Taking Spaaaah! to the people

The best way to market a concept to the public? Take it to the people. That’s exactly what Rottinghaus does with his Spaaaah! concept.

Utilizing what he calls the Aaah! Team, Rottinghaus gets his product out to the people.

The Aaah! Team is more of a concept than an actual specific group of people. Therapists from the practice visit businesses and give free massages to employees. This type of hands-on marketing gives the would-be patients an exact taste of what they might get should they visit the actual practice.

“One of the doctors goes with them and introduces them to the massage therapist,” Rottinghaus says. “People say, ‘This feels great. Where can I go for another one?’ We tell them where we’re located. We give them a brochure and let them know, depending on their insurance, whether our services will be covered by their insurance. That’s the unique part about our marketing.”

Rottinghaus estimates that 30 percent of his patients come via this direct method.

“We get huge numbers from that,” he says. “Those numbers are growing all the time. In late February, we had 195 new patients since the first of the year. That’s unheard of! If we don’t have four new patients a day it’s a bad day.”

The print materials that Aaah! Team members take on these marketing salvos are produced at an annual cost of about $2,000. The rest of the concept only costs the practice in the form of time.