How To Plan For a Successful Company Launch Party
During lunch one day, just a few hours before the start of our company’s launch party celebrating the release of JotForm 4.0, our chief marketing officer remarked how he felt bad that our San Francisco office was the only group of employees who were going to attend the party, while the balance of our team, who did most of the heavy lifting developing the new product, worked in offices in other cities. They had to go about business as usual.
Celebrate? That was a funny way to put it. I was too worried there wouldn’t be enough attendees to eat all the food we ordered. And if enough people showed up, we worried we weren’t going to have enough food to hand out. Any way you looked at it, we were worried!
It’s easy to underestimate party planning, especially if it’s not part of your daily routine. And because none of us on the JotForm marketing team are event planners by trade, it took some extra effort. But in the end, we feel strongly the five tips below helped make the event a success.
1) Choose your venue wisely, and quickly.
There were scores of venues in San Francisco that we could choose from for our event (I recommend browsing Peerspace), but each came with a different set of concerns. Would it be too far away from public transportation? Did they allow outside food? How much is it going to cost? Will the venue have the right vibe and personality?
The vetting process required some phone calls, some visits, some emails, some pictures, and lots of discussion. But we had to move quickly, since event spaces book quickly, which we found out when our top choice was gobbled up for our preferred date shortly after we chose it for our launch party. That’s why as soon as we found a place that was suitable, we didn’t waste any more time trying to find if there was something better out there. We locked it down. And I’m forever grateful that we did. Because you can’t plan anything without having your venue. Not catering, not invitations, not decor… nothing.
2) Make it worth attending.
Why should your customers, partners, or even friends want to come celebrate the launch of a new product? We bet on free beer and food, and it luckily paid off. We ended up with about 60 percent more guests than we had figured to be our best-case scenario. It filled the room perfectly. But had we not offered open bites and bar, we may have gotten a fraction of that number.
3) Deploy drip marketing.
In the month leading up to the event, everyone who attended the party received no fewer than four invitations, some as many as six. And every time we sent out a new invitation, we got more RSVPs. If you send a single invitation out and forget about it, you’ll leave a lot of RSVPs on the table. The reason for that is people plan differently. Some invitees won’t commit to an event that’s a few weeks away, so it’s good to keep the invitations streaming until you can’t feasibly send anymore due to logistical reasons, like being able to give the caterer an accurate headcount.
The idea behind drip marketing used in any capacity is that it keeps your company at the front of someone’s mind with regular communications. And what better time to use this strategy than when planning an event.
4) Brand your event.
It would have been very difficult to stumble into the bar that night and not figure out pretty quickly that it was a JotForm party. JotForm branding was splashed everywhere in the venue.
Forgive the baseball reference, but the great Joe Dimaggio once said: “There is always some kid who may be seeing me for the first or last time, I owe him my best.” Just like Joltin’ Joe, there are people at this event who will experience your company, and its people, for the first time. So make sure your branding — with all the banners, fliers, swag, and employee talking points — is well-prepared.
5) Don’t forget a presentation.
Whether it’s a big production, or just a few remarks, it’s essential to take time during the event to address your guests, thank them for coming, and remind them why you’re celebrating. It’s a great time to be genuine and sincere. Since your guests will remember what you say, don’t be ill-prepared for this. For our event, it made the most sense for JotForm’s founder and CEO to make the remarks, which he rehearsed and practiced for everyone in the office leading up to the event. That way, he didn’t forget anything he needed to say to his attendees.
When all was said and done, we collectively exhaled, grateful for the turnout and the wonderful feedback we received from our users about our newest product. The event was certainly an undertaking, but we’re happy we did it. And the five points listed above were critical to it going smoothly.
Do you have any additional points to include to make a successful launch party? Let us know.
