Tips for Promoting Your Next Grand Opening

DECEMBER 3, 2019| SpeedPro

Top Tips for Successful Promotion

You know your business better than anyone else. But the point of self-promotion is to let your audience get to know your business and convince them to visit. You need to make sure you’re creating the right image and making a positive first impression.

Grand openings are all about building a reputation. It’s up to you to make sure yours is a good one. From your opening day forward, word of mouth can be one of your greatest forms of promotion. Businesses can benefit greatly from word of mouth. Your grand opening should provide new customers with plenty to talk about.

To ensure a positive experience for all your visitors, you want to create the right expectations and fulfill them. Self-promotion is an excellent way to tell people about your new business while providing them with an idea of what to expect. With the right materials and a solid plan in place, your pre-opening promotion efforts can jumpstart your business.

Here are some of the best tips for ensuring your marketing is as effective as possible:

1. Set Goals Before Opening

Before you start planning out your promotional materials and opening event, you should have a set of goals in mind. Detailing what you want to accomplish before organizing your advertising, signage and other items will help you create better designs. Your goals should include what you want to achieve with your promotion as well as during your grand opening.

Depending on how your business operates, some of the goals you may want to include are to:

Increase visibility: When you open a new business, whether in a densely populated city or somewhere more rural, visibility is key to gaining a customer base. If people in the area don’t notice you, they won’t be able to visit. It’s important to take advantage of being a brand new option and get your name out before the initial excitement wears off. The more you spread the word about your business, the better your turnout on opening day is bound to be. You can increase your visibility by spreading the word on social media, investing in advertisements, branding a few vehicles and decorating the exterior of the location.
Generate excitement: While there is a natural level of interest that comes with any new store or restaurant opening in the area, people are more likely to visit if you can get them excited about the idea. People may already be interested, but by stirring up excitement, you can elicit a stronger emotional response in your favor. The best ways to create enthusiastic customers before your launch are by running contests, releasing special offers and building up your grand opening event. Depending on your business, you can accomplish the last part in one of several ways, such as by leaving details shrouded in mystery to appeal to curiosity.
Attract your demographic: It helps to have a target audience in mind before opening day. Figure out who your business appeals most to and connect with those people specifically. For example, if you run a baby clothing business, your audience is going to consist of parents, typically young adults. Reach out to parents directly through advertising, marketing materials and social media.
Inform potential customers: Creating an exciting opening event can be fun, and you should reflect that in your promotional materials. But beyond the excitement, you may want to also provide your customers with important information. If customers know about what your business does, your values, your processes and any other pertinent details before the launch, they’ll feel informed and, in turn, more confident. Being transparent helps build trust early, which can be an important factor for many potential customers.

2. Pick a Date Early

Choosing a date takes more thought than throwing a dart at a calendar. You need to know the day that’ll work best well ahead of time. The earlier you choose a grand opening date, the more time you’ll have to advertise and promote your event. It’s better to have extra time to work with than to have to rush to piece together last-minute advertising.

Promoting your event early will also allow potential guests to clear their schedules. By letting people know in advance, they can include your grand opening in their plans. Giving people more time to consider and plan may result in a larger turnout on the big day.

You should also take into account holidays, busy times and community events. Many people plan events with family and friends around holidays, so be sure to plan around them. The same goes for community events — make sure your date works with family events and other local happenings.

It’s also important to take busy times into account, depending on your demographic. For example, if you’re catering to young adults, it may be better to plan for a weekend than the middle of a workday. By choosing your launch date early, you can have more freedom to plan for a day that works in your favor.

3. Take to Social Media

When you’re looking to raise awareness about your business’ grand opening, social media can be a very valuable tool. It gains you exposure to a large audience in a short amount of time. It also allows you a lot of versatility in terms of options. If you are short on time yourself, consider hiring a social media manager or giving one of your current employees the responsibility.

For success in social media promotion, your team should:

Post regularly: Activity online is essential to running a business in a tech-savvy world. Many people either discover businesses online or search brand names to learn more about them. With so many companies taking to Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, social media has become a place for brand discovery. If you post regularly, it shows customers you care about keeping them in the loop.
Give specific information: When you’re creating posts, be sure to keep it relevant. While you can add a few non-business posts in here and there, you should be using the space to inform customers. For example, if you’re running an ice cream shop, show off your new flavors. Or, if you’re running a hardware store, highlight a tool everyone should own each week. With social media, you can be creative and informative at the same time.
Engage with customers: One of the more unique features of social media is that it allows you to engage with your customers on a daily basis. They can ask questions, post comments, make suggestions or even applaud your services. Keeping customers engaged and prompting them to comment is a great way to create a positive reputation. If you’re responsive and helpful online, many consumers will be more willing to visit your business or return. Engagement shows that you care about your customers beyond their purchases.
Provide an incentive: Social media sites are excellent for creating incentives for visitors. Incentives provide an extra reason for people to attend your grand opening. For one, you can create a contest or giveaway with gift cards to your store. Not only does that engage your followers, but it also encourages the winner to visit your business. Hosting giveaways will gain your social media pages more attention, and even if people miss the deadline, they’re likely to stick around to see if there’s another. You can also advertise a contest or raffle that will take place at your grand opening celebration, inviting people to visit and enter the drawing. Or, you can post about a promotional sale for your first week in business. The options are nearly limitless.
Start early: For new businesses, starting a social media presence from scratch can be a challenge. If you’re creating new pages, you should start about four to six weeks before your grand opening. It will leave you time to gather an audience and build excitement, as well as inform users about your brand.

