by RAY MITCHELL

For many coaches, the holiday stretch from Thanksgiving through to New Year's is often viewed as a time to wind down their business for the year. Despite the reduced client interactions providing a chance to unwind or strategize for the upcoming year, it's crucial to note that this time can also be leveraged to secure new clients. Below are three ways to remain top-of-mind and draw in clients during the festive season, giving you a head start toward a successful new year.

Create or Repurpose Your Lead Magnets

Even with the holidays approaching, your clients will still have the things that you can help with on their mind. Offering an ebook, worksheet, or guide with an end of year focus can catch the eye of a prospective client who will be dealing with issues throughout the holiday period.

Whether you are a life coach that helps clients with family dynamics and relationship issues, or a business coach that is expert at forecasting and planning, you probably already have content that you can package for this time of year. A few changes to the introduction or examples you use can bring new life to an old marketing piece. This is a great way to continue building your email list in what otherwise may be a down time. This isn't the time to passively let people find your giveaway, be sure to promote it in your email newsletter and share it across all your social media channels.

Offer a Holiday Bonus

Instead of offering a Black Friday discount, why not add more value for people who sign up now. You may ask, "isn't this the same thing?" Discounting the price of your services can make it harder to maintain a client over the long term. Besides diminishing the value and prestige of working with you, you run the risk of alienating your current clients. By adding low-cost items or services with high perceived value to your program, your offerings stand out to holiday bargain hunters and may convince fence-sitters to take action.

Offering a small group session, a list of journal prompts (which tie into your pre-work), or a short video lesson (that can be repurposed and is evergreen) are all low effort and low cost ways to attract those looking for a deal.

Defeat Holiday Boredom with a Webinar

Coaches get business by sharing their expertise, a webinar or an Ask-Me-Anything session allows you to demonstrate why working with you can be a positive experience. People are looking for things to do during the holiday. A somewhat informal, drop-in session during the week between Christmas and New Year's gives people who are "stuck at home" something to do.

This isn't the time for a long workshop or training session. In fact, it shouldn't be much longer than 45 minutes or an hour, including an opportunity for questions and a very short pitch describing how people can work with you. Presentations on Goal Setting are still particularly effective at this time of the year.

Believe it or not, there are still people who don't know what SMART goals are and would benefit greatly from the insight you could provide in a 30 minute presentation.

Make the Most of the Holidays

Without too much effort, the holidays can be transformed into a prime time for increasing visibility and attracting new clients. By implementing strategies such as creating targeted opt-ins, offering holiday bonuses, and hosting engaging webinars, you can effectively tap into the goodwill of the holiday season and convert it to a time for business growth. Instead of going into hibernation, take advantage of this unique period to kick-start your new year on a productive note, setting the stage for a flourishing coaching practice.

More about Ray Mitchell

Ray is a Winston-Salem, NC based marketing consultant and serves as a mentor at Forsyth Community College’s Small Business Center. He is the author of Magical Websites for Coaches: The Independent Coach’s Guide to Designing and Building a Highly Effective Website, which is available on Amazon.

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