Step by Step Open House Marketing to Attract New Clients
You've carefully planned your open house, from the studio environment to the scheduling to the special offer. You've roleplayed your sales pitch and meticulously planned your client experience. You're ready to host an incredible open house-now what? Please don't go through the effort to prepare your perfect new client event only to trip at the finish line. You need your open house in front of your ideal clients, and you need the marketing runway to allow time for them to see your event and schedule it into their lives. I'm going to share ideas ranging from basic marketing 101 to digital marketing. Your job is to select the options that fit your population, not to do each and every one of them.
I'm ready to market, but what's a runway?
I first heard the term "marketing runway" years ago from my talented, good friend and industry expert, Emily of Be Mindful Marketing, and I've used it with clients ever since. Essentially, your marketing runway is akin to the tarmac for a plane. The longer the runway, the better your chance of a successful departure. To take the metaphor a step farther, the bigger the event (airplane), the longer the [marketing] runway needs to be. In other words, you need an eight-week marketing timeline for a big studio grand opening but more like four weeks for a 2-hour workshop. Marketing your open house in January is a bit tricky because the holidays are a dead zone for marketing. We'll only have about three weeks to share your event, so we need to make every day count.
Make a plan
If you've been reading Limitless tips for a while, you already know where I'm going to start. Prepare your marketing before you start throwing money into Facebook ads or flyers so that you can envision your entire marketing plan as a whole. We don't want all your eggs in one basket (I am on fire with the metaphors today), which means we don't want all of your marketing on one platform. Try to create a mix of digital, print, word of mouth, and signage to get in front of the widest variety of people. Note: if you know without a doubt that your clients don't have social media or aren't on Facebook, etc., you don't need to advertise there just because it's on this list.
Sell the why, not the what
Chances are, you're not going to be the only studio or gym with an open house event in January. Remember, when you're setting your event apart and speaking to your ideal customer, you're selling why you're unique and superior, not what you do (i.e., yoga). Sure, your client needs to know that you're a barre studio and not a Crossfit gym, but your modality is not, in and of itself, what makes you attractive. When you're crafting your marketing message, think about what makes you stand out from the crowd and what your clients love about you. Not sure? Read your reviews! A quick note: some selling points have become ubiquitous in the boutique fitness industry and therefore don't carry the weight they once did. Small class sizes, personalized attention, and knowledgeable instructors may be true of your studio. However, if every yoga studio in your state is advertising the same thing, it's no longer special, so re-brand it or skip it when you're describing why you're exceptional.
Back to basics
Since the pandemic, we've been seeing a return to "old school" marketing, and, honestly, I'm not mad about it. While creating your marketing plan, don't forget about tried and true flyers. Create them in Canva, add a QR code (nobody is having a better year than the QR code), emphasize the why when choosing your message, and strategically select where you're going to drop them off. If your client is a mom of young children, you may ask local children's boutiques if you can leave a postcard at their desk. If your potential client is a college student, try the on-campus coffee shops. Ask your current clients where they hang out, and even consider recruiting them to leave a flyer if they have a relationship with the staff. Print marketing has the potential to be expensive if you're papering the whole town, so be smart about your placement.
Digital advertising
I'm just to come out and say it- I hate social media advertising. I think it's expensive, the leads are usually low quality, and it's not worth re-learning the platform every four months when they change it. All that being said, I do advertise for open houses because "free" converts like a dream on a Facebook ad (but it shouldn't be your entire marketing strategy!) Make sure you cap your budget so you don't end up spending $1000 on a free event. There are thousands of articles that walk you step-by-step through Facebook ads, so I'll defer to them and stick to open-house specifics for this post.
Although I'm not a fan of paid ads, I love organic posting to get the word out. Using a content calendar (or a piece of paper), create a robust schedule for the 3-4 weeks leading up to your open house. Although I regularly preach that "likes aren't currency" for boutique studios on social media, you do want to create a buzz around your event by increasing your organic traffic. My favorite posts are:
Countdowns on your story
Facebook or Instagram lives that show you preparing for the event with teasers revealing anything really exciting that's coming
Reels that bring your ideal client to your page for the first time.
Once a week, share the signup flyer and remind clients to sign up at the link in your story. Don't forget to update your link in bio to go straight to your signup page or landing page and feature your event prominently on your Linktree if you use one.
Another way to make the most of social media is to create a contest for existing members. Give out raffle tickets to anyone who shares the story on their own page or signs up new friends. The more shares, the more raffle tickets- everyone wins. Your members are your greatest resource for referrals if you make it easy and worth their while.
While class is in session, it's time to share and create a little healthy jealousy from anyone who hasn't signed up yet. I like going live on Instagram and touring the offerings that day. I take my phone into the class while it's on and wave during an Instagram live, but my clients are conditioned to see the camera in class. If you have a serene or exclusive vibe at your studio, keep your phone in the lobby or video between classes. Don't forget to highlight your specials and let people at home know they can call in to claim theirs for the next few hours. If you’re too busy, delegate the documenting to a staff member or friend.
