9 Ideas to Ensure Your Business’s Community Event is a Hit
There are lots of reasons why you might want to hold a community event.
Businesses connect with people better when they play an active role in their communities and engage with people directly.
And that’s precisely what these kinds of community events make possible.
So what should you do to make sure yours is a hit and that your attendees are happy with the experience they get?
That’s what we’re going to discuss today.
A good community event needs to have a purpose and good planning behind it. So read on to find out more about how to get this right.
1. Create a Ticketing System
First of all, you’re going to need to create a ticketing system that works for the kind of event you’re creating. It helps to have some sort of system in place, even if entry is completely free for everyone.
That way, you can keep track of the number of people attending and coming in. One software option you might want to consider using for this is Eventbrite.
If you’re creating free events, you can use them for free. And it allows you to keep a track of how many people are coming and how many show up on the day.
2. Tailor Your Marketing to the Audience You’re Looking to Attract
When you’re creating your event, you’ll need to advertise and market it if you’re going to pull people in and get them involved. But how you market your event should be led by the kind of people you want to target.
If you’re looking to attract parents and families, make it clear that it’s a family-friendly event and that there’ll be activities for kids to take part in.
You can engage the people you want to engage better if you tailor your marketing accordingly.
3. Lay on a Range of Activities
You’re going to need to give people something to do if you want them to show up and support your community event.
There has to be an incentive, and as we’ve already discussed, they need to be tailored to your target audience. If you want parents and families to show up, you should put on family-friendly activities.
But if you’re looking for a more professional audience, keynote speakers and workshops might be more what you’re looking for.
4. Make the Most of the Promotional Opportunities
Of course, your business will have a reason for putting on an event such as this. You’re going to want to promote your brand and make people aware of what you’re doing in terms of new products or services.
So be sure to incorporate those things into the event. Use the interactions that take place as a way to organically market the company. And sponsor your own event too.
Be sure to put your brand name on the marketing materials, posters, and flyers.
5. Ensure There Are Food Options for Attendees
Another thing you’ll need to think about is the range of food options made available at your event. If you want people to show up and stick around for the day, you’re going to need to make it easy for them to buy food.
You can put on your own catering; click here to ensure your food truck is prepared and ready to go for business. Or you can hire a third-party company to take care of it for you instead. It’s up to you.
There’s no reason why this can’t be a source of revenue for you though.
6. Create Moments for Connections
If you want to promote your business and show customers why they should care about what you’re offering, it’s probably a good idea to find moments to connect.
These can be at workshops or demonstrations, for example. Give your staff a chance to connect with attendees in a one-to-one kind of way because doing so will help you to spread the word and make people aware of why your business is worth paying attention to.
Without those moments for connections, people might barely even notice that your business is behind the whole event.
7. Create a Strategy for Your Staff to Follow
Having a plan in place that your staff members are going to can be something that’s really important when you’re hosting a community event like this.
Your staff will probably be playing a role and you’ll have particular objectives that you want them to achieve. It’s much easier to achieve what you’re looking to achieve from the event when your staff is on the ball and they know what’s expected of them.
So be sure to put a strategy in place and brief them on what they need to do.
8. Ensure There’s a Strong Welcome
When your attendees arrive at your event, you’ll want to make sure they immediately receive a pretty strong welcome from the representatives of your business.
Be sure to give people a rundown of what’s happening and where to go. That way, they’ll have some structure and they won’t just be wandering around aimlessly.
That can be fine in some circumstances too, but it’s usually best to give people an introduction and a run down.
9. Get Feedback Regarding the Event
Getting feedback on the event from attendees is usually a good idea if you’re planning on hosting future events.
That way, you can learn from this first experience and do what you can to ensure the next community event you organize is even better than this one. Constant improvement should always be the aim of this kind of thing.
And you’ll find that guests will be more than happy to share their thoughts, so make the most of that.
Now that you know what it takes to create a strong community event that’ll keep each of your guests satisfied, all that’s left for you to do is implement them yourself. Your event will, of course, need to be tailored to your needs and the particular aims and objectives of your business.
