Promoting your supper club.

[My home supper club]

Hi All,

I've started organising my first two supperclub events in Edinburgh. I've started a blog. And I've told some friends but I'm not generating enough interest. Has anyone got any good tips on promoting your supperclub?

 

Aoife (myhomesupperclub.squarespace.com)

[Lynn]

Hi

Twitter can help enormously. Many supperclubs are on there and we tend to get each other's messages across to our followers. 

Get yourself an account on twitter in your supperclub name and start following people. Mine is @mysecrettearoom so find me and follow, I'll follow back and you can then see my followers and choose who you want to follow from there.

Also, when on twitter direct people back to this site along with your website so people can then see what else you and other supperclubs are doing.

Hope this helps

Lynn (the secret tea room) admin

[The Spice Club]

Twitter is great, as is a facebook page. Posting your events on meetup.com can generate interest too.

[RONALD DEAKIN]

hi lynn i took your advice and went on twitter i dont know how these work i an a real dummy when it comes to facebook or twitter,

when i went on twitter i seen a web site and put my event on it without asking the owner . i was then blocked off this site i did send

a email to say sorry that was bloked as well. i did not entend to upset anyone i will be more carefull in the future. i would like your

help on how to make friends on these sites as we have not lived in northampton that long, can i make friends with members on this site what do i do? yours greatfully ron deakin

[Lynn]

Hi Ronald.


If you search out members on this supperclub site click on the button 'add as friend' include a little message at the same time as a way of introduction. That way you can invite them to your supperclub when you post your events.
Hope this helps.
All the best Lynn

[RONALD DEAKIN]

thanks for the quick reply lynn i will have an other go at twitter will take my time and try to get it right

thanks again ron.

[My home supper club]

Wow! Thanks for the quick response. I will get on Twitter today. I will start following you both. Aoife x

[Annie's Supperclub]

Welcome!  The ladies have already given you top advice - twitter and Facebook.

 

I'd say so far our guests have come equally from twitter and facebook, with some also from other internet promotion (eg adding yourself to online directories, local online forums, special interest groups).  We also had one of those Google Ads promotion offers with £70 of free ads which we used in December with great results so if you have the money/opportunity and are into that sort of thing, google ads can be good.

At a local level, our butcher who supplies us has cards on his counter.  We used Vistaprint and their regular silly offers to get business cards (no address just our internet details on them) and postcards printed (chose longest shipping offer on their "free" deals so you only pay a few quid in total and the stuff always comes sooner than the 28 days!).  We've got a postcard in a few local shop windows.

Word of mouth is good! We find that friends who come along to support us end up telling their friends, colleagues etc and we get strangers via that sort of word of mouth.

 

Good luck - and enjoy!

 

Annie

[The Secluded Tea Party]

The Top Two for me are also Facebook & Twitter... And this Supperclub group...I get one or two new queries a week currently from this website, so make sure you add and update your information here too!...

 

Word of mouth is a very powerful tool....

 

Bloggers!.... I had a group recently, of Cambridge Food bloggers.....lovely girls, all love blogging about their cooking and foodie adventures...they meet up once a month to try something new and food-related in town and my New Year Tea Party was their destination.... I have become friends with them and even been invited to one of their meet ups for dinner which was ace!

They have told friends, and their blog followers are booking too!...

 

Patience is a virtue. It takes time to build it up...as much as you want it to get busy and fast, take your time... practice makes perfect and enjoy the relaxed period : )

 

x

[The Secret Supper Society]

I was late coming to Twitter (18 months after I started) and boy has it made a difference.  most of my customers have all come from originally telling my friends and then it's been word of mouth.  Articles in national newspapers have helped as they have usually guided people to this site which lists supper clubs by location and I have had probably half a dozen people who have googled me.

 

Talk to people. Talk to your suppliers and tell them what you are doing.  If you have children in the house you want to be more cautious as I have been and slowly built the business through recommendations.  We also live in quite an isolated spot so I have been cautious about how much I spread the word. Good food news travels quickly though and most of my business now is repeat business and people booking the whole place for private parties.

 

Good luck with your endeavours - I'll keep an eye on you

 

Best wishes

Jules

[Sara Danesin Medio]

As others have mentioned, Facebook and Twitter are the best way to keep everyone updated instantly. I also invested a small amount in building a website from which I can take bookings and blog - it also gives me somewhere to signpost to from my social media. Sites like this are also important in helping spread the word!

 

If what you are doing is unique to your area or has a unique focus, why not contact the local press and ask if they would publish a small piece on what you're doing - often they are desperate for good content and a positive story about new business is always popular. 

 

Most important is word of mouth,  a happy customer will tell everyone they know about how great it was, reccommend friends and hopefully come back again!