Now that summer is a distant memory and the Halloween and Bonfire night celebrations are behind us, it’s time to focus on the biggest holiday of the year!
It goes without saying that Christmas is the biggest time of the year for retailers and businesses in associated industries, but what about businesses in the fitness industry? It’s very common for people to push fitness classes aside over the festive period as they prepare to gorge on endless Turkey and stuffing, but you can still maintain your current clients and generate new leads over the Christmas period – you just need planning.
The Christmas period can still be a golden time for fitness businesses as well as other retailers, you just need time to ramp up your digital marketing effort to generate new leads as well as avoid losing sales, and in this article I’m going to give you 10 tips on how to do exactly that…
Schedule content ahead of time.
One of the most common mistakes that businesses make over Christmas is the lack of scheduling ahead of time. The last thing you want to do is spend your Christmas Eve or Boxing Day at your computer rushing to create a newsletter of Facebook post to send to your audience. Not only is this a pain, but your content may also look rushed, have spelling errors or even worse your buttons may not link correctly.
Create and schedule your newsletters and social media posts ahead of time to avoid any errors and losing out on valuable celebration time with friends and family.
Take a look at Buffer or Hootsuite to schedule social media posts.
Add some Tinsel!
A great way to show users that you’re active online is by adding some Christmas decoration to your website and social media. Don’t clutter your pages, but try sprucing them up a bit with some Christmas related images and icons.
Reminding people of the festive season and putting Christmas to the top of their mind while they’re reading a social media post about your services or visiting your website can work surprisingly well at driving in quality leads who are intending to purchase.
You don’t have to go overboard! Just simply adding some subtle online decoration like ours in the above image.
Don’t just focus your entire budget on a few days!
Allocating the majority of your Christmas budget over just a few days (like Black Friday and Cyber Monday) is very shortsighted.
There are a number of reasons for this – not only does the cost of advertising rise significantly on these key shopping days, you’re also forgetting about the rest of December. Let’s face it – people purchasing fitness services on Xmas Eve up until Boxing Day is quite minimal. Spread your budget over the whole of December and following into the New Year where new fitness sign ups are at a high!
Send a Christmas card to your customers.
While bringing in new customers is essential no matter what time of year it is, it’s also important for your loyal customers to continue to visit your social media, your website and of course attend your classes over the holidays.
One of the best ways to keep your business fresh in your customer’s minds is by sending them a Christmas card.
If you run group classes, hand them out here, or if you have their email address (which I’m sure you do) try sending an eCard.
eCards are great as they can also contain links that direct subscribers to your website etc.
For those that run a non-ecommerce site, ask your customers what they plan on doing for the holidays and simply wish them a Merry Christmas. Overall, be festive, but don’t push them too much to purchase anything.
If you’re feeling extra festive and can afford to do so, why not give your current clients a free session as a little Christmas gift. Little things like this can go a long way!
Look at the data from last Christmas
Take a look at your analytics and campaigns for last Christmas – what did you do well, and what did you do that didn’t do too well?
Using last year’s data and insights to improve this year’s digital marketing efforts is a great way to make progress in your business.
If you ran an offer last year that did well, give it a few tweaks to fit your new audience and offer it again.
Run a seasonal gift offer
A great way to boost sales and increase engagement over the Christmas period is by running a holiday campaign where you offer your services at a discounted price.
Offers are great for generating new clients, especially over the festive period. Obviously people are purchasing gifts for others, so why not try creating a gift package that people can purchase as a Christmas present for the friends and family.
This could really drive traffic and generate more sales for your business.
Create a sense of urgency via countdowns:
A sense of urgency is great for one simple reason – it makes people take action fast! If you’re running an offer over Christmas, be sure to add an end date to get people opting in asap rather than leaving it until later – with so many offers over the Christmas period, it’s extremely easy for people to get caught up and totally forget about your offer completely. Adding urgency will result in action
Reflect on your year
The final few weeks of the year are a great opportunity to reflect on the past 12 months. Talk about how your business has grown; write articles on star clients that have made huge improvements with you over the year. Spread some positive behind the scenes news about what you and the business have been up to and what you have planned for 2017.
Final Thought
Christmas is an exciting time and can be for your business, too, if done right. Follow the advice above and make the upcoming holiday one to be proud of!
