If you build it, they will come

If you build it, they will come

Marketing events are not new. Open houses, grand openings, contests, free food, silent auctions. Whatever it takes to reel people in to your sales office, so you can make that inevitable pitch.

But the days of enticing potential customers like that are gone. No one wants to give up their day or evening to mingle with strangers around a buffet while sales people pretend they’re not there to make you an offer. So here’s a new concept for you: don’t make the marketing event about the sales pitch. Simply make it about entertaining your guests. Throw a wine tasting party at your sales office, hold dancing lessons, organize a charity casino or even bring in a guru of some sort. Give people something to look forward to, and more potential buyers will flock your way.

Once your guests are having a great time, they will be more entitled to move around, and look at what you have to offer. Plus, if they’re having a great time at your checkbook’s expense, they will look more favourably on pulling out their own checkbook.

One of our clients at Creative Bube Tube is a real estate developer who is building beautiful vacation homes on Lake Muskoka. It’s a hard task to draw people from the Toronto area up to Muskoka for a day. We had to make the event worth the drive. But after events like our wine, jazz and art night, and a free seminar by a world renowned anti-aging doctor, our client was able to win buyers over. Our client sold more properties through our marketing events than through any other form of advertising.

As the famous movie line goes, if you build it, they will come. Build, I mean, organize for your company a marketing event for the 21st century. And remember, it’s about entertaining your guests, not making the sale. But trust me, if you show them a good time, the sales will follow.

Natalie Thomas
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