Stop Discounting Yourself: How Service Businesses Stay Visible During the Holidays | Branding Momentum Podcast Episode

Veronica Di Polo
1 day ago
3 min read

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Every December, the internet forgets how to behave. Your inbox turns into a clearance rack. Your feed becomes a countdown clock. Everything is urgent, flashing, limited, exclusive, final.

And if you run a service business, you're left staring at all of it thinking, “So… am I supposed to discount me now?”

You aren’t.

Because you’re not selling sweaters.

You’re selling judgment, experience, and trust — the things nobody wants at 40% off.

This episode of Branding Momentum breaks down how to stay visible during a season built for discount culture without lowering your value or disappearing until January.

Here’s what we cover:

💡 Free Resource — The AI Visibility Sprint

Are you invisible in AI search? 3 days. 3 moves. Stop AI from skipping your name.

👉 Day 1: The gut-punch invisibility test (ouch, but necessary)

👉 Day 2: Your first breadcrumb — 5 minutes, zero stress

👉 Day 3: An AI-ready FAQ that keeps working while you drink rosé

Start free AI Sprint → https://veronicadipolo.mykajabi.com/aisprint

Why Discounts Don’t Work When You Sell Expertise

Discounts make sense when you’re trying to clear physical stock. They make zero sense when your product is your brain.

A discount doesn’t attract better clients — it attracts bargain hunters. And bargain hunters never become long-term clients.

The minute you mark down your work, you train people to expect it again. You also dilute the trust you’ve spent all year building.

You cannot out-discount Amazon. You can only out-serve everyone else.

Visibility Beats Discounts — Every Time

December isn’t the time to shout louder, it’s the time to show you’re still here.

People assume service providers go quiet until mid-January. If you’re not that kind of business, this is your moment to stay in sight with small, strategic touches:

A thank-you message
A short recap of the year
A quick reel about what 2025 taught you
A simple FAQ your clients keep asking

These aren’t sales tactics. They’re reminders you exist — useful ones for humans and for machines. Breadcrumbs for both.

Visibility now becomes trust later.

What to Offer Instead of Lowering Your Price

Your best “holiday offer” doesn’t have to change your rate.

It can change your experience.

Try these:

Priority January spots
Early access to your calendar
A bonus session
A 2026 planning call

Small upgrades. Zero devaluation. Still highly desirable.

Collaborations: The Visibility Move Nobody Thinks About

This is the perfect time to partner with someone who has the audience you want — even if they’re in a completely different industry.

In the same way Coldplay mixed pop with classical, mixing audiences opens doors you can’t open alone.

A simple visibility trade beats a discount every day of the week.

And if collaborations aren’t your thing, then lean into your voice. Say the thing your clients need to hear going into 2026. Say the part you usually water down. Say the sentence that makes someone think, “She’s talking directly to me.”

Because the right words build the right clients.

👉 Hit follow so you don’t miss the next breakdown. If you want to learn how to make your lead magnets AEO-ready, tuned for visibility, and impossible for AI to ignore, listen to the full episode on the Branding Momentum Podcast.

I’m Veronica Di Polo, a marketing strategist based in Moraira, Spain, helping service-based business owners get leads with words that sell.

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