During the last installment of the Hosting Your Own Local Fashion Show Blog Series, we discussed Fashion Show Event Hosting. One thing to keep in mind during the event, which also should be included in your Fashion Show Plan, is post-event marketing opportunities. As you may know from reading this blog, many events and/or promotions give business owners the ability to create marketing campaigns pre-event, during the live event, and post-event. Hosting a local fashion show at your retail clothing boutique definitely gives you the opportunity to market your business before, during, and after the event. In order to successfully promote the event after it’s already occurred, there are a few things that you have to do during the event to ensure you are creating that post-event content.
Some of the things that you can do during the event to ensure that you have great content to promote after the event is finished, are:
Video Record the Fashion Show
As we discussed in the last post, you want to be sure to video record the fashion show. This is the ultimate content piece for post-event promotion. This truly let’s those who were unable to attend the live show, see what they missed. It’s the centerpiece of post-event content. This video will be the video that local media outlets use when they write stories on how great the Fashion Show was. Be sure to capture the event from multiple angles if you can. Run secondary cameras to capture B-Roll footage. This way when it comes time to put the final video together, there is plenty of core footage and even more filler footage for use in the video.
Video Record the Pre- & Post-Fashion Show Sales Events
Remember your goal of selling $2,000 worth of clothes during the event? In the last post, we talked about having a Pre-Event Sale and Post-Event Sale on the day of the Fashion Show. These sales are only open to Fashion Show ticket holders, which keeps it intimate and special for attendees. Be sure that you have someone setup with a video camera to capture these Sales Events. The footage can be used as a stand-alone video to show the Pre & Post Event Sale, but footage can also be used as filler in between other videos that you produce from the Fashion Show. This footage will be used as video content that’s pushed out to your customers and followers Post-Fashion Show.
Video Record Interviews from Fashion Show Attendees
Candid footage of fashion show attendees makes for great content. It gives folks who were unable to attend the event a glimpse into what the event was all about. It also lets them hear from real people, many of whom they can relate with. While attendees are enjoying the event, preferably during the Pre-Event and Post-Event Sale, pull a few aside to capture some video. Ask them what they are hoping to see during the Fashion Show, what new styles they really like, how they liked the Fashion Show, what they think of the post-event sale, etc. All of this candid footage will provide you with a ton of excellent content to promote post-event.
Remember to let interviewees know how you plan on using the content – ensure they are OK with it. Even consider having them sign a waiver if you want to truly protect yourself. With that said, the more barriers you create, the less your chances are of getting everyone to participate. It’s really your call based on your comfort level. We usually go the route of, “it’s easier to beg for forgiveness than ask for permission”. Usually nobody complains about anything, but if something were to come up, worst case scenario is that you’re asked to take the video down.
Video Record Interviews from Contest Winners
Prospects love hearing from current customers when they are doing their consumer research. Knowing this, it would be great to grab some interviews from your contest winners and other folks who are loyal customers of your clothing store. As we discussed in the Fashion Show Event Hosting post, prior to the fashion show you can send new clothing to a few lucky local consumers, along with free tickets to attend the fashion show. For many, this would be a really cool thing to have happen to them. Be sure to capitalize on your generosity and creativity by getting as many of the winners on camera as possible, either before or after the event. Remember, these folks will be wearing the clothes they received from you, so that’s great advertising right there. Capturing a video of the winners, who are wearing clothes from you store, is great post-event promotion material. Each winner can talk about his or her experience during the evening, which will hopefully be full of positive reviews of your clothes and your business.
Content Distribution and Promotion
After you capture all of the footage during the event, edit it and make it ready to go live, it’s time to start publishing that video footage to your small business YouTube Channel and to your blog. You can then use the same online social tools that you’ve been using throughout this process, Twitter, Facebook, Yelp, Foursquare, LinkedIn, etc. to promote your new content. Use the content to drive folks to your website or online retail store. You can even get creative with the footage and create new promotions out of it.
Perhaps during one of the video interviews, you hand a customer a $100 gift certificate and instruct that person to hide it in one of the hundreds of pieces of clothing in your store. Then, during post-event promotion, you mention the promotion, show the video clip, and let viewers of the video know that next time they come into the store, they could find a $100 gift certificate in a random piece of clothing. This will certainly help drive traffic to your clothing store post-event – which is the goal! 
The next installment of the Hosting Your Own Local Fashion Show Blog Series, which will also be the final installment, focuses on Fashion Show Return-On-Investment. Remember to check back to our blog every few days to get access to the new post once it’s up OR simply subscribe to Catalyst Marketers blog to receive email updates when new posts are published.
The biggest key to the college student working on a side project, or business owner looking to grow her business, to becoming a star is their ability to use video to communicate their message, just as Hollywood stars use video to communicate their acting talent. Video, more than other content forms, captures personality and creates a deeper connection with the audience. Due to decreasing video production and distribution costs, everyone can become an online video celebrity. Do you have a crazy lead Chef at your restaurant that you’ve always said, this guy could have his own show? Well, give him his own show. Create a YouTube Channel and turn your lead Chef into the next Emeril Lagasse. Are you a quirky fashion designer with passionate ideas about the future of fashion in America? Create your own Future of Fashion Channel on YouTube and start blasting out videos about fashion. Do you walk dogs for a living? Start recording your “Doggy Adventures” and publish those videos to your YouTube Channel. Start educating dog owners about the benefits of exercise for dogs. 
During your 
Knowing that you’re all setup to accomplish your goals of having a full crowd of loyal customers, local residents, and local media attend the Fashion Show, as well as, a plan in place for selling $2,000 worth of clothes to those folks during the Fashion Show, you can now move your efforts to setting up your store for the Fashion Show. A few things to consider when staging your clothing store for a Fashion Show:
Being able to pull off an event like hosting your own local boutique fashion show is a big feat for all business owners, both large and small. With that said, a few years ago, it was almost impossible to host your own successful Fashion Show as a small business. The main reason being costs. Tools for pulling off a fashion show have been around for a while, but those tools were just so much more expensive than tools today. Free online social tools like Facebook, Twitter, Yelp, Google Local, and many others can help clothing boutique owners create a ton of buzz around their local Fashion Show. You can host a contest to give away free tickets to the community. You can offer discounts to live attendees on anything they purchase that night. Really, the opportunities are limitless if you get creative. 
Figure out how you will build buzz within your local community. You can build publicity and awareness by promoting the event through online social tools, as well as, through in-store ads/fliers. You can host a live event and invite select customers, friends, family, media, and other local business owners. Video recording the event will be imperative, so that you can distribute it online – perhaps through YouTube or Viddler, in order to capture a larger audience. You can use the same online social tools to promote the fashion show post-event, that used to promote it pre-event. 
There are probably even more benefits to running an event like this, but you only have so much time to read this post and I only have so much time to write it…The key for small business owners to pulling this off is that the tools to do so are now available to you at a price you can afford. Online social tools can help you promote the event, share the event with the world, and converse with fans post-event. I’d imagine that you could run your own local fashion show for less than $1,000 if you get creative. Tools like YouTube and Viddler allow you to post a video from the show online. Facebook, Twitter, Yelp and your company blog will allow you to promote the event both before, during, and after. Your fashion show may be so cutting edge for your local community that it gets picked up by local news stations, which will add some great PR for you and your small retail clothing shop. 