WITH WARMER WEATHER coming, it will be time for outdoor pet fests and fundraisers. Having a booth at an event can be a significant investment, both in money and in time. Get the biggest bang for your buck by having the right strategy.
Be a Center of Attention
One of the first things to consider is hosting an activity. You can ask the organizer whether you can run an activity at your booth or sponsor something already planned. For example, one client sponsored the “fun zone.” Her booth was near the entrance of this area, and as a result she constantly had people standing and waiting for the agility equipment and games. The pet parents shopped while they were in line with their fur kids.
Or you can come up with your own game or activity. It can be a photo booth, doggy tattoos, giant costumed dog, a spin-the-wheel for a prize, doggy ball pit — anything fun that requires participation and garners attention.
Keep Your Booth on Point
Get all the marketing materials you need: branded tablecloth, backdrop, tent, promo items, signs, brochures, cards, stickers. Make sure people know exactly what business booth they are visiting. Avoid overcrowding your booth, and don’t clutter the space with too many messages.
Be clear on your goal for the event and strategize how you can best get that result. A pet sitter’s goal should be to schedule “meet and greets.” So, focus your time and energy on those potential clients. How can you identify them from the sea of people?What questions can you ask to engage people and book that meet and greet while at the event?
Regardless of whether they are potential customers, make sure they walk away remembering your business name and with a way to contact you.
Get Leads
While you want them to take your business name home, you don’t just want to hand out a bunch of promotional materials and not hear back from anyone, right? Great sales are always in the follow-up. You’re the one investing in being at the event, so you should walk away from the event with leads. Get as much information as you can from as many people as possible, dig through them post-event to find your hottest leads, and follow up to hook them as customers.
To start, raffle off something super cool that everyone will want. Something of high perceived value. One year, we invested in an iPad Mini as a prize, and we had a line of 50 people waiting at our booth to sign up throughout event. We collected 400 new leads!
Have your raffle slips gather all kinds of information that will help you after the event: mobile number, email, ZIP code, dog type and age, type of food they feed, even biggest challenge with their dog, which allows for you to have a jumping off point for a follow-up discussion.
Walk the event and network with other vendors and volunteers. Drop off your cards and collect their cards. They may be great partners for cross-promotions.
Follow-up is vital. After the event when you’ve collected all these new contacts, upload them into your system and start getting those follow-up emails, texts and phone calls out. With these strategies, you’ll feel confident while you’re there, you’ll be finding new business, and you’ll feel like it was worth your investment.