11 Tips for a Great Grand Opening
Rolling out the red carpet at the Grand Opening of F45 Montgomeryville, August 2021
You never get a second chance to make a first impression. And no first impression could be more important to your long term business success then planning and executing a Grand Opening. Your local business Grand Opening is so much more than a party—it is part of a larger marketing strategy to reach your ideal future customers.
1. Build Out Your Social Media Presence
While you are waiting for your business to open, invest time in building your social media presence. With an engaged, local audience on these platforms you can support your efforts in getting the word out and create palpable excitement for your all-important Grand Opening party.
Social media is a tremendous amount of commitment and work so pick the top two platforms that will be the most valuable to your business. In that respect, with very few exceptions, I recommend Facebook and Instagram. You can’t be everywhere all the time planning, publishing and monitoring (social media) content so the OGs are really a good return on your efforts as Meta provides the most robust audiences. Invest in your presence and content on these two respective platforms as early as possible to gain community awareness for your business overall–but for your Grand Opening too. And be sure to introduce yourself early to your followers so that you establish a “face to the name” of the business.
2. Pick a Good Date and Time
Saturday afternoons are when 99.9% of small businesses host, and should host, a Grand Opening—but there can definitely be a more strategic time depending on the season and what type of business you have. However, those exceptions are few and far between. Host your Grand Opening on a Saturday and you are set up for success.
You do not want to host a Grand Opening during a weekday afternoon or evening. People are at work, kids are at school, going to sports practice and games and you are asking people to interrupt their entire day at the most inconvenient time. Do you really think they are going to give up valuable family and personal time on a Thursday evening to go to your event? Nope. Not a chance.
Avoid weekdays for Grand Openings all together—unless you are in the restaurant business. Restaurant Grand Openings (and I do not mean a coffee or smoothie shop—an actual restaurant) traditionally play better on a weekday evening because a restaurant can have a bustling weekend crowd and does not want to interfere with patrons. A small women’s boutique who is opening might do a Sip ‘n Shop event as a Grand Opening on a weeknight. If your business is in a big sports town, like we are here in Philly, watch your NFL schedules most particularly and any potential playoff schedules (harder to predict) so you do not compete with pro sports. Lastly, be aware of any super established and popular annual events locally that might compromise your Grand Opening attendance. Do not let them complicate your planning, but if there is a town carnival on a weekend that everyone has gone to for 20 years, then work around that. You get my drift.
A line formed around the block at the Grand Opening of The Vanilla Bean in Wayne (marketed by us: SarahLockard.com and AroundMainLine) on a Summer Saturday 2023. Saturdays are always a sure fire win for a great time, no matter what the season, to bring the community out to support your Grand Opening.
3. Have Marketing Graphics for Your Social Media Platforms
One of the most effective ways to clearly communicate and market your Grand Opening is with festive marketing graphics, specifically designed and appropriately sized for your social media platforms. Make these graphics as soon as you know the date and time of your Grand Opening–it will sneak up sooner than you think–and be ready to roll them out at least 3 weeks in advance. If you need help with marketing graphics for your Grand Opening, here is my design gallery.
4. Offer a Promotion to Encourage Attendance & Biz Sales
While family & friends will undoubtedly show up to support you, the general public isn’t that personally vested in your Grand Opening. Facts. How do you get them to show up? Well, you should be in big-time promotion mode and this should be clearly and consistently communicated on all marketing channels leading up to your day. Your Grand Opening is not about shaking hands and high-fiving with your business colleagues and corporate big-wigs. It is about reaching out to the public as a marketing initiative to create awareness and set a foundation for future sales and long-term success.
This is an outstanding time to do two critical things. 1) Graciously reward those who patronize your business (re: BOGO, free samples, a full catered spread with drinks, cocktails and mocktails, 20-40% off product deal, raffles). 2) Get contracts in place: sign up gym memberships, preschool registrations, private events at your restaurant for a discount/value. You’ve got your potential customer in front of you—close the deal with an incentive before they walk away. Get them to try your products and invest in your business with a value proposition as a thank you (to them) for coming out to your Grand Opening. Lastly, offering swag bags is always a good hook. Posting on social media that you will be rewarding the first “50 customers” with a little something special should be part of an overall marketing strategy for a successful event.
5. Do a Ribbon Cutting Ceremony
Whether you do a ribbon cutting the day of your Grand Opening or it is organized on a different day leading up to your G.O., it doesn’t really matter. But the old-fashioned, endearing ribbon cutting content has a tremendous amount of value and is immediately recognizable on social media platforms as something “new and opening up.” You know you’ve caught yourself pausing when you see a ribbon cutting in your feed—it plays into your psychological curiosity.
