By Shannon Matson

Hosting a sale during the holidays can be a beautiful yet consuming undertaking.

In the ‘pro’ column, you’re cashing in on shopping momentum, expectation of a sale, and closing out your books nicely. In the ‘con’ column, you may be putting in hours during a time you’d prefer to be offline and focused on your loved ones.

Whichever way you decide to roll, I hope this article helps to quiet some of the, “Should I do this, or that, or this, but also that…” noise.

Here’s a rapid fire Q&A from questions submitted on Instagram by the Bungalow community.

1. Is it too late to start promoting a holiday sale? 

Nope! If your offer is a proven market fit, the audience is interested in investing, and delivery automations are ready to go – you can open cart whenever it makes sense for you.

I would suggest taking a few hours to:

• Troubleshoot: Comb through the offer for any cobwebs, test the delivery or onboarding workflow, tee up an abandoned cart email
  
• Prep: Sales page messaging (cart open dates, remove waitlist mentions, update sales price), countdown timer, create coupon or discount cart, update purchase buttons, create a sticky banner on the site about the sale
  
• Promo Materials: Prepare promotional social content, emails, and direct messages / emails to leads that have previously expressed interest

After this, you can run the holiday sale from:

• End of Year Sale: 12/21 – 12/31 (11 days)
• Tuesday to Tuesday Sale: 12/21 – 12/28 (8 days)
• The Weird Bit Between Christmas and New Years Sale: 12/26 – 12/30 (5 days)

2. Would you recommend a holiday sale if I’m in my ramp-up for a January sale? 

Yes ONLY if the offer you’re selling during the holidays warms up the audience member for the offer in January.

In “2021 vs 2022” terms, those sales are “a year apart”. Psychologically this helps with the two investments.

Keep in mind, the price of the holiday sale items should be half or less than the January sale item, AND not competing products, but absolutely complementary products. 

Using The Social Bungalow programs as an example:

• Holiday Sale: The Bingeworthy Bundle; helps with magnetic + high-converting caption writing; $147
• January Sale: Five Figure Instagram; helps with growing + selling into the 5 figures using Instagram; $497

3. How do I stand out from all the noise of everyone else selling at this time? 

• If possible, start earlier than everyone
  
• Do something drastically different from others, but also from yourself
  • e.g. Archive your entire Instagram grid except for the posts about the sale
    
• Go full blitz across all of your channels in a really uniform way
  • Same photo, phrasing, ultra clear dates + discount on every social, web and email channel you use
    
• Engage audience with some sort of activity or gamification
  • e.g. Create a scavenger hunt in your content in order to unlock a special prize (i.e. a bonus workshop)

4. Is it a horrible idea to launch a new product for my holiday sale? 

I wouldn’t release a new product purely organic during the holiday season when all channels are bogged down by the noise of others, your reach is cut in half at this time.

However, if your pockets are deep (for paid ads) and your audience has been begging for this offer, it can be a great idea to give everyone exactly what they want – you may just need to pay to play.

I’ve released a new offer in the holiday season both organic and paid, here’s how it turned out:

• ORGANIC ONLY: The Bingeworthy Bundle
  • Cost: $97
  • Cart: 8 days
  • Sold: $16,000  

• $30k AD BUDGET: Business Expansion Blueprint & High Ticket Sales System
  • Cost: $197-$347
  • Cart: 8 days
  • Sold: $200,000

Both were successful in my book, but with the power of paid ads at a saturated time, it made a huge difference.

5. What do you think about launching a “mini” offer for the holidays, then using that audience data to build it into a larger “master” program and relaunching it in the new year? 

That’s a great idea, I would be mindful of creating separation (now) with the messaging as it may confuse your audience when the re-release comes, “Wasn’t this $100… Why is it $1,000 now!?”

To create this separation:

• Change the name of the program
• Don’t include access to you in the “mini” (we don’t want to devalue your time)
• Ensure the problem/solution copy is more robust when the offer becomes the “master”

6. What’s preferred – Create something new or sell something existing? 

Simply put, sell something existing. 

7. Do you have any sales psychology tips for this time of year?

“New year, new chapter” type of thinking is rampant at this time, use it in your messaging:

• “Invest in yourself rather than investing in stuff”

• “New Year is coming, start it now, prep yourself for real success, become a slingshot”

• “During the holidays you have this period of quiet, use it to sharpen your sword” 

• “This is a great write off for Q4, would you rather invest in your business or give it to the Gov?”

8. What’s the best way to connect with buyers after purchase? 

In addition to feel-good friendship from you as the authority (send them a personal message), your purchaser is most craving success and a clear ROI from this investment.

We can do so with a:

• Success email sequence
  • e.g. Let’s say it traditionally takes 6 weeks for a student to consume and implement your 4 module course. Typically they start strong, peter out for 2 weeks, and (sometimes) come back around to finish the last 1-2 modules.
    
  • With this data I would suggest sending an 8 part success sequence:
    • Send 48 hrs into purchase – Email 1: Getting started tips
      
    • 48 hrs later – Email 2: Motivational / cheerleading
      
    • 7 days apart – Emails 3-7: Sent weekly to encourage them on to the next module – Consider including case studies of past students and a progress report of their activity thus far
      
    • 14 days later – Email 8: Come back in, the water’s fine!

• Follow up group or 1:1 calls for everyone who purchased 

• The option to add additional products for a discounted or bundled rate now that they’re a customer
  • Think about when you get a new eyeshadow palette, even though you already have everything you need to do a “full face” of makeup – you’re now reinvigorated to use all your products PLUS the new eye shadow

9. Would you offer something new to previous purchasers?

Certainly! Instead of getting lost in the melee of public promotion, sell your previous purchasers the next step in their journey (your offer) via segmented emails, targeted ads, or direct messages.

10. What If I’m changing my services but not quite ready to launch during the holiday season… What should I do? 

First off – You don’t need to sell right now, that’s A okay.

Second – If you have a list of hot leads, you can always pre-sell your availability for 2022!