Make the most of your space
For my street-facing studios, order cheap window paint and go to town painting your windows! I know it sounds simplistic, but we've always received a majority of our leads from painting our windows. Make sure it's readable and clear: Free open house Jan 15th-16th. Call 555-555-5555 to save your spot! Then add short descriptions or action stick figures (I love stick downward dog and tree pose) around the perimeter. It's that easy, and it's effective. Use your free resources! Pro tip: it can be costly to hire a professional window painter. If you have a client that can letter, do a karma exchange for their services. I can only write in cursive, so I created signs in Canva and bought a cheap projector on Amazon to trace them onto the window until I found a client who offered to letter them for me."Hey, Ashley. It was so great meeting you on Saturday, how funny that our kids go to the same school! I hope you're feeling great after your yoga sculpt class. All those Chatarungas made it difficult to wash my hair on Sunday-please tell me I'm not alone there. I hope we get to see you in a future class at [studio name]. Don't forget, you can still get [insert offer] until Wednesday. It's the perfect time to start a yoga practice! I'll send a text over to see how your class went, too, but click below if you'd like to get started right away."
Draw attention to yourself
My first business coach told me to add balloons to our grand opening sandwich board to make people pause to read it. I thought it was silly; we can't be that simplistic, can we? We can, and we are. Whenever I add balloons, neon paint, streamers, etc., people ask if we're new to the space. The studio is street-facing, with foot and car traffic passing by every day. Our building sign was $9,000, but stick a few balloons on the sandwich board and leads shoot through the roof. Maximize your sandwich board by adding a QR code to your event landing page or your point of sale class page with a headline that makes people want to pull their phone out right then.
Bring in partners
Athleisure companies like Athleta and Lululemon will let you add to their bulletin boards and sometimes even send your event to their subscribers. I suggest you make a conscious effort to connect and build a relationship with the managers of your local stores if you have them. Invite their staff to your studio and capitalize on the fact that they are directly in front of your target client every single day.
If you're a member of your chamber of commerce, they'll often feature your events, and so will local publications like your local newspaper. If it's a press release, it's usually free! If you don't yet have an association with these organizations, now is the time.
Speaking of partners, I love bringing in partners to join your open house, as long as they fit your culture. Some of the favorites I've had or clients have had are:
Juice tastings from local juice bars
coffee/tea samples from the local coffee shop
mini smoothies
mobile brow bar
chair massages
tarot card readers
nutritionists
chiropractors
rocktape from local PT
naturopaths
healthy food delivery service signups
proper shoe fitting from a local run club store
When you approach a potential partner, you're looking for
No cost to you. The partner will be surrounded by potential customers all day. They can and should have cards for future orders and sales, but it shouldn't cost you anything to have them there.
Advertising. Ensure the contract or agreement has an advertising component. Your event should be featured in your partners' marketing in the week(s) leading up to your open house. For example, if the local juice co is coming in, ask them to present flyers or signups at their store in the weeks leading up to your event.
Value add. The partner should bring a service or product that will add to your client's experience. If you're a cross-fit gym that caters primarily to men in their 40's, a brow bar will probably not fit your audience (I'm generalizing, but I bet I'm right). However, as a boutique barre and yoga studio, the brow bar partnership is always popular. Take away: Don't bring in partners just to add to the day. Make sure it's something that your clients will actually be interested in and that it fits your culture.
What about current clients?
Every time I help a client plan an open house, I hear, "The classes always fill up with existing clients and deal hoppers!" There's not a whole lot you can do about the client who only shows up to your free classes (except removing them from your email list- which I endorse). To help with the member problem, there are a few things we can try:
Make the open house free for new clients or anyone who hasn't been to the studio in 6 months rather than just free. That will prevent your class package clients from using the open house as an extra bonus class on their package.
Make sure you're marketing it as a "New Client" open house. Tell members their class is free if they bring a friend, so the expectation is set ahead of time.
Switch up your regular schedule. If you have a popular 10 am Bootcamp class that always fills up, put your free sample class at a different time, so the regulars don't automatically sign up.
This is my favorite- Offer a member's only class at the end of the open house. We always do advanced barre at noon, and I teach it. It's the last class, so I'm not busy meeting new clients, and I save all my big barre guns for this class to get members really excited. This class is their thank you for putting up with strangers in their space all weekend and sitting out their usual class, and everyone loves it.
Be honest with your clients. You need to save spaces in these classes for new clients, so ask your members to switch classes if you need to.
During your event
It's the day of your open house. You've planned it out from party prep to final sale, you've marketed your heart out, you're ready to go. Now what? Your number one job as the owner or manager is to connect with the clients. I try not to teach until the end of the day because I know my time is best spent building relationships with the newcomers. Meet as many clients as possible, introduce yourself as the owner (it carries weight), walk people to class, drop a few "When Statements," lay the foundation for the sale after their class "I'll meet you at your locker after class to see how it went!" Even if a client doesn't buy, s/he'll remember how you made them feel, so make the most of the time you have. If you haven't yet read part one of this open house series, head over there before advertising.
I forewarned you I had a lot to say about open houses, and I think I delivered on that promise. I absolutely love organizing these events, so if you need help, book a single strategy call, and I'll walk you through it. If you're prepared to go it alone, download a checklist here, and I'll walk you through it from afar. Get out there and meet your new clients!
