One of the fun parts of my job is planning events for small businesses. I have a number of contacts who specialize in creating party favours and printed items, but the real fun comes with the planning.
Mary runs a small home design shop where she displays various fabrics, mirrors and other stylish vases and lamps. Six months had passed since she opened and she was ready for a grand opening. Mary reached out to me for help planning.
My first step was to understand the situation and what Mary wanted to achieve. We landed on two objectives:
1. Increase brand awareness by letting consumers know about Mary’s business and the products she offered.
2. Increase the number of business contacts who would refer customers to Mary. Mary already had a network of designers who referred their customers to her. She wanted to expand that contact list.
To reach these objectives, we’d hold two events: An appreciation event to thank her designers and potential designer contacts for their referrals, and a second event, a grand opening for the general public. With both events, we’d create excitement by showcasing some of the new items Mary recently added to her shop and give everyone who attended a take-away — branded swag — to keep Mary’s shop top-of-mind.
It was time to put the planning into action, and my first challenge.
An appreciation event
Because the first event was an appreciation event, I wrote invitations that Mary would send to each of her designer contacts. Although Mary was great at finding unique items for her shop, she wasn’t so good at keeping track of her contacts. Pulling together a distribution list for the invitations and subsequent follow-ups meant that Mary would need to commit time to mine her emails to find the addresses we needed.
The day of the event, guests were welcomed with treats and refreshments and everyone left with a small gift, including postcards promoting Mary’s shop that they could pass along to their own customers.
The Grand Opening
The Grand Opening was a little easier to promote. We used Mary’s social media connections and boosted ads to reach a broader audience. We also leveraged a nearby cafe to advertise the opening to patrons. On the day of the event, we placed a big banner on the storefront and flags on the street to let people know where to find us!
The Grand Opening followed a similar format as the appreciation event with refreshments, treats and swag giveaways.
It was a busy two days, but weighing the outcomes against the measures we set, we were happy with the results.
Do you have an event in your future? Don’t forget to plan it out. Reach out, if you want some help!
Writing for you. 
hey
cool blog 🙂 will give it a follow and a like !
LikeLike