Massage Marketing Tactics: Use Groupon to Fill Empty Slots & Acquire Full-Price Clients

Summary:

Massage businesses can acquire new clients and grow their revenue by promoting their services on Groupon. Best of all, there are no startup costs, only a marketing fee on each successful sale. To maximize success, here are three strategies for massage therapists advertising on Groupon:

1. Target Empty Slots: Use integrated booking and fine-print restrictions to fill specific, slower times of day or week that would otherwise be lost revenue.

2. Maximize Spending: Design your campaigns to encourage customers to spend more on on upgrades, add-ons, and gift offers.

3. Build Loyalty: Treat the initial visit as a high-quality introduction, then use a loyalty rebooking pitch to convert the first-time guest into a full-price regular.

In a competitive industry, every massage provider faces the same challenge: how do you keep your appointment book consistently full without spending valuable time and money on advertising that might not even work?

You need a strategy that delivers new clients to your massage table and helps you turn them into long-term regulars. Groupon is a digital advertising platform specializing in exactly this—connecting local beauty and wellness businesses with an audience of millions actively looking to book services like yours.

On average, a massage offer on Groupon in the US gets:

5,300+ impressions
/ month

16 sales
/ month

$1,000+ revenue
/ month

Here are three tactics to get the best results when running massage ads on Groupon.

1. Target Empty Slots and Slow Times

For a massage business, an empty treatment table is lost revenue—you can't get that time back. Groupon provides precise tools to target new clients when you need them and redirect customer flow away from your already busy times.

• Set a Strategic Voucher Cap: Use the monthly voucher limit not just as a maximum, but as a financial planning tool. Determine your required new client load, factoring in your overhead, and cap the deal at that number (e.g., 80 per month) to manage labor and prevent overbooking.
• Integrate Booking: Connect your scheduling system directly with Groupon. Customers can see your real-time availability and book their time slot before they purchase. This saves staff administrative time and ensures every sale instantly fills a specific, empty gap.
• Time-Restrict Redemption: Design your offer to be redeemable only during your off-peak hours. Example: Offer a deal valid Tuesday through Thursday afternoons. This shifts new customer demand away from your full-price weekend schedule.

2. Maximize Incremental Spending 

Strategically designing your service and encouraging upsells is crucial to increase the money a client spends on their first visit.

• The Introductory Service: Offer a standard 45- or 60-minute relaxation service. This gives the client a great, high-quality experience without requiring you to discount your most premium specialty offerings (like full-body scrubs or proprietary 90-minute treatments).
• The Immediate Paid Upgrade: Train every therapist and front desk staff member to offer an easy upgrade at the time of booking or check-in, such as a 15-minute hot stone or aromatherapy add-on, with the extra fee paid directly to your business.
• The Gift Bundle: Gifting is a massive market on Groupon, and gift shoppers are often looking for higher-value packages. Create options that combine services for a higher initial sale, such as a relaxation package that bundles a 60-minute massage with a 30-minute facial or scrub.

Case Study: Boosting Valentine's Day Revenue with Gift Vouchers

Jeff Hengst, owner of The Little Red Day Spa in Seattle, leveraged a gift campaign on Groupon to strategically manage customer flow and maximize high-volume holidays like Valentine's Day.

The Problem: "There are some holidays, like Valentine’s Day, where we can’t sell bookings because it’s so busy. However, there’s no limit to how many gift certificates we can sell that day for future use."

The Solution: "So in the month leading up to that day, we’ll back off and let our other [Groupon] vouchers run out. This way, people who’d otherwise buy those will instead wait for the new [gifting] deal, building some pressure behind the dam."

The Result: By pausing its standard offer and switching to a gift voucher campaign in the lead-up to Valentine's Day, The Little Red Day Spa was able to increase revenue from its busiest holiday while pushing the actual service redemptions into quieter times of the year, providing a strong foundation for long-term growth.

3. Convert Groupon Visits into Full-Price Regulars

Groupon clients are seeking a new experience. Your strategy for the first visit and immediate follow-up is what determines if they convert into a loyal customer.

• Create a Clear Conversion Path: Offering a shorter introductory service provides a high-quality showcase of your skills and studio atmosphere for someone not familiar with your business. It's the first step on the path to a higher-priced, longer-term relationship.
• The Loyalty Rebooking Pitch: Before the client leaves, your front desk staff should offer to book the client’s next appointment immediately with a small, one-time loyalty discount (e.g., 10% off). This turns a Groupon customer into a future full-paying client on the spot.
• Capture Data for Future Marketing: Ensure your booking and check-in process requires the client's full contact information (email, phone). This allows you to legally add them to your studio’s internal mailing list for retention campaigns, such as birthday offers or announcements about new, full-price services.

By using Groupon strategically—to fill quiet hours, encourage upgrades, and convert first-time visitors into loyal patrons—your massage business can leverage our digital reach to drive revenue and expand your customer base.

Ready to join the 1 million+ merchants who've worked with Groupon?