Last Updated on November 2, 2018 by Jessica Adams
How to get offline with your online offering? Online shop and business owners have started to move their marketing efforts offline, where they want to share their online offering. These business owners are looking at ways to get their products in front of “real live people”.
Today, if you’re an online entrepreneur, especially if you work alone as a ‘solopreneur’, it’s never been easier to start a business in under an hour. And the best part is anyone can do it if they’re driven, patient, and extremely self-motivated.
It’s also really easy to find your customers and target your data analytics through free programs and apps, usually attached to each social media platform that you find them on. This is one of the many reasons why the Internet is so great!
However, there is a downside to having your business be entirely online. It’s easy to ignore the idea of anything being completely offline and that can be a big mistake. Connecting with your customers in real life can be incredibly effective and rewarding. Let’s take a look at how to get offline with your online offering, using a pop-up presence.
How To Get Offline
With Your Online Offering
Raise Awareness, Then Promote!
Before you start planning, promoting or marketing anything, you should confirm that this event is actually something your customers will show up for! So jump on social media and find out. See if they’re interested in an offline, pop-up shop experience. Then you need to start raising awareness of what’s to come. Once you’ve confirmed the total amount of customers that will be attending, you can start marketing and promoting the event.
Have an Equipment & Necessities Checklist
Then, you’ll need to make sure that you’re ready for this event. You should have a master list of equipment that you’ll be bringing to the event. This would include stuff like music/speaker systems, clothing rails, portable credit card reader and of course, swag bags to hand out to customers.
As the business owner, you’ll need to consider your ROI (Return On Investment) for this event and a high-quality DSLR camera has been known to be a pop-up shop’s BFF! You’ll want to take lots of pictures for your website and various social media accounts.
These pretty pics will literally be your marketing arsenal for a long time to come. If you don’t have an assistant you may want to hire one or better yet, ask a trusted friend to come along and just take pictures for the entire event.
If you knew what you were doing, you strategically chose your invite list. This would include calling in any favors to get someone even slightly famous (preferably related to your brand style & offering) to show up and be in a few pics. If so, you could end up with your ROI from all the pictures taken, alone!
Create an Event Timeline
The event timeline is the other main list that you’ll be referring to throughout the duration of the planning and of course, on the day of the pop-up event.
You’ll need to note what time the event starts, what’s the full/detailed agenda, will this be a catered event and if so, who are the caterers? If you’re in fact lucky enough to know someone who knows someone, who is sending a celebrity to your event, you should make sure to note when he/she is arriving and what, if anything, they have requested.
Don’t just bring your product and hope for the best. With a solid timeline for the experience, you can get the most out of it. It’s also recommended that you put together a list of essentials (just like our list of necessities!), The essentials on this list should be added after the site for the pop-up is confirmed.
Choose a Pop-Up Spot
It’s also important for you to choose the right location for your offline presence. You’ll want it to choose a place that your customers can get to easily, but that’s also relevant to your brand and your reputation.
You should make sure that the space allows for the ‘rhythm and flow’ that you’ve envisioned for the event.
Be sure to take note of the staging area size, the proximity from the main “lounge” area to the kitchen. Where will the catered food table go and is there enough room for a table at all (or waiters with trays)?
These are the questions you’ll need to ask yourself, the site managers you meet, then, whoever the day-of coördinator will be for the event. Then there’s the part about getting the permission to have your pop-up in that spot.
You may need to come up with a huge list of possible locations and start working your way through them. You’ll need to find one that will work for your brand, be available for what you’re doing, and when you’re doing it.
Follow Up Online
And at the end of it all, you’re going to finish off by driving everyone back online again! Definitely don’t just leave things at the pop-up. Make sure that you’re directing them to your website, e-commerce storefront, and social media sites.
You may have also written a blog post to promote the pop-up sale that you’d like your pop-up attendees to read. Finally, you can create a specific landing page or sales page, written solely for the attendees of the pop-up.
Also, make sure that you’re always thanking your online customers and event attendees on social media or via email. That way, you can keep the conversation going and continue to keep building those professional relationships.
Jessica Rose Adams
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