Making the Most of Community Events

Have you considered participating in local community events to promote your business? Perhaps there is an upcoming dog walk, pet fair, school fundraiser, or other local event that invites merchants to participate.  Is this something you should do?  How do you make it worthwhile?  Those are the issues we want to consider this month as The Dog Gurus talk about making the most of community events!  There is a way to educate your community and set yourself up as the duty expert to promote your business.

If you’re like most of The Dog Gurus members, you want to make an impact in your community. You love to talk about dogs and you want to promote your business so community events seem like a great way to do both.  But after several hours standing around a table (sometimes in the sun), answering endless questions or watching pet parents walk by with unruly dogs, you wonder whether it’s worthwhile. In a day and age where time really is money, is your time (or your staff’s time) really being well spent?

Here are a few ways to make sure you are getting the most value out of your next community event.

1) Know the purpose of the event for your business.  Think of community events as the start of a relationship.  You might be trying to raise awareness of your business, help educate your community about dog safety, or sell your services.  But one of the most important reasons I attend community events is to collect names and emails of potential clients.  With those emails, I can build a relationship that helps educate the public and promotes my business. Your goal is not necessarily to sell a daycare program, sell a training class or sell a bag of treats at the event. It’s great if you do any of those things, but the real goal should be to start building a relationship with those in your community that don’t know you and your business.  And how do you start?  You start by collecting names and emails so you can work on building a relationship.

2) Set a goal. If your goal is to collect names and emails, then set a goal for how many you want to collect.  Find out from the sponsor how many people to expect and start with 10% of that number.  If you have no idea where to start just pick a number like 50 or 100 and increase it if that seems too easy.  You can even celebrate with a staff pizza party or ice cream party if you reach your goal. That will motivate everyone to work harder.

3) Do something to bring people to your table.  You’ve been to tradeshows before…what causes you to stop by someone’s booth?  It might be a chance to win a prize, free candy in a dish, or the chance to ask questions.  Try one or all of these things!  Just remember that the goal when someone stops by is to get them to provide their name and email address!  Stay tuned for some fun ideas we’ll offer in our next blog.

4) Keep your booth open and inviting.  Be careful of your booth layout. Putting a table at the front can end up being a barrier between you and your potential clients.  Try having the table off to the side so that people are invited into your booth area to check out your products, play a game, or sign up for a free drawing.  Ask your staff to stand up when people come nearby, too.  Sitting in a chair talking to people (unless you have enough chairs to invite them to sit with you) does not engage people and can make you appear unfriendly. So stand up and be friendly and outgoing!.

5) Make it about your client, not about you!  Another way to be more inviting and build a relationship is to remember to keep your conversation about the client. Don’t start out with “hey, does your dog need daycare?”  Instead, strike up a conversation with a few of these more engaging (and less sales-y) questions.

• “How are you enjoying the community event today?”
• “What kind of dog do you have?” (or how many, or how old is your dog, or what is your dog’s name”)
• “Is this your first time at X event?”

The idea is to let people talk about themselves first, and the offer them a chance to play a game, get some candy, or check out your services.  Be real. Be authentic. Be caring.

6) Follow up immediately.  Now that you’ve collected all those names an emails, be sure you have a plan to follow up immediately. Who will enter in the names and send the email?  What will it say?  Make sure you have a plan to touch base with everyone you met and provide them with valuable content that will make their lives easier. Don’t just sell them on your services. Have something useful they can share with others.  Some ideas include a list of common stress signals, information on fun events for dogs in your local community, or how to host a doggie birthday party.  Give away some good information and help build the relationship with your client.