Marketing Essentials is growing by leaps and bounds and we outgrew our existing office space earlier this year. As we searched for a new location, we debated staying in our small town or moving to a more populated area. We ultimately made the decision to stay in our little village and made the move to the new office earlier this summer. We celebrated our move with a grand Open House last week.

“All my friends are so small town; My parents live in the same small town; My job is so small town; Provides little opportunity.”

~ John Cougar Mellencamp

Though this is a great song, is it really true these days? There are many, many small communities out there that host fantastic, inventive, forward-thinking small and medium-sized businesses. And we are one of them. Just because it’s a small town doesn’t mean you have to actually subscribe to the stereotype of small town.

The benefits of a small town are significant.

1. We have super little places to eat and get coffee.
2. We have farm fresh produce in the summer right down the street.
3. Parking is free.
4. Amazing support by the Village Community Improvement Corporation in every aspect of expanding our small marketing business both physically and logistically.
5. Cost of living and doing business is much less than a large city, and we can pass that savings on to our customers in high-cost areas.
6. The internet has made location non-essential to providing great service and product throughout the US and even internationally.

So we stayed here in the small town, and we will continue to grow and prosper in our small town. The big BUT here is that we want everyone to know we are here, a part of the community, and available and willing to help others do what we are doing. We have plenty of clients outside our small town, but there is just as many business locally and regionally that could use our services. Therefore, the Open House was a necessity.

How did we manage a great turn out at our open house? We marketed the heck out of it.

Here is a mini-strategy list of the things that we did:

1. We leveraged our social media platforms – months ahead – linking and conversing with area businesses, the chambers, and other professionals.
2. Brand, brand, brand. Everything was branded, from the colors in our sign, to what we wore, the colors in each room, the invites, the social platforms, enewsletters, posts – all professionally branded to the highest extent.
3. Every staff member invited people they know from their own local communities and leveraged those relationships. We knew all the invitees wouldn’t show up, but just showing them who we are with branding and photos on evites and print invites (ok, we had to include that…), put us at the top of their minds as we continue to build relationships with them. Did our parents show up? Sure, it’s small town. But so did the higher profile established businessmen who now know we can run with the big dogs because we have it together. We aren’t “small town” in the stereotypical sense, as neither are they.
4. We utilized our chamber list. We provided them with creative copy to send out to the memberships. We called the newspapers, did the ribbon cutting, all that stuff.
5. We used pictures and links in everything we posted: blog, enewsletter, and all social media channels. We boosted posts and pages as appropriate.
6. We made it a party with a purpose! We did have adult beverages and food, but everyone who came learned about internet marketing and each staff member’s expertise by taking a directed tour (read, follow the arrows on the floor) to each room where they answered a simple question and statistic about internet marketing. We made it worth their while. And we got great feedback about that process, and multiple leads, by just letting them know we know our stuff, and not relying on hoping to have the right conversation at the right time – we forced the conversation.

All in all it was a lot of preparation on our part, but nothing we wouldn’t do again. It was an excellent example of brand awareness at the top of the sales funnel and we hope that we can teach others to do the same.

Do you think an open house is worth your efforts? What would you do or have you done differently?

Visit our Marketing Essentials Social Media Page and learn about how social media can change your presence on the internet and get you leads.