I was recently invited to attend a famil promoting healthy lifestyles on the Gold Coast. A famil is an opportunity for businesses to demonstrate what they have to offer and is short for the word ‘familiarisation’. I don’t really understand why the whole word is not used— perhaps someone found it hard to spell!?! The underlying marketing concept of a famil is once someone has experienced what your business has to offer they will influence others — via word of mouth and social media. Generally ‘famils’ are for businesses within the tourism industry, but rules are made to be broken. The famil I attended consisted of a yoga session, a organic Raw Food cooking demonstration and kayaking on the Gold Coast.
Note: This article was republished here on Flying Solo and on NineMSN . They did not include some of the flavours of the article and the editor, encouraged me to repost it on my on blog here.
What are the benefits of attending a famil?
I was quite excited about my first famil and there were many benefits for me personally and for my business for attending the day. For a start, it was an opportunity to do something totally different to my everyday business life. It gave the hamster in my brain an excuse to stop running on his regular wheel. I had the opportunity to talk and connect with other people outside my normal network. And I had some interesting experiences, which I got to share with my readers.
What should the attendee prepare before attending a famil?
If you do have the opportunity to attend a famil, I suggest you contact everyone who will be involved prior to the event, to briefly introduce yourself. As I intended to write about the sessions, I also sent the businesses who were offering the famils a list of questions. This was productive – because they provided some insightful information, that I was able to easily weave into blog posts, showcasing their business, improving their SEO, and giving my own readers a taste of something a bit different. I also recommend if you’re attending a famil to charge up all your electrical devices before the day and take a camera, a re-charger and be prepared to blitz social media with the experience.
What should the business prepare before presenting at a famil?
If you have the opportunity to offer a ‘famil’ these are the things I suggest you do to prepare before the big day.
Before committing to partaking in a ‘famil’, understand who’ll be attending the session, and what is expected of them. If the right people are selected to attend the famil, they will in turn promote your business via word of mouth and social media
Maximise your marketing efforts by having suitable online presence in place – if you don’t have a website or a FaceBook page – maybe it’s too early in your business to think about a Famil?
Ask for a list of attendees contact including their social media details, and if relevant dietary or cultural requirements. Use this to connect with them, and follow up with them after the session.
Understand when the session will start and how much time you’ll have with attendees. Be prepared for last minute changes!
Encourage the organiser to have a hashtag and use it to promote the famil event during the day. Our hashtag was #thisisqueensland and #visitgoldcoast and using the hashtag, we could see what other attendees were commenting on via their social media channels and in turn share them with our own channels.
[Tweet “I’m checking out the social media stream for #thisisqueensland #visitgoldcoast”]
Ask attendees to upload and tag any photos they take of your business on to social media – this is great way to visually showcase your business. Also ask attendees to send you copies of any photos they take from the session and ask for permission to use them. Some people will say no – but on the other hand you may end up with some great photos and save yourself the cost of a professional photographer.
Display your business name prominently so it ends up in the background of all the photos. Use a flag banner or a pop up banner, or just grab a blackboard and write your business contact details – so someone looking at any of the photos knows who to come to.
Be prepared to give the attendees detailed marketing material.
[Tweet “Let famil attendees know everything you want them to share about your business.”]
Offer attendees a discount voucher, or call to action, they can share with their network.
Famils are an interesting concept you can add to your marketing mix, to spread the word and vision of what your business has to offer. Has your business benefited from offering a famil?