Introduction
Welcome to the Coaching Hive Podcast! I am thrilled you’re here for today’s episode.
We are heading into a brand new holiday season, and you know, there are lots of holidays out there, but we’re heading into a season of holidays. And as such, a lot of times as business owners we are thinking about how to maximize profit during a profitable season. Even though we are experiencing inflation, people are still buying.
But inflation does mean that people are being a little more careful about how they spend and we need an offer that will do more than appeal to their head. It has to appeal to their heart, soul, and gut. It has to be a no-brainer and they will figure out how to make it work.
You’re looking at your business, you’re thinking about all of this. You’re thinking, I like my offers, and I think that I might have an idea for an offer that would work really well during this holiday season, or maybe I have an offer that now’s just a good time to launch it.
Either way, we have to get really clear on our offer, and like I said, during this holiday season, when there’s a competition for getting people’s hard earned money in an offer, you have to think about how you’re really serving your potential client. You have to make sure it’s a good offer.
You have to make sure that it’s going to tell an important story, that it’s going to make an important impact on their life. And then you have to kind of think about, how do I talk about it? How do I hype it up? How do I make sure that it’s something that people want? Well, today we’re going to talk about maximizing the profitability of your holiday offer and a little bit about how you might think of the marketing that surrounds your holiday offer.
So if you’re ready, grab your notebook, your pen, and let’s dive in.
Marketing Your Holiday Offer
We are heading into the holiday season right here in the USA and it’s a wonderful time that often brings people together. It gets us to think about things that are bigger than us, and along that journey through the holiday season, lots of other things pop up. Stress, mindset, budgeting, family dynamics. We have to think about what that means for the business and what changes in your business during the holiday season.
It’s not always a simple season to get through. Maybe you help people deal with their grief, and we know holiday seasons are particularly difficult when someone is grieving. Maybe you’re helping people who are foster parents and they’re navigating their first holiday season with a foster child. There is a holiday offering for just about every business.
What I want to use our time together today is to help you start thinking about how to maximize this holiday season. To give your business a good jolt, a good infusion of not just cash, but clients with whom you can form a lasting relationship, who will be clients a year from now, two years from now, where you’re creating that longevity. That’s how our business gets stronger, because the more you do that, the more they’re going to refer you to their friends, to their family, to their colleagues, to the people that they run into on the street.
We want to make sure that we are truly not just offering something to offer something, but we’re offering a holiday offer with the purpose of building the business.
Offer Transformation
The first step to do that is to make sure that the offer becomes a no-brainer. We have to make sure that you’re sharing the transformation.
What transformation is your offer going to bring about? It’s not enough to simply say what the offer is. You don’t want to make people figure out what it really means for them personally. So go ahead and put a name on that transformation, this offer, this product, this service will help you go from X to Y. What does it look like?
- Is it helping them go from frazzled to calm and in control?
- Is it helping them go from dumbfounded to knowledgeable?
- What is it helping them do?
I want you to think about that transformation that’s going to happen and why it’s important. What impact does that transformation have for their life or for their business, for their family, for their mindset, for their finances? What is it going to do? So when you think about your holiday offer, first up, you’ve got to think about that transformation.
Client Want
The next step that I want you to think about is what the person actually wants. Okay? This is kind of tricky and it’s a little bit different from what they need.
You’ve probably heard me talk in the past about wants versus needs. The person that you are thinking of when you create this holiday offer or special, or just brand new offer in general, the person you’re thinking of needs something because you’re an expert in your space. You know what they need.
Here’s the thing, they may not, they may not know what they need, but they do know what they want. And you need to get really clear on what the person wants. What are they seeking out? What are they going to Google for in order to solve a problem? What are they going to put into that Google search engine? I want to know how to ___________. What are they looking for? I want you to think about what that is.
What is it that they want? Yes, you know what they need, you know, at your heart and soul that your offer is going to give them what they need, but that’s not what they’re searching for. They’re searching for what they want.
I love the example, I read this in a book recently, the book’s called The Ultimate Marketing Engine by John Jantsch. He was talking about how you have an accounting firm, and you know what people may be looking for is tax services. That’s great, but that’s not really what they want. What they really want is trying to figure out how to make their small business more profitable. And so you can’t just provide information about how you can help them save money with their taxes and their accounting processes.
What they really want to know is how to make more money. So you’ve got to give information about that concept, and along the way, you get to the point where, yes, you’re talking about tax practices and accounting practices that are ultimately going to save your business money, but at the end of the day, what the, what the client is thinking is, I need more money in my business. Yes, that’s one way to do it, but they’re thinking about profitability. So you’ve got to make sure that the information you’re providing, the transformation that you’re offering is what the person is identifying that they want. When you’re able to create an offer around this concept, you know it’s serving an underlying need, but you also know that it is what they are searching for.
