Stories from the Covid-19 Front Lines: Q&A with Massage Heights' VP of Marketing, Ashley Schuetz

What are you doing differently with your marketing program as a result of Covid-19?

We have temporarily paused all lead generation efforts and are focused on building brand awareness socially, and on providing wellness tips and education while people are at home. We’ve created videos for self-care while home and have partnered with a meditation app to provide our members with as many wellness resources as we can while we are temporarily unable to physically help them feel better with massage.

What are your plans for the next 60 days (April & May)?

We closed down 98% of our locations within 48 hours and very quickly shifted to focusing on reopening plans. Our plans are focused on recruitment (not knowing how many of our current staff will return), getting our member base back in the doors upon reopening, and then driving new traffic at different rates (with the understanding that every location will open with a different landscape of needs).

What are your plans for the following 90 days (June, July, August)?

I believe we have to be incredibly flexible as we do not understand how the behaviors of consumers will change (or for how long). We need to be fluid in our marketing and operational plans while continuing to assess the situation within each region.

Have you made major changes to your marketing and media programs?

Absolutely. We paused all lead generation efforts and shifted to brand awareness only for a temporary time. Unfortunately, budget restrictions led the way for the majority of this. We cut costs as quickly as possible in an effort to provide our franchisees with financial relief from royalties.

Have you made any changes to the roles or duties of your team?

We had to furlough a percentage of our corporate team. As a result of that, my team has had to pick up a lot of the customer support and administrative duties they are not normally responsible for. We have all shifted and adapted to this temporary new normal, but our goal is to bring back certain employees once we are able to. There are many late nights, and weekends don’t really exist right now, but we are all working hard to provide constant support for our franchisees. And we know this is only temporary.