How to Promote Community Meeting Rooms

John: I visited your website–it’s good. Easy to navigate. Written with warmth. I don’t know if New Zealand has a Coaches Association (professional executive and life coaches, not sports) If so, I would encourage you to give them (and possibly other similar groups such as a Speakers Association) a trial run. They would have to buy their own chow, of course. It gets them into the space, gives them something to think about for their next session/meeting and enables them to tell others of their good experience. Get the right groups in there and it should ultimately pay you back handsomely. You might send a small mailing followed up by phone calls to program chair people—how about Meet, Eat and Accomplish Nearly Any Feat in Our Suite!!

Have a mini-expo in your room, with vendors whose services compliment your training room offering – the caterer, a speaker or two, a meeting planner. Have the vendors promote it to their clients = a cross-polination of clients. Then promote it to the public at large. Make it free, offer some food or other goodies/give aways that tend to bring people in.

Expand what can be held there. We have a similar room in our facility and we have agencies that use it for board meetings, we have yoga classes, we have acupuncture seminars, we have professional development seminars that we sponsor, an energy worker/ massage therapist who comes in from another city on a regular basis, local support groups. These are just some of the people who rent our space.

Offer the space to networking groups, chamber of commerce, other associations for their monthly meetings. This gets a wide variety of people into your space. Be the host for an open business networking event, promote it through your local papers and all the business people you know.

I hope this inspires you! Good Luck!

Start with the area’s bigger companies and organizations (including non-profits and educational institutions and school districts) and call to find out who is in charge of booking off-site locations for group meetings, planning sessions and training classes, along with the individual’s job title and contact information. Call the person and introduce yourself — and if you get voicemail, have an “elevator speech” ready with the vital details; don’t make them call you back to learn what you called about; whet their appetite and tell them you’ll be sending an email with more information.

Follow that up with a personalized email with details about your space and services (without pricing). In your note, offer a package deal of some kind for first-time customers (book one meeting, get the next one free; two hours for the price of one; pay half day rate for a full day; etc.) Invite them to respond for a nicely printed flyer (with pricing) and a redeemable coupon for the special offer to be mailed to them.

One other idea is to see what institutions teach classes at a variety of locations in the evenings, such as degree completion programs. See if you can interest them in using your rooms (at a time when most businesses will not be using them) — at a reduced hourly or daily rate. When there is interest expressed or indicated on their part to know more about you and your services, set up a 15-minute meeting to speak face to face with the decision-maker who chooses the locations for their classes/programs…and bring the coffee or tea or soft drink of their choice. It will take some footwork to drum up business, but if you can establish a relationship that leads to trust, you will have planted an idea in their heads and hearts to check you out the next time they need what you have to offer. Don’t be like the salespeople from printing shops that make the rounds and visit any and all prospects regularly, even monthly, for years without getting any business. (It’s dog-eat-dog out there.) Work only on those prospects who really are prospects; otherwise, you are an annoyance and you won’t be doing your business any good.

While you’re having all these meetings with these decision-makers, find out where they have gone in the past for their off-site sessions and then visit those facilities. Don’t present youself as a competitor, but as a person from the community who wants to know more about them and their business. Learn what is innovative, ask what they’ve learned that doesn’t work, take note of what you like or don’t like. And then examine your own space and your services to see what you can do to compete well with them, or even to be MORE innovative. What could you offer that no one else has? A coffee bar — included in the price? (Be as flexible as possible to appeal to as wide a range of clients as possible… from the cheap and easy-to-please to the festidious and willing-to-pay-for-extra-perks crowd.)

One more thing. If your business has satisfied clients, who come back to use your facility again, ask what they like best about you (a short written survey might work) — and also inquire to see if they would be willing to recommend or endorse your meeting place. Interview them to find out what they like about you — take copious notes — and offer to draft up something for them to edit and approve. Most men and women in leadership don’t have time to write something up for you, particularly when it will benefit you more than them. Assure them that their company or organization name will be see by all who see the materials in which they appear. Give them copies of your brochure to pass along to their business contacts, or to distribute throughout the organization for all dept heads who also book off-site meetings. If you can develop your customers into Raving Fans, they will be your best PR. (Your whole staff should read the book Raving Fans to learn what it takes to think outside the box with regard to giving clients MORE than they anticipate and all that they want.)

If you don’t have a Web site, you should definitely create one (but not on the cheap) — with great photos of the rooms in use in various configurations. Since you have that nearby restaurant, see if they have a Web site (if not, they should!). Find out if they will include a link to your Web site if you will do the same for them. They can call the link to your site “meeting space.” See if their home page has a very prominent button that takes visitors to the “catering for meetings” menu — if it is the same as what they offer you for your clients (but no pricing, since their prices and yours may differ). Or that can catering menu (if it is developed specifically for you) should be on YOUR Web site (with your pricing, but only if you update it whenever you have a change), with a link to the restaurant home page from there. Food for thought! And when you have a Web site, put that Web address on everthing you put out (brochures, flyers, ads, radio spots, community TV, folders, business cards, letterhead, envelopes, your vehicles). If you don’t have a catchy name for your business, at least you could have a catchy catch phrase — “Meeting Spaces for Thinking Leaders” -or- “Where it’s safe to let the wild ideas fly!” You get the idea. Something to make people remember you. “No pink elephants, just high-flying creative atmosphere!” Hey — how about a high quality picture postcard of posed people in a business meeting in your space? On the back can be the printed sentiment: “When you need space for brainstorming, we’re here for you!” or for smaller businesses and groups (churches, community organizations) it could say something like “Small spaces for big ideas.” Mail those out periodically to your contact list that you develop. (Maybe indicate a discounted rate for small groups and businesses in a hand-written note.)

If your local radio stations air a daily business report, buy ads (or for non-commercial radio, buy a sponsorship) to air next to that program and that share your catch phrase and your Web site address in 15-sec. (don’t give your phone number — most people don’t rush for a paper and pencil and call the “small town” mom and pop businesses that do that — UNLESS they need what is advertised right at that moment.) A Web address can be tucked into their minds, especially if you have a memorable one.

— John Elmore, Public Relations Coordinator
Lutheran Social Services of Michigan
Grand Rapids, MI

John,
If you want to increase your meeting space bookings, run some interesting business-related seminars to expose your facility to potential buyers. Topics of interest may include: sales, marketing, and/or public speaking. Consider co-branding the seminars with a few speakers to get the word out and increase your database reach.

You’ve already sent out mailers locally, try reaching outside of your city, as well. There is a tendency to see more value when people travel to another town for training. Teaming up with your nearby local hotels, who either have sleeping rooms only, or not enough meeting space is another good way to get attention.

Next, have you had an open house to showcase your facility? Send out postcards inviting friends, business associates, and networking contacts to your site for a bit of wine and cheese. Have some music going in the background, give away some goodies, such as coupons, pens, etc., and get some “buzz” going about your new place.

Lastly, get on the telephone and talk with potential clients. Ask them questions such as:
“When was the last time you had a meeting at a facility you enjoyed?”
“Tell me about your next company meeting.”
“When booking your meeting facility, what is most important to you?”
“How was the food at your last meeting?”
“Tell me about the evaluations from your last meeting.”

Keep your questions open-ended and listen carefully! You’ll get more information than you ever wanted and will keep your new training space booked! Good luck.

Renee P. Walkup, Author of “Selling to Anyone Over the Phone” (Amacom Publishing, 2005)