Project Purpose/Objectives
For this project I assisted Felicity, the operator and owner of Felicity’s Photo, with planning a business event. The event’s purpose was to generate name recognition and increase Felicity’s client base in the Rexburg area. I wanted to help ensure she had a successful event, both in the number of customers and in smoothness in which the event happens. The planning and preparation put into the event was meant to mitigate most if not all problems that may arise during the event. I also assisted with the overall planning of the event, including: choosing the location, time, the event’s structure and marketing.
The Project
Throughout the course of the semester, I worked on planning out an walk-up mini photo-session event. During my time planning the event, I worked on:
- Event structure
- Choosing time and location
- Marketing
- Creating a plan to manage the event
- Sourcing materials needed for the event
- Evaluation plan
While Felicity and I decided the event should be postponed until the weather becomes more predictable, here is a summary of the work I did this semester and the material I created for the event and social media marketing posts.
Summary:
I began by working with Felicity to define and narrow her scope and purpose of what she wanted from this event. Initially she didn’t have any specific goals or purpose for the event, besides making money. We set the goals of increasing name recognition, to increase word of mouth, and to gain new clients from audiences that normally don’t pay for professional pictures. To accomplish these goals, I laid out a marketing plan that would start 1 month before the event takes place. I created 3 posts for Felicity’s social media accounts; a post for 4 weeks out, 2 weeks out, 1 week out and a reminder post the day before. In addition to posting these on her personal and business accounts, we would have them shared on the community pages. Here are the 3 posts I created:
Beyond advertising for the event, I had to plan out how to receive the clients as they walked up, I created a sign up book where they include: name, email, phone #, and how they heard about the event. The reception would also take payment and go over and prep the clients briefly about how the quick session would proceed and how the photos would be delivered. To give the clients an idea of how to pose, I created a pose booklet to give them ideas. Here are the pages I created:
I also created a set-up and material list to prepare for the event when the time came. Sourcing where the materials could be gathered from if needed. A large part of the planning process was finding the right location. Felicity wanted to do it at a park, so I scouted each decent sized park in Rexburg, creating a pros and cons list for Felicity. We decided on Nature Park.
Challenges
The initial challenges of this project was defining Felicity’s goals for the event. I felt that if the event didn’t have a coherent purpose, it wouldn’t be as successful as it could be. After that, finding a way to describe the event in the post in a way that people understood what the mini photo-sessions were was surprisingly difficult. With limited resources and time, developing a clear marketing plan was difficult.
The Process and Overview
I began meeting with my client, Felicity, it was crucial to set up a plan moving forward with her so I could be productive and use my time wisely. I met with my mentor as much as I could to gather insight into what details would make the biggest impact on creating a successful event. I created lists of what an impactful and successful event should have and went from there.
I learned a lot and can’t wait to be able to implement the skills I learned during this project into my career!