You have sent your emails out, you have a lovely flyer, the date is booked and your menu is set. It is three weeks till your event date and you have only sold a few tickets. You ask yourself. What am I going to do? Why are my African supperclub tickets not selling?
So the questions we are going to ask are where are your
- Promotional videos
- Reviews by your target market
- Images of your target market
- Recipes
- Blog posts
- Competitions which overlap
- Special offers for large groups
- Affiliate marketing schemes
- Sponsorship and partnerships
Finally where is your marketing copy telling the African story and why you should attend? Further more what about your message on all the social media channels *SM including meetup. Have you targeted these organisers and influential leaders? Who is this event for? Why should they care to come? Your copy needs plenty of action verbs such as ‘explore’, ‘speak’, ‘meet’, ‘discover’, and 'tasting'. Yes why come to my event? †Market for a, b and c. gather testimonials and reviews from the target market including ‘social proof’ # name-dropping. Were you can, state this event is open to ALL. We are inclusive of first timer to supperclubs and African food eating. We wish to see European foodies, Africans and everybody else.
We Are In The Business Of Making People Happy
Make people happy, your guests, your network and your community. That is our business. You can never promote this enough. Sounds like a lot of work, yes it is. This is why you need to take the long view. Ultimately where is your marketing plan and 6 week running up to your event? A full court press of activity needs planning, but it is in your hands and it can be free for the small business entrepreneurs. No expensive advertising is need.
Read Three Reasons Why You Should Start An African Supper Club
Six week before supperclub plan your weeks then days. Share your plan with your suppliers and staff. Get feedback on it.
Week 1
Feed content AIDA (attention, interest, desire and action), blog, video
Menu development
Early bird tickets
WK 2
Press PR
Social Media
WK 4
Late sales 2 for 1 if not selling
WK 5
End competition A
Launch competition B
WK 6
At the event
Event time sell the next event, sell Africa, ask for feedback at the event record it
WK 7
Ask for feedback online. Use the feedback for your next event
Share the love. Offer an incentive for bloggers to post your content and link to your ticket sales. Any and all link shares are extremely helpful and make it personal. Find bloggers who love the idea of African food going mainstream. Bloggers have a passion, they create a communities of people who want to make a change, share knowledge and get things done. Keep looking for new bloggers, the more you connect with the better. Set up affiliate arrangements with them for your events. Please contact by email Leslie use leslie@westafricacooks.com for the plan timeline. Use the sample timeline of everything you need to execute to make your pop-up a success, also use the Play Book For The Night, which is an operations plan, a set of instructions for front of house and back of house i.e a day ops plan.
Read Planning Your African Party
Here is an event planner which I am going to use for my ideas. (This may help you too for the long term journey)
How to Create a Winning Event Plan
An Introduction to The Event Planning Cycle
Finally Keep Calm
Most of your ticket sales will come in the last seven days if you do not offer a refund for cancellation. I too buy my ticket for weekend events on the Wednesday or Thursday night before.
Your Supperclub Take Away
- Plan for 6 weeks of promotion
- Full court press, use video, text and images to sell
- You can never promote or sell the African story enough
- Use affiliate marketing. Share the love
Read African Culinary Scene And Your Ticket Price
Leslie
West Africa Cooks
Editor
*SM is social media channels facebook, youtube, instagram and twitter
†Markets. We have identified three types of customers for who attend African supperclubs a) Older African generation b) Younger second and third generation Africans and c) European foodies