The Business of Clubbing

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I’ve seen a lot of promoters come and go in this business. I used to wonder what separated the ones that succeeded from those that burnt out after starting out well.

It’s not hard to promote when you first get started. It’s actually pretty easy. Anyone can get their friends to come to their parties. If you know big groups of people or you go to a big university, you’ll have no trouble throwing great parties.

But in order to take it to the next level you have to throw great parties week in and week out. You have to hold the standard. So why can some promoters throw only one or two great parties, while others can do it year in and year out?

After working with many different people I can bring it down to one deciding factor:

Customer Loyalty

Having dedicated customers is the biggest aspect of any successful promoter.

Sounds pretty obvious, right?

But most promoters never fully comprehend this. They view party-goers as just crowds attending their party, so they never form that loyalty.

Certainly they’ll have names and email addresses of people but if they don’t have enthusiastic fans who come to any and every party they throw, they’ll just falter.

For instance, it takes a lot more investment to go out and get new customers than it does to keep your current customers happy. What this means is you need to tend to your clients and make sure they always want to come back for more.

Having loyal customers isn’t difficult if you keep a few thoughts in mind. The earlier you get started, the easier your job becomes with each successful week.

Here are a few of my own personal tips I’ve found to be useful:

• Learn their name – A difficult task, I have to admit, considering the hundreds of people you meet every night – but a requirement for all intents and purposes
• Treat all your guests as VIP – Refrain from stratifying your clients from your friends. This is the most involved aspect for many promoters, since they have difficulty discerning the difference between them
• Introduce them to other people – You’re a promoter, so get the guy-girl continuum going. Groups of people have only you in common, so introduce  them to each other and get your cliques to mingle

Pretty much anything you can do to show that you appreciate their patronage.

Remember, loyal customers make the backbone of this industry and it’s the key factor in separating the one-off promoters from the professionals.