In a business world where we are all fighting for a pause and consumer attention, content (video and photos) of a ribbon cutting is super valuable to your business. Everyone likes to know about the ‘new kid on the block’ and that is immediately communicated with a ribbon cutting. If you are aligned with a local chamber of commerce or town business association, coordinating the ribbon cutting with them is important. And, they will post on their respective social media channels and probably on their website, newsletters, etc. so you get added audience and local buzz.
Restore Hyper Wellness opened their 100th franchise location in Paoli in the fall of 2021. They had staff t-shirts and a fun "100" balloon accent to drive home the excitement. Simple, festive and effective for social media content!
6. Go Big with On-Brand Balloons
We all loved balloons at our birthday parties growing up—and now as adults in a social media world we are just as engaged with balloon decorations and fun designs at events. In marketing, nostalgia wins.
Balloon arches and garlands are an extremely important part, and absolute necessity, for your Grand Opening. Not only do they wow your attendees and create a festive ambiance, they are critical for engagement in your Grand Opening social media content. When people see balloon décor, they know something fun is going on! Balloons are a visual magnet for attendees, passersby and everyone who catches your party on their feeds. It is even more effective to design balloons that are on brand with the colors of your business and theme of your Grand Opening. Balloons are simple, festive and memorable—and are worth every penny of the investment. If you need a balloon vendor for an event, we highly recommend Balloons by Nicole in Delco.
7. Book Vendors & Entertainment
Send in the clowns! A Grand Opening is an experience that you are creating for those valuable local supporters and potential customers to attend. Let’s face it–people can choose to spend a Saturday afternoon, their free time, doing just about anything with friends and family. So rewarding them with on-site fun and vendors like a DJ, face painter, live music, local mascot, dance troupe, food truck(s), balloon twister, etc. is just smart business. It also fuels the energy and excitement and can attract others to stop over and see what all the buzz is about!
Local Balloon Twister and Entertainer, Magic by Reba, in Wayne, PA
8. Hire a Professional Photographer and Videographer
I cannot tell you how many times over the years that small business owners have told me they forgot to capture the magic and moments of their Grand Opening. Oh NO! It is absolutely impossible as a business owner to be on call for hours of content and instant, memorable moments—and successfully run your event. Delegating parts of your Grand Opening to others will be a critical part of its success. It takes a village to pull this off and no one person (or persons) can do it. Hire a professional photographer and content creator like me—plus benefit from my robust social media audiences to boot.
Grand Opening Photography, Cookie Plug Media, PA
9. Seek out Others to Spread the Word
It is important you have a strategic plan to reach out to others to support and spread the word about your Grand Opening. A press release should be planned weeks out. We (AroundMainLine) own a proprietary press list of over 300 Philly and suburban media contacts and can assist you with a Grand Opening press release and supportive outreach.
Seeking out and contacting local content creators and influencers is vital. In addition, there are a myriad of online and free resources that you need to utilize to support the reach and awareness in your neighborhood/community. Grand Opening consulting and planning is one of my key services and I would love to work with you. You can view my services here.
10. Encourage, Acknowledge and Reward User Generated Content (UGC)
User Generated Content, also known as UGC, is an important part of your Grand Opening success. What is UGC? It is unpaid, organic content created by consumers at a business/event. Example: Someone shows up at your Grand Opening and posts a reel on Instagram about how much fun they had. That is UGC. You need this content desperately for marketing purposes but, more importantly, you need to encourage and support it. That is social media cred. I can work one-on-one with you to develop a UGC strategy for your Grand Opening. It is 2024 and UGC should be on your brain.
A customer capturing their ice cream at the Grand Opening of The Vanilla Bean in Wayne. aka: UGC
11. Recap the Grand Opening on Your Platforms
You are probably taking a big sigh of relief and kickin’ up your heels with a cold bevvy as soon as your Grand Opening wraps, but I have ‘bad’ news for ya. Lol! Now the real works begins. You immediately need to showcase all your hard work and community support with strategic content on your social media platforms, email marketing and website. Essentially, it is not about how many people attended your Grand Opening party (yes a big crowd and successful turnout is the goal) but how many people you can reach to spread the word about your business via this day. Don’t let that content gather any dust—people move on very quickly to the next hottest thing in their feeds. Sort, edit and publish your Grand Opening content within 24 hours or less of it being completed—with a focus on Instagram stories and a party reel. And be sure to include strategic thank you posts to those who were most instrumental. Start your new business off with a bang with a well planned and exceptionally executed Grand Opening. Good Luck!
We provided Grand Opening video and photo content, in addition to creative campaigns on our social media platforms, to Hand & Stone in Malvern-which opened in July 2024. Their social feeds saw a palpable surge in local engagement and community enthusiasm when they shared the fun. #Winning
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Need help with an upcoming Grand Opening? View my services.
Check out a recap of a Main Line Grand Opening with a fun client.