Hints & Tips from independent business trainer Helen HodgkinsonBe prepared to maximise customer footfall and sales through events

This quick guide will give you some hints and tips to help you plan for events so you can maximise their potential and deliver an exciting and engaging experience for your customers throughout the year. Helping increase your footfall and sales.

Today town centres and businesses need to deliver more than just the chance to buy products or services. They need to deliver an experience, something different that will entice both local and visiting customers to spend. Denbighshire has a rich heritage and a history for hosting a number of iconic events throughout the year.

There is a lot of potential for businesses to engage in different types of events, from national calendar events such as Easter, which is worth a massive £590m to UK retailers to local events such as the Eisteddfodau,

Denbigh Plum Festival, and the many local food festivals and town centre events. Alongside these events there are also the quirky one-off weeks, and days that have the potential to speak directly

to your target customer such as Wool Week, World Book Day, Afternoon Tea Week.

All these events help support town centres by creating awareness and driving footfall, which helps increase both local and visitor spend. In order to maximise the potential

of these events your business needs to be prepared so you can capitalise on these opportunities. Having an events calendar can help you do this. Timing is critical

as you need to ensure you have the right stock, the right services, delivered at the right time and delivered in ways that both engages and excites your

customers. You will also need to make sure your customers are aware of your event and offer, so having a marketing campaign that reaches out

to your customers is a must. Delivering a positive instore experience will help you maximise sales.

Both local and visiting customers love to engage, people love getting out and about attending events as they are looking

for something they cannot get on-line, they are looking for an experience, a chance to chat, to gain knowledge and

advice, as a small independent business you are in a great position to deliver this.

This quick guide will give you some hints and tips to help you plan for events so you can maximise their

potential and deliver an exciting and engaging experience for your customers throughout the year.

Helping increase your footfall and sales.

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Firstly, you need to set up a yearly events calendar, this can be a paper-based calendar you use, one designed on a PC or a vision board. What is important is that each month is listed.

You need to then start populating the calendar with the different types of events. Start by including those that are the same date each year such as St David’s day. Then you need to research:

• National calendar events such as, Easter, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day etc

• Local events such as festivals, county shows, town centre events etc

• Awareness days such as World Book Day, No Smoking Day etc

• Awareness weeks such as Wool Week, Afternoon Tea Week etc

• Special dates and local days that may be important to your target customer.

Try websites such as www.projectbritain.com/specialdays

Once you have completed your research you need to populate your calendar with the events you are going to participate in. Beside each event you need to start thinking about how you will get involved, the type of promotion you will do, what will be needed, how will you market it. This gives you an opportunity to have a timeline, for example when will you need order stock, when will you set up your windows etc.

By having a full year of event ideas planned this helps you to focus on how you can deliver that event to your customers and helps you to maximise its potential.

The event calendar is a working document so throughout the year if there are additional events or promotional opportunities you can add these in.

Events CalendarThere are so many national and local events that you could be involved with that it makes sense to have an events calendar. This will help you ensure you don’t miss any potential opportunities and it will give you an overview of what you need to plan for throughout the year.

Maximising FootfallThe number one concern for most business is how to generate more footfall and spend. Events attract a lot of interest and additional footfall to the town and businesses. So it makes sense to try and capitalise on that.

Events give you a good opportunity to link in with your target customer, to deliver exactly what they need at the right time. Events can act as memory joggers for customers. For example, I only know when Mother’s Day is because I see the date in a shop window.

In order to maximise footfall for your events think about the following:

Generating footfall – This is about creating awareness for the event and marketing your offer prior to the event. You need to generate excitement, so customers engage.

Where to promote so it hits the right customers – where are your customers, where will they be looking for event inspiration? What to promote think about what your message is, what you want to convey. Link this to your customer, remember customers buy benefits.

Use social media to generate awareness and excitement, set up event pages to help promote.

Talk to customers instore about any events coming up, have visuals in store that show future events. If you have a database of customers send them information on forthcoming events.

