Competition is intense between event venues. Your marketing content needs to differentiate you from the competition. Your marketing strategies need to put your message in front of a population most likely to utilize your venue and those who are likely to refer the amazing amenities you have to offer. Your success depends on a combination of things – an unrelenting pursuit of new clients, providing unforgettable experiences to earn repeat business and customer referrals, and a strategic approach to the digital side of your brand.
Let’s look at 8 tips to help you showcase the best of your event venue:
1. Client Relationships
2. Venue Showcases and Open Days
3. Partnerships and Networking
4. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
5. Online Directories
6. Social Media
7. Paid Marketing
8. Email Marketing
1. Client Relationships
Your business website is often the first point of interaction for many of your clients. Ensure that you are building positive relationships even before they contact you by providing a top-notch website. The design of your website should reflect the personality of your venue and the types of events you host. There should be a ton of exciting, professional grade images showcasing the most incredible events you’ve hosted.
Information about ballpark pricing should be available to help potential customers know whether or not the use of your venue is within their budgetary constraints. Your contact information should be readily available on all site pages and should include multiple channels for interactions.
Interactions with potential clients should happen quickly after the initial contact and communication lag avoided throughout your relationship with the client. Follow up regularly with updates and simple check-ins to make sure there are no miscommunications or misunderstandings in the planning and execution of the event. Let people know you appreciate their business. Consider giving a thank you gift to customers who book with your venue or writing a thank you communication. After an event, request feedback via a survey or questionnaire and be sure to include past clients in quarterly communications to keep your venue in front of their minds either for personal use or future referrals.
2. Venue Showcases and Open Days
Host opportunities for potential clients, members of the media, event planners, and vendors to see, first-hand, the potential of your venue. You can feature different menu options, various styling or theme possibilities, and more. Depending on the target audience, you may want to collaborate with others in the event industry to host the event or open day.
Be sure to have a process in place to capture attendees’ email addresses, potential event type, etc. to be able to follow up with a targeted email campaign. Start your follow up communications with a message that says thank you for attending the event.
3. Partnerships and Networking
In addition to collaborating with others for venue showcases, it is important to build a list of preferred suppliers to flesh out areas of events that your venue doesn’t cover. Include businesses that provide any additional services your clients might want such as photographers, AV, florists, stylists, and so on.
Be sure to only include top-notch businesses in your list of referrals. Vendors you recommend are a direct reflection on your venue. You may want to consider having multiple referrals within a given category in case the vendor at the top of your recommendation list is not available for a given event. Look for opportunities to create mutually beneficial associations.
Even if your venue employs a professional event planner, it doesn’t hurt to include a few additional planners in your network. Egos aside, the most important thing is to create a steady source of income and to book all possible dates available within your venue’s calendar. Cultivate relationships with those planners who work with clients who fit a profile similar to your own.
4. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
SEO plays an important role as you seek to have all of your marketing efforts to work together. Search engine friendly content solves problems, motivates people, and connections with their needs. Content that engages site visitors and leads them towards conversion will perform best. Skimmable content that is rich with, not stuffed with, long-tail key phrases and keywords will provide the most value to potential clients and keep you on the good side of Google and other search engines. There are also a number of behind the scenes considerations like page and image size, links, filenames, alt text, and more.
We’d recommend a few further readings on SEO:
5. Online Directories
Your online visibility is vastly improved when you claim your business listing in online directories. These listings make sure you have an online presence everywhere potential clients might try to find your specific business or one like yours. Online directories provide an excellent opportunity to increase your brand awareness and recognition.
These directories also allow you to target segments of the general population as you create your profile based on categories, products, and services. Your business can be discovered by anyone searching for options within the general category of event venues, venues, and other relevant terms. The direct links provided to your website provide quick engagement opportunities with potential clients.
For the most part, search engines consider online directories as legitimate sources. Your search engine ranking is benefited by listings in online directories because of those inbound links. The more listings your venue has, the more valid you are in the eyes of Bing, Google, etc. The listings also help legitimize your venue with consumers, in general, and give you a more professional online image.
6. Social Media
Profile your target audiences to understand which social media channels will best serve your event venue. Investigate where your competitors and industry related vendors are spending their time on social media. Create a social media strategy that establishes brand hashtags, content guidelines, and a post publishing calendar.
Once you’ve established your profile and are posting regularly, be sure to engage with your followers. The key to success with social media is to be social. Interact via likes, comments, responses, and content sharing. Let your social media accounts show clients and potential clients the personality of your brand and the potential of your venue.
Consider using some of the more advanced social media tools available to keep an eye on your overall social footprint. Even if you don’t have a profile on a particular social channel, others might be talking about you. The third-party tools out there can help you understand the conversations going on about your venue, regardless of where they are taking place.
7. Paid Marketing
You can use Pay Per Click (PPC) campaigns on platforms like Google, Facebook, and Instagram to target segments of your general audience. If your venue caters to corporate functions, you may want to consider utilizing the LinkedIn platform. A myriad of demographic options is available on all of these channels to let you specify which message is put in front of which people. A more personalized approach based on location, birthdays, industry, or online behaviors can help you find more success in your PPC campaigns.
Print advertisements are still a valid means of communicating to various audiences all your venue has to offer. Some people still like the feel of a flyer or brochure in their hand or enjoy the act of handing over a 10% off coupon as they schedule their event. To understand better how your investment in print advertisement is performing, be sure to ask clients where they heard about your venue or what prompted them to contact you.
8. Email Marketing
Compared to other marketing channels, email marketing campaigns are relatively inexpensive. Email campaigns are simple to execute and let you target segments of your audience with uniquely tailored messaging.
Regular email communications are an excellent way to establish relationships with your clients. Send out holiday cards and birthday wishes to maintain regular interactions with that base. A quarterly email newsletter is a fabulous way to showcase recent events at your venue and to feature vendor and other industry related relationships.
You can capture client email addresses while people are on your website. Have multiple places on your site that encourage and allow visitors to share their contact information with you. Your database is one of your venue’s most critical assets. Maintain an accurate database of contact information. Be sure to clear out bounced email addresses and remove anyone who requests to be unsubscribed from your communications.
A strong Web presence is important for any event venue. From your website to your marketing efforts to your email, your venue needs to present a polished image, exciting opportunities, and all of the digital bells and whistles today’s sophisticated consumers have come to expect.
The team at Strategy Driven Marketing would love to deep dive into your business to understand where you are and our experience and expertise can best help your organization. Contact us today so we can begin crafting a personalized marketing proposal that aligns with your goals, challenges, and budget. Let’s get started!
Cover photo by Ibrahim Asad from Pexels