How to Execute a Killer Promotion With Far-Reaching Effects

If you are looking for a way to connect with your female customer base you may have considered a night of pampering for your ladies. But putting together a successful event like this can be a time-consuming and daunting task.   

    In this article you will find some formatting suggestions as well as ideas on how to entice vendors to get involved and make this a premier event that your female customers will talk about for weeks before and after the event. 
    The reasons to do a Girls’ Night Out promotion are numerous. This event creates a very prominent way for you to position yourself in the market place as a female-friendly destination, this event will give you an opportunity to showcase new products and services to your customers that will reinforce your image as the place to be, and you also can leverage this event as a vehicle for your liquor sponsors to introduce the latest flavored concoction they have bottled to a captive audience. In addition, you can schedule this party so that it jump-starts an already well-established night and adds sales.

Getting Started
    This is a very complex promotion to host. To keep it special or exclusive, holding this event once per month or once each quarter or only on special occasions will keep interest in the event high, and you won’t burn out your customers, employees or partners.
    To get started, engage your key employees and regulars in a good old-fashioned brainstorming session to compile a list of possible partners to be exhibitors at your Girls’ Night Out.’
    Categorize your list under these four headings: Services, shopping, samples and experiences.  Now let’s take each one and get a small list of examples. 
    First, services can include, neck, hand, foot and shoulder massages, up-do’s, nail polishing, make-up demonstrations and henna tattoos. Under the heading of shopping, consider vendors for sunglasses, purses, lingerie, bedroom toys and jewelry. Next is to find vendors that will be interested in providing the girls with samples or introductory offers, such as tanning salons, gyms, personal trainers, hair products, makeup, liquor, in-home parties, wine and champagne, restaurants, specialty chocolates, teeth whitening, plastic surgeons, dermatologists and laser treatment centers. The last group will consist of experiences, such as ballroom or swing dancing classes, art classes, fortune tellers of all types (tarot, palm readers, handwriting analysis, tea leaves and psychics).
    In your brainstorming session you undoubtedly will come up with the name of many potential vendors. Seek out anyone in your immediate group that already has personal contacts with these vendors and deputize them to act as your emissaries in soliciting their participation. 

The Sit-Down
    To guarantee quality vendors will be participants in your event, assemble a great looking package that describes the event to your vendors and clearly explains to them the potential benefits to their businesses. In other words, give them a list of great reasons to participate in your event, and suggest that if they don’t sign up, their competition just might.
    Then send your staff to work on getting commitments from the vendors to attend a meeting where you will have an opportunity to host them at your place and give them a personal and dynamic presentation of your vision of the event. It is really important that your vendors are excited about participating and will give it their best.
At this meeting, review the benefits the vendors will receive by exhibiting at your event, such as promoting their businesses with products and services to target customers that live and work in the neighborhood.

Be Special
    Your job as the host venue will be to provide a great atmosphere, entertainment, drink offer, food and outstanding service. Consider using a special entrance to establish this truly as a special event from the very beginning for the customers. If you normally collect cover charge at the front door, make a pathway of pink balloons that leads the girls to an area inside the club and find a florist that is willing to promote his company by providing flowers for each girl. Decorate with lots of balloons.
    You can schedule this event on a night that you are normally closed or you can add it to the front end of an established night. For example, if your Ladies’ Night is on Thursdays, add the Girls’ Night Out promotion from 7-10 p.m. to get your party started early.

Marketing and Staffing
    Marketing this event primarily should use flyers to current customers, e-mail blasts, in-house posters, an info line, Web site presence with a RSVP offer and flyers at each of your vendors’ stores. Be sure that your vendors know that they are responsible for helping to promote the event to their current customer base. 
    Other effective measures can be call-outs to your female customers, mass texting and even fax-outs. Also, provide your bartenders with a guest list and plenty of 2-for-1 passes to reward their target regulars.
    Staff the event with attractive males at the bars, but consider using female staff in areas where the girls are receiving personal services such as hair and makeup work and massages.

Scheduling
    If you decide to use Girls’ Night Out as a jump-start event, schedule a clear end-time marker.  Consider stopping at the conclusion of the event to gather all of the girls on your dance floor and give away gift certificates from vendors, bar tabs, T-shirts and anything else you can get donated. 
    Finally, make sure that all the girls leave with bounce-backs to the next Girls’ Night Out so they can mark it on their calendars!                              NCB


Garry P. Smyth owns and operates two Chicago-area locations of The Bamboo Room, a high-energy mainstream dance concept with annual gross sales of more than $7 million. Visit him online for more detail on executing a successful Girls’ Night Out promotion by visiting www.bamboochicago.com or dropping him a line at