I wrote about how to use other charity events and auctions as a means to promote your own business—but what about creating your own signature community or sales event. Events are a fabulous way to promote even the smallest of businesses. Additionally, you can involve other “companion” businesses and create something spectacular that draws in tons of prospective customers!
The things to consider when you want to create your own event are: where will you hold the event? What time of year or season is best for your business and works with what else is going on in your community? What will be the purpose—sales, community-building, publicity? Do you have the resources and energy to create an event and still maintain your daily business operations? What sort of a budget will you need and will this be a revenue-generating event? You can see that there are all sorts of details to attend to if you are going to create a sponsor a public event—but, if done properly, that time and effort can be well worth it and pay off big in terms of visibility for your business, networking, sales, and building your customer and prospect base.
If you don’t feel like you can pull off the creation of a promotional event yourself, you might consider hiring a publicity or event planning professional—OR, you may even be able to get an intern or a marketing student who would like to work with you as part of an educational project. Make sure you keep accurate records and come up with a definite plan—most events and projects fail in the planning stages. While you want to have a clear picture of what you are trying to accomplish, you will also need to be open to some of the benefits that may present themselves as the event evolves. I know of a couple community-wide events that started as small collaborations between a few businesses to bring in more customers and promote an industry!
Also: Donating Products and Services to Charity Events
Should You Use Promotional Products?