"Add to cart" is a phrase we typically use for when a customer is online buying a physical product.

We seem to believe that only product-based businesses benefit from sales during the holiday season.

However, as a brand and website designer with over 16 years of experience, I’ve found firsthand that the holidays are a time of joy, celebration, and opportunity for service-based businesses.

This is gooooood news! With a bit of creativity and strategic planning, you can turn that opportunity into a whole lot of business. 

Service-based businesses need practical yet creative ideas and tools this holiday season, so they take advantage of selling their offers, just like product-based businesses.

Here are a few reasons why this season could be a game-changer for your service-based business:

• If you think about it, Business-to-Business (B2B) and Business-to-Consumers (B2Cs) are closing their year and thinking ahead to next year’s resolutions. Framing your services as a way to help them accomplish their goals is a win-win!

• Consumers spend more during the holidays, including (but *DEFINITELY* not limited to) personal care, home improvement, and entertainment.

• Services of all kinds make great gifts. Offering gift certificates or holiday packages and promoting them will boost business sales AND offer customers an opportunity to be generous to others.

• Many people have specific needs during the holiday season. Service-based offerings like event planning, stylist consulting, winterization, etc, can remind people to think ahead and get things checked off their lists.

In this post, we’re diving into some online holiday promotion ideas that can strengthen your relationships with your customers AND provide a festive little discount they will also appreciate. 

Pick a Holiday Offering that Makes Sense for Your Service-Based Business

Choosing the holiday offering that works for your business depends on a couple of factors. Here are some questions to make the decision to choose your holiday offering a little easier.

• How much time does your offering take to set up? We all know as business owners we wear a lot of hats. Consider the investment of your time as you determine the best approach for your business.
  
  Offerings don’t always have to be a new idea or overly creative. They just need to be worth your time and return your investment.

• Does this offering reduce my customer’s holiday stress? Yes, holidays are a lot of fun, but they also take a toll on people trying to check off everything on their long list of shopping, decorating, cooking, etc. 
  
  Will your offering simplify things, help them feel taken care of, or even be like a “treat” to help them keep the overwhelm at bay?

Keeping those questions in mind, let’s brainstorm some ideas for making this holiday season extra merry and bright for your service-based business customers. 

If your business has both products and service offerings, check out this post.

Holiday Gift Certificates

The holidays are the season of giving, after all, and gift cards are such a convenient way to express appreciation and support for someone special. 

Customers who purchase gift cards from you have likely already enjoyed your services and believe you can provide that same service to someone else, creating an AMAZING ripple effect.  Attracting new customers who could become repeat customers is the best kind of advertising.

Example: A local massage therapist can offer gift certificates for a 60-minute deep tissue massage. It could be promoted as a gift for someone who deserves a relaxing break after the hustle and bustle of the holiday season.

Tip: Incentivize the offer with an additional gift card bonus, giving the buyer a $10 bonus to use for themselves.

Limited-Time Holiday Packages

A special holiday-themed package would be offered for a short time and may only make sense for this time frame. Perhaps it’s something festive, or maybe it’s an offering for future services with you. 

Example: A personal trainer or gym can create a “New Year of Fitness” package. Clients can buy it in December and use it at the start of January. This creates a sense of accountability and commitment to their New Year’s resolutions.

Tip: Tailor the visuals to be holiday-themed colors with a festive pattern and include verbiage like “limited time offer” to make it easy to visualize that this is only available during the season. Keep within brand guidelines, but give yourself permission to veer a little from them for this occasion.

Holiday-Themed Social Media Contests

Use social media to promote brand awareness effectively and provide an organic engagement opportunity with your customers. 

A social media contest is less work on your end because the customer is the one who generates the content for you, and all you need to do is share it and stay engaged. This builds brand loyalty and trust which can lead to repeat business and referrals.

Example: A hair salon could run a holiday contest on Instagram, asking clients to share photos of their new holiday hair makeovers and tag them in their posts. Each share could enter them into a drawing to win a free blow-out or styling session.

Tip: The more clients participate, the more they spread awareness of the salon's services, turning customers into brand ambassadors during the holiday season. Consider adding a supporting offer to this contest while your Instagram is buzzing.

Partner with Local Businesses

I love seeing service-based businesses with the same target audience working together to provide a multi-business custom package.

Collaborative packages expand reach to a new customer base, provide a sense of community and give the customer additional value. 

