How to Promote Your Business During the Holidays without Compromising Your Brand

The holidays are a great time to promote your business as a health coach, because even though we’re usually relaxed about our waistlines when we’re celebrating, most of us are planning better routines and resolutions for the new year when life resumes.?

But, one of the biggest?branding mistakes ?I see health coaches make around the holidays is devaluing their brand by offering constant or really high discounts on their pricing.?

Why offering holiday discounts is hurting your brand!??

Firstly, it creates, what I like to call, the ‘holiday discount cycle’.

I see health coaches offering discounts almost every other month because of one holiday or another, and they get a ton of clients buy packages. But then they make barely any sales the rest of the time, and when they discount their services again, everyone swarms back.?

This is because you start to get a brand reputation for cheap or discounted services so everyone waits for it. Because they happen so often they are happy to wait until the next month or holiday because the discount is worth it to them.?

Everyone avoids paying full price and you’re out of pocket.?

The other issue is that you’re not necessarily going to be attracting your ideal client. Instead you’re attracting those who either can’t afford your normal rates (which means they aren’t long-term clients) or they aren’t prepared to pay your normal rate (which means they don’t value your service). Either way, they aren’t going to benefit your business long-term.?

So, this creates the question ‘how do you gain more customers without undervaluing your regular pricing, or competing with the massive discounts?

Here are my favourite ways to promote your business without compromising your brand!?

Focus on the connection

The holidays are all about community bonding. It’s a time when everyone embraces the holiday spirit of sharing and goodwill. So you should too.

Think about the holiday campaigns you’ve seen that left an impression on you. What did they all have in common? Most likely, they made you ‘feel’. Use this as the base to create your marketing message. Share a personal story of how your business got started, ask clients to share their stories, successes, and even their struggles you helped them overcome. The goal is to relate to your audience and uplift them. Ultimately you’ll stay in their mind much longer if you touch their hearts.?

Collaborate with like minded professionals

Instead of discounting, enhance your offering by combining your professional efforts with someone you trust. It’s great for getting your voice heard during the holidays (there are strength in numbers) and can be a long-lasting relationship year round.?

Think of the struggles that your customers are going through right now. Everyone is finding it difficult to get through COVID-19, some are coping with mental health issues, many people have turned to stress-eating as a way to deal with their problems. Others have found old unhealthy habits creeping back. Almost everyone is struggling to remain active during this period.?

Join forces with a nutritionist, psychiatrist, or a personal trainer, any professional that compliments your services as a health coach and offer more in the service package so they get an all-round experience. There’s huge value in being a one-stop-shop for services, so use this to your advantage.??

Run an intro challenge, not a discount

If you have a bootcamp, course, or plan, create a challenge that leads directly into it to get people involved and boost your message. You’re benefiting by offering a freebie to build your brand and relationship with your audience, without devaluing your own services.?

It doesn’t have to be anything fancy and you can repurpose your own content. For example, if you’re a health coach that focuses on fitness and you have a booty bootcamp, then offer a 10 day booty challenge where you have to do a set amount of exercises each day that progress. Then you can interact and offer your full bootcamp to those who are joining in.?

Top Tip:?Make it easier to interact by creating a specific hashtag for your challenge, and make sure you take part and post videos or pictures too!?

Adopt a charity

The holidays are also for giving so offer to give on your client’s behalf. Join efforts with a local charity and offer a percentage of your profits to them during the holidays. Generally people don’t mind paying full price for services if they are benefiting others. Plus, you’ll be promoting local charities and businesses too! It’s a win-win.?

Offer gift certificates

You’d be surprised how many people won’t pay full price for themselves, but will for others! You could offer couples or group sessions depending on your current services, and increase your offering by adding extra incentive like a discount to a local business that complements your services!?

Create time-sensitive packages?

Do you have a particularly popular product or service? Create a time-sensitive, holiday-only version with your most popular options that clients love! You don’t have to change the price but make sure that the bundle or package you create will only be available during the holiday period (they can redeem it later but they have to purchase before a certain date.) This level of time-sensitiveness will encourage them to purchase regardless of the price because it involves FOMO (fear of missing out.)?

Reward loyalty

If you really want to offer a discount, do it for bulk purchases instead. So the more someone buys, the more of a discount they get. This turns the tables from devaluing your brand to showing potential clients that you value their loyalty. You can also choose to offer discounts solely to returning customers or your existing clients which is a brilliant way to encourage them to purchase from you again.?

Warning: Just make sure you don’t do this very often, perhaps once a year.?

Run a competition?

One way to promote your business that tends to gain traction and momentum by itself is offering a competition with prizes (your products or services) that way it’s only available to one or two people and it shows that your brand is giving rather than discounting. Make sure that the entry to your competition involves getting your brand out there, for example on social media where they have to tag a friend, or like your post so you can get the most exposure.?

Top Tip:?Check the social media platform’s terms and conditions before you run your competition because you may have to add a disclaimer or be selective about how people can enter.?

Take advantage of what you’ve already built

It always surprises me when I see health coaches planning their marketing over the holidays and they completely forget all the hard work they’ve put in throughout the year. If you’ve built up your email list, use it. If you have an active social media channel, be more active whilst people are looking to purchase things. You can make a huge impact by capitalising on what you’ve already built and doing a genuine push without the need for discounts.?

Do some ground work?

Normally there are a lot of conversations on social media around the holidays, particularly Christmas and New Year whilst people discuss their health goals, so join the conversation and do some good old fashioned networking! You’d be surprised how beneficial it is to just get out there and talk to some more people (whether it’s attending events or just discussing online.)?

Top Tip:?Be sure not to come off as too promotional or ‘spammy’ when having conversations. It’s one thing to offer products and services to genuinely solve a problem, it’s another to make people feel like you’re just trying to make a sale. Build real connections and it will pay off more in the long-run.?

Stuck with ideas that are best for you? Here’s what you can start with…?

1. Focus on your core brand values?– Ultimately everything you should do should be in line with your branding. So look at your core values and see what makes the most sense for your wellness brand to be promoting right now? Authenticity and staying true to yourself wins every time!?
2. Remember who it’s for?– It’s all about your target audience, so get into their head, what are they dealing with? What’s their focus? What could you help them with? They should always inform the decisions you make so walk a mile in their shoes around the holidays.
3. Innovate your products and services –?If you want the truth, the best brands that succeed without ever having to discount are the ones who are always willing to make changes and improve! This could be with new packages or products, keeping up with trends to get involved with initiatives and challenges going on in the industry, or it could also be branching out into something new, like apparel or merchandise for your clients for the holidays.?

Need help to promote your business in line with your branding??

If you need help with ways to update your website or branding over the holidays to make sure you’re not undermining your business, drop me a message and I’ll see how I can help!?