How to Promote Your Creative Business on Small Business Saturday WITHOUT Discounting
To discount or not to discount?
As a creative small business owner, you’re faced with this question every year when Black Friday/Small Business Saturday weekend comes around.
On one hand, you’ve got a ton of shoppers primed to spend money, who are expecting discounts, and could give you a nice boost in sales.
On the other hand, your profit margin is slimmer than big box stores—you can’t afford the deep discounts that they can while still making a profit.
And besides the point that it may not even be feasible for you to offer huge discounts, there’s also a school of thought that discounting in general isn’t a good business tactic.
Sean Wes offers an interesting perspective to not offer discounts at any time of the year—he suggests only ever offering something for its full price, or completely free. His argument is that discounting punishes early buyers (decreasing brand loyalty), AND trains customers not to purchase new things from you (they learn to wait until you run a sale! 😱)
So what can you do instead?
Offer additional value.
AKA, instead of offering 50% off on Small Biz Saturday, offer a BONUS that comes with a purchase.
In addition to saving your profit margins, you’re also positioning yourself as someone who ADDS value, rather than a ‘discount brand.’
There are a couple different types of free bonuses you can offer:
A prototype of a new offering that you want to test/get customer feedback on
A small product whose perceived value is greater than the actual cost it takes you to create it
✨ The Prototype Option ✨
You can use your Black Friday shoppers as beta testers to get the feedback you need on your new product before its official launch, AND you have a nice promotion to increase sales over Black Friday weekend 🙌
Working on a new online course? Offer a mini version of it for free.
Creating a new style of templates or Photoshop/Illustrator/Procreate brushes? Bundle together a free sampler pack.
Experimenting with a new physical product? Give away a limited number of free ones.
Launching a new coaching/consulting package soon? Offer a free short consultation to test the format.
Just make sure you have a system in place to follow up with customers to ask for feedback or reviews!
✨ The Small Product Option ✨
This one involves finding the right offering that has value to your customer, but doesn’t cost you much to produce.
Digital products are great for this, since they typically have a low cost to produce.
👉 EXAMPLES:
Downloadable hand lettering worksheets
Bonus video interviews with experts (as an online course add-on)
Instagram Stories template sampler pack
Lightroom presets
But what if you create physical products?
Three words: limited time offer.
Positioning something as scarce and only available for a few days can boost its perceived value, even if it’s something small (FOMO is real!)
Samples are also great: they let your customer try something out for free, which may lead to more sales in the future if they like it!
👉 EXAMPLES:
Limited edition sticker, t-shirt, mug, tote, or other low cost product
Mini soap bar or cosmetics sample
Just make sure the cost to produce is cheaper than your profit margin on the product they have to purchase to get it, otherwise you’re losing money! 😅
💥 What do you think of these ideas? Have any thoughts on something you can use to provide extra value for your next promotion? Leave a comment below and tell me your plan!