Example: A wedding photographer could collaborate with a photography studio location and a makeup artist to offer a “Holiday Engagement” package, perfect for couples getting engaged over the holidays. This package could include a mini engagement shoot, a great location during Iowa’s winter months, and a makeup session.

Tip: Cross-promote this package on all partners’ social media accounts and email lists to reach an even wider audience. 

Offer Holiday-Themed Workshops or Classes

Hosting “in-person” or “digital” workshops or classes can position you as an expert in your field, which builds trust. Get creative with festive ideas to get customers excited about the season. This is a fun way to provide an offering for additional revenue. 

Example: An interior designer could offer a virtual workshop on “Holiday Decor and Guest Preparation,” helping customers prepare their homes for the holiday season. After the workshop, participants can book a one-on-one session after the workshop to help with a specific room or other challenges they face.

Tip: Include a special holiday discount for workshop attendees who book a one-on-one session within two weeks of attending the class.

Loyalty Holiday Special

Maybe there is something outside your typical offerings that you’d like to offer to those who have been loyal customers in the past, or perhaps it’s exclusively for your email list and not advertised anywhere else. This can help customers and warm leads feel special as part of a valued community.

Example: A dog groomer could offer a “Holiday Pup Pamper” package exclusive to their email list subscribers or existing customers. This package could include a grooming session, a holiday-themed bandana, and a small bag of dog treats. 

Tip: You don’t have to reinvent the wheel with this. You could do a standard offering with those added things and charge a little bit extra for the little holiday add-on.

Team up with a Charity

Working with a charity is a great way to spread joy while supporting a greater cause. If you have a charity you are passionate about, consider donating a portion of each booking to a charity. It will give back to a community of people who need financial support while also providing your customers a way to feel a part of something bigger.

Example: A nutritionist could partner with a local food bank or organization providing meals for needy families. For every nutrition consultation or meal plan package purchased during the holidays, a portion of the fee could be donated to help provide nutritious meals to underserved communities.

Tip: Launch a “Nourish with Purpose” campaign, where clients know that by investing in their own health, they’re also contributing to providing healthy meals for those in need.

Could you start implementing one of these holiday ideas for your small service-based business? Be inspired as you continue brainstorming and find the right offering that works for you and your target customer. 

Remember that you provide services to offer valuable, easy solutions for your customers, helping them solve problems they didn’t know they had. 

Choosing the Right Tools to Promote and Sell Your Holiday Offerings

Getting the offerings set up and workflows tested EARLY is key to creating a seamless and straightforward purchase for your customer. The more seamless your checkout process is, the better your chance of getting that coveted sale.

The best platforms to use for your holiday promotions depend heavily on your specific needs and goals. There’s certainly no shortage of them. As a 16+ year business owner, I’ve done a lot of looking, trying, and digging. I think these are some of the best out there.

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Don’t have a website yet? I promise I won’t leave you out! Keep reading for several options that don’t require it. If you do need a website, however, I know a girl. 💁🏼‍♀️

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Let’s think through some free or economically priced platforms you can implement without needing a ton of tech skills so you can still promote your offerings professionally. 

To provide additional discounts to you, some of the links below are affiliate links. Any link I provide means I’m passionate about what it has to offer. I choose my platforms wisely.

The options below are rated by difficulty and time commitment to continue to help you choose the right offering. It can also help you determine if you have the capacity for more than one platform to expand your marketing efforts.

Difficulty & Time Management Rating Scale for Choosing Your Platform(s)

1 - Little to no tech skills required, low time commitment
2 - Minimal tech skills required, easy to setup, and minimal ongoing effort
3 - Some technical knowledge required, takes a bit of time to set up and manage

Existing Website 

Platforms: Wix, Squarespace
Difficulty & Time Management Rating: 3

If you already have a website on an online platform the best way to get your customers to notice your offering is to create a dedicated landing page for your holiday promotion. This gives you a ton of flexibility on how you want to design your page, and really sell it well. 

Make sure you have a clear call to action, whether that’s to fill out a contact form or book a service directly by using an add-to-cart feature. Integrating your website with your online booking system and/or payment gateway is a next-level option if you use project management software. My personal favorite is Dubsado. 

