A few weeks ago, I wrote about unique ways to cut your ribbon at your ribbon cutting event. We had so much fun with that post, we decided why stop there? There are many other ways to be creative with your ribbon cutting. Here are a few more:
The ultimate purpose of a ribbon cutting event is to garner attention for your small business, so why not try something unique to ensure that those who attend remember how fun and creative you are? If you make an impression on your customers, they’ll want to find out more about your small business and come back during normal business hours. Here are some ways that you can help make your ribbon cutting ceremony different than all the rest.
Have a Purpose for Your Ribbon Cutting Event
You don’t have to schedule your ribbon cutting event right before or after your grand opening. If sales are lagging a bit, a ribbon cutting ceremony could be just the ticket for generating interest in your small business, regardless of how recently you opened. The key is to focus on a purpose and take it from there. For example, perhaps you’d like to use your ribbon cutting ceremony to thank your loyal customers. If so, the event should be geared toward them. You can offer free food and drinks, hand out coupons, offer door prizes, and/or set up games in which the winners take home prizes.
Select a Theme
This is where you can set yourself apart from your competitors. You can go in any number of directions with your theme. Think of it the same way you would a party. The ribbon cutting ceremony could be related to the season or time of year; a holiday; a historical period, such as the ’80s or ’20s; a carnival; sports; or even a Hollywood awards ceremony, complete with a red carpet and place for your guests to pose for photos in their fancy attire.
You can also tie all of the activities, food, and beverages to the ceremony’s theme. In addition, invite a guest of honor (or have someone dress up as a celebrity) in keeping with your theme. For example, if you planned to do an ’80s-themed ribbon cutting, all of your employees could dress up as their favorite ’80s musician, movie star, or other pop culture figure from that era. If your ribbon cutting ceremony is during October, you could have harvest and Halloween-themed activities, such as pumpkin carving, a scary treasure hunt, or horror movie trivia, and award prizes to the winners.
Engage Your Customers Through Fun Activities
The actual ribbon cutting and accompanying speeches and photo opportunities won’t take very long, so make sure you have enough activities planned for the duration of the time. Again, the activities can be tied to the theme. If they’re interactive and creative visitors are more apt to talk about them.
For example, with an ’80s-themed ribbon cutting, you could have a contest for best ’80s costume, an ’80s-themed game of charades, and an ’80s music dance off contest. And for those attendees who choose not to dress up, you could have an accessory bar at the entrance, with sunglasses, fingerless gloves, and glow bracelets, for example, to ensure that they don’t feel left out. As for food and beverages, you can serve some ’80s favorites such as Coca-Cola and Pepsi, Snapple, Combos, and Jell-O Pudding, not to mention Reese’s Pieces, Twizzlers, and Nerds. And of course, don’t forget to bring along a few mixed tapes to play on the boom box!
Finally, when you send out invitations to your ’80s-themed ribbon cutting event, you can decorate them with iconic ’80s images, such as boom boxes, cassette tapes, Rubik’s Cubes, and characters from your favorite ’80s TV shows, movies, and also the decade’s top movie and music stars. How about some ’80s-themed giveaways with modern applications like USBs that look like mixed tapes?
There are endless possibilities when it comes to planning a ribbon cutting event. If you use your imagination to be creative, you’ll likely attract a lot of attention, which could bring in more customers. And don’t forget to collect attendees’ names and emails when they arrive, whether you have a sign-in sheet or ask them to leave their business cards, so you can stay in touch.
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