How to Make the Most Out of Your Fall Event
Fall is the time of sweaters, warm drinks, and seasonal activities. If you run a pumpkin farm, corn maze, haunted house, or fall festival, you know the fall season is your time to shine. With all these different seasonal businesses, you need any competitive edge you can get. Here are some fall seasonal sales ideas to help your business come out on top.
1. Creative Menu
Excite your customers by having a fun creative menu. You can do this by selling a variety of foods such as cotton candy, popcorn, candy apples, and more. Have fun with your food names! It will add to the experience when you’re offering mummy dogs or petrifying popcorn. Make it your own signature item that your guests will tell their friends about. Get inspired and check out this list of frightfully fun Halloween menu ideas.
2. Fall Flavors
Your guests wait all year to get their favorite fall flavors! You can incorporate fall flavors into your food and drink. Caramel apples are a classic treat that everyone loves. You can wow your customers with fall spice cotton candyand pumpkin spice funnel cakes with cream cheese icing.
Food isn’t the only thing you can add fall flavors to. Try including fall drink recipes as well. If you make snow cones, popcorn, and fudge, you probably already have most of the ingredients you’ll need to concoct tasty treats for your customers. Your menu could include drinks such as salted caramel hot chocolate, pumpkin spice coffee, coconut mocha, and more.
3. Activities for Kids
Families are a major group who visit fall seasonal businesses. So, it is important to have activities for the kids to enjoy. Face painting can be one way to add more fun to the experience. Or you can have a station where children decorate their own caramel apple. Another fun game to include is pumpkin bowling. For this activity, use toilet paper rolls as pins and pumpkins as the ball. You can even decorate the toilet paper rolls to make them look like a ghost.
Do not forget to include activities for the whole family to participate in. Such as hayrides or photo stand-ins. If you own a corn maze, consider having a scarecrow decorating contest.
4. Don’t Forget About the Adults
Try having adult-friendly activities as well. For example, if you have games try making them more difficult so the adults feel challenged. These games could include corn hole, a corn husking race, or pumpkin slingshots. Presenting the adults with options will show that your business is an appealing environment to all.
5. A Pop of Color
Everyone loves the fall season because of its beautiful colors. Why not add these colors to your food? One food you can add color to is popcorn. Make it orange and black for Halloween or even green apple and give it a Halloween-themed name. You can also create multi-colored funnel cakes that will excite customers and generate sales. Adding color to your food will make the experience of eating it more fun for your customer and have them begging for more.
6. Power of Groups
Never underestimate the power of big groups. The larger the crowd the larger your sales can potentially be. To attract large groups, offer a special group rate price. Group rates are great for schools, churches, scouting groups, sports teams, large family get-togethers, etc. Consider offering a free drink coupon or bottomless popcorn with the purchase of this rate. By adding this extra perk, it will make the group rate seem even more appealing and worth buying.
Be sure to promote this group rate in your advertising. Advertise this rate through printed flyers, social media, email marketing, word-of-mouth, etc.
If more groups come in be prepared to combat longer concession stand lines. Have easy ready-to-go items to make the transactions quick and simple.
7. Have Specials
Consider incorporating specials on a regular basis at your fall seasonal business. Offer coupons, which can be printed on entry tickets or maps, giving your concession stand greater visibility. Or you may give discounts at a certain time of day, such as closing. The majority of concession foods you sell will be at a low cost, giving you great flexibility in pricing.
You can also encourage combo purchases by using food trays that pair drinks with popcorn and candy.
8. Samples
One thing customers love is free merchandise. Although you can’t give away everything for free you can hand out free samples. Handing out bite-sized samples can be just enough to excite the customer’s appetite and bring them in for the sale.
Great foods to give out samples of include popcorn, funnel cakes, or fudge. These are easy to make into bite-sized samples that your customers can enjoy, no problem. If a product isn’t selling well, consider handing out samples of it to boost sales and move your inventory. This technique can also be used to test new products as well.