How Our Kansas City Digital Marketing Agency Can Help You Kick Off Your Big Event
A grand opening event sets the tone for your business and marks the first chapter of your relationship with customers and the community. It’s also the culmination of all your meticulous planning, hard work, and financial investment. You’re confident in the value that your business will deliver once your doors are open.
There’s just one problem: how do you get the word out about your grand opening?
Sure, a huge banner draped across the storefront will capture the attention of passersby, but you’ll need the kind of reach a targeted digital marketing campaign provides to ensure your event’s success. By leveraging digital tools and platforms, you can promote your grand opening in a way that’s engaging and effective.
Consider the following digital marketing tactics for your upcoming event.
#1 – Website and Dedicated Event Landing Page
In the digital age, small businesses must have a website so that customers can engage with their brand online. According to survey data, 76% of consumers search for a company’s website before they visit their storefront. The survey also reported that 45% of consumers are likely to check out the business in person if they determine the company has a strong online presence. This means that your website is one of the most important digital marketing tools in the proverbial toolbox.
A well-designed website should be:
- Aesthetically pleasing and consistent with your brand.
- Engaging, easy to use, and constructed with user experience in mind.
- Optimized for mobile, desktop, and tablet devices.
In a sense, your website is how your business auditions for customers. It’s also a tool you’ll use long after the confetti from your grand opening has been swept up. Statistically, customers won’t take the next step of engaging with a business if they have a poor web experience, so it’s well worth investing in a professionally-built website.
Want to take your digital marketing strategy a step further? Create a dedicated landing page for your grand opening event that highlights what customers can expect. Include a countdown clock to build up anticipation. If you want to beef up your email list, offer visitors a coupon code or other incentive for subscribing to your newsletters.
#2 – Leverage Social Media
Social media channels are the digital hang-out spaces where your customers connect with friends, shop online, catch up on the news, and look for interesting events to add to their calendar. Platforms like Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and TikTok are avenues to share behind-the-scenes sneak peeks, showcase products and services, and engage with customers.
For your grand opening, you can create a public event on Facebook and use the boost feature to promote it to your target demographic. Instagram and TikTok are great for posting images and videos that showcase your brand’s presence. Be sure to strategically use hashtags and geo-targeting to connect with your ideal audience.
Know any influencers or bloggers who are relevant to your business? The right strategic partnerships can put your brand in front of a larger audience who have a genuine interest in your goods and services. According to a HubSpot survey, 31% of social media users reported they prefer to be introduced to new products through influencer marketing.
#3 – Email Marketing
There’s a lot to love about email marketing. It’s inexpensive, easy to do, and affords significant reach. When executed correctly, email marketing can play a pivotal role in your targeted digital marketing campaign.
So, what’s the challenge? You’ll need a subject line more attention-grabbing than a pink elephant stomping through downtown gridlock. Mailchimp reports that the average email blast open rate is approximately 23%, which means roughly three out of four people never go beyond the subject line.
When crafting subject lines, be sure to:
- Keep it short yet descriptive.
- Personalize it by adding the recipient’s name.
- Limit punctuation and use emojis carefully.
- Create the need to click through.
For example, “GRAND OPENING” likely won’t get much traction because it’s too broad. However, something like “Celebrate our GRAND OPENING with 20% off” adds an incentive for recipients to attend. If you manage to hone the fine art of crafting emails with gripping subject lines, it will quickly become one of your favorite go-to digital marketing tactics.
#4 – Display Advertising
Display ads are the images, gifs, and videos that appear on mobile apps and websites. You can think of them as the digital fliers of the Internet. However, you can’t post a bunch of fliers all over the web without a strategy in place. It’s also important that your display ads capture the attention of the intended audience.
A display ad campaign for a grand opening event should feature:
- Eye-catching design that promotes engagement.
- A compelling and timely call to action.
- A geo-fencing strategy that targets customers in a certain zip code or neighborhood.
Work with a Digital Marketing Agency with Experience Building Brands
Starting your own business is exciting and liberating, but also a little bit terrifying. As a business owner, you’ve put a lot on the line to get to where you are now. But how do you get to the next level? What can you do to achieve your business goals?
iFocus Marketing is a Kansas City digital marketing agency with years of experience helping burgeoning businesses – and new ones – elevate their profile. In addition to the targeted digital marketing campaign tactics we’ve discussed here, iFocus also specializes in content strategy, search engine optimization, and creative services.
Ready to call in the big guns for your grand opening event? Or perhaps you’re an established company that’s finally ready to see what digital marketing can do for their business.
Kick things off is with a discovery call with one of our business development professionals. After we evaluate your brand’s current position, we can determine which digital marketing solutions are the best fit for the job.
Get in touch with us today to take the first step toward achieving your business goals.
Brandon Tietz is a senior digital copywriter at iFocus Marketing with close to a decade of marketing experience. He has written for clients in retail, real estate, automotive, education, manufacturing, healthcare, consumer goods, and several other spaces. In addition to copywriting, he has authored books, published short stories, written for several online and print publications, and was named “Best Local Writer” by The Pitch for his debut novel. He’s currently living the dream in the ‘burbs with his wonderful wife and their two dogs, Dr. Croutons and Professor Pickles.
