Most marketing advice is written for businesses with a marketing person. You don’t have one. You have back-to-back sessions, laundry, SOAP notes, a booking system that occasionally misbehaves, and maybe an hour between clients if a cancellation comes through.
So this checklist is built around a simple premise: if it doesn’t fit into roughly 30–45 minutes a week, a solo therapist won’t keep doing it. And consistency beats intensity in local marketing. A small amount done every week outperforms a big push every six months.
It supports our guide to local marketing for massage and bodywork therapists, which explains why each of these pieces matters.
Before you start: one-time setup (about 2 hours)
Do these once so the weekly routine stays fast:
- Claim and verify your Google Business Profile, and make sure categories, services, hours, and photos are complete. Use our GBP optimization guide as your checklist.
- Save your review link. In your profile, find the “Ask for reviews” or “Share review form” option and copy the short link. Save it in your phone notes and in your booking system’s follow-up message if it has one.
- Create a simple tracking note. A spreadsheet or notes app with columns for date, new reviews, posts, and anything you changed. This is how you’ll notice what’s working.
- Set two recurring calendar reminders: a weekly 30-minute “marketing block,” and a monthly 20-minute “profile check.”
The weekly checklist (30–45 minutes)
Pick a consistent slot. Many therapists use the first 30 minutes of a lighter morning, or a gap that regularly opens up mid-week.
1. Reviews (10 minutes)
- Reply to every new review. Keep replies short, warm, and specific to what the reviewer said — without confirming they’re a client or mentioning any treatment details. “Thank you for taking the time to share this — we’re glad the studio felt relaxing” works for nearly any positive review.
- For negative or mixed reviews, don’t reply in the heat of the moment. Draft a calm response that acknowledges the concern and invites them to contact you directly, then post it the next day.
- Check you asked this week. Did you ask each happy regular or new client in person at checkout? If not, note the days you forgot and make it part of your checkout routine. Our guide on how to ask for reviews without sounding awkward has scripts.
2. Google Business Profile (10 minutes)
- Look for new questions and answer them.
- Check for suggested edits or changes you didn’t make.
- Add one thing: a new photo, a short post, or an updated service description. One per week is enough.
- Look two weeks ahead for holidays, vacations, or training days and set special hours now.
3. Website (5–10 minutes)
- Check the booking path on your phone. Open your site, tap Book, and make sure it works. Booking widgets break more often than people realize, and nobody tells you — they just book somewhere else.
- Note one question clients asked this week that your website doesn’t answer clearly (parking, what to wear, intake forms, insurance). Add it to a running list for your next content update.
4. Track (5 minutes)
Write down:
- New reviews this week
- Anything you posted or changed
- Roughly how many new clients mentioned finding you on Google or Maps
You’re not building a dashboard. You’re giving future-you enough information to see patterns.
The monthly add-on (20–30 minutes)
Once a month, spend a little extra time:
- Review your profile’s Performance data — calls, direction requests, website clicks. Compare to last month, not last week.
- Refresh one or two photos, especially if anything in the space has changed. See GBP photos that convert for what works.
- Double-check your categories and services still match what you actually offer. If you’ve added cupping, prenatal, or a new modality, update both your profile and your website. Our category guide covers when (and when not) to add categories.
- Act on one item from your running list of client questions — add an FAQ answer or improve a service page.
The quarterly add-on (about an hour)
- Search your business name and phone number. Fix any directory listings with old info.
- Check for duplicate Google profiles (common after moves or rebrands).
- Look at your tracking note: which months had the most new reviews? What did you do differently?
- Plan the next quarter’s seasonal posts — gift certificates, New Year, back-to-school, race season.
What to skip (for now)
As a solo practitioner, you can safely deprioritize:
- Daily social media posting. It can help with community and retention, but it rarely drives as many new local bookings as a strong Google profile and reviews do for its time cost.
- Constant website redesigns. Fix broken things and add useful content instead. Here’s why “near me” searches matter more than your homepage.
- Paid ads before your profile and reviews are in order. Ads send people to the same profile and site. Fix those first.
- Chasing ranking reports. Map positions vary by where the searcher stands. Focus on what you control.
Making it stick
A few habits that make this sustainable:
- Tie review asks to a physical moment — handing over the receipt, rebooking, or the goodbye at the door.
- Batch photos. Take ten on a quiet morning and post one per week.
- Draft review replies in your notes app, then paste them in when you have a minute.
- Don’t make up missed weeks. If you miss one, just do the next one. Consistency over months matters more than any single week.
If you’d rather not do it all yourself
Some owners enjoy this work; many would rather spend the time with clients. Options range from handing pieces to a front-desk person, to hiring an agency, to using tools that handle the repetitive parts. Our own toolkit — three bots covering Google profile updates, SEO content, and simple reporting for $97/month — was built for exactly this weekly routine, but the checklist above works fine done by hand.
Whatever you choose, the principle is the same: small, steady, accurate. That’s what builds local visibility over time. For the full framework, see our local marketing guide for massage and bodywork therapists.
