How to Promote a Truckstop Grand Opening or Reopening

Whether you’re opening a new business or holding a grand reopening, you’ll want to engage the public and the media. Use these seven tips to make the most of your event.
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Welcome to the newest post in our blog series, Darren’s Great Ideas! for Independent Operators

How to Promote a Truckstop Grand Opening or Reopening

Whether you’re opening a new business or holding a grand reopening, you’ll want to engage the public and the media.

You only get one chance to get a grand opening or reopening right. These events allow your operation to create the customer expectation and experience from this point forward. It is during these events that you can highlight features and benefits of your operation that can be challenging during normal operating hours.

During these events you can highlight new programs, procedures and products with your excited staff and paying customers. If you are blessed to have a strong local base of potential customers, now is the time to set the stage that they, like all your customers, are VIP and clearly highlight the benefits and features to them.

Here are seven tips to make the most of your event.

  1. Include the community and invite them to the ribbon cutting ceremony. You may also want to consider having an invitation-only dinner for members of the community or offering some opening specials for the community.

  2. Create an event in conjunction with your opening. Not only will you generate more traffic by having an additional event, such as a blood drive, Girl Scout Cookie sale or child identification registration, you’ll increase the odds that your location becomes a destination in the future.
     
  3. Offer some fuel savings opportunities to local fleets and/or regular customers during the grand opening week. Let them know about the promotion via an e-mail blast.
     
  4. If you have a fleet card or a loyalty card, give away three times the points or something similar.
     
  5. Offer door buster savings or buy-one-get-one-free opportunities to help get people in the door.
     
  6. Offer a free fill of gasoline (with a set maximum of gallons) with the purchase of a coffee, donuts etc. Giving away gas creates loyalty and a memorable experience and drives your inside sales.
     
  7. Create a one-day sale around the event, such as 20 percent off the lowest ticketed price.
     
  8. Hold a friends and family event with a special meal for family members. Create a reason for people to eat in the restaurant.


/// Read more Darren's Great Ideas for Independent Operators posts here.  

 

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Join the conversation! Have you held a grand reopening? What other tools did you use to promote your launch?

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