The grand opening of your business is an exciting and important event. Lots of careful planning must go into this event to make it successful and to attract new customers to your new laundromat. Over the years, the staff here at T & L Laundry Equipment has been involved in many grand opening celebrations and we have compiled a list of some of our favorite grand opening ideas to inspire you when you begin to plan your event. For the best prices on a new vended dryer or commercial washer in North Carolina, please give us a call to see how we can help you save money.
Laundromat Grand Opening Ideas
Ask your local Chamber of Commerce to host a ribbon cutting at your laundromat during your grand opening. This will most certainly draw the attention of local newspapers and provide excellent photos for your social media accounts to use as promotional pieces. Be sure to invite local VIP’s like city and county officials to the ribbon cutting as well.
Reach out to your local radio station and sponsor a remote broadcast to help generate additional foot traffic to your event. See if they will do joint promotions or contests with you to help entice people to come and check out your event. Sweepstakes and giveaways that require people to provide you with their mailing address, email address and birthdate automatically allows you to collect information to build your mailing list. Offering special email promotions a few times a month and sending customers a free wash or service on their birthday is a great way to get them in to your facility.
Make your event family friendly by offering face painting and balloons, hosting a bounce house and offering free hot dogs. Having silly contests that pit parents vs kids is a great way to give your event a block party feel and give away free wash coupons, t shirts or magnets. Sponsoring a local youth sports team is a great way to draw families to your event. Have the kids circulate through the event in their uniforms with your logo on them to hand out coupons or loyalty cards.
Advertise your event heavily in the two weeks before using local shopper papers and other free weekly papers. Their advertising costs are usually low and many people read them weekly to know what’s going on in the local businesses. Consider getting into your local ValPak mailer right before the event - it's a little more expensive but has a broad reach into your community and neighboring communities as well. Don’t forget to create a Facebook event for your grand opening. Many people, especially college students and young adults, utilize Facebook exclusively to get their news and information about what’s happening in the community.
Promote your services and weekly specials at your event with large signs and flyers that people can take with them. Choose giveaway items that make sense for your business. Laundry bags with your logo on them, coin purses or reusable tote bags all make a trip to the laundromat easier and are a great way to get your brand around town. Make sure your customers get a chance to learn about what makes your coin-op different. Do you offer wash-dry-fold service? Pickup and delivery for full service customers? Free dryer Fridays? Your customers want to get to know you as much as you want to get to know them. Offer survey cards for people to fill out so that you can get instant feedback on their first impressions.
There are so many things to consider when planning the grand opening of your laundromat. We hope these suggestions have given you some great ideas about the type of event you want to host for your launch. Our staff is always ready to discuss your coin-op business with you any time and welcome the chance to be part of your successful grand opening. If you have more questions about how to plan or budget your grand opening event, refer back to our previous blog posts.
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Are you ready to buy a new vended dryer or commercial washer in North Carolina? Do you have an interest in opening a new laundromat location? Let us help with your plans so that you can choose the right commercial washers and dryers for your business’ needs. We serve industries such as healthcare, hospitality, correctional facilities, fire departments, fitness centers, hair salons and food service as well as laundromat owners.
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