Who doesn’t like a party? Few activities can bond a business and its client/prospect base quite like a customer appreciation event, one where there’s little to no shop talk. That’s when you can get to catch up on how families are doing and have earnest conversations without any strings attached. Obviously, the ulterior motive is to deepen relationships – people are more apt to do business with those they like.
But when the event is geared more toward informing and educating as opposed to entertaining, it often calls for a more granular approach to inviting and marketing to a more specific crowd. As part of our state of the industry reported on hosted events, we asked our dealer panel how they go about promoting and pulling together the invitation list.
Atlantic, Tomorrow’s Office of New York City previously marketed its Expos through its salesforce, with sales teams committing to a number of accounts under their responsibility. That meant hitting the phones hard, in conjunction with email and website promotion. Today, the dealer markets the Expos through the website in addition to social media (LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram) and the traditional touchpoints.
“The most important thing we realized is that our salesforce is the key to drawing clients to this event,” said President Larry Weiss. “Entertainment is important and we held hourly drawings for high-end gifts and, in the past, we’ve had some incredible guest speakers such as NFL stars Phil Simms and Eli Manning, Yankees GM Brian Cashman and decorated Navy SEAL Leif Babin, We are also responsible for introducing Babin to the BTA circuit, where he has spoken at many events.”
Wider Scope
For Fisher’s Technology of Boise, Idaho, outreach for the Boise Technology Show extends beyond the dealer’s normal client and prospect list. The target audience is varied to match the diversity of its seminars, so in addition to CEOs and owners, Fisher’s will reach out to IT managers, human resources, marketing and general admin.
According to Haley Grigsby, Fisher’s pulled together a comprehensive marketing plan with a big social media push through all the notable outlets, in addition to its online event page and email blasts. The dealer also charges for admission, usually between $25 and $45.
“We do provide an allotment of comp tickets for the sales team for customers and prospects,” she said. “It used to be complimentary, but we found that people would register and not show up.”
When KOMAX Business Systems of South Charleston, West Virginia, decided to take a vertical approach to its hosted events, it made targeting clients and prospects a more focused process. For example, when the dealer embarked on an event for the educational space, it targeted public and private schools – namely principals, teachers and school board officers – within a 90-minute drive of Appalachian Power Park. In all, 10 counties throughout the region were represented.
“We sent out probably 150 invitations and we ended up with more than 50 people, representing about 35-40 different entities, including the state board of education,” noted Bob Maxwell, president of KOMAX. “The first year we had over 100 people, which forced us to get a second suite to handle the overflow. Sometimes, less is more. The 50-75 attendee range is probably our sweet spot. That gives us the chance for someone from KOMAX or one of our manufacturers the opportunity to speak personally with everyone who comes to the event.”
