Top 9 Sources of Requests for Your Event Venue

Let's agree to start. A source of event demand is simply the channel through which a customer got to know you before contacting you to explain their event project to you.

It is essential to master these channels for your event location to last. To help you leave nothing to chance, we've put together the TOP 10 sources for you here. But that is not all. For each of the sources we give you our advice to optimize them.

1. The referencing of your website
2. Your social networks
3. Customers, service providers, partners, collaborators,...: your network
4. Your competitors
5. Trade Shows/Wedding Fairs
6. Press relations and blog
7. Tourism Office, CDT and CRT
8. Business providers and online directories
9. Agencies and event planners‍

1. The referencing of your website

We live in a world where digitalization is omnipresent and as you know, the internet is an essential place for research!

For customers to come across your place on the internet, you must take care of its referencing. It is thanks to this referencing that the customer will discover you via keywords or via your geographical positioning.

For example, a great way to:

1. take care of your natural referencing,
2. keep in touch with your customers,

is to include a blog section on your website.

You can take the floor there to highlight your activity, your location, your know-how and market trends,... However, be careful to keep in mind that this blog must be interesting for your customers and prospects. If your core business is marriage, you won't be doing the same blog as if it's a seminar.

You can also take an interest in paid referencing to appear first on strategic keywords for you (example: “atypical Paris 11 event location”) with Google Ads.

However, keep in mind that there is no point in doing free or paid SEO efforts if your site is not attractive because customers once on it will not make a request. It all starts with your website! Here are some ideas and tips in this guide: read the guide.

BONUS : Google My Business is a very powerful and free virtual business card for your event location. On this sheet you can put the official information of your establishment free of charge (address, website, direct contact details,...). Google will primarily use the information it will find on this page and this will affect your SEO. But not only that! When a future customer searches for an event location in your area on the map you will appear! Finally, Google My Business is an important tool for your e-reputation since customers can rate you and leave comments visible to all. So it is fundamental to understand how to use Google My Business and we have a short guide to help you here.

2. Your social networks

Social networks are an integral part of our daily lives, you all know them: Facebook, Instagram, Linkedin, Pinterest, Twitter, Tik Tok,... In 2021, 75.9% of the French population spent more than an hour and a half a day on social networks. In other words, social networks should not be overlooked.

But how can you properly use social networks in the development of your business?

Social networks are a tool for your customers to keep you in mind, come back, and for prospects to discover you and want to come. It is important to choose social networks adapted to your customer target and it is possible to use several of them in order to increase your visibility:

• Facebook allows you to target individuals aged 30/40 and over
• Instagram can allow you to stay in touch with your customers aged 30 and under, whether they are individuals, professionals or collaborators (agency, event planner, etc.)
• Pinterest is the network of wedding venues and reception venues with character
• LinkedIn is ideal for keeping in touch with your professional customers and partners.
• Tik Tok is the social network that has attracted people under 25.
• ...
  

Then you have to think about what you want to tell on your social networks so that it has the desired effect: think of your social media pages as windows open to your event location, your know-how, your products and services but also of your personality and your daily life. Remaining yourself will be your best competitive advantage.

Finally, keep in mind that your social networks can also be a place for testifying from your customers thanks to posts, stories, hashtags...

3. Customers, service providers, partners, collaborators,...: your network

Your network is a source that can bring you a lot of requests, and even be your number one channel! And guess what? It is free and has a high confirmation rate.

But a network can be built, improved, and redefined over time, in short, you have to pamper your network!

Let's start with your customers who have enormous persuasive power because they have an infallible argument: they have already been to your place and know why they recommend you! Whether live (word of mouth) or online (post on their social networks or online reviews, etc.), your customers can attract new requests.

Your mission is to identify these satisfied customers for an after-event call or a satisfaction questionnaire and to create a very strong relationship with them. You need to be the first person they think of when they hear the word “event.”

This is where your blog, your social networks, a newsletter, emailings,... will be valuable tools for you. It can also mean one-off events where you invite your happy customers. A cocktail or breakfast with themes for example.

Finally, think about how you can thank them for their role as ambassadors: attentions, personalized gifts, discounts, sponsorship,... It has lots of possibilities.

Then comes your professional network with your service providers (your florist), your partners (a hotel that does not have a meeting room and that sends its customers to your home) or even your collaborators (your employees).

Start by giving this network the means to talk about you correctly: adapted brochure, regular invitation to visit or test services,...

The same principle as with your customers, take care of the relationship you have with them and find ways to thank them, to show them the value they have for you.

Finally, why not organize some events hand in hand with this network. The ideal opportunity to make yourself known to the customers of your partners and vice versa.

Finally, there is your network as an actor in local life.

Your event location is as much a place to live as it is a local business. As a sports fan, you can sponsor a very popular local sports team or join entrepreneurial or social associations.

You can host events from associations in which you are members and at the same time promote your place while doing something that is personally important to you.‍

4. Your competitors

Competition is a channel that should not be forgotten. For establishments that have the same target as you, it is essential to know yourself and to work in good intelligence if possible. It is certain that you will sometimes be complete and will need to recommend places you trust to your customers and vice versa for your competitors. By collaborating in this way, you create a small club of quality places and delight your customers.

You can send business between locations for reasons other than being complete. Let's say your location is not adapted to a request. Taking the time to advise the customer to another location in your small club gives you the guarantee that they will come back to you later. Because the customer knows that you are giving good advice.

But also because sometimes, event formats require several locations. In this case, you can get a contract because you will have been able to collaborate with competitors.‍

5. Trade Shows/Wedding Fairs

Trade shows are a way to attract new customers, to meet partners and also to establish your reputation on a market. Designed to establish commercial contacts, don't forget to collect all your new contacts in your CRM and recontact all these people after the show to set up appointments or respond in detail to event requests.

