A New-York-based doula and masseuse reveals the exact formula that's helped her build an almost 6-figure business solely by word-of-mouth referrals
- Areefa Mohammed knew her calling was to be a masseuse and doula, or birthing coach, and followed in her grandmother's footsteps, who was the town healer in Guyana.
- Mohammad has about 40 active massage clients at any given time and has cared for dozens of children, some beginning when they were still in the womb with prenatal massage and birth coaching for mom and baby.
- She built her business in New York City entirely on word of mouth by offering exceptional services, checking in on how clients were doing, and recently offering incentives like discounted fees or a free extra 15 minutes in a session.
- To keep clients, she is empathetic, caring, and not pushy when asking for referrals.
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Word-of-mouth advertising is the holy grail of what all marketers and business owners are seeking to achieve when they put paid dollars behind their content. They want people to share their Facebook post or mention the cool thing they saw on Instagram. They want existing customers to recommend their brand to their friends and family, to endorse it to their own audiences. The desire to grow word-of-mouth advertising is the reason why influencer marketing is a $6 billion business.
Areefa Mohammed is one businesswoman who has mastered it.
Mohammed's calling was inspired at a very young age. She spent the first eight years of her life in Guyana, raised by her father's mother alongside her cousins while their parents worked to set up a life in America, before joining her parents in Virginia. Her uncles had all been fishermen and her grandmother was the salesperson who coordinated the business of selling the fish along with harvested vegetables and spices to local merchants in Guyana. Her grandmother also ran a side hustle as the town healer and baby masseuse.
Mohammed's grandma didn't have a degree or a business card or any official training, but she was known as a trusted provider where frustrated parents could bring their colicky, whiny babies with neck pain or digestive problems. She would sit flat on the floor with her legs out and dangle the tiny humans by one foot, stretching them out and then massaging them, taking zero measures to treat them delicately.
"What she was doing without any knowledge of the human body was absolutely OK because babies have 300 bones that are nearly all cartilage, so it was effective to work on them in that way," Mohammed relayed of her grandmother's untrained infant bodywork.
Fast forward three decades and her grandmother lives on in her granddaughter, who has essentially modernized and professionalized her grandmother's reputation in Guyana and created a successful, almost-six-figure business for herself thousands of miles away in New York City.
Most astonishing, she has architected her whole business by referrals alone.
The path to self-employed doula
Mohammed, now 33, has successfully and seamlessly married the two things her grandmother did best - caring for children as a guardian and masseuse - and built her own business, on her own schedule. In addition to her childcare and massage expertise, Areefa is also a certified doula. The connective tissue between the different services she provides comes from her desire to "merge my appreciation for nannying and massage therapy," she shared.
"Through a continuing ed course, I found that I could further apply what I love by 'mothering the mother' as a professional labor and birth assistant," she said.
Before becoming self-employed, she was a nanny for many years. Many of those connections stay with her, though, which is part of her success in word-of-mouth marketing, as former employers seek her out to utilize her other services.
Her path to becoming a doula started with school at the Swedish Institute, where she helped with five live births as part of her externship. At least one of those turned into a long-term friendship, which has led to other work. Additionally, some of her first nanny clients came to her or recommended her to friends for massage or doula help.
Competition in New York City is fierce, no matter what industry you're in, though for doulas like Mohammed, the curve isn't as steep. "Awareness is still on the rise for doulas," said Mohammed.
She generally does massages and doula duties five days a week, with Mondays and Tuesdays off. Evenings and Sundays are her busiest times, with clients seeking massages before they return to the Monday grind.
Mohammad has about 40 active massage clients at any given time and has cared for dozens of children, some beginning when they were still in the womb with prenatal massage and birth coaching for mom and baby. She charges market rates for her services, coming in just below the on-demand pricing for massages, and is on the lower end of the scale for her doula services, which can cost upwards of $3,500 or more for three months of service (she charges $1,500).
She has raised her rates only once to make pricing uniform across geographies, after initially charging more for Manhattan clients but realizing her own overhead cost more to travel to the outskirts of the city.
Her clients include the full range of diversity in New York, from CEOs of startups, tech companies, and Fortune 500s, including an owner of the largest retail business in Europe, to a single mom who came to give birth without anyone by her side or any resource to pay for Mohammad's doula skills, which she provided pro bono. Mohammad travels all over the city - from the Upper West Side to the Rockaways, and everywhere in between - to deliver her sought-after services.
