Fruit Baskets

That’s right; you heard me! Fruit Baskets!

This column is all about the business of being a magician. One of the most valuable business marketing concepts is repeat business. The best way to get repeat business is to let people know that you appreciate their initial business.

Let’s look at it from a few different perspectives based on venue:

  • Steady Restaurant Work
  • Kid’s Shows (Birthdays)
  • Set Gigs (Receptions, Corporate, etc)

Restaurants:
The secret to success here is a happy wait staff and happy customers. There are plenty of ideas on keeping the customers happy that we could discuss, but that mostly is about your performance itself. Bottom line there is good magic, good presentation, and good people skills… That stuff is taught in Roots and Branches and The Full Montoya.

However, if you have regulars at the restaurant that you’ve connected with, over time, find out their birthdays and anniversaries, etc. This can easily be incorporated into an effect. Once you have the information, use it. Send them a birthday card or an anniversary card.

If management knows what you’re doing, they may be willing to give you a gift card that can be given to the repeat customers as a gift, or at the very least, you may be able to purchase one at half price.

As for the wait-staff, find out their birthdays and anniversaries. Send them cards as well. A gift certificate for the restaurant that they work at is definitely not the best idea. A simple card is enough, but if you’re feeling generous, a gift card to a store they like would be a nice touch. A $15.00 card is a nice gesture.

The other thing that this does for you is forces you to get to know your biggest allies, the wait staff.

Kid’s Birthday Shows:
This used to be a big chunk of my income back in the day. Not so much these days. However, if you’re doing a birthday party, you obviously have the birth date. Make sure each year you send a birthday card to the birthday boy/girl. Send it to the parents.

Make sure you insert any marketing material that may inspire them to hire you again. For example, if you’ve got a new routine or new show, mention it in the card. Make sure you send the card early enough that it won’t be too late to hire you because they’ve already made plans. In the birthday card, offer a discount as well.

Also, about a week after the show, make sure to send mom and dad a gift with a thank you card and a request for referrals. We’ll talk more about referrals in the March 2009 issue. What kind of gift do you send mom and dad? You guessed it. Fruit baskets, nut baskets, cheese and salami baskets, jam and bread baskets.

If you’re blessed with a culinary genius for a spouse like I am, then you can have your husband or wife make some home made bread and home made jam. You can get a nice looking basket from most dollar stores. A little ribbon, tissue/gift paper and a card go a long way to make the basket look nice, not to mention of course the bread and jam.

You want to make a real impression on mom and dad, hand deliver the basket yourself if the gig is close enough.  There are also plenty of local places that make baskets like this or flower bouquets, etc. They’ll make it and deliver it. You could end up with a permanent gig… you become part of the family. This is also a great way to inspire a junior magician. It could evolve into lessons and the sales of any magic products you may have.

However, the most important thing is that you are building a solid relationship with the parents.

Set Gigs – Receptions:
You know… people look at me and say, “He looks like he should do magic tricks at my wedding reception.” I don’t know what it is, but I get more reception gigs than anything else. I’ve got one this Friday (1/2/09). This one happens to be a repeat gig already.

The husband to be is an amateur magician, and for his birthday, his fiance hired me to perform at his party. I made darn sure I got a re-booking out of it. So I’ll be performing at their reception. Now I know their wedding date and his birthday. You can bet they’ll be getting a birthday card and an anniversary card from me.

Again, about a week later, send a gift. Of course if they’re taking a honeymoon, it may be best to wait about a month or so rather than a week.

Set Gigs – Corporate:
With corporate gigs, you’ve got two levels of gift giving. One for the person who hired you, and one for the rest of the staff. If you’re doing your job right, you’re getting a decent enough fee for your corporate gigs that you can splurge a little on a decent gift.

Get the party planner a nice gift card ($50 bucks or so). Then, yup, a fruit basket for the staff. This is a common thing that vendors do for businesses. They drop off some sort of edible gift that can placed in the employee break room. Make sure there is a card with it, and a few of business cards. The employees may want to take a card and hire you.

Again, it doesn’t have to be a fruit basket. There are plenty of other edible gifts that you can get. Gourmet cheese and cracker baskets are good; salami and cheese; again, the homemade jam and bread is a nice touch. There’s a company called Edible Arrangements that makes fruit baskets out of fruit carved to look like a flower bouquet.

Gourmet chocolates are another good one. This is a deal where it definitely is all about “the thought that counts.”

Custom Cards:
It’s very easy and very inexpensive to make custom holiday cards and business cards. One excellent resource for good quality at a killer price is Vista Print. They have business cards, letterhead, stationary, and more for very, very good prices.

Gift Budget:
It’s  a good idea to allocate a percentage of every (yes every) gig for gifts. Pick a number… 5%, 10%, whatever. Put that money in a separate account. It’s gift money, but it’s also marketing money. I’m not saying that the gift should cost 5% of the gig fee… sometimes it’ll be more, sometimes less.

For example:

  • Gig 1 pays $500
  • Gig 2 pays $400
  • Gig 3 pays $1200
  • Gig 4 pays $150

In that case, if you saved 5% of each gig, you’d have a total of  $112.50. That equals about $30 bucks per gig average. However, your $150 gig may only warrant a $15 dollar gift, but the $1200 dollar gig should be a $50 gift. Keep in mind that these numbers are just hypothetical. The numbers you use are up to you.

Summary:
Basically, here’s this issue in a nutshell:

  • Get Birth dates and Anniversary dates
  • Send Birthday Cards and Anniversary Cards
  • Send Gourmet and/or homemade gift baskets to your clients
  • Include a thank you card, business card, a discount on a future show and any info regarding new shows or products

Until Next Month…

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