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Can Service Providers Do Black Friday?
Yes, but only if you follow these rules...
Chris Laub
November 13, 2024
750 Words | 3 Min 8 Sec Read
Welcome to another issue of Passionate Income.
Today we’ll be discussing why service providers - from freelancers to agencies to coaches - should participate in Black Friday.
In particular, how to run promos without cheapening your main service.
Let’s dive in.
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Two weeks from Friday, we will enter the busiest 96-hour shopping window of the entire year: Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
Historically, most people associate Black Friday with e-commerce and physical products.
Whether they’re buying something for themselves at a discount or grabbing some Christmas gifts ahead of time at lower prices, it wasn’t until relatively recently that information marketers jumped on the Black Friday bandwagon.
As someone who’s run multiple Black Friday deals myself (hint hint, we may have one coming up here at Passionate Income), I can testify to just how powerful BFCM can be for information product and course sellers.
That said, it’s almost unheard of to hear anyone discuss how service providers or coaches can take advantage of the "holiday."
On the surface, doing so isn’t as easy as knocking 25 or 30% off your service.
Why?
Because, unlike physical products and (especially) information products, service businesses typically run at much lower profit margins.
Further, while there’s obviously manufacturing and shipping involved in an e-commerce or physical product business, with service businesses, human labor is the foundation of what you're selling.
Because of this, offering a major discount on your core service can not only hurt your margins but also cheapen your brand.
In particular, your prospects could interpret discounted pricing to mean your regular pricing is too high (or even extortionate).
So, what should you do?
Regardless of whether you’re a coach or B2B service provider, the best way to take advantage of Black Friday is to add on a bonus for free (or at a discounted price).
Specifically, the bonus should be something that a) complements your service and b) is something your prospects would normally have to pay extra for.
There are a wide variety of ways you can do this.
For example, if you’re a weight loss coach and normally include a nutrition plan with your service - but charge for customized recipes - you could include the recipes for free as part of your Black Friday deal.
As another example, if you offer an SEO service that includes on-page optimization and content - but normally charge for link building - you could include a set number of links for free in your Black Friday promotion.
That said, if your service already includes everything, you’ll need to get a little more creative.
For example, you could offer 2.5 hours of free consulting on top of your fully done-for-you service.
Alternatively, you could partner with someone in a complementary field and include one of their services in your offer (while paying for it out of your pocket).
Another option is to dig into your SOPs and see if there’s anything you can package into a PDF, video, or information bundle that would be valuable to your buyers.
In conclusion, there’s no reason coaches and service providers can’t participate in Black Friday.
However, if you take the traditional approach of discounting your main service, it can do long-term damage to your brand and dissuade prospects from paying full price.
So, if you go this route, make sure to add a complementary service that legitimately increases the value of your offer.
And remember: The more valuable your offer is relative to the price you’re asking, the more likely you are to make the sale!
💡 Takeaway: While Black Friday is typically thought of as physical product (and recently info product) holiday, there's no reason coaches and B2B service providers can't participate. What matters is not discounting your main service so that you can continue charging full price for it in the future.
🎁 Resources:
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