The holiday season is upon us, but that doesn’t mean business needs to be slow. In fact, the right business strategy can help you grow your business this holiday season.
The holiday season is upon us, but that doesn’t mean business needs to be slow. In fact, the right business strategy can help you grow your business this holiday season.
We have 3 strategies to help you grow your business this holiday season. With this 3-point strategy, you can change the holiday lull into the holiday boom. The 3 points are - create compelling offers, build a social media presence, and formulate email campaigns that are noticed and opened. In this blog, each point will be broken down into easy-to-follow steps to create your best holiday boom yet.
Look at your past holiday campaigns. Is there anything that previously worked that you can recreate? Even better, you can send a survey out to your members to see what they need most this holiday season. Genuinely listen to the feedback you get from your members. If you are unsure or get vague responses, then try looking at the business landscape overall. Look into some of your competitors and successful holiday campaigns. Use these ideas as inspiration to create your own twist for a holiday offer.
Now that you’ve done your research, start building your offer. Start with a brief and easy-to-understand message. Include a call to action with a sense of urgency, but be sure that the commitment is low. You don’t want your offer to put too much pressure on new customers. A great way to alleviate some of this pressure is to have a money-back guarantee. With this added bonus, you can create a sense of urgency without the added pressure.
The top 5 ways we recommend accounting for your holiday offer are via blog, social media posts, emails, in studio flyers, and communication with staff. If you choose to use an email announcement, be sure to make the offer obvious and towards the top of the page. Most emails are only scanned for 3-5 seconds, so you want to be sure your offer is conveyed within that time frame. In a season where holiday travels may cause a decrease in participation, reward your members that show up with in-studio discounts. A great way to promote these in personal rewards is with flyers around your studio and staff announcements before and after group classes.
Once you’ve conquered your offer with the first strategy, let’s dive into the hot topic of social media. Even though your offer is special and unique to the holiday season, be sure that the message is consistent with your brand. The colors, fonts, and overall message should still promote and align with your business values. Follow these 3 tips to help build your social media presence this holiday season.
Every social media platform has content that is prioritized. For example, videos are prioritized on Instagram. This information is readily available, so make sure you modify your social media content, so the pre-existing algorithms help promote your content.
If you don’t already have a social media manager, now is a great time to start. Make this person responsible for sticking to a strict content schedule. We recommend about 5 posts per week. Whatever number you choose though, be consistent week to week.
Social media is a great way to start building a personal relationship with potential clients. Comments, follows, and direct messages are great ways to start building this relationship. If you have a social media manager (which I recommend), aim to respond to any engagement message within the first 60 minutes. This sends a good message to potential clients.
Speaking of developing a relationship, email campaigns are also great ways to reach your clientele on a more personal level. In this next section, you’ll find 3 tips on how to help your email campaigns stand out.
If your goal is to generate new revenue with emails, you will see more success if you personalize your offers to your audience. Instead of sending a generic offer to your entire email list, choose a targeted audience. By definition, a target email is directed at 1-25% of your total email list. Choose people interested in kettlebell classes, or a junior program to target fall athletes. Or add the first name of your member in the email subject. Anything that makes your audience feel special.
You don’t have to wait until Thanksgiving or Black Friday to promote your offer. In fact, the sooner the better. Try to get your offer on the market before your competitors. Adding a personal subject line can also entice people to click on your email.
Why are Gmail hacks so important? About a quarter of all emails opened are opened in Gmail, so if you can get Gmail users to open your emails, you’re reaching a good quarter of your audience. Gmail divides all emails into three tabs: primary, promotions, and social. Research tells us that emails sorted into promotions are less likely to be opened, so how can you bypass this? Provide an “update” that includes member unique information (like an account number), only use one external link and picture, and stay away from blatant promotional terms that can beeline your email for promotions.
Let’s start with some definitions. Simply put, aggregators are tools that help new consumers find your business and the programs your business offers. For example, aggregators like ClassPass and GymPass are specifically designed to entice new customers for health and fitness businesses. On their app or website, consumers can search for a particular class, program, or location that is partnered with the aggregator. They can sign up easily and are often encouraged to sign up with discounts.
Here are 3 of the best benefits of tapping into aggregators this holiday season.
The benefit of your company participating in this process is the aggregators motivate new customers to walk into your facility for the first time. It’s up to you and your fitness business to make their first experience great and hopefully sell them a membership. Getting new customers into the door can be very difficult to accomplish in the fitness realm particularly during the holiday lull. Utilizing aggregators to consistently see new faces and sell new memberships is an incredible business advantage
Most people using aggregators to find fitness and health businesses do not belong to a gym. About 7 out of every 10 Gympass users didn’t previously belong to a gym. This is a difficult population to reach with stereotypical forms of advertisement. However, with the holiday season inspiring Turkey Trots and New Years Resolutions, more and more people start to utilize these service
Health and fitness aggregators will often partner with non-health-related companies by offering discounts to employees as part of a benefits package. If your business is located in a business center, this could be a great motivator to drive local businesses into your doors instead of the competition.
If you take anything away from this business strategy for the holidays, make sure you keep your offers and promotions centered around the best customer experience. Do your research, and come up with a plan for your offer this holiday season. Create an appealing offer that appeals to your audience and brand, and be sure to offer it at a convenient time for your members. Follow these steps, and you’ll have a great successful holiday season!
Click here to download the Mariana Tek Holiday Playbook!
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