15 WAYS TO BOOK MORE EVENTS IN 2015 Without spending money on advertising! 1. Tackle new group or event types that will be a great target for your company. There are so many overlooked event groups such as military, proms, or even funerals. We suggest you list all of the events you can think of, then circle which ones have been booking your service and with another color circle the ones that it may be a potentially fit. From there you could even join associations for those industries. 2. Send handwritten notecards to clients wishing them a happy New Year! Inspire, give thanks, and offer free business ideas or tips. Your clients will remember your work ethic and what a nice team you have. Do they have questions or suggestions? Would they write a testimonial or give a referral? They may want to hire you for a new project, and they’ll be grateful you care enough to check in on them and answer any questions they may have. 3. Re-work your testimonials! Ask previous clients for testimonials. List your current testimonials and add them to your: -Website & Blog -PartySpark Profile -Yelp & Google Listing 4. Register / compeate for some local awards! Do you have what it takes to be an award winning vendor? How many awards have you applied to? You will never win, what you don’t go after. Research your associations, media, and chamber events to find award categories you might qualify for. 5. Generate free press! Plan to send out press releases at least once a quarter. Make sure what you are sending interesting and a good fit for the outlets you are applying to. Think beyond TV and radio to even more overlooked sources such as magazines and blogs. For example: if you are a catering company, send out a press release saying how you have mastered the worlds best hot chocolate and offer to provide the secret of how to make it. 6. Ramp up your S.E.O. Use Google’s AdWord’s Key Word Tool to discover what your clients are looking for and apply those key words to your website. You would be surprised at the difference in website traffic for a small change such as “event planning” to “event planner”. Google has also been evolving more to recognize long tail key words such as “San Diego’s best wedding photographer”. 7. Get crafty. Hand craft some unique décor that can be used for upgrades at events. Décor ideas can include signage, buffet décor, or a full tent rental with retro lights. Follow the top websites and blogs in your industry for inspiration. Look at industries like New York, Houston, or San Francisco to see fresh ideas. Also, think about new upgrades you can offer. 8. Referrals. Referrals. Referrals. Reach out to hotels you have worked with in the past to see what you can do to be on their preferred vendor lists. Sometimes the best way to get a referral is to simply ask your existing networks for one! We also suggest you join a professional association such as ISES, WIPA, or NACE. 9. Partner with other event peeps & bloggers for a photo shoot! We have all been there, you spend countless hours working to “wow” a big client. You make every detail perfect and think you are going to get the best portfolio from this event! Then you are heartbroken after the event when you realize you were too busy working the event to take some quality photos. The good news is that you’re not the only one! We have all been there and we all need to constantly updating our portfolio. Find another event vendor who isn’t a direct competitor, but has the same target market to capture your best work. 10. Join PartySpark.com’s Wedding Planning Date Nights. PartySpark is currently planning a date night once a month for engaged couples. We would like to create a fun experience for the couples and give them the opportunity to meet and create a relationship with PartySpark vendors. Volunteer to be a part of these upcoming date nights. 11. Pre-qualify ideal customers & then offer something for free… seriously! As we have learned, you can’t offer something for free to everyone. However, if you pre-qualify a group that you know plans a lot of events ask them if you can bring them lunch or a snack. If you are a photographer offer to take their yearly team photos. 12. Redefine your U.S.P. (Unique Selling Proposition) Some vendors look at PartySpark’s website and they think “oh, you already have a band or caterer on the website and they are cheaper than me, so why bother uploading a package?”. The truth is, you are always going to have competition and your customers are always going to do research before booking. Get comfortable with this and highlight what you do differently. Hint Hint – Vendors always think their excellent customer experience is what makes them stand out, this can’t be your U.S.P. - that should be your personal quality standard. Your U.S.P. needs to be something creative, exciting, or unique that makes people see your service as different then the other 100 companies in San Diego offering the same thing. Think about it this way, your U.S.P. will help you get new customers and your customer service / quality will get you more referrals. They say a referral is the greatest compliment, so balance your U.S.P. with your customer service and you will gain customer loyalty. 13. Quality is King & Exposure is Queen. Once you have your quality standards being met, and a reason for people talk and remember you, work on getting more exposure! PartySpark will be sending out 4 catalogs per year (one for each season). We suggest you offer seasonal packages for each catalog. We would also like to highlight PartySpark vendors who are unique by featuring them on the PartySpark blog. 14. Make goals for the year & then break them down into milestones. Think about 2-3 goals you have, make sure they are specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and tangible. Think about where you should be sitting by the end of Q1, Q2, Q3, & Q4 to hit it. Goal #1 ________________________________________________________ Quarter 1 Milestone: ______________________________________________ Quarter 2 Milestone: ______________________________________________ Quarter 3 Milestone: ______________________________________________ 15. Finally, become a PartySpark vendor! We work hard to bring our vendors new sales, exposure, and opportunities. PartySparkis an event and entertainment booking website that lets you compare and find San Diego Event vendors. As a vendor, PartySpark only makes money from a portion of the sales we bring you! Thank you and may next year bring you success and goodwill! Best wishes, Your friends from Partyspark