How to Sell More Tennis Lessons During the Holiday Season

The holiday season is an important time for both small and large businesses. What that means for your tennis business is (hopefully) an increase in your revenues. Let's see how we can help you sell more tennis lessons during this holiday season with a few marketing tips from our team. 

Important dates to consider in your holiday planning

• Halloween
• Thanksgiving
• Black Friday
• Cyber Monday
• Christmas/Hanukkah 
• New Year’s 

Holiday marketing channels to try:

• Social media
• Search engines 
• Paid advertising 
• In-person (at your tennis club or tennis business) or offline (partnerships, networking)
• Email marketing 
• Influencer marketing 

Where to start: 

1. Audit previous holiday efforts 

Learning from your past success or failure is an important step if you are trying to sell more tennis lessons. Take a look at your statistics and analytics from previous years and try to understand where you have been most successful and where you could use some improvements. 

2. Review your target market 

Take a look at your customers and find out whether anything has changed over the past year - has the demographic changed, has their products and service preference changed? If your target audience (aka. Marketing persona) has changed in any way, you need to consider that when crafting your holiday promotions message.

For example, if you determine that your junior tennis programs have a bigger number of advanced tournament players signed up over the past year, you may consider crafting a special promotion for that particular group. Advanced junior tennis players frequently play practice matches, so you could offer a special holiday round robin. Additionally, they usually take private lessons, so you could offer a discounted private lesson package. 

3. Start planning early and make a schedule

One of the most common mistakes tennis businesses make during the holidays is they start planning way too late. If you are thinking of having a Christmas sale, waiting until after Halloween might not be a great idea. 

Start by creating your sales and promotions schedule for the entire holiday shopping season. Write it down and place some deadlines on your calendar. Then start engaging with your clients ahead of time, several weeks before the holidays, to get them fired up about the new holiday events or promotions. 

4. Update your look 

Festive looks get people excited. So, go ahead and refresh your tennis club’s look! A few ideas to consider:  

• Put up some holiday decorations (affiliate link)
• Do a holiday photo shoot with your staff and upload some pictures
• Change up your social media and website banners
• Update your email templates

5. Announce it everywhere 

Announce your upcoming holiday tennis events, pro-shop sales, and program sales on:

• Social media 
• Via email (send out newsletters to your subscribers) 
• During group and private lessons (as long as you can fit your pitch in under 2 min)
• Tell your friends and family to spread the word and share on social media (many of them likely participate in various online community groups)

6. Create a sense of urgency 

The holiday season is known for deep price discounts that frequently only happen once a year. Those discounts should not be available forever. Set a beginning and end date - “this weekend only” or “this month only”. If you are using coupon codes, those should expire at some point - in 48 hours or 2 days, etc. Adding a timer display on your website or visible places at your tennis club where people normally buy things also works well to create urgency (and sell more tennis lessons, of course). 

7. Reward loyal followers 

Your best customers (aka. brand ambassadors) should be rewarded with early access to sign-ups and sales, or the first look at new products and services. Create exclusive holiday editions and discounts for existing customers. 

8. Make it easy for people to buy 

“I love holiday shopping,” said no one ever. We know plenty of people who hate shopping, and even worse, they hate holiday shopping. So, make it easy for them to buy your products and services. 

Tennis lessons and an amazing gift for those who would like to stay active or become more active (which is most people). Tennis gifts (rackets, tennis balls, apparel, shoes) are a great gift for tennis enthusiasts (all their friends who attend your tennis club). 

If those tennis gift cards are not in the locations with the most traffic at your club, you are losing a big opportunity. 

9. Connect with your local community to help your marketing 

The holiday season is emotional. It is usually about spending time with families and being kind. It is not just about creating revenue. It is about creating a relationship with your customers and this way they will remember you and return to purchase in the off-season. 

How do you do that? 

Research shows that customers are more likely to buy from those with a strong sense of purpose and with those that they can relate to and connect with on an emotional level. So, identify a cause you are passionate about and see if you can support it during this holiday season to connect with others that are passionate about the same. That could include doing charity, volunteering, or community service. 

10. Advertising locally via offline channels 

There are many offline channels to explore, but it is usually impossible to be everywhere. Networking is usually the most cost-effective marketing technique. So, make sure you attend all relevant local events and let all friends, business partners, employees, partner companies, know about your upcoming holiday events. 

Print magazines, newspapers, and local publications may also be a low-cost place to advertise your tennis club. While many print publications have moved online, there are a few that still have a reasonable subscriber base. If your target market (target customers) reads those, you can take advantage of these offline marketing channels. 

Cold calling can be an effective method for networking and making a sale. Just be sure that you are calling people that know you or recognize who you are. Also, you should have a reason for calling those people that is other than making a sale (e.g. “hey last time I saw you, you mentioned you wanted a hitting partner. I have XYZ who wants to play on Saturday if you are available. Also, we have a coming up if you are around.“). Also, do not, ever, use a generic message or read from a sheet. That is how you get blocked. 

Conclusion 

We hope these tips help you make more tennis lesson sales this holiday season. But do not delay starting! Begin planning and launching your holiday marketing efforts today - figure out who you are marketing to, write the promotional content.