Tips for Planning a Client Event During the Holiday Season
Are you a real estate agent working in the NYC area? Are you looking for more ways to reach out to expired listing leads and other potential clients? We are now in full fledged holiday season. Why not capitalize on that and put together a client event during these festive months? Here are 4 tips for planning a great holiday event as a real estate professional in the NYC area.
1. Start early to plan big
You’ll want to start planning your event as early as possible. Choose a great local venue that is family friendly. Partner with local businesses for food and beverages options. This helps your exposure and trust in other parts of the community. Perhaps bring another aspect to the event like a raffle to win a prize from a local business partner. Or a photo booth for families and friends to take photos together while dressed in their holiday best. You could even hire photographers to do a photo shoot with Santa. Get creative here with the activities.
2. Market thoroughly
Marketing the event thoroughly will ensure current clients show up and potentially bring new leads. Your marketing also has the ability to bring out other leads you’ve been nurturing who might become clients. So as soon as you have a venue and date for whatever event you or your team want to host, start the marketing campaigns. Perhaps do an initial event page on social media to start spreading the word. As the event date gets closer, send out email blasts to all current and potential clients. Follow up with other posts on social media highlighting the special aspects of your event. For some clients you have rapport with, you could even do a phone call or text reminder a few days before.
3. Build anticipation
Build anticipation and buzz leading up to the event. Social media can come in really handy for this. You definitely want to post general reminders that include the time and other details of the event. But then utilize platforms such as Instagram stories or Facebook live in order to build excitement. For example, if you are doing a pie giveaway at a Thanksgiving event in the upcoming weeks, post a video story of yourself or team picking up the pies. This serves as a reminder as well as getting people excited and geared up to come out.
4. Ensure comfort
While COVID is not near as restricting as it was last year around the holidays, you still want to create an event that is safe and makes guests feel comfortable. One suggestion is to host the event during daytime hours. This allows families to bring kids along. But also it could serve as a way for you to have guests sign up for time slots in order to limit capacity at any given moment. Then make sure the day of the event to welcome guests warmly and send them off the same. You want them to remember the event, yes, but mostly your face and the faces of your team as you make them feel welcome.
All these tips will go so far in creating a memorable and fun event for your client base this holiday season. You may not have people reaching out in droves come January to buy or sell. However, you are nurturing those leads and have a better chance of getting a call when they do want to buy or sell. Building your real estate business takes time because it takes trust and human connection to really grow.
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