The frenzy of the holiday shopping season is upon us. Black Friday and Cyber Monday have stoked your customers’ deal-hunting instinct. Over the next few weeks, your students will be looking for that perfect, meaningful gift. Why not make it easy for them to avoid the holiday crush, and give the best gift of all: a healthy, fit mind and body!
If you haven’t yet created a holiday marketing plan for your yoga, dance, martial arts, or fitness business, it’s not too late. We’re here to help you boost sales and attendance during what could otherwise be a lull before the big January fitness craze begins. Get a head start now, and you can build momentum that will pay off big time in the New Year.
According to a Gallup study, consumers estimate they will spend $942 on holiday gifts this year, up sharply from a year ago. A record-high 37 percent plan to spend $1,000 or more. You don’t want to miss out. Let’s save your customers from ugly Christmas sweaters, goofy electronic gadgets, and boring socks AND make you some extra holiday cash!
The key is to be organized (we’re going to give you the perfect checklist) and create one holiday campaign set to a theme that showcases the special personality of your fitness business or yoga studio.
Lucky for you, one of the top wishes for nearly anyone –no matter their age or walk of life — is happiness, health and feeling good!
Speak to this with your holiday campaign’s main message. Create a simple, straightforward theme, and link it to your specific holiday promotion. For example, a yoga studio might say, “Give the Gift of Relaxation. Holiday Gift Cards Available! Only $75 for a $100 Card.” Or for a boutique gym or group fitness classes “Give a Gift that Keeps Your Loved Ones Healthy and Strong All Year Long: 10 Class Passes 20% Off” or “Give the Gift of Fit and Fun!” or “Share Your Shine: Gift a Healthy Lifestyle with Gift Certificates from (Your Business Name Here).”
Create your special offer or offers. It’s a good idea to have a few different offers to use at different points during the holiday sales cycle (last minute before Christmas, VIP shop event, etc.). Here are some examples:
- Flash Sales are great way to entice loyal customers to buy for friends or stock up for themselves, and generate sizeable revenue boost for you. These work best through a combination of digital marketing channels. If you set up a discount code through your studio management software, like Punchpass, then you can send out an email to your best customers (Punchpass offers this option), and create a Facebook Ad promotion that link back to your online store, where customers can buy the passes. It’s really easy to set up, and so fun to see the dollars come rolling in! Since we know you’ll be enjoying friends, family and festivities throughout the season, we recommend setting your timer so you can launch your emails and social media posts at 12:01 am on each of the big shopping holidays. The key is to make the offer good for a very limited time, typically 24 hours (consider last minute shopper panic on Dec 23 and 24). You could create a different deal for each day. The most popular are 20% off all passes, or a free first month of membership, if you offer that. Be sure to choose a colorful, fun image to go with your post.
- Offer gift certificates from Thanksgiving through New Year’s. You can make the gift certificates redeemable for your services just like a regular pass — 5 or 10 visit gift cards work well. The giver can buy it & the recipient can redeem it later. Or you can transfer the gifted pass to the recipient right in your Punchpass client management system. That way when the happy gift recipient comes in for class, they’re ready to go! Another option is to create a simple gift certificate with a flat dollar value online through sites like Shopify or Square. Print a stack to have available before and after classes, and if you can, put up signage with a sample certificate, or a flyer featuring a picture of your gift certificate to let students know they’re a great gift option. You don’t need to discount these unless you’d like to offer an added incentive (see our next tip below). When the recipient walks in with the the certificate later, it’s just like they are bringing you cash to put towards a class pass or membership.
- Offer a special holiday discounted pass during the holidays. You can call it “$100 Pass for $75” at the price of $75. Promote your deal through email, Facebook, and printed posters and even banner stands, if that’s in your budget. You can sell a pass that’s designed for folks to buy and use themselves OR you can sell discounted gift certificates for them to give away to family & friends. If your discount is steep, you might want to limit sales to one per customer.
- Giveaways and contests are great way to generate fun, community and sales during the holidays as well. Instagram is the perfect place to launch one of these promotions. Use your holiday special theme, with eye-catching imagery and all the big holiday shopping hashtags: #holidayshopping #shopping #holiday #instashopping #shoplocal #traveler #instagood #shop #keto #shoppingaddict #shoppingtherapy #iloveshopping #ketofastosisdiet #holidaymacao #happyshopping #shoppingmall #crazyshopping #shoppinglovers #goodliving #fitnessmotivation #shoplocalchristmas #holidaycontest #holidayfit. Be sure to create your own, unique contest hashtag, like #punchpassholidayhugs. Give away a free yoga mat, or private training session, for example to the person with the best holiday photo – a big hug photo in our example – but you could also get creative by asking customers to submit a snowy fitness pic, or fitness move or yoga pose in the shopping mall or under the holiday lights, for your contest. Announce the contest through email, and before and after class to generate buzz and excitement. To drive more sales, you could set the contest up on Facebook, and give away your goodie to anyone who buys a $100 gift card, or 10 Class Pass during a flash sale.
- Host a VIP event where you and/or your best instructors will lead a fun-filled class followed by green juice and healthy snacks plus discounts on retail from your boutique if you have one, or deals on class passes and memberships for friends and family. You can easily set up a one-time event on your Punchpass class schedule. Again, be sure to promote the event through email, social media, posters and class announcements at least two weeks in advance.
Don’t forget to put your special holiday message and promotion in your Facebook profile banner, your website banner, and in your email messages all season long. Be sure to provide links back to your online sales page so they know where to buy your great deals!
The holidays are such a magical time. Let these ideas inspire you to bring some of that special love to your community, and abundance to your business.
Happy Holidays from all of us at Punchpass!
