Director Is Facebook the New Way to Invite Guests to Your Direct Sales Party?

[ChefBeckyD]

This month, I had 2 hosts who gave me a guest list for mailing. That's it! Out of 8 shows. ALL of the rest said exactly the same thing - "I don't have addresses for people, and it would be too much work to get all the addresses - I'll just do a Facebook Event, and word of mouth." I've also had a few who mentioned that they'd rather not send mail because it was more "green" to invite people on FB & word of mouth. I was getting really frustrated about this, but not sure what to do - I sure didn't want to alienate 3/4 of my hosts for the month! So I decided to make a way to work with it.

What I did was to ask them to friend me on Facebook, and also send me an invitation to the party. I let them know that they can unfriend me after the party, with NO hard feelings on my part, but that this will let me monitor attendance, and also answer questions people may have. This has worked out GREAT! I've been able to check in on all my shows and see how RSVP's are coming, and to give little teasers about the party - and also answer a lot of questions for people about ordering online, or guest specials, or bringing a friend, etc... People come to the party already comfortable with me as the consultant, and it's been great for attendance, sales, and bookings! My past three shows have all been over $600, with 3 bookings each!


I have been a HUGE proponent of mailing out invitations for the past 8 years. I started doing it 6 months into my business after going to a seminar with The Lemonaid Lady, and I've never looked back - but I have to say that this month, with only having 2 shows where I had to mail out invites, has been wonderful! I started mailing them out in the beginning so that I could have some control over how many were being invited and that they were being invited in a timely manner - but the FB Event invitation has allowed me to do this electronically. I guess I'd say I'm an old dog learning some new tricks!

 

[Sheila]

Now that I have a "business" FB page, I did my first FB invite last month too. I actually built the event & invited the host, then let her invite her guests. That way, I had control of the info. I saw another host recently put that she was having a "Pamper Chef" party and it drove me batty!!! I was able to make sure all the info was right, everything was explained well, there was a link to the show and the guest special and I was able to answer everyone's questions. When the host choose her recipes, I updated the event to show what recipes we would be doing.That show was held 3 hours after the big earthquake in Japan - while we were under a tsunami warning ... and we rushed to close it while everyone was working on packing suitcases to evacuate. Guest Sales = $800.25, Commissionable Sales = $787.70Being on the military base, I've never had the option of mailing our invitations since I'm prohibited from using the military mail for business purposes. But I really liked the fact that I could be in control of the FB invite, update the info and answer questions.

 

[chefkathy]

I gave up mailing invites a few months ago. I still give my hosts postcards, but very few of them use them. They do calls, emails, texts, and FB. I tell them to do all four.

 

[pamperedbecky]

It's interesting to hear this. I've been sending out invites for several years now (I've kind of lost count). I do have the occasional host who is just going to do FB and email, but I do forward them the actual evite from my website to them to forward on (I delete the "yes or no" option before forwarding it to them since it won't work). I have found that my shows have been much better this year, my show average is higher and I've been consistently getting 1-2 bookings per show. I attribute most of that to getting good guest lists from hosts and continuing to send out invites. Even though I've been sending out invites for a while, it just seemed that hosts weren't getting me big guest lists. Even when I tried to brainstorm with them. Lately they've been bigger and I've been focusing on really having hosts encourage their guests to bring friends. I"ve been stressing how it will help THEM with their show. For whatever reason, they've been listening and it's been working! However, someday I would love to stop sending invites. It would save me some time. But until I find that it's not really doing any good, I'll wait until then to stop. I encourage them to put their shows on FB and even give them wording and step by step instructions on how to post it so people place outside orders correctly. But, I'd love to continue to hear everyone's feedback about this. Very interesting!

 

[finley1991]

I encourage them to put their shows on FB and even give them wording and step by step instructions on how to post it so people place outside orders correctly.

Can you please share your wording with us???? :angel:

 

[pamperedbecky]

Sure!! Below is an email I send to my hosts who I also forward the "evite" to them after sending it to myself on their guest list (make sense?). I literally go into the host section of my website, add myself to their guest list, then send an e-invitation to me. When I receive it in my email inbox, I then forward it to the host. I delete the forwarding gunk at the beginning and delete the "yes or no" RSVP option. I put a little addition below my website address after her signature and say "Please enter host's name if you place an order." I do those things before I click "forward." Then I send a separate email to the host that says this, for example:Hi Kelli,I just forwarded you an "evite" you can use to forward on to all of your friends. Please pass the word along to anyone you can think of! Just click "forward" and you can email it on. You can even delete the "forwarding gunk" at the beginning of the email and the "FW" from the subject line to make it look neater.Please let me know if you have any questions. Your show is up on my website, so you can start spreading the word that people can go there to get a preview of the catalog and to place orders if they can't make it to your show. Sometimes those who come also like to get a preview beforehand and this is a great way to do that! Just FYI, you will get an email if anyone places an order on your show.If you plan to email anyone separately from this or even post the event on Facebook (strongly recommended if you're on there), you'll want to be sure to put the correct instructions so people order correctly and you can get credit for the sales on your show. Here's what you can tell people:1) Visit www.pamperedchef.biz/beckygosain
2) Click on "Order Online" in bottom left corner
3) Type "Kelli Hogan" as the host
4) Confirm on next page by clicking host name
5) View products by category or click on "Shop Catalog" to view the actual catalogDon't forget that your guests or outside orderers will get to choose one of the "peelers" featured as the guest special as a freebie! They can click "Guest Special" to view more about this. There are also some special "Mother's Day" specials available JUST during the month of April they can take advantage of.Thanks, Kelli!!!

 

[finley1991]

That's so awesome Becky! Thanks for sharing!!!! :candyheart:

 

[akaskydebil]

Now that I have a "business" FB page, I did my first FB invite last month too. I actually built the event & invited the host, then let her invite her guests. That way, I had control of the info. I saw another host recently put that she was having a "Pamper Chef" party and it drove me batty!!! I was able to make sure all the info was right, everything was explained well, there was a link to the show and the guest special and I was able to answer everyone's questions. When the host choose her recipes, I updated the event to show what recipes we would be doing.

That show was held 3 hours after the big earthquake in Japan - while we were under a tsunami warning ... and we rushed to close it while everyone was working on packing suitcases to evacuate. Guest Sales = $800.25, Commissionable Sales = $787.70

Being on the military base, I've never had the option of mailing our invitations since I'm prohibited from using the military mail for business purposes. But I really liked the fact that I could be in control of the FB invite, update the info and answer questions.

Do you have your "business" page as a page? or a group? I've read up on the differences but still am confused by it all on which one is best to go with. I want to do it so that I can post updates and it hits their walls.

 

[chefkathy]

Do you have your "business" page as a page? or a group? I've read up on the differences but still am confused by it all on which one is best to go with. I want to do it so that I can post updates and it hits their walls.

You want a business page, not a group.

 

[akaskydebil]

Thanks Deb....for someone (me) so addicted to facebook - that whole part loses me.

 

[akaskydebil]

Becky, I LOVE LOVE LOVE your letter. Loved it so much, I just sent it to my host after I sent her evite. Virtually you do the SAME exact process I do however I did not have this ultra fabulous letter to accompany it. Thank you SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO much...hitting the little "THANKS" button simply was not enough!

 

[Sheila]

Yes, mine is a "page" that they have to "like" (not a group that they have to join). Unless they have their page set to block the posts, any new post that you type on your page should show up on their news feed. (They won't be notified of additional comments on a previous post unless they had responded to it before your update.)