Growing a business by word-of-mouth referrals alone
According to her clients, Mohammad is the best masseuse they've ever had. "And honestly, I have had a lot of massages," one long-time client Bash Doran, who lives in Manhattan's Upper West Side, told Business Insider. "I trusted her essentially with my life - my child. I never had a moment of regret," Doran added.
Mohammad credits her natural inclination toward the healing arts, childcare, and body work as intrinsic to her Indian cultural background. Massage, Ayurveda, and touch therapy ties deeply into her family and culture's traditions, which have roots that date back to the fourth century BCE.
Personal connections are what Mohammad has built her business on.
In fact, don't bother looking for her website, because you won't find one. Social channels that highlight her services and drive engagement? Nope, there aren't any. Her SEO-optimized digital presence? Non-existent. Yelp profile with customer reviews? Negative. Paid sponsored search? Zilch.
"My work has been effective and the trail of a friend telling a friend telling a friend who is pregnant or looking for support is initiated," she said.
She offered her best tips for reaching the same level of success with zero marketing budget.
Diversify your offerings
Part of Mohammad's secret sauce is that her services are often overlapping, growing with clients and their own bodies as families morph and grow.
It may seem counterintuitive to focus business offerings on more than one thing, which risks feeling fractious or diluted to potential customers, but related services can serve as ripe opportunities to upsell or cross-sell to existing customers who have already come to know and trust you.
"Diversifying services has confused, but also helped me," Mohammad explained. "I don't know what it is I'm going to be doing at the end of it all, but complementary alternative medicine and touch therapy is what I want to do."
She had one client on Manhattan's Upper West Side whom she was first a doula for, helping her navigate pregnancy and childbirth. She ended up stepping in as a substitute nanny and then went on to massage the mom and the kids. She also worked with the client, who was a speech pathologist, to serve some of the kids who had speech issues. That experience led to word-of-mouth referrals for Mohammad to work with families that had children with disabilities.
Build trust
It doesn't matter whether you're massaging someone's chronically sore lower back or selling them t-shirts - you have to build trust with your customers in order for them to want to fork over their money for your products or services.
Mohammad just happens to be dealing with people's most precious parts - their bodies, their children, and their overall well-being. She has helped her clients in their most intimate and vulnerable moments - lying naked on a massage bed, in labor in a birthing room, working on a latch with a screaming newborn - and helped families after the death of a close family member.
Trust is built over time and through education and great care, said Mohammed.
"I present myself in a professional manner and am constantly educating myself and trying to help them through my knowledge of the body," she said. She doesn't just provide services, but also makes it a point to leave clients with knowledge to help them understand their own bodies better.
Tap into your empathy
Good marketing, no matter what industry you're in, is about intuiting what people care about and delivering on those needs and emotions. For Mohammad, that intuition comes very naturally, but it's a skill that anyone can develop with enough attention paid to existing or new audiences.
"I'm able to read the energy in certain situations," Mohammad said. "I know when I walk out [of] a session or a night of nannying whether it was good or not. I can tell if a client is scared about their pregnancy or a client who has never been massaged before and doesn't know what to expect. I try to make them feel secure and comfortable through my professionalism and education."
Care deeply
"I have a big heart toward caring for others - I'm just genuine. I want to care for others and want to walk away from them knowing I've made a difference - made them happier, their situation less stressful," Mohammad explained.
The passion she feels for her work is palpable. Her clients can feel that and it's what keeps them coming back. She works hard to prove it by delivering excellence in service. Like any entrepreneur or anyone trying to get their business off the ground or even searching for the day job that is going to bring you fulfillment, if that fire isn't in you, it's less likely to work.
Strike the right tone
Mohammad is careful not to be pushy. She doesn't tell her clients to help spread the word about her services, nor does she ask clients to like her on social media or leave her a review. The quality of the services she delivers speaks on its own. She is, however, starting to implement some word-of-mouth referral incentives like discounted fees or an extra 15 minutes in a massage session for free.
"I don't push clients to rebook, but I do try to check in with them and ask how they're doing," she added. Following up with her clients has led to repeat business.
In some ways, the lack of direct or even subtle solicitation makes you feel like you're her only and most-valued client, like she is in it truly to help people. Her easy authenticity is the very thing brands sweat to strive for.
When asked what her approach is that encourages people to refer her, she said, "When I think about it, it seems that I talk a lot! Like a lot! I'm always looking for ways to share with others what I do. I'm passionate about it. I'm excited about it. I also always want to be of help some way or the other."
She added, "Always love what you do. Be passionate about it. You will talk and want to share. Always push yourself to learn new things. Add to your practice. And share. I don't think I've ever pushed anyone to take in my business. But I share what I think."