Yesterday we spent a lot time watching the Presidential Inauguration festivities in Washington D.C. on TV. And it suddenly occurred to us what a huge role innumerable types of businesses—scores of them, small businesses—have to have played in this singular and historical event.
At FOX Business’s Small Business Center, contributor Kathryn Buschman Vasel acknowledges that while a smaller second inauguration (as is always the case with second-term U.S. Presidents) means somewhat less action for small businesses in the Washington D. C. area, the event still brings them an economic boon. Crowds estimated in 2009 to be around 1.8 million people were expected to be under a million this year.
But even though the crowds are smaller and the inaugural balls are fewer, D.C.-area small business owners acknowledge that the added tourism will still mean a nice injection of revenue—for some, one that’s comparable to Christmas in terms of sales. Many have been infusing their marketing efforts with event-themed promotions on social media, like Facebook and Twitter. Others like restaurants are offering special menu items, including some developed from what owners learned customers were asking for the during the last inauguration.
U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) digital media coordinator Stephen Morris also writes about the ‘inaugural effect’ for small businesses and goes a step further in offering tips to others in How Small Businesses Can Celebrate (and Profit from) the Inauguration and Other Events in Your Area.
You don’t have to have a presidential inauguration in your area to effectively leverage an event to boost your sales. It takes identifying one or more upcoming events and planning accordingly, Morris says. He highlights several areas that business owners need to cover in their preparations, including:
- Having adequate products in stock
- Having adequate staff on hand
- Special offers
- Social media presence and promotions
- Extended hours
- Accessibility; clear directions
- Good parking
- Restrooms (Seriously—can you open them up just for the event?)
- Free ‘convenience’ or ‘comfort’ items to draw them in
Both articles stress the importance of treating this as a longer-term investment than just one tying in to just an immediate or single event. Be sure to get customers’ email addresses (You should be doing that anyway!), and stay in touch with them on an ongoing basis.
How and where to start if you’re to add leveraging a local event(s) to your marketing strategy? Here are a few ideas:
Get in touch with your local convention bureau and/or chamber of commerce. You need a list of events to target the ones that are relevant for your business and objectives. But even more importantly, make sure you are a part of listings and visitor packets and that website links, backlinks and mentions are all in place.
Decide on your offer(s). You may not need to have a unique offer for every event. You may be able to come up with one that covers several –and if so, so much the better. And if there’s something you can offer that’s free—a small item or even a charging station for smartphones and tablets—by all means do it.
Team up with another business or businesses. Your efforts can be multiplied many times over when you join forces with one or more other businesses. Just be sure your objectives are aligned and that thematically the partnership will make sense to customers in the context of the event.
Social media, including location-based. With tourists roaming around, you want them not only to be able to find you, but also to read what others are saying on Yelp! and Foursquare.
Analyze, analyze. Calculate your event-related costs and revenue to size up your profits. And don’t forget that you’ll want to amortize some costs across many events, as well as categorize others as ‘opportunity costs’—with benefits that extend beyond the event itself.
