Not all angina is the same.
- Some occurs during or soon after physical exertion, eating a heavy meal, going into the cold or heat, or as a reaction to emotional stress. Sufferers are usually forced to stop what they are doing (thereby reducing the workload on the heat so that it will have enough oxygen).
- Another form of angina produces pain at less predictable times - even when you are sleeping. This form is often a symptom of an impending heart attack.
- Angina is a indicator of coronary artery blockage - it affects over 5 million Americans.
What is a cardiac arrest?A cardiac arrest is where the heart ceases to function - its normal process of pumping blood throughout the body stops. This is an emergency situation as the body, and in particular the brain, needs oxygen supplied via the blood flow. Without this oxygen death occurs rapidly. Most cases of cardiac arrest are related to the heart’s electrical conduction system that isn’t working properly and the heart beats irregularly, such as in ventricular fibrillation where the heart beat is chaotic and ineffective. Sometimes a heart attack can lead to these heart beat problems.
There are ways to deal with and overcome heart disease.
All of the information provided above presents a very gloomy picture. However, you and your family do not need to be a part of this heart disease tragedy. Any changes that your body makes in one direction (for example, towards cardiovascular disease) it can make in the opposite direction (for example, towards a healthy cardiovascular system). You will need to take action to make it happen. Some of the actions you need to take include:
- quit smoking, if you are a smoker then the Growerz.com quit smoking program will help you.
- balance your diet,
- make exercise a health habit, and
- manage your stress levels.
As well as these you need to cleanse your body of toxins - this includes the toxins that have built up in your arteries as well as the rest of your internal tissues. These actions (how to take them, things you need to consider and more) will be included in future articles on heart disease.Part of the tragedy of heart disease is that, as devastating as the disease may be, it is avoidable and treatable. Far too many people are drawn into the myths promoted by western medicine that suggest little can be done to effectively deal with the disease. Your typical doctor has accepted the verdict that suits the pharmaceutical industry and treats you entirely within their “market”. They have largely lost the knowledge and skills to deal with heart disease any other way and now simply perform tests, prescribe side-effect laden drugs and expect you to die soon enough, after they have separated you from a good deal of money. Their approach is massively expensive (consider the tests, drugs, special paramedics, coronary care units and lost work productivity, not to mention the human suffering), quite clearly does not work (just look at the statistics) and simply cannot be relied upon.
Heart disease is largely a lifestyle related problem. There is a genetic component, but that is over emphasized by most of the medical profession who want to excuse their failure. With some guidance and a commitment to make some changes you can avoid or recover from heart disease or at the very least dramatically improve your quality of life if you already have advanced pathology.
References
Davies, S. and A. Stewart., 1997, Nutritional Medicine. Pan.
Holden, S., Hudson, K., Tilman, J. & D. Wolf, 2003, The Ultimate Guide to Health from Nature. Asrolog Publication.
Pistcatella, J.C. and Frankin, B.A. 2003, Take a Load off Your Heart. Workman.
Saxelby, C. 2001, Nutrition for the Healthy Heart. Hardie Grant.
