Email and SMS | Facebook Event Marketing | iPad Guestlist | Bar Management | Nightclub Marketing | Nightclub Promoters | Nightclub Software | Club Promoter | Software For Events Management | Database Management Systems And Software | Hospitality And Management | MyGuestlist.com.au

As a continuation of the previous post, here are a few more tips (in no particular order) that may come handy to promoters, event organisers and venue owners.

1) Personalise your mailouts and SMS campaigns

Ok, so every venue, promoter and their pet dog out there is pushing their night/s as much as they can and they are doing it on many different mediums. Facebook, twitter, myspace, emails, sms, flyers…the list goes on. Trouble is, people have had it up to here (sideways hand raised to nose) with getting all this promotion crap shoved in their face everywhere they turn.

Solution:Check the previous post on using #name within MyGuestList to include your patron’s name in your e-flyers and SMS.

2) Schedule birthday mailouts/SMS to all upcoming birthdays in your database

Birthdays. It’s those things people go to on friday and saturday nights which have heaps of close friends all looking to have a good time and spend a lot of money somewhere. Make them have your venue/night in mind 6 weeks prior to their birthday. Offer birthday packages. More on this later.

3) Collect the right data

If you have contact forms, enquiry forms, booking forms, guestlist forms or anything else where your patrons contact you, have a think about what kind of information you would like to gather from them. If you are currently only getting a name, email and mobile number, you may be missing out!

Imagine if you collected only just D.O.B and their favourite drink as extra info.

Now, you can find yourself promoting to Alison who is having her 21st in 6 months and enjoys cosmopolitan cocktails, on a targeted, specific level. You can custom tailor a package based exclusively on this information you have about her preferred choice of poison.

4) Timing is everything

Not only is it about “who” you promote to, it is also about “when” you promote. Experiment around with different times of the day and week. Not so unusually, you may find that sending out that email or sms on a Friday just before lunchtime when corporates are figuring out where to go for their after work drinks or what they are going to do with their friends/spouses that night may give you some surprisingly good results. Your welcome.

5) Categorise and keep clean

Your database should be like your wife. Clean, organised and working for you. Errr…moving along.

A common action that is performed by most promoters/venues, is that the database consists of just one big slab of inconsistant information that has been gathered by various different methods over the past x amount of years and nobody that is responsible for its maintenance now or in the past, can make heads or tails out of it.

Categorise. Categorise. Categorise.

Create a category for your Friday nights, create a category for your saturday nights, create a category for your over 28s, create a category for your corporates, create a category for anything that deserves its own seperate marketing and promotion. In the long run, it really pays out.

6) Use HTML templates for your e-flyers

Many venues/promoters send out e-flyers and place a mere image as a part of their email. While this does remind people about the night you are running, you are not providing them any fast and easy way of being a part of the night.

Rather than just an image, why not use HTML flyers with a link to your guestlist/booking page. This then encourages people who read it, to immediately click one button and be on the guestlist for the night. And on top of that, they can then be automatically added to your database into the appropriate category.

Isn’t giving people the option to include themself in your night much better than just simply making them aware of it?

7) Do not send one generic mass email/SMS

This one of the many common pitfalls that venues and promoters get stuck into. Although a small percentage of the target audience will be affected by this, you will find a lot of discomfort amongst your large list of patrons since it has no personal affect on their psychological behaviour. It’s like trying to sell baby food to a room full of teenagers, senior citizens, chefs and japanese construction workers. Oh and maybe a couple of babies and parents as well.

Isolate as much information from your patrons as you can, categorise accordingly, and send incrementally. Even if this means sending out to only a selected smaller amount of different people each week, you will find it yields much greater results than just blasting out a generic one-size-fits-all message.

8 ) Have a photographer as often as you can

People love seeing themselves in photos. It’s a fact. So utilise this by having a photographer in your venue or night as often as you can. These pics (which can also be watermarked with your logo) will then spread onto the various different social networks online, amongst email inboxes of friends, and on the forums of nightlife websites.

But most importantly, you can put these pics up on your own gallery, and grow your database by excited patrons from the previous night, eager to check themselves out and how “smashed” they were.

9) Video Production

Although this doesn’t need to be a regular task, the next time you have a major event where you have celebrity guests, international DJs, special performances, opening nights or a venue birthday, think about producing a short video clip of the night and sending it out to some of your database contacts. This is a great and dynamic way of showing to somebody at home on a computer, what your venue/night is all about.

It is much more effective at keeping the attention of the viewer than what normal text is, so why not give it a shot?

10) Create Packages

For some bizarre reasons, it seems like many venues/promoters forget to implement what they learned in nightlife promoting 101 which is to create packages for their patrons. Whether it be for a birthday, hen’s night, buck’s party or any other celebration, packages are always a great way of assuring your patrons you are taking good care of them.

For example, suppose you organise the following for a group of 30:

- Limousine pick up from location
- Drive around with free bubbly in the limo
- Priority entry to venue
- 30 free shots.
- Host for the night with finger food/drinks always on arrival

Although the above might not suit your particular venue or night (change it around to suite accordingly with your vibe), it is the simple fact that you are creating a convenience for your patrons that they will appreciate. Price the package above how you will, but it is guaranteed that with the amount you throw in, patrons will be happy that you are looking after them and will be more interested in having their functions at your venue as opposed to somewhere that does not give them this incentive.

For more info on how MyGuestList can help you achieve all or any of the above, feel free to give us a bell.

Not literally.

Related posts:

1. 45 ways to use Twitter to your advantage in the hospitality industry?
2. 12 tips to start the new year off in a positive, fresh way