The moment you build something and message something, market something in a way that highlights what they want, it becomes more successful. I encourage you to go to Google, or your favorite search engine, and search what you are thinking of. What pops up? How many results are there? Are these trending keywords? Are they trending up? Are they trending down? Are they flat? Look, historically, look at the last holiday season. See if it spiked during the last holiday season, knowing that, hey, this offer did really well a year ago in the holiday season and I bet it will do really well now. Check to see what happened 2, 3, 4, or even 5 years ago during the holiday season. That data gives you just a little bit more comfort and clarity around what people want.
If, when you do your search, you see that the words you’re thinking of, the transformation you’re thinking of really do have results, and they are trending up, that’s great. It means that you’re probably on the right track, but you can go ahead and keep brainstorming until you really dial that piece in, because the rest of this podcast, it’s going to be about what you do next.
So you have two options. You can pause this and go brainstorm, do some work, or you can keep listening to this knowing that you’re going to come back and break it down and pause it in the future. Personally, I would go with number two. Go ahead and listen to it the whole way through so that you get the big picture in your mind before you go out there and start thinking about a holiday offer.
But again, take notes as you listen. That way, if any good ideas pop up, you’ve got them written down. Okay, so let’s get this process moving a little bit forward. We talked about the fact that you need to identify the transformation that the client, the customer, is going to go through with your new offer, whether it’s a holiday offer or just a new offer in general.
Then you want to think about what it is they really want, because that is going to help you dial in your messaging so that it touches them, not just in their head, but their heart and their gut, and it really makes them feel seen and heard.
Solve the Problem
The next thing that you want to think about is the problem you’re solving. And I love looking at this from different layers.
If you’ve ever read the Building a StoryBrand book by Donald Miller, you’ll know that problems come in a variety of flavors. Essentially, you have an external problem. This is the thing that we can see. We know that usually right away you can tell what that external problem is. Maybe let’s think about a window company or an HVAC company. Maybe the external problem is that your heating bills are high, your windows are old and leaky, or maybe the HVAC isn’t running efficiently. Those are all external problems, but we want to take it a layer deeper because what we want to do is make sure that there’s that moment when someone reads your offer, they go, Oh, that’s me. I didn’t even realize that’s how it was affecting me, because you know them better than maybe they even know themselves.
We’ve got that external problem. The heating bill is just going up and up. The windows are old and leaky. I can feel the cold air rushing in and the hot air. I know where it’s going, it’s going outside. Or maybe my HVAC isn’t running efficiently, and that’s why my heating bills are so high.
Now, let’s think about the internal problems this creates. How does this make the client or the customer feel? The windows are old, they’re leaking, they’re leaking air. The hot air’s going out into the cold, and you know what happens? That means the house is cold, and you know what? It makes you grumpy. Maybe it makes you feel a little cranky. Maybe it makes you dread going home because it’s chilly in the house. Maybe you’re kind of achy because your joints don’t like the cold.
The more we understand of this internal problem, how it’s making you feel, the stronger the offer becomes. Is the cold making you dread your home, your family time, sitting around the table because the table’s cold. It’s cold at dinner time. Maybe it makes everyone a little cranky. Maybe it’s hard to fall asleep because now you have eight blankets piled on your side of the bed. Maybe it’s tough to enjoy the shower because it’s not warm in the shower, even though the water’s hot, the room is cold.
We’re getting into some of that internal, how does it make you feel? What does it make you think and do that’s different that you don’t like? Now, think about a person who has the leaky windows, the non-efficient HVAC unit, and they go, Wow, Yeah, I take it out on my family when I come home because I walk in, the house is cold. I was in my nice warm car, and it just feels, ugh. And then I don’t want to cook dinner, or I don’t want to get up and do things because I just want to be beneath the blanket. It doesn’t feel good. I’m worried.
We’ve got the external problem. We know it’s the high bill, the old leaky windows. It’s a non-efficient HVAC unit. We’ve got the internal problem. It’s creating anxiety about coming home, that dread of coming home. It’s creating crankiness and grumpiness, maybe not just in your client, but their whole family. It’s changing the family dynamics in a negative way.
Then we want to think about why this is just a philosophical problem. Why is it just wrong that this is happening in the big picture? No one should be cold in their own home. No one should have to suffer in their home and not enjoy dinner around the family table because they’re cold, or because there’s a fight over who gets to take the blanket to the family table, or because they’re missing out on an opportunity simply because the power bill has gone so high, The extra money in the family budget that used to be for fun, family bonding things is going to the power bill. That’s just wrong.
We have to think about the problem in a variety of different ways. And when you do that, you are talking directly to your potential client or customer.
