4 Steps to Ensure You're Offering Free Photo Booth Events Properly!
Working an event for free can be a controversial topic amongst photo booth owners. The reality is, however, that it can be incredibly beneficial for your photo booth business.
With that said, there's a way to do it properly.
Today, we're going to be going over a few tips that'll help ensure that when you offer a free event you're doing it in the most beneficial way possible.
Let's jump in!
Charity Events
If you're going to host an event for free, try to do so at a charity event, particularly for a charity that you're passionate about.
Why?
Well, charity events normally have a higher entrance price than other events. This is important because you're marketing towards higher-end clients who are more likely to book you for their own events.
Additionally, charity events tend to have a lot of corporate people (marketing directors, CEOs, etc) who you can network with. We'll touch base on the importance of this soon.
Just make sure that the event is also featuring your logo somewhere. It's even better if they make an announcement about your company and that you're sponsoring the event.
After all, you're there to advertise yourself and you deserve a shout out for providing your services for free.
Charity events have led some of our photo booth owners to 10-20 bookings from one single event.
Talk about return on investment.
Finding the Gigs
So, you want to do some free charity events, but how do you find them?
Well, the best way is to network. Network with your clients, with other professionals in your area, or simply reach out to the charity you'd like to host an event for.
It may take some time, but generally charities are more than happy to have you sponsor them.
When you do finally book a free charity event, make sure you have the appropriate staff so that you're able to spend your night networking. This is another great opportunity to get emails from the guests, business cards, and create potential future bookings.
What to Bring
You've scored that charity event, congratulations! But now, what do you bring?
Bring your best.
Bring your best backdrop, your best props, spend time designing your print templates, and anything else that will make your company stand out. Heck, stylize the entire area where your photo booth will be, if you can.
Why?
This is your time to show what you offer, you're marketing yourself and your photo booth company. And ultimately, the goal is to show that you are the best in the business.
Turning Free Requests Into Paid Jobs
It's inevitable. As soon as your photo booth business begins to grow, you're going to receive emails from charities and others wanting you to host an event for free.
While it's important that you try to host one free event per month, if possible, you also have to make money.
If someone reaches out, looking for a free event, and you're simply not able to offer it at that time, you can still try a few things to turn it into a paid booking.
Remember, photo booths often have prints. And prints always have a design. You could work with the charity and offer to put logos of their sponsors on the photo booth prints.
This will offer value and it'll make the event coordinators more likely to book you, despite having to pay.
If you're able to give them a reduced price, do so as well. But again, we cannot stress how important it is to ensure that you're profitable above all.
And that's it! We hope that these four simple tricks will help you know when you should (and shouldn't!) offer events for free!
Want to learn more tips and tricks on how to have a successful photo booth business?
Check out our other blog posts and our 26-Episode Video Series where you can hear from real PBSCO Photobooth owners on how they've led their businesses to success!