Hosting corporate events at your venue continues to be a great way to generate revenue and repeat business. The challenges most venues face is securing those corporate clients and giving them a unique experience that will make them want to continue to come back year after year. Working with corporate clients can require a lot of creative solutions and flexibility, and most of the time clients may not know exactly what they want and will lean on the venue for suggestions and inspiration.
Below, we’re highlighting a few creative strategies your venue can employ to shake up the standard idea of your corporate event. These tips will make you & your venue stand out as the go-to expert in creating unique, customizable experiences for your corporate clients.
Create a Network of Local Vendors
Create a reliable network of venues who can be your “go-to” for any client requests. Most of the time corporate clients aren’t local and may not know who to go to for their specific needs - help them out by being their expert in the area. You will also be able to get creative with your packages and offerings for clients if you work with different vendors in the area - sparking interest in your venue if you can coordinate all the details on your client’s behalf, such as flowers, photographers, production, entertainment, ect. A bonus, having these established relationships may also enable you to leverage discounts for your corporate clients, and trust me, they will be grateful and won’t forget it!
Do Your Research
Check out the client’s website and do some digging to get an idea of the company and culture. This will help you when speaking with your client and coming up with unique or customized ideas for them. The extra effort will show your client that you really are invested in the success of their event and have gone out of your way to suggest things that could make it special.
Exploit Your Uniqueness
Find what makes your venues stand out from the others in your area and find ways to work it into your corporate offerings. Does your venue have an interesting history, great views, a known Instagram, worthy food, or drink options? Corporate clients will want something their attendees will remember their event by, so establish your venue as the spot no one will forget! Why should a corporate client pick your venue among the rest? One surefire way to secure this business is to offer unique amenities that could appeal to these customers in particular.
Show Your Work!
Everyone loves a good photo opportunity. Use your venue’s social media to showcase what kinds of events you have done in the past and what kind of events you are capable of. Make sure to highlight things you were able to customize - corporate clients love to get new ideas on how they can showcase their brand. Make sure to include in the description some background or challenges you were able to overcome - corporate clients will appreciate problem-solving, flexibility, and solutions you’ve come up with since we all know events rarely go as planned!
Create Customized Experiences
Offer experiences to your corporate client that can help elevate their event. Having a tasting or demonstration during an event is a great way to add value to the event for your client. Even better if you can tailor it to their brand. For example, if your pastry chef is able to incorporate a company's logo on a desert, have them come and show how they did it, or have a bartender do a drink demonstration. You can even name the drink something related to the client’s event to add another special touch.