We’ve talked about the transformation. We’ve talked about what the person wants, and knowing that you’re going to deliver the need. We’ve talked about the fact that you have to identify several layers of the problem. It’s not just the “see-able” one, the external, but it’s also how the potential client is feeling what they’re thinking, as well as the philosophical big picture problem here.
And that brings us to really helping the client know what to do. They also know that you care and you want to focus on those. But I also want to make sure that we spend a little bit of time today talking about what it would mean for your potential client to take you up on that special offer, maybe that limited time offer, that limited amount, the special holiday offer, whatever it is you’re creating.
Success and Failure
I want you to think about what success looks like. In other words, what does life look like after they’ve been through your offer, after they’ve used your product or service? How does their life look better? You can think about it in terms of short, medium, and long term, what they’re thinking, doing, and feeling at each of those stages. In other words, in our holiday example. So how does their holiday look different? If they have a tune up on their HVAC unit, it’s more efficient, it’s working better, and their house isn’t cold, and now they can welcome their family to that holiday meal. Knowing that everyone’s going to be comfortable, everyone’s going to be excited to sit down and share a meal together. Or perhaps it’s about the holiday special that you’re offering on new windows for your home. And even replacing half of the windows, maybe on just one floor, makes a big difference in the internal feel of the house. What does that mean?
Maybe it’s stress, maybe handling your stress during the holiday season if you have just one, two ways to handle your stress more effectively. And now the family dinner, it’s kind of fun. Or shopping during the holiday season, which usually makes you a little bit nervous, makes it a little bit more doable.
Think about what success looks like, and then flip the coin.
What does it look like if this person passes by your offer? How does life stay the same? What’s not working? Point that out. How does it look different?
If they don’t do anything, what does it mean for their holiday season? Is it just another holiday season like last year that had all of the inherent problems? Sometimes it’s enough to just say, Hey, you didn’t like last year. Let’s make a change for this year.
This failure concept is not meant to make anyone feel guilty. It is not meant to turn the knife in the problem. What it’s meant to do is create a little bit of tension so that they say, Oh my gosh, I don’t want this again. I want this season to be different. We want to make sure that we’re highlighting all of these things that we’ve talked about today in your holiday offer.
All of this comes together so that you can tell a story about what it is you are offering. We have this opportunity to create a holiday offer that becomes a no-brainer. You are speaking directly to your potential client or potential customer. You are sharing what the transformation is, what’s possible with your special holiday offer. You are sharing what it’s like, how it will feel, what they’ll be doing as a result of your offer. You’re helping them see that life can be different as a result of your offer. This is a fantastic way to shift your business in this last quarter of the year.
If you are creating a holiday offer, and I strongly believe that every business has an opportunity to create some kind of holiday, offer it, it will boost your profitability toward the end of the year. It gives you an extra jolt and extra infusion, and it also helps you to build your list. Maybe get to some potential clients. You wouldn’t have brought in to your business with a big offer up front, but maybe they want to test something out. Test out what you do, what you’ll offer, how you work. And this smaller, maybe more concentrated holiday offer is the opportunity that is just right for them. But in order for that to work, you have to make sure that they understand why the offer is so important right now. Why can’t they put it off?
It’s not just because it’s a limited time deal, it’s because it’s so important to their life that they can’t imagine what their life would be like without this. So they purchase, they jump in. It’s gotta be a no brainer. And you can certainly add things to make the offer a little bit more spicy, a little bit more exciting. You can add in bonuses, you can add in little things that you wouldn’t ordinarily offer. All of that is completely fine. You can absolutely make this a little bit more enticing.
At the end of the day, the story around what you’re offering with or without bonuses has to be rock solid. You’ve got to help them see the transformation, know why it’s so important, what it is, how it connects to what they’re searching in Google for right now. Knowing that you’re going to hit those underlying needs as well. You know that you know your offer will do that.
You’ve got to help them identify that this is right for them. This is the problem I’m experiencing. This is the offer that will make a difference. Maybe they say, “You’re right. I am so tired of being cold around the dinner table. It’s making me cranky. I snap at my kids. I snap at my partner or my spouse. Honestly when I put my hand on the doorknob, I start to cringe knowing I’m walking into the cold house.”
We want them to see themselves, and you’ve understood them so well. They say, I can’t pass this up. I want you to really think about not just what they’re thinking in their heads, but in their heart, in their belly. I want them to be touched in their heart and soul and gut. When you share your offer, whether they encounter your offer in a podcast, a blog, a free via, post, whatever it looks like, what’s their gut reaction to it? Because we want them to see themselves and know that this is important.