Enticing FootfallIn order to engage and entice customers you need to ensure that your store inspires. If it is allowed have something outside the store that links to the event, for example balloons or an enticing display; ensure your windows are inspiring, with an event linked theme.

If it’s a busy town centre event get out there talking to people, have your door open and be inviting.

Capturing Footfall long termDuring events you will have your loyal customer, you may also attract new customers, it is important that you think about ways that those new customers can be encouraged to return.

• Offer a great experience

• Setting up a loyalty scheme

• Capture customer details for a newsletter so they can be informed about future events

• Give out postcards with a future deal on so they must come back to the store at a later date to redeem the offer.

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Customer ServiceDelivering excellent customer service will not only help your tills to ring but will ultimately bring customers back after the event. It can also help generate positive reviews, happy customers will help promote your business for you.

You need to think about:Customer Expectations – What will your customer expect in terms of products and service? Think about what your customers may expect from an event. Know your customers so you can deliver their expectations.

Added value – Such as gift wrapping great for gift shops especially for events like Mother’s Day.

Tip sheets or actively sheets are a great way to add extra value, for example free colour sheets to engage kids and adults alike. Did you know sheets can also add value? For example the top ten most romantic places in

Denbighshire, great for St Valentine’s Day or St Dwynwen’s Day. Think about your own customers, what would be added value be to them?

Going the extra mile – Think what the extra mile for your customers would be. It may be a local delivery service or offering a post out service. Personal advice sessions, this is great for fashion stores or health stores.

Knowledgeable staff – You may have lots of gorgeous products in and be delivering some fantastic services but if your staff don’t know about it this will let the customer down and miss vital sales.

Instore activities – Link instore activities to the event such as tastings, quick makes or competitions. Think about activities that could benefit the customer. Make sure they link to the event.

Create a happy environment – Customers want to feel inspired and motivated. Having a positive and happy environment instore helps the customer relax. Happy customers spend more and share the experience with others.

Presenting your store to maximise salesTo make your event a success you need customers to engage and spend. To draw customers into your store, it needs to grab their attention, it needs to inspire. To get them to spend money you will need to deliver an exciting and relevant event experience.

An import consideration is timing. Any events or promotions need to be set up in a timely manner to ensure you create awareness and any prior sales that are important to your business. It may be that it is the run up to a calendar event such as Easter where you generate sales and not the main weekend. Or it may be that you need to create awareness beforehand, but it will be the main event day that generates sales. For example, World Book Day. So planning your activity is a must.

Think about:Store windows – Your store window is one of the most important places to showcase your event. Your window display needs to stop shoppers as they walk by, they need to be event relevant and inspire customers to come through the door. Setting window displays as themes makes them really stand out. For example, hearts for Valentine. Themes can also be used for awareness weeks and days for example Afternoon Tea Week could be on the theme of Alice in Wonderland, a good connection for a homeware brand so linking all your crockery and tea essentials to the event. You want to make your windows a talking point. If you are a drive by store, make your display using larger items or they are not seen.

Instore – Decorating and dressing the store for the event can create atmosphere and will engage customers. This also gives you a good opportunity to take pictures to help promote the event. Have your staff dress up in themed outfits, for example witches or ghosts at Halloween or bunnies at Easter, this adds an element of fun to the event, it will give also you some great photos for your social media and is an excellent conversation starter, so helps with engagement.

Instore displays – your event theme should be carried through into your store displays, these need to engage and inspire. Instore displays act as a silent sales person, think about how you can link different products to create a themed display. Displays can be designed to sell a range of products. You can also use display areas to help promote any activities, they don’t need to be all about the product. Move products around during the event; just changing 20% of your products around will make it look like you have 80% new product. This will reengage customers especially if they are regular customers.

Store lay out – consider your lay out as you want to maximise the potential of your event. You may have to move fixtures around. For example, you could set a demonstration area or activity area up, people are naturally nosey and will head in the direction of activity, they will want to know what is happening. Activity breeds activity so the livelier your store is the more customers it will attract.

WebsiteIf you have a website, then this needs to be updated to follow your instore theme. Your website may be the customers’ first interaction with your business, so use your website as a way to promote and drive footfall to your store event.

