For many of you, you’re probably up to your eyeballs trying to floor your fall leagues and getting ready for short-season ones to floor in October.
And here I want to talk with you about corporate parties, and after talking to a few of my proprietor friends, when I brought this subject up, their message to me was loud and clear, “Not Now,” to which I responded, “Why Not?
After their silence, I wrote this blog to remind us that the corporate holiday party market may differ this year and we will need a different approach.
Here’s a statistic you don’t want to forget. 30% of companies have their holiday parties wrapped up by October 1st. 50% by October 15th, so if you wait after October 15th, your company party market is reduced by half!!
I recently read that only 9% of the office workers in Manhattan go to their office five days a week now.
What is it like in your market?
If it is less than 100%, how will you communicate, and whom will you communicate with this year? I hope you have their emails because calling them at the office may be less productive.
I also know that companies are being more frugal this year since many have had unprecedented layoffs and do not want to appear to be spending irresponsibly.
But if you have their email and know that fewer employees are in the office five days a week (in your market), your communication needs to be differently positioned this year.
For one, you could send a video email using a song like “We wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year” as an intro for 10 to 15 seconds. Check with the Smart Buy folks at BPAA to see if your license covers this.
Or maybe someone on your staff can sing or play an instrument, sing, write, or play a song about the holidays.
Then go into your appeal: “Since many people in your company may work from home, wouldn’t it be great to get everyone together this holiday season and spread some joy?
Boom! Display a link to your corporate party page.
If they open your page, email an invite to them to visit the center and have a coffee or a drink or some snacks so they can remind themselves of the center’s amenities, and you can “close the deal right then and there!”
You can experiment with an oversized 6” x 10” postcard for a minimum of 1,000 mailings but get that out as soon as possible. It’s about $1,500 or less, including postage, printing, sorting, etc. You supply the artwork. Email me if you want the company I have used for quality and on-time work. A couple or three corporate parties, and you get $1,500 in revenue back.
The message must be clear and concise. It is about “getting together as a company or a department would be fun, would be a change, would give you a chance to connect with colleagues, to go live and in person or any similar motivations” that are warm and fuzzy.”
Maybe a headline like “Go Live This Holiday Season” would resonate. I don’t claim this is the answer, so do some simple A and B testing. Divide your email list in half and have one subject line in half and a different subject line in the other half. The easiest way is to divide your list by last names from A through M and the second half from M to Z.
Then, keep emailing at least once a week, testing different headlines against the winner. Support your emails with Facebook posts and boosts to persons aged 21 to 65 within 3 to 5 miles of your center. Boosts might cost you $5 to $10 per week.
Be creative. Think waaaaaaaaaaay out of the box.
And follow up!!
Leave a comment