Pro Tips: As a website designer, I have a few extra tips than the rest of the platforms. 💁🏼‍♀️
1) Replace your homepage header by adding a festive photo, holiday wording and/or an additional holiday color to make it extra special. A little update like this goes a long way!
2) Your holiday page design needs to look good on all devices (Desktop, tablet, and mobile) for the best customer experience. 
3) Use a pop-up short-term while you are running your promotion.

Email Marketing

THE Platform: Flodesk 
Difficulty & Time Management Rating: 2

OK, if you have Mailchimp, Constant Contact, or the like and are using it successfully, that’s great. I encourage you to continue using it (and remain on the DARK side.) hehe!

However, I absolutely must plug my favorite email platform *EVER*. It’s hard to even call it an email marketing platform because it’s so much more than that. 

Flodesk allows for the creation of sales/landing pages AND checkouts (all natively within the platform) and includes eye-catching templates, personalization, segmentation, workflow funnels, and more. 

I cannot say enough about it. If you don’t have a website (yet), I highly recommend using this as your main platform for selling your services. 

Pro Tip: Flodesk offers service-based checkout templates you can set up in minutes.

You can get started with a free 30-day trial. Upgrade to a monthly plan HERE or a yearly plan for 50% off your first year using this link with code STUDIOADESIGNS.

Social Media

Platforms: Facebook, Instagram
Difficulty & Time Management Rating: 2

Facebook and Instagram are good free options if you and your audience are actively engaged. 

Use the links in your bio and direct links in your stories to lead your visitors to a sales or booking page on your website or your checkout platform to make it as easy as possible for your customers to act.

Pro Tip: Utilize direct messaging or the ask a question box in stories for people who have questions about your offering. 

Use the social media scheduling platform, Later to schedule your posts and plan ahead! In fact, get 10 free posts on me.

Local Business Directories

Platform: Google Business Listing
Difficulty & Time Management Rating: 1

A Google Business Listing is completely free and pretty much a no-brainer. These listings are designed to help you get found within your local market, and though you wouldn’t think they could be used to promote your holiday sale, they ABSOLUTELY CAN! 

You can add your service-based offering by creating a product in your listing that links to a specific product or the landing page of your holiday offering page on your website. If you don’t have a website, you can still link it to any external link from a different platform.

Pro Tip: Your holiday hours and all out-of-office times must be accurately displayed on your listing so your customer knows when to contact you if needed.

For more about setting up your Google Business Listing, scroll to the bottom of this blog post.

Online Scheduling Tools

Platforms: Acuity Scheduling, Calendly
Difficulty & Time Management Rating: 1

Use online scheduling tools to instantly book services on your calendar. Schedulers can be standalone platforms or integrated into your website to create an easy and simple way for customers to book services with you.

I love online scheduling for appointment-based services, especially when automated appointment reminders are set up for the customer. Both Calendly and Acuity allow you to embed your scheduling tool on your website and social media. 

Pro Tip: Integrate the scheduler into your personal calendar to automatically show the times you are available. Acuity Scheduling is available through the Squarespace builder if you are already a Squarespace user. 

Form Builders

Platforms: Google Forms, Jotform
Difficulty & Time Management Rating: 1

Form builders can be a great option when the timing is tight because it only takes a few minutes to set up. Google Forms can collect customer information, answer questions, and more. Though payment processing is not natively offered in the form, there are ways of collecting payment on secondary platforms through Google Forms. 

Jotform has more robust payment integration (like PayPal, Venmo, or Stripe) and is easy to create forms for a minimal fee. You can cancel anytime if you want to get by for the season.

Pro Tip: Form builders are a great way to collect “preorders” for your services.

Gift Certificate Platforms

Platforms: Giftly, GiftUp
Difficulty & Time Management Rating: 1

Online gift card platforms are so easy to create and manage with the help of a platform like Giftly or GiftUp. They can be used as standalone platforms and work well if you don’t have a website, AND if you don’t have a gift card option on your website they can also be integrated. 

I like these platforms because they are quick to set up and easy to implement. I love the ability for customers to electronically send a recipient a gift card mobily via text or email. 

Pro Tip: Double-check the service fees associated with gift cards and payment gateways to avoid surprises.

Getting Your Offering Online

Now that you’ve discovered some ways you can use technology to promote your services this season, it’s time to get to work. The holiday season is SUCH an incredible opportunity for service-based businesses to connect with customers and boost sales. 

As you finalize your holiday offering, focus on how it can help your customers this holiday season. 



Happy promoting!

Your designer friend always,