Listening to the Market

An Easter weekend celebration of late had some valuable lessons for me as a
business owner.

I had the privilege to attend as a volunteer at a local non-profit’s Easter event. Being on the marketing and events committee, I helped with promoting the event and
securing some sponsors.

We spent weeks working the phones and social media. In years past this had been a small but profitable event.

We even questioned if we had
the workforce and interest to hold it this year.

On the Monday prior to the event, we had only sold some one hundred tickets and
only a few hundred dollars in donations to cover the expenses. A lot of work, with very little ROI.

Saturday came and the crowds appeared. Like clockwork, the lines began to form,
and we had a huge turnout. We found that more than two-thirds of the ticket sales
occurred in the last 24 hours. The Will Call line was the longest.

In addition to entry
tickets, everyone wanted to buy special items like face painting, photos of the big
rabbit with their family.

Within the first two hours we sold out of food and face painting spots! People stood
for over an hour to get to ride the hay truck that coursed the ranch and horse
pastures. And the horses received lots of love by the kids.

We were amazed at the positive response of the community. They love this event and look forward to it every year according to many families.
They were just busy and did not get to the website to buy their tickets until you guessed it, the last minute.

Sound familiar? Of course it does! We all do what we can when we can and sometimes it is last minute. Especially if there is not a deadline.

So, with such a great response from the community, the events committee agreed
this is an event we will hold again next year. We won’t let early ticket sales determine its fate.

By listening to the market, we know we have a winner, an event that has huge ROI
and is wanted by our community.

I took this lesson to heart as I eagerly watch the numbers for my on-line events.

Listen to the market. If they show up, you have a winner!

I hope you are listening to your market. As it surely pays to do so!

Need help with that? Then reach out and let’s discuss. I’ll LISTEN.