It's time to plan for your boutique gym's Black Friday campaigns. Studio owners will often pull out the previous year's deals, dust them off, and send them back out, but let's look at your offers strategically this year to get the results that will support your business. 

Start With Your Goal

Before diving into your offers, consider what you hope to achieve with your sale. Is your goal: 

• More members
• More class package clients 
• A quick influx of revenue
• Brand new clients

The offers you build should reflect your studio's specific goal(s) since a package created to attract brand-new clients differs significantly from what you would market if your goal is to increase long-term members. 

Packages based on your goals could look like:

• Paid-in-full three-month unlimited membership
• 20-class pack that isn’t usually available
• Buy three classes and get two classes free (limit 1, new clients)

Before you reach for last year's sale copy, check in to make sure what you're offering supports what you want to attract. 

Build Your Offers

When business owners try to offer something to everyone, they unintentionally create choice paralysis- resulting in fewer sales. Choose just one or two goals and no more than three individual offers. Ideally, develop your specials for different price points and buyer profiles to ensure your offers don't compete. For example, selling a $200 membership and a $250 class package appeal to the same budget and can cause choice confusion.

There are two ways to combat choice paralysis. 

1. Direct your clients to which option is best in your marketing with a question that will lead them to their ideal purchase:

"Looking for the best deal on the most classes? Choose this unlimited membership and score a free month!"

"Is flexibility the most important factor? Here's the perfect deal on our ten-class package for you."

"Brand new to our studio? Welcome! Get a free week on us with your two-week intro special."

2. You can still have multiple offers, but keep them in your pocket and reach out to clients individually with the offer you think they'd like. 

69% of those surveyed said they would be more likely to buy if the offer was personalized, and 76% said early access would drive their purchase. Take advantage of both by building a VIP list for your must-contact clients. Include anyone who has purchased a Black Friday package in the past, lapsed members who used to be active, and recent intros who expired without buying a long-term option. 

Add their names and the target sale option to a lead sheet and personally contact each client for a special owner's choice pre-sale before you release it to the public. Remember, it often takes a few contact attempts before a potential buyer is ready to hand over their credit card, and some buyers need a sense of urgency before they're ready. Don't give up after one email.

Add a Gift

77% of those surveyed said a bonus gift would make them more likely to buy, which makes incentivizing your Black Friday offers even more impactful than providing a discount. That doesn't mean your Black Friday sale shouldn't include great deals, but you may want to include a free incentive that sweetens the deal. It doesn't have to be pricey, and you can attach different freebies to different value purchases (e.g., save significant incentives for your most expensive offers). 

Here are a few ideas:

• Grip socks 
• Branded water bottle
• Choose an item from the retail rack
• A new client bundle with a few items a client could use to get started, like a sweat towel, a pair of socks, and a stretch band
• A gift certificate or intro package to give to a friend. (This isn't usually the most popular choice, but it can help to reach new clients)
• Gift certificates to partner businesses, like a spa, juice bar, or nail salon- depending on your client's interests
• A free week or more added to their package

Remember your profit margins. You don't want to increase your gross revenue at the expense of your bottom line- your take-home. Before you give anything away, ensure that you can afford it. Book a call with our preferred coaches if you need help with your analysis.

Create Your Marketing Plan

Your offers can be perfect, but you won't have any luck if no one knows about them. Gone are the days when you could throw a Facebook ad up and reap the benefits. If you want your hard work to result in sales, you'll need to create a marketing campaign to get your specials in front of potential buyers.

• Social Media: Curate your Canva images for your feed, reels, and stories, but remember that only a fraction of your social media should be "salesy." Pepper, your sale material in between polls, videos, reels, testimonials, and other content of interest. Otherwise, you risk annoying clients and impacting your algorithm.
• Digital Marketing: Advertisements are costly over the holiday season. That doesn't mean Google ads are entirely out of the question, but you'll want to analyze your cost/benefit potential before you click "run" on your ads. Remember that potential clients go to Google to find a solution to their problem, so don't sell your offer- sell the answer to their pain point. 
• Referrals: Most Black Friday purchases come from your current client pool and their friends. Take advantage of the referral potential by offering perks to anyone who shares your sale and refers a friend. Social shoppers look for opportunities to purchase what other people are already buying. 
• Email Marketing: This is your best chance to land the most sales. Create a campaign that speaks to your clients for the week or weekend leading up to Black Friday, depending on how long you plan to run your offers. Aim for three to four emails directing clients to a landing page with an easy click-to-cart. 
• Phone contact: It can be nerve-wracking to get on the phone but calls out convert emails by a significant margin, and texts are even more effective. Avoid mass texting and over-selling, which can make clients feel pestered. Instead, personalize your texts and calls to each client to appear more helpful than spammy.

Is Your Strategy Comprehensive?

The reason Black Friday sales flop isn't always because of increased competition over the holiday weekend (although that certainly contributes). An incomplete strategy is just as detrimental to the success of your campaign. Take time to draft your thorough plan to look for holes from a bird's eye perspective. 

• Do you have offers that speak to multiple buyer psychology profiles (deal hunters, social buyers, last-chance shoppers)
• Are there packages for different budgets (low threshold no-brainers under $50, paid in full, and monthly options)
• Did you remember to include value-add and discount offers? i.e., "buy two classes, get one free" is a value add, whereas "save 50% on your first month" is discount psychology. Different buyers will be motivated by each.
• Have you built your VIP list with a plan to reach out?
• What is your add-on gift, if applicable?
• Is your marketing plan multi-dimensional?
• What is your advertising schedule? 

It's time to execute your ideas! If you need more help, contact our preferred coaches to create a personalized plan for your studio.