Although many retailers want to host events at their studios, more than a few confess to not really knowing where to start. Trevor Scott offers his pearls of wisdom on how to make the most of your showroom space.
Showroom events have been a mainstay of our offer for more years than I care to remember yet it never fails to surprise me just how many other studio owners don’t hold in-store events, so just why is that?
Perhaps it’s lack of space or the lack of a working kitchen display? Well that’s fair enough, but you could still hold open days and buy in catering, so why don’t you?
Clearly (I hope!) you can’t just blow up a few balloons, throw open the doors and hope some suitable prospects wander in! You need to market the event well in advance using your advertising, social media feeds and emailing your database of past, present and future clients.
Also, for those clients you really want to attend, a phone call and a personal invite always goes down well. Have invites printed and out on display in the showroom and offer these to all visitors in the weeks leading up to the event.
You could also use Eventbrite to manage numbers by getting consumers to pre-register and, in our case, make a small donation to our nominated charity.
If you’re intending to run a rolling event throughout the day, then expect most people to come in the morning up to and including lunch as no one wants to miss out on free food!
If you’re going to use the event to promote and demonstrate cooking appliance features it makes sense to work with your principle appliance supplier as most offer the services of their home economists for both daytime rolling or static evening demonstrations.
But do book well in advance as this service is a limited resource and they are in high demand.
Talk of the town
But why limit events to this tried and tested model?
Have you considered participating in the Macmillan Cancer Support Coffee Morning? All donations go to a great cause and you’ve now got a captive audience to talk to.
What about running a Bake-Off with prizes for the best cake, or youngest entrant, and so on? How about hooking up with a local wine merchant or deli to run a cheese, wine and charcuterie event? Or tying up with an artisan bakery and running sourdough bread making courses?
Do you offer Bora? If so, why not invite your local cycling club to use the showroom as a coffee and cake halt on a group ride out? And use the opportunity to demonstrate their venting hobs with a bit of char grilled squeaky cheese!
You could go a step further and consider running fine dining evenings for a small number of carefully selected clients. Bring in a top local chef, or, if your budget allows, a MasterChef finalist and, again, link up with a local wine merchant to provide wine pairings for each course.
Or, come away from food events entirely and look at using your showroom as a venue for other users. Architects, for example, have to attend a number of CPD events every year, so why not lend out your showroom, and at lunch, talk kitchens to a room full of architects – even if they’re there to learn about air source heat pumps!
Consider running open days for invited industry local specialists such as interior designers, developers, or estate agents, as well as architects. These can be great opportunities to build long term relationships with exactly the type of people you want in your corner…
Whether you do any or all of the above and other ideas besides, the main thing is to get your showroom working for you in more ways than simply being a static space full of KBB displays gathering dust waiting for the next prospect to walk through your door.