Think aboutYour home page – If you can make it relevant to the event, for example if you have an instore Mother’s Day theme, then this should also be translated to your website. If your website has a photo banner then this is an ideal place to have a visual celebrating the events, or awareness day. Have a link from this to the event information, this could be on your website or linked to your FB event page.

Have an events page on your website which showcases all your instore events. This helps customers plan days out. It’s a plus for holiday makers as they may be looking for ideas before their holiday. If you have a blog, then write about any up and coming events and share the blog via social media.

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Remember…Use a calendar – Research and plan events for each month, create ideas and a timeline.

Prepare – Your windows need to attract and draw in customers and your instore space should reflect the event and deliver a positive experience.

Share – share your event with customers and other

businesses, share your customer’s reviews, and share other businesses.

Enjoy – if you are enjoying what you do then your customers will enjoy it to.

Not all these tips will be relevant to every business, what you need to do is think about your own business and then adapt the tips and ideas to suit your customers and your business.

In a nut shellBoth national and local events can help you generate additional footfall and sales throughout the year. They are also a great opportunity to create awareness.

During events you are likely to have many first-time customers as well as your loyal customers, delivering a positive and engaging experience could help encourage these new customers to return and become loyal customers which will help grow your business.

To keep up to date on business news and training opportunities visit www.denbighshire.gov.uk/en/business

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CollaborationEvents are a positive way to make both your business and town a destination, they help drive footfall and sales. Working with other businesses is a great way to not only help promote your own business but also promote the event, town and Denbighshire as the best area to enjoy a day out. Think about:

Other businesses – Work with your business neighbours on joint promotions such as: Create a gift package between a number of businesses such as flowers, wine, a beauty session. Share products for example as props in windows and displays with a little note of where they can be purchased. Video each other’s stores and share these.

Set up joint events with other businesses in the town to pull in a wider audience e.g. a wedding fair.

Share – other social media posts from business in your town. Share posts about the event, the town and

Denbighshire. Use the hashtags that are relevant to the event such as #Easter, #mothersday, #LoveLiveLocal

Get involved – in town incentives such as treasure hunts, participate and promote. Get involved in any best dressed window competition as they are good for creating excitement and awareness.

Join – local business groups, these are a rich source of support and information throughout the year. Link in with your Town Councils as these set up and deliver different events.

I hope you have an eventful and successful year

Different types of offer, promotions and instore eventsWhen we think of offers, we usually think about money off or special deals and whilst this kind of promotion has its place and a % off discount or buy one get one free deal can be attractive it is not the only way to attract customers to celebrate an event.

With different types of national and local events you need to think what kind of offers and promotions would be relevant to the event and to your customers.

Some ideas are:

DemonstrationsThis is a good way for customers to have a go at something, you demonstrate how to do something and then they have a go. For example, making Easter bonnets or trying out the latest gadget. Helps build excitement and activity in store and sells the products or service you’re demonstrating. Fashion shows can also be a good way to demonstrate a look, for example, for Ladies Day at the Races.

TastingsWho doesn’t love a free tasting? Make it event relevant – think hot cross buns, or bonfire toffee, it is a great way to engage with customers and sell a specific product. It is also a good conversation starter so engaging with customers is easier.

Free giftWe all love something free, it does not have to be a large item but should be event and brand relevant. You can set

specifics such as spend over a certain amount or it could be a free gift with any purchases during the event.

Extra loyalty pointsYou could offer extra points during the event, this is good for attracting your loyal customers and promoting your loyalty scheme to new customers.

CompetitionsEveryone loves a competition – this could be started before the event with the results being delivered at the event or it could happen on the event day. They can range from colouring competitions to find the bunny in store. It generates extra interest, it is something exciting and it can be made both brand and event relevant. It can be a good way to capture customer details and signups for newsletters as well.

Money OffA money off promotion I like is a voucher to be spent instore at a later date, for example, spend £50.00 during Easter weekend and get a free £5 voucher. It equals 10% off but sounds greater value plus they have to come back into the store generating future footfall.

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