4. Increase Your Location’s Visibility

Exterior decorations and signage can make a world of difference. While your online presence will help attract customers, you should also include outdoor advertising and signs to help improve your business’ local visibility.

There are many different types of signage to choose from, including:

Business feather flags: Custom flags are excellent for increasing the visibility of both your physical location and brand. You can tailor their appearance to your needs, from the colors and designs to the height. They’re lightweight, durable and cost-effective, making them perfect for temporary use as well as long-term installation. A line of well-designed flags can catch the eyes of drivers at a distance and inform them of your grand opening. You can also use them to attract attention to smaller retail spaces, such as in malls.
A-frames: If your new business is located on a bustling city street, it can be challenging to advertise for your grand opening. You may not have enough space for large banners and flags. A-frame signs are perfect for busy sidewalks. They have a small footprint, so they won’t interrupt travelers, but they provide enough room to advertise your opening. With printed graphics, you can create an a-frame that’s reflective of your brand and grabs the attention of passersby.
Vehicle wraps: To ensure the best turnout at your grand opening, you’ll need to advertise beyond your own front door. One of the best ways to reach the most people quickly is by designing custom vehicle wraps. If you have a company car, delivery truck or any kind of available vehicle, adding a vinyl wrap turns it into a mobile advertisement. You can include dynamic images, bright colors, bold lettering and important details about your business, such as contact information. In a densely populated area, you can reach thousands of people in a single day. As a bonus, vehicle wraps are easily removable and replaceable, so you can change the design as often as you’d like.
Exterior signage: When it comes to visibility, one of the most important factors is whether or not people can identify your business from a distance. Temporary fixtures are excellent for sales and events, but they should add to your permanent signage. With the name of your business in bold lettering, your location will be hard to miss. One of the best options for increased visibility is backlit lettering. The illumination makes the name readable in inclement weather and visible at night, making your building identifiable at all times.

5. Use Signage to Advertise

Signage is an excellent way to advertise everything your business has to offer. Between decorating the interior for your grand opening event and posting signs outside your business, you can attract more customers and provide information about your business. Your advertising efforts should span from when you first set the opening date to the day of the event itself.

Regardless of timing, some of the best forms of advertisement signage are:

Custom business banners: Many businesses use custom printed banners to announce big events, such as a grand opening or sale. They’re straightforward to design, quick to print and easy on your budget, making them perfect for temporary usage. With strong vinyl and durable ink, your banners can also withstand exposure to the elements and long-term periods of outdoor use. You can also customize their shape and size to fit your application. Banners typically come in three forms — grommet hanging, pole mounted or banner stand — dictated by how you display them. Business vinyl banners are incredibly versatile and can help you create a big display, even if you have limited space to work with.
Business window graphics: If your building has large front windows, then you have an excellent space for a bright, colorful design that’ll make your business stand out. Similar to the types of advertisements you might see in malls, window wraps can turn your storefront into promotional space. They’re similar to vehicle wraps, as they’re made of vinyl, provide you with a lot of design freedom and are particularly cost-effective. Installation and removal processes are quick and easy, meaning you can change up your designs to reflect different seasons and sales. With window wraps, you can advertise your grand opening and make your business look even more exciting to customers.
Event tents and graphics: If you have the space to bring some of your celebrations outdoors, then you may want to consider setting up an event tent. Businesses located on their own property have the benefit of open space, and it’s worth taking advantage of for your grand opening. Creating an outdoor event will attract new visitors, and you can advertise on the day of with a custom-designed event tent. You can also include other event graphics to inform your visitors about your business. The best part about event tents and custom business graphics is that they’re reusable for many different occasions. If you want to set up a booth at a community event or display at a trade show, you’ll already have the materials you need.

Trust SpeedPro to Create Your Promotional Signs

From grand opening flags and banners to your permanent business sign, SpeedPro has everything you need to successfully promote your next business venture. Our team of professionals will help you through the entire sign creation process, from the first draft of the design to installation. We use high-quality materials and industry-leading machines to ensure you get the best product possible.

Get started on your grand opening promotion today — find your local SpeedPro studio to request a consultation or quote.

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