Thread: Holiday Promotions?

Anyone working on any holiday promotions? The last one I did wasn't fruitful, but I am considering trying again. Can you share what you are working on?

Staying tuned to this thread. Though I kinda welcome the break from my hectic schedule, my holiday gigging season's looking pretty dead .w.:

I offered a promotion for classes...a 4 week mini session in December: 4 classes for the price of 3. Not sure if it will pay off. I havent offered any performance discounts or promotions for the holidays but would be interested to hear what is out there!

Nice idea for a thread!

Summer vacation and holiday slowdowns consume about 1/3 of the year. Alas, studio rent must be paid 3/3 of the year. We modify our class schedules to accomodate students who need a flexible schedule at that time by moving more workshop and party activity into those months. Some folks will have less time to come to class and some folks more.

I remember last year's thread. Seems like there should be plenty of parties to dance for... It's just getting someone to think of bellydancers when planning their parties. Curious to see what people have done to drum up business. At the ballroom studio I used to work at, we had a 6 week contest where students paid a small fee to participate, and then earned points towards free lessons by participating in studio activities through the holidays. It was always a really successful way to keep people engaged. The basically earned free lessons for doing what they normally do, but a) they did pay a small fee, and b) it kept them coming when they might otherwise be Xmas shopping. haha.

For a variety of personal reasons, I'm late to the game this year & just got my website updated Thursday & flyers printed today. I don't mind sharing:

I'm running a facebook ad & have flyers around town. Both are targeting folks who've waited until the last minute and/or don't know what to get their wife/gf/SO. The "Christmas Special" I'm offering is: gift certificate (on nice paper & red envelope) for my 8wk Beginner's class starting in January and a hip scarf, gift wrapped in a holiday bag for $100 - which includes tax, PayPal fees & gift wrap. I think it's a pretty decent deal. Also offering a 1hr private lesson with hip scarf for $80, includes gift wrap, etc. Actually, I kept your thread of 'adding value' in mind, Carrara, when I threw in gift wrapping. That seems to always go over well - a convenience factor. And I'm allowing people to pick up their gift either here on post (convenient for the Soldiers at work here) or in town, no later than 7pm Dec. 24. Hoping to appeal primarily to Soldiers.

Dug through Hobby Lobby's gift bags yesterday since they're now 50% off - got six bags for 75 cents each (since I really only have 6 scarves to sell & would be flabbergasted if I sold them all) and a package of coordinating "To/From" tags for $1.00. I felt like just because costs had to be kept down didn't mean I had to use wafer-thin obviously cheapo Dollar Store wrapping paper.

My hubs suggested I put a picture of what a gift cert & wrapped/bagged gift would look like on my site so people can see it's nice and looks like a quality item (which of course it is!) you'd be 'safe' giving the lady in your life vs. some smooshed bow crappy wrapped thing. Not a bad idea, actually. I've got everything on my Classes page but think I may create a separate page, Gift Certificates, and move it there.