6 Tips for a Successful Grand Opening

6 Tips for a Successful Grand Opening

As part of our local Chamber of Commerce, Blue Dog Marketing assists many area businesses with their grand opening. Some have been successful, while others left a lot to be desired in their execution.

The purpose of a grand opening is to introduce your new business to the public. Other benefits of a grand opening are to generate immediate sales, invigorate your staff, and inform the community that you’re open for business.

A successful grand opening requires planning, promotion and publicity. You only have one chance to have a grand opening, so do it right! Here are some tips for you to hold a successful grand opening:

1.       Choose the correct date and time. It may sound easy, but it’s important that you choose a date and time that are convenient not only for your customers, but for local dignitaries and the media. Typically, the best time for a ceremony is during the business week, Tuesday to Friday, between 10 a.m. and 12 p.m.

Don’t worry about holding your grand opening on the actual day you open your doors for business. It’s important that you get everything in place first.

2.       Invite guests. You can’t sit back and hope people will show up. You need send out invitations to specific people in your community. Such people include:

·         Your local Chamber of Commerce. They, like our Chamber of Commerce, might be able to assist you with your grand opening.

·         Local government officials. Invite your mayor or town supervisor, members of the board or city council, your state senator and assemblyperson. Government officials like to see new businesses opening in their communities. It’s good business for them!

·         Anyone who helped you get your business open – your banker, contractor, realtor

·         The media. Invite local newspapers, television and radio media. Not all will come, but some might show up.

·         Invite other local businesses. Get to know other members of your business community. Your local Chamber of Commerce might be able to assist you in extending the invitation to area businesses.

You can use traditional snail mail invitations, but that can get costly. We recommend emailing invitation and posting the grand opening information on your social media, such as Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter. Ask your friends and family to share your posts with their friends. You can use your grand opening emails and posts as an opportunity to build an email list of potential customers by providing a special offer to those that opt into your email list or newsletter.

3.       Plan the grand opening. Think about where you’ll hold the ribbon cutting ceremony. Who will speak? Will you have door prizes?

On the day of the grand opening, serve refreshments. It’s a celebration, after all! Serve coffee, soda, juice, doughnuts and cookies. Keep it simple.

Decorate your storefront with balloons and banners. Make it festive and have fun with it. Use giant cold air balloons on the roof or in the parking lot. If your grand opening is after dark, rent a searchlight.

If you’re giving away door prizes, have a registration table set up. Display the door prizes there too.

 

4.       Advertise. Plan a campaign with a series of inexpensive small teaser ads to run the week before the grand opening and larger ads the day before and day of. Invest in radio ads for three or four days prior to your grand opening.

5.       Publicity. Write a news release about your grand opening. Include information about your business and don’t forget your website information.  Include the news release when you invite the media to your grand opening. If no one shows up (which can happen), take pictures of the grand opening and submit another news release, with some pictures, talking about the successful, well-attended grand opening.

6.       Have Fun. You customers and potential customers will want to come back to your business if they enjoy themselves and see that you’re having fun too. Be confident about your business and enjoy the grand opening.

My mother always told me that a sign of a successful party is a happy hostess, so enjoy your own event and your grand opening will be a success.