But be careful, it is essential to choose the right salon, because more than 350 fairs are usually organized in France each year and you must select the most relevant ones in relation to your activity and your target audience.

You can ask yourself the following questions to help you with this:

• Is this lounge adapted to the type of my place?
• What is the visitor profile and is it appropriate for my target cliente/s?
• What is the number of visitors present at this show?
• What are the methods of participation and the budget required to exhibit in this exhibition?
• What are my numerical goals in order to measure the return on investment (ROI)?
  

A little advice, when you spot an interesting exhibition, do not hesitate to visit it for the first time before exhibiting, it is a good opportunity to measure the relevance of this exhibition before a possible participation. ‍

6. Press relations and blog

Carrying out press relations campaigns or obtaining articles on blogs can be a way to obtain visibility and therefore new requests, whether your target is private customers or professional customers, there is something for everyone:

• The mainstream press
• The professional press
• Blogs and influencers
  

But how do you attract the right media to your establishment? First of all, you need to define a strategy according to your target. From then on, you can get closer to the appropriate media because there are different types of media: local, regional, national, general public, professional, weddings, seminars,... It is up to you to judge, according to your target, which ones will be the most suitable for what you offer but above all will have interesting benefits.

Blogs are also a very interesting communication vehicle. As for press relations, there are a multitude of blogs: professional blogs, amateur blogs, blogs of influencers,... Idem, choose the blog on which you think it would be good to appear. (PS: What is also very valuable with blogs is the link to your website. The more links you have all over the internet that link to your site, the better your website will be referenced.)

Now let's say you are an event venue focused on corporate events. You could suggest to a coach specializing in internal communication that you know to talk about your location on his blog and conversely you could do a portrait of him on your blog. The advantage is that you have the same targets: businesses.‍

7. Tourism Office, CDT and CRT

Have you already dug into your local authorities to develop your event space? Here we are talking about the tourist office, the departmental tourism committee (CDT) and the regional tourism committee (CRT).

It may be interesting to look into it because there is sometimes a dynamism that you can take advantage of to promote your establishment but also, on a larger scale, participate in making the area in which you are located dynamic and visible.

A few explanations about who does what to help you see more clearly:

• The Regional Tourism Committee

“The CRT is responsible for drawing up the Regional Tourism and Leisure Development Plan. It implements and monitors the region's tourism policy, in particular in the field of studies, planning, planning, development and equipment, accommodation assistance, technical marketing assistance, as well as vocational training. It carries out and coordinates actions to promote tourism in the region in France and abroad.”

• The Departmental Tourism Committee

“The CDT prepares and implements the department's tourism policy by helping in particular to ensure the development, promotion and marketing of tourist products, in collaboration with professionals, organizations and any local structure interested at the departmental and intercommunal levels (cf. art. L. 132-4 of the Tourism Code).”

This is the one we advise you to get closer to before looking at the regional level.

• Tourism Office

“A tourist office can carry out missions of two types:

• on the one hand, mandatory missions, such as welcoming, informing tourists and promoting tourism for the municipality or group of municipalities;
• on the other hand, optional missions, such as the marketing of tourist services.”

Meet with your tourism office and discuss together the strategy to be implemented to promote your local side on an event level.

[Source: https://www.veilleinfotourisme.fr/juridique/abecedaire-du-droit-du-tourisme/competence-tourisme-au-niveau-local]‍

8. Business providers and online directories

Business providers and online directories are generally platforms that you are familiar with. But do you make a meticulous selection?

Business suppliers are a source of demand generation and can bring you new customers. Yes it is true but they can also send you back former customers that you had already acquired before... Be careful to master their practices.

And to help you, find our complete guide on the subject by clicking here.

Exactly as for other sources, you must choose the providers carefully using several criteria:

• Are they going to use your brand name and how?
• How are they paid and for what traffic?
• What is their average conversion rate?
• What is/are their target market (s)?
• Do you want to strengthen a target market or develop a new one?
• How are you going to stand out on their platform?
  

The more specialized a provider is, the more likely it is that:

1. its traffic is of high quality,
2. the requests received through it are serious,
3. your establishment is visible on their platform (fewer choices),

and therefore ultimately that you have a better confirmation rate.

Because using a business provider whose requests you will only confirm 20% of... It is a much too high time cost that you should not accept.

Moreover, we imagined creating a free online guide that would reference the providers with whom it is good to work and who respect a charter that we could imagine together? Depending on your strategy, you could thus safely choose your partners and then discover new ones... Are you up for it? Let us know by clicking here:

PARTICIPATE‍

9. Agencies and event planners

Finally, and let's not forget them, event agencies and independent event planners are at the heart of the requests and projects of many customers, it is essential that they are aware of the existence of your place and its possibilities.

Agencies have increasingly limited resources to search for places, make it easier for them by going to them and providing the supports to allow them to work properly: your spaces, your capacities, your equipment, your services,...

Some agencies also specialize in specific sectors and can allow you to strengthen your position on a market or develop new ones.

Conclusion

Be selective

It is not essential to activate all existing channels: do not waste your energy, money and time.

Take the time to think, try to have a global vision and choose to work with the sources that you think are the most interesting for your business. Those that correspond to your market, to your target and that can reward your work.

Gradually when some sources are well in place, you can add others.

Measure

“Last but not least”, after identifying the relevant demand channels, you need to measure their results, for example:

• Which perform the most? In number of requests or in conversion rate?
• Which are in decline, why?
• Which are increasing the most?
• How much does a request via this or that source cost you?
• ...
  

Determine key indicators to monitor your performance and regularly make the necessary adjustments to your strategy.

And that's good, because at BookingShake you can easily collect your request source data thanks to our dedicated feature!