We want them to recognize the problems they’re having and the fact that life can be different. They can succeed if they choose this offer, but if they don’t, they’re in for more of the same.
Action Item
That brings us to our action item for today. Today’s all about helping our clients create change in their life, right? And I want to help you create change in your business, which means we’ve gotta put this into action. What I would love for you to do is think about what kind of holiday offer you could create right now. It doesn’t have to be big. It doesn’t have to be complicated, but it does have to be something that you can put out there.
Once you start doing a little bit of that brainstorming, do the research, see what pops up in Google and other search engines. What’s trending, what’s important, What do people want in your industry?
Then I want you to use a free tool called www.mystorybrand.com Create a free account and then build your BrandScript for your holiday offer. When I say BrandScript, what I mean is all of these things and more that we’ve been talking about in this podcast episode, you have an opportunity to map out your message that you’d like to share for your offer. In doing this, what happens is you have all of the pieces covered. You have all of the necessary components of a good story. It’s mapped out. There are even videos inside each component of the brand script to help you to know what each piece is about.
I’ve explained some of those pieces here in today’s podcast episode. You can certainly go back to this episode and listen to the different parts, but also use those videos that are provided in www.mystorybrand.com. Super helpful. And of course, if you get stuck, I’m here to help you. I’m a StoryBrand Certified Guide. I can help you walk through that BrandScript so that you can get it out there faster.
The key is to get your holiday offer prepared, Get it out there, have your plan in place, have your story ready.
Conclusions
As we wrap up today’s conversation about maximizing your new offer, marketing it, whether it’s a holiday offer or not. The key is to capture your potential client’s attention with a story. Speak not just to their head, but to their heart and their gut as well. You want to talk about the transformation, what they want, the problem they’re having. You want to talk about what it looks like to succeed, to use your offer, and what it looks like to not do anything. This is where the magic happens. It is not enough to just create an offer and a hope that people come.
You’ve got to create the story. You’ve got to create the messaging and the marketing around it that gets it out there, gets it seen, and get those people to say, “That’s me. That’s what what I need!”
Entrepreneur Resource Bundle
I have a little secret that I’m gonna let you in on, on this is the first time I’ve talked about it. Coming up in November, I have partnered with several other entrepreneurs who are all geared toward helping you, the entrepreneur, build your business, and trying to keep it simple. The fact of the matter is that we know there are so many different resources out there. It feels a bit overwhelming. It feels kind of like you’ve got endless lists that you’re supposed to look through, and you have to sift through all of these different products. But it shouldn’t be that way. It shouldn’t have to be hard. So what we’ve done is we’ve come together and we have taken the things that you want and put ’em into a beautiful resource bundle, an entrepreneur resource bundle. It’s almost like having an encyclopedia of what you need to build your business, and we’ve put it together all in one place.
Coming up in November, you will have about four days to access this bundle to get in, get these different tools and resources and concepts from a variety of entrepreneurs. So I want you to go ahead. You don’t have to do anything today. I want you to go to your calendar and mark November 14th to keep an eye out.
I’ll be talking about it on the podcast. I’ll be sending out emails. I want you to keep an eye out for our Entrepreneur Resource Bundle that we are putting out there for you, the entrepreneur, so that you can stay nice and focused instead of feeling scattered and unsure of what next step to take or even how to do certain things inside your business.
I hope you’re excited. This is a super exciting opportunity. The offers you’ll see in this bundle are not ordinarily offered by the entrepreneurs who have contributed them. We are truly coming together as an act of service for other entrepreneurs who are action takers, who want their business to grow, who know that they need to stop exploring and start implementing. We’ve got stuff pulled together for you to do exactly that.
You’ll be able to get that bundle starting on November 14th. It will be available for about four days, so you can get in there and get those offers, snatch ’em up so that you can go through them. If you have any questions about that and you want some insider information ahead of time, feel free to send me a message on social.
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/coachinghivelife
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/coachinghive
- Twitter: www.twitter.com/coachinghive
Send me a dm. Let me know that you’ve listened to this and you want to make sure that you know about this bundle when it pops up on November 14th.
Alrighty, that’s all I have for you today. You’re gonna get those holiday offers outlined, researched, and start building your message. Remember, you’re going to use the my storybrand.com website to create your story around your offer so that it has all of the necessary components that draws your potential client in, Get gets them excited for your offer and has them saying, “Yes!”
I trust that our conversation has provided value as you continue to build your business. I’d always love hearing from you about your business, what challenges you’re experiencing, and how you’ve put into action these podcast episodes.
I look forward to seeing you back here next week for another episode of the Coaching Hive Podcast, where a focus on mentoring and community removes the overwhelm of building your successful and profitable business and adds in a dose of momentum.
Until next time, have a healthy, safe, and happy week!
