Powerful Holiday Promotions: Tactics to turn season shoppers into students

Thank you for joining us today. We’re going to give it just a minute or two for any stragglers to jump online and join us.

In the meantime, for those of you who are here and punctual, we’d love to know where you’re tuning in from. We always enjoy hearing where folks are dialing in from, so drop that in the chat if you get a second.

Hello Lisa, thank you for joining us. Nathan, good to see you. Jeff, welcome. Conrad, Mike, Chris—how are you doing? Great to see everyone coming in from all over the place.

It looks like we’ve got a good group here, so I think it’s fine for us to go ahead and get started. We’ve got a lot of good material to cover today.

As you all know, we’re going to be talking about holiday promotions. If you’ve been following along with what we’ve been sharing recently, you may have been part of our live training last week where we did a deep dive into the software itself and the process for building landing pages and setting up holiday promotions.

We’re going to revisit some of that today, but also go further and focus more specifically on promotion tactics—what you do once everything is built out.

As always, this webinar is being recorded and will be sent out to everyone afterward. So if you need to hop off early, you’ll still get the full session later.

Agenda Overview

Here’s what we’ll be covering today.

First, we’ll talk about why you should be running holiday promotions in the first place. We’re strong believers in using the holiday season as a major opportunity for your business.

Then we’ll cover setting up your offer—where to start, how to decide on discounts, and what kinds of incentives you might include to strengthen your promotion.

We’ll also go through examples and success stories.

After that, Allison will walk you through the software side—how to actually build this inside the system.

Then I’ll come back and cover promotional strategy: timelines, marketing channels, and how to actually drive traffic to your offers.

Introduction

I’m Pat, head of the marketing team here at Kicksite. I’m excited to be here with you all today.

Many of you probably don’t know my face well, but I’m sure a lot of you recognize Allison. She’s our Associate Team Lead on the Customer Success team and has likely worked with many of you through onboarding or training.

Poll: Holiday Promotion Experience

Let’s kick things off with a quick poll.

When it comes to seasonal promotions, what experience do you have? Have you never run one before? Tried it but didn’t get great results? Or are you actively running promotions every season?

It looks like a mix so far, which is great. Some of you are experienced, and some are just getting started.

The good news is that no matter where you are, there will be value in today’s session.

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Why Run Holiday Promotions

Holiday promotions like Black Friday and Cyber Monday have been around for a long time, but the way they function has changed significantly.

What used to be in-person retail chaos has now become a massive online-driven sales period.

And this isn’t just for physical products anymore.

We’re seeing everything from event ticket sales to memberships and service-based businesses participating.

To put it into perspective, over $24 billion was spent during Black Friday and Cyber Monday last year across more than 150 million shoppers.

That represents a massive opportunity for businesses like yours.

People are actively looking for deals. Your job is simply to show up where they’re already paying attention.

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Building Your Offer

When you’re building your offer, you want it to be both unique and time-limited.

But more importantly, you want to think about two key audiences:

1. New Students

This is the obvious group. You want to attract new people into your school.

For them, the goal is reducing barriers—cost, uncertainty, and commitment.

Think things like:

• Free uniform
• Discounted first month
• Starter packages
• Lower-cost trial periods

2. Current Students

This is often overlooked but extremely valuable.

Your current students already trust you. Many of them would be interested in:

• Paid-in-full membership discounts
• Long-term commitment savings
• Upgrade packages
• Gear bundles

You can absolutely run offers for both groups at the same time.

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Example Offer Structure

Here’s an example of a strong offer:

“6 months paid in full, 20% off plus a free uniform.”

The key is clarity.

Most customers won’t automatically calculate savings in their head, so you need to make it obvious.

Also, always include urgency:

• Limited time only
• Specific dates
• Limited spots available

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Success Story Example

One great example comes from Watson Martial Arts in St. Louis.

In 2023, they generated approximately $45,000 from their Black Friday campaign.

What made their campaign effective:

• Multiple package options
• Clear discount messaging (up to 40% off)
• Visible deadlines
• “Spots remaining” indicators for urgency

The combination of choice + clarity + urgency made the offer extremely compelling.

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Allison – Software Walkthrough

Now I’ll hand things over to Allison to walk through how to actually build this inside the system.

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Setting Up Revenue Tracking

First, go into Settings → Finances.

Create a revenue stream specifically for “Black Friday Specials” so you can track all related income in your reports.

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Creating Membership Offers

For new students:

• Go to Memberships
• Click “Add New Membership”
• Example: “Black Friday 30 days for $30”

Set:

• Duration
• Billing type (one-time or recurring)
• Programs included
• Revenue stream assignment

For paid-in-full offers:

• Set limited term duration (ex: 6 months)
• One-time billing
• Add description like “6 months paid in full, 20% off + free uniform”

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Inventory for Current Students

For current students:

• Go to Finances → Inventory
• Create category: “Black Friday Specials”
• Add items like:
  • 6-month paid in full
  • 12-month paid in full
  • Gear bundles

You can also limit quantity to create scarcity (example: first 20 buyers only).

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Lead Capture Forms

Go to Marketing Tools → Lead Capture Forms.

Create separate forms for:

• New students
• Guardians

Include fields like:

• Name
• Email
• Phone
• Birthdate
• Custom fields if needed

You can also add dropdowns for things like shirt sizes or program interest.

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Landing Pages

Then build your landing page:

• Attach lead capture forms
• Add memberships or inventory items
• Add liability waiver
• Enable notifications (email/text)
• Add description and visuals

You can also enable discount codes directly on the checkout screen.

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Discounts

Go to Finances → Discounts.

You can create:

• Percentage discounts (e.g., 50% off)
• Fixed dollar discounts

Important features:

• Apply to memberships or inventory
• Set start/end dates
• Create discount codes for landing pages

Example:

• Code: “50OFF”
• Active only during Black Friday weekend

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Duplicate for Current Students

For current student pages:

• Duplicate landing page
• Remove prospect profile creation
• Use inventory items instead of memberships
• Remove guardian form if unnecessary

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Back to Pat – Marketing Strategy

Now that your offer and landing pages are set up, the next step is driving traffic.

Timing

Don’t wait until Black Friday.

Start:

• At least 1 week early
• With teaser posts
• Build anticipation

Social Media Strategy

Use:

• Carousel posts (multiple images perform better)
• Real student photos + promotional graphics
• Urgency messaging

You can also encourage:

• DMs for early access
• Notifications for updates

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Community Channels

Don’t rely only on your social feed.

Use:

• Facebook community groups
• Local parent groups
• Buy/sell/trade groups
• Neighborhood groups

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Reddit

Reddit is heavily underused for local marketing.

People are constantly asking:

• “Best martial arts school near me”
• “Kids activities in my area”

Encourage students and parents to advocate for you in those threads.

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Local Media

Reach out to:

• Local newspapers
• Online city magazines
• Parenting blogs
• Event directories

Many of these actively publish holiday deal roundups.

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Paid Ads

If budget allows:

• Google Ads for high-intent searches (e.g. “martial arts near me”)
• Facebook/Instagram ads targeting parents and interests

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In-House Marketing

Don’t forget your current students:

• Use QR codes on flyers
• Encourage referrals
• Promote through word of mouth
• Send internal emails/texts

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Closing

We’re also hosting a follow-up session tomorrow covering what to do after Black Friday—how to manage new signups and follow-up workflows.

Thank you all for joining today. We appreciate your time, and we hope you have an incredible holiday promotion season ahead.

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