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Why You Need to Start Planning Your Holiday Marketing in September and How to Get Started

Hi again, acupuncture friends!

Today I’ve got some good news and some bad news.

The bad news is that I’m going to ask you to do more work right now. BUT – the good news is you’ll thank me later!

Here’s the truth. Professional marketers start planning their holiday marketing MONTHS in advance. In September they’re rolling out back-to-school specials that they’ve had planned since June or July. Right after that they start planning for the holidays and New Year’s.

Why do I recommend that you start planning your holiday marketing now, even though as acupuncturists we aren’t “professional” marketers?

(As an aside, I would argue that if you’ve been running a business for any length of time, you actually are a professional marketer. Just because you didn’t go to school for marketing doesn’t mean you don’t have expertise based on your experience.)

1. If you make important marketing decisions now, then your marketing will be stress-free by the time Christmas rolls around. (And heaven knows Christmas is stressful enough already.)
2. Advance planning gives you more time to spend with your family during the holidays.
3. It reduces marketing FOMO – that feeling where you wish you’d planned better so you could have accomplished all the great ideas you have (or that you see other people doing).
4. Advance planning almost always results in more effective marketing, because you’re not rushed, you have more mental space to devote to it, and you didn’t have to leave out any of the details.

The purpose of today’s article is to convince you that A) it’s worth the trouble to start planning now, and B) to encourage you to get started ASAP!

What should you do to get started with your holiday marketing this month?

1. Decide what kind of marketing and special offers you want to roll out during the holidays.
2. Decide when exactly you want to launch them.
3. Then work backwards from there. Get out your calendar and plan out what needs to get done each week to complete your plans by their launch dates.

What kind of specials or events might you offer? I know it’s hard to get your brain in “holiday mode” when you’re probably inundated with back-to-school to-do lists.

Here are a few holiday marketing ideas for your acupuncture clinic to get your neurons firing:

• Host a holiday open house in your office. Invite current patients, business friends, community members of all kinds, your email subscribers, everybody. You could have light refreshments and offer 20% off gift certificates purchased at this event – but don’t do this gift certificate discount any other time. And make sure people know this is a once-a-year-only thing. Some people are reluctant to offer a discount on gift certificates, but my experience is that most people never redeem gift certificates, so it’s like found money.
• Host a canned food drive or coat donation drive in your office during November and/or December, to support the spirit of the season. Offer 10 minutes of bonus cupping massage to anyone who brings in a donation.
• Send November and December email newsletters to your subscribers that focus on how acupuncture can specifically help people during this stressful season. Focus on reducing stress, balancing anxiety and depression (which often flares up for people during the holidays), preventing colds/flu, helping people control food cravings, managing pain and digestive conditions that often worsen with high stress, etc. Help people understand how perfect acupuncture is for retaining health and emotional balance this time of year.
• Give presentations at libraries and fitness centers about the same topics as above. Remember to focus your presentation on how acupuncture can help the potential patient – what’s in it for them? How will they benefit? (Less stress during the holiday season and more energy, for example.)
• Host community acupuncture sessions in your office (or in conjunction with the local yoga studio) with the purpose of maintaining health and emotional balance during this time of year.
• Host classes in your office (or in conjunction with a local restaurant) on how to prepare simple, easy dishes for the holidays that are in tune with the seasons and Chinese medical concepts.

There you go! A few awesome ideas to get your community involved and excited about everything you have to offer and teach them.

Some of these ideas will take time to plan – like hosting cooking classes with a local restaurant or in partnership with your favorite nutritionist. But if you get started now, that’s no problem. There’s more than enough time to make everything come together.

In general I like marketing that involves other local business owners because it gives you a built-in accountability buddy.

You’re more likely to follow through with your marketing plans for the holidays if you have another business owner relying on you to complete your part of the bargain.

I hope you found these ideas helpful!

I’d encourage you to find an accountability buddy of some kind to keep you on track for your holiday marketing plans. Find a friend or family member to share your plan of action with. Choose someone who will give you a bit of tough love if you don’t follow through – not someone who will let you off the hook!

All right – go out there and get started on your holiday marketing right now! Then feel the difference later on in November/December 💃🏽

I’d love to hear your exciting plans for your holiday marketing – feel free to shoot me an email and share! You can always reach me at michelle@michellegrasek.com

See you next week!

xo,

Michelle

Have any fun holiday marketing ideas that were a smashing success? Share them with us in the comments below!

We’d love to hear from you. The more conversations we have about marketing our acupuncture practices, the more likely we are to succeed as a group 🙌