Festivals are a huge part of communities, offering residents and visitors a place to gather, celebrate, and have a great time. When a festival comes to town, it can increase tourists and visitors and get community members out of their homes and into the city's central area. Business owners can benefit significantly from community festivals, which help increase traffic, and sales and provide new opportunities to create emotional connections with local and visiting customers. Here’s an article to learn more about how our brain functions and control emotions.
Festivals come in all shapes and sizes, from family to music and holiday celebrations to arts and crafts festivals. Continue reading for additional information about how festivals can help businesses:
Pre-Festival Marketing and Strategies
Get fully prepared before going to a festival to help avoid any pitfalls or marketing strategy challenges. First, know the targeted audience expected to be at the festival to ensure it is the best fit for our business, and you can properly market yourself to the attendees. Continue reading to learn more about what you can do to increase your chances of having a successful festival experience:
Start Marketing
Be sure to market your business before the festival. Start building up the hype that you will be at the event and what attendees can expect when they come to your booth. Start advertising on social media and share the event with everyone you know. Hang signs in your place of business and give flyers to neighboring companies.
Creating hype before the event not only draws people to the event, but they will be excited to come to see you during the event.
Send Out Postcards and Emails
Continue to build excitement for the event by sending out postcards and emails to your existing client list. Building excitement for your current clients can help boost event attendance. Additionally, when other attendees see your booth is full of people, they will get curious and stop by to see what all the excitement is about.
Do Your Homework
Business advisors typically encourage businesses to do their homework before entering as a vendor at any festival. Knowing information about the festival, who will be present, and what activities will occur during the event is key to understanding how to set up your booth and if the event is best for your business.
Knowing more about the event helps you select giveaways, drawings, and activities in your booth. For example, if the event attracts families, have family-friendly activities in your booth and giveaways, such as coloring sheets and balloons.
Understand Your Space and Festival Layout
With your research to learn more about the festival, it is vital to learn more about its layout and space. Know what other businesses are setting up near you and where your booth will be related to the event’s festivities and excitement. Don’t forget to ask where and how electricity will be provided if needed.
Additionally, knowing how much space you have can help you determine the layout of your booth and allow enough time to do a test setup before leaving for the event.
Festival Marketing and Strategies
Now, it is a festival day; make sure you are prepared and ready to engage with your customers and other attendees at the festival. Below are some tips to help you get the most out of your festival marketing and strategies:
Emotional Connection
Creating an emotional connection with consumers is the fastest way to convert them into customers or clients. Festivals offer many opportunities for you to develop a passionate relationship with people, which is beneficial to the marketing of your business. During the festival, talk to people while being an engaged listener, offer problem-solving ideas, and create a safe space for people to come into your booth and talk to you. Take your time with the process. Enjoy the event and let things naturally evolve.
Product Demonstrations
Suppose you sell a product, host product demonstrations throughout the festival, and encourage attendees to get a hands-on experience with your product. Product demonstrations create an emotional connection with people showing them why they need your product.
Freebies and Giveaways
Bring along several promotional items to use as giveaways to all festival attendees; Popular freebies include pens, bags, cups, mugs, and coupons for free products and services.
Additionally, hosting a giveaway at your booth is the perfect way to collect information for potential clients to contact after the event. The prize can be a gift basket of assorted products or a gift card for your business.
Post-Festival Marketing
When the event ends, your work is just beginning. After the event, you need to share details on social media to encourage engagement from those who stopped to see you. Additionally, after the event, you need to send thank you cards or emails to those who left their contact information during the event. Finally, to keep a competitive edge, you must continue engaging with the new contacts you made during the festival.
Make the most of your festival experience by researching and being fully prepared. The more prepared you are for a festival, the more time you will have engaging and interacting with festival attendees.
