How to Get Your Holistic Business Christmas Ready

It’s hard to believe we’re in the last quarter of the year, and Christmas is creeping up fast. Is your holistic business Christmas-ready?

The last quarter is often the busiest and most profitable time for small businesses. Even if you don’t change your services for the festive season, there are still plenty of opportunities to market yourself and end the year on a high.

Christmas Party Alternatives

Not everyone enjoys the traditional boozy Christmas meal or forced festivities. But it is a time of year when family, friends and work groups gather, so what could you do to provide an alternative?

Could you offer experiences like yoga, meditation, aromatherapy, or herb walks for small groups to enjoy together? You could collaborate with another practitioner to provide a retreat experience.

How about running a winter skincare workshop making natural products that can be given as gifts? Or a seasonal cooking workshop. Or a storytelling workshop?

Be creative based on your skills and resources - people are always looking for something different to do.

Create Christmas Gifts

What services and/or products could you turn into Christmas gifts? How could you theme them around Christmas? Could you bundle different elements together? This could be a great opportunity to collaborate with another practitioner.

If your services are delivered online, think about how to make them more tangible. Having something to open on Christmas morning takes your gift to a new level. If you’re doing online cooking classes could have a branded apron, or if you’re doing yoga classes, you could provide non-slip yoga socks.

How about creating starter kits such as making your own hand cream, or setting up a morning routine? What do you do that could be turned into a kit for someone?

Gift Vouchers

Could you create a range of gift vouchers for people to give? A friend bought vouchers for her friends and family from favourite local services and shops. I got a voucher for my hairdresser and my hubby got vouchers for the local butcher. Is this something you could offer in your business?

As with the online products above, how could you make a voucher into something more tangible? Is there a small, relevant product you could add that would give the receiver something to open like a lovely notebook, Christmas decoration, hand cream, or luxury chocolates?

Create a Gift Guide

Creating a guide to buying gifts will help to inspire the buyer looking for great gifts for their loved ones. By letting them know who the gifts are suitable for will help them choose the best options so label them as for him, for her, for kids, for the family, under £15, etc. Remember to highlight any benefits, like free delivery or gift wrapping.

There are different ways you can do this from having a dedicated gift page on your website, to a leaflet that can be sent as a digital copy to your email list, or even printed out if you’re attending in-person events or have local places you can share them.

Christmas Countdown

Create a campaign counting down to the day. This doesn’t have to be the full advent calendar, you could use the idea of the 12 days of Christmas, or countdown the weeks.

With your chosen countdown, share a daily tip, quiz, or offer on social media or to your email list. You could even use the countdown idea to run a fun, relevant Christmas challenge for your audience.

Create a Christmas Ad

Christmas ads are a hot topic every year - which of the big brands is going to make the top spot? You don’t need to let their big budgets stop you from creating your own video. My favourite Christmas ads in the last few years were by a local family-run hardware store. Their creativity soon got noticed and their 2019 video went viral and received 2.7M views on YouTube – wow! The then Prince Charles visited their shop in 2021 having heard of them and to continue his campaign to support local High Streets. What fantastic PR with a tiny budget and a little imagination!

Here’s the ad if you want to take a look.

If you’re happy on video and feeling creative, what ad could you create for Christmas? How could you deliver some festive joy to your audience?

Small Business Saturday

Get involved with Small Business Saturday, the annual event to encourage people to shop locally and online with small businesses. This year, it’s on Saturday, 7th December 2024. You can advertise your business, offers, and events on their ‘Small Business Finder’ and get involved in promotions across their social media platforms. You can promote your business and support other small businesses by buying from them too.

Local Christmas Events

There are lots of local events happening around Christmas that provide an opportunity for your holistic business. Taking a stand at a local event is a great way to build your profile and sell your products and services. It can be very low cost and because it’s in person, you get to meet and talk to lots of prospective clients.

For more ideas, check out my blog on using stands to market yourself.

As a reminder, some professional bodies have rules around what their members can and can’t offer, so double-check your professional code of conduct before doing anything new.

Conclusion

Promoting your products and services over the festive season is a great way to boost your income. Whether that’s a relaxing alternative Christmas event, or offering well-considered gifts, there are lots of opportunities to finish the year on a high.

If you’d like support with this, I’m offering a limited number of strategy sessions in the coming weeks. Together, we’ll explore your options, craft your offers, and organise your marketing for the festive season. Find the full information here.