In 2020, Park Home Ranch (PHR), one of many working ranch properties owned by Park Ranch Cattle Company in Minden, Nevada, began to transform the 120-year-old Home Ranch barn and surrounding two acres of land that sits in the middle of 750 square miles of open space offering sweeping views of the Sierra Nevada Mountain Range into a wedding and event venue. They hosted their first wedding in May of 2022 on the newly renovated property. In 2023, the venue was upgraded with a new bridal suite, a groomsmen’s house, renovated bar area, and different packages for weddings were introduced.

While Park Ranch Cattle Company has been raising cattle since 1861 and has been a leader in the industry in the regional area, marketing a wedding venue was not in their skillset. After a successful working relationship on a development project together in 2020, the management team at Park Home Ranch contacted In Plain Sight Marketing (IPSM) in October of 2022 seeking our expertise in marketing and public relations to fill the open spaces in their wedding season schedule. IPSM began managing all marketing, social media, public relations, etc., which included their second ever Open House to entice new couples to tour the venue, with the hopes they would book their wedding there.

Situation: Engagement season in the wedding industry is typically from November to March, with couples touring venues within the first few months of their engagement. To capitalize on the season, IPSM worked with Park Home Ranch’s event coordinator to promote a Wedding Open House event for March 4, 2023. The event was to have wedding industry vendors on site to meet with potential couples, opportunities for tours of the venue, and the team on hand to answer questions. What started as assisting in marketing the event took a very different turn when the events coordinator quit the week of the event. IPSM stepped in beyond the promotion of the event and took over all vendor and bride communications, planning, etc., made more challenging by the fact the previous employee took all of her notes and planning documents. The next challenge came later in the week when a huge snowstorm blew in, which forced Park Home Ranch to reschedule the event two days prior due to safety concerns. With a new date on the calendar for April 1, 2023, IPSM set to work managing all communications with vendors and brides that had RSVPed, revamped the campaign to announce the cancellation and new date, and worked with Park Home Ranch while they were short an event coordinator to prepare for and execute the one-day event.

Research and planning

Research: IPSM conducted internet research among other wedding venues, both in the area and out of the area, to determine what those venues had done for their open house marketing and public relations.

Primary research:

Park Home Ranch interviews: Since this was PHR’s second Open House event, IPSM interviewed their team to understand what efforts had been made for the previous year’s Open House event, what vendors were attending/invited, and to get pertinent information for the day of activities.

Secondary research:

Internet and social media research: Reviewed multiple social media pages of wedding and event venues, both in the northern Nevada region and outside of it to determine best practices for the wedding venue industry. We also researched the best way to incorporate our vendors as ambassadors for the venue and the event, what information should be created and distributed for the event, etc., participated in webinars hosted by Wedding Wire and The Knot, as well as other SME webinars on best practices for marketing events for wedding venues

Goal: To host an Open House event to increase visibility and interest in the Park Home Ranch Venue to local and out of area couples.

 Event Objectives:

  1. Double attendance over the previous Open House event from 25 to 50 attendees
  2. Book at least three weddings from the open house event
  3. Add two new vendors to the Park Home Ranch Preferred Vendor List
  4. Increase page likes by 25% on Facebook and Instagram
  5. Increase engagement by 25% on both Facebook and Instagram
  6. Increase web traffic by 15%

Timeline: Planning, execution, and wrap-up: January 1 to March 30, 2023, with an extension to this due to weather and rescheduling through April 30, 2023. We wanted to capture data past the event to see if there were residual increases to our social engagement, web traffic, and to give our client through the end of the month to close wedding bookings that came from couples attending the Open House event.

Key publics: Douglas County, Nevada, engaged couples, northern Nevada engaged couples, wedding industry vendors

Budget: Total Budget: $500 for event supplies (printed materials, folders, decorations, etc.), $400 for food and alcohol, and cutlery, plates, napkins and cups, 40 hours of IPSM time to research, plan, and execute strategy, 40 hours of Park Home Ranch team time to secure vendors, plan event and execute event week/day of. With the key employee (event coordinator) quitting the week of the event, plus having to reschedule due to weather, IPSM and Park Home Ranch staff went over time budget by 40 hours each.

Execution

Strategies:

  1. Send personalized emails to couples inquiring through website and Wedding Wire/Knot
  2. Create “Ambassadors” out of the attending vendors
  3. Partner with local tourism agencies to share event
  4. Create branded collateral for the event
  5. Specific targeted social media posts to increase event attendance and inquiries into the venue

 Tactics:

  1. Sent over 50 emails to brides and couples that had inquired about tours and more information about the venue
  2. Encouraged vendors that committed to attending event to share the information with their contacts
  3. Tagged all vendors attending in social media posts so they could easily share with their followers
  4. Leveraged social media platforms to share posts, event information and vendor profiles
  5. Partnered with Visit Carson Valley to post the event on their website
  6. Partnered with the Carson Valley Chamber of Commerce to submit an event flyer in