by Matt Ryan
If you provide music for school dances, perhaps you already incorporate contests or raffles into your performances.
Giveaways, however, offer a perfect opportunity to make you more than just a “DJ” and to really engage your crowd.
So what types of prizes can you give away? You can always spend (waste) money on trinkets that won’t even make it outside of the gym, or you can invest in ONE large prize and offer the chance to win it as a common giveaway at many events over a period of several months.
For Example
Let’s pretend Justin Bieber or Lady Gaga is coming to town in a few months. You purchase ONE pair of tickets to the show and create entry forms for your contest winners.
Over the next three months, you will get two or three people signed up (your contest or raffle winners) for the grand prize. Their odds of winning might be 1 in 30 or so, depending on how many events you perform.
This strategy gives you the ability to be “larger than life” – you have a HUGE prize to talk about at your events, with a reasonable investment.
If you spend $200 on concert tickets and divide that expense across 50 entries, that’s $4 a prize – about what you might spend on a trinket that will land in the trash. Which is giving your business more perceived value?
Here are some ideas for big prizes:
- Movie premiere tickets
- Concert tickets
- $100 iTunes gift cards
- iPads or iPods
Incorporating giveaways into your school dances can add substantial value to your services, and differentiate yourself from your competition!
Matt Ryan – School Dance Pro
Matt Ryan is a multi-op DJ business owner, radio personality, developer of School Dance Pros and educator. He has been entertaining at school and many other types of functions since 1996. Matt Ryan Mobile DJ Entertainment performs at approximately 250 events per year, nearly half of which are school and teen dances and proms. Matt is a well-known on-air personality at WNCI 97.9, a Top 40 radio station in Columbus, OH. He is also a middle school teacher and coach. Matt is able to provide unprecedented insight to other DJs about how school dances are organized. His “School Dance DJ Marketing Toolkit” is available at SchoolDancePros.com. To contact Matt, email [email protected].
