Venue Owners – Do you want to boost custom? Increase footfall? Increase your profits? Then prepare your venue for live Entertainment!
Too many times do we visit venues who have live entertainment on, who have not prepared their venue for live entertainment. If you want to sell tickets, if you want to make your venue busier when you have live entertainment on, then you need to prepare your venue for live Entertainment so that it looks set and ready for a quality night of entertainment! Otherwise you are setting your customers minds up for a mediocre night of entertainment.
Too many times are we asked for advice and consultation services from venues who want to increase their footfall and increase the popularity of their venue through the use of live entertainment and too many times do we fail to see any form of adequate setting made for live entertainment. Sometimes venues wonder why the customers leave before the entertainment starts!
So we have decided to offer 3 free tips on how you can increase popularity of your venues live entertainment nights by getting it set and ready for live entertainment! And thus increasing profits! Its not expensive either!
#1 Get rid of all the rubbish off the stage and out of the stage area! All of it! Gone!
Remove the stacked up chairs, the tape on the carpet, old Christmas decorations and anything else making the area look unsightly to customers and difficult for the acts to negotiate around. It has no need to be there. Put things away in their proper areas, the stage is for performances, not for hoover and chair storage! Come on people! Imagine if you went to the theatre and saw a load of old chairs and a hoover and other (unrelated crap on the stage)! Fine if its part of the show, but more than likely at your venue, its not, get it gone and tidy it all up. Give the area a thorough clean.
#2 Get a backdrop and get your venue name or logo printed on it too! These days it can cost under £200 for a black or red backdrop that you can hang on a frame in your “live entertainment area.” Its no hassle at all, especially for the difference in perception that it can achieve. Having something like this will make your customers go from
“oh I wonder if they have live entertainment on” to
“wow I wonder what live entertainment they have on here? And it must be good.”
You can in fact buy 2m x 2m pull up banners for under £250 now – the world is your oyster! We have lots of recommended print companies who offer these. Contact us to find out who we recommend! They look the part, they are easy to fold away and are easy for storage when you don’t need them up! No fitting, no messing, a simple option. You can advertise on it too.
If you get your name printed (stylishly) on the banner/cloth/backdrop, perhaps with a small facebook logo on too, its perfect for customers who take photos of the acts or band on stage, especially when they post them on facebook for all their friends to see! (free advertising)
#3 Fit some lights!
Even if it’s a few LED par cams and a Spot fitted to a stand or to set points in the ceiling – again they don’t cost much! You can have the best act in the world performing, but if they are not portrayed in the right light, how can you ever expect people to relate and really get a grasp of the performance. Fitting lights will make a big difference. Some acts have their own, some don’t. Don’t let it be hit and miss. If the acts have lights, get them to put theirs up too for that added effect, but at least if they don’t, you will always have your own! No excuses.
Ultimately if it looks like you have a quality stage area, that screams
“Hey we have excellent live entertainment on here,” then your customers will be more inclined to see it. I bet if the venue down the road has live entertainment on at the same time as you, with a similar act, you would be more likely to get the custom as people wanting to see live acts, will want to see it looking and sounding its best.
When an act turns up to a venue to perform, if they see you have made an effort to make your venue look “live entertainment ready,” it will also ensure that they make just as much effort when performing and will make them feel better about performing in a “professional setting.”
If you worked as a secretary in an office, imagine if you turned up for work one day and your desk was missing, broken or filthy. Imagine if you were without a phone line or an up to date computer to type on? You wouldn’t be able to do your job to the very best of your ability! In any job, you expect a suitable and professional working environment to be able to perform to the best of your ability and one way to achieve this is to ensure the environment in which the artists perform in is suitable. Make sure the environment that you wish for your live entertainers to perform their very best in, is the very best that it can be!
For more information on how to improve your venue and create the perfect setting for live entertainment to perform in, call 01494 682800 or email info@franklin-james.co.uk and one of our team will book in a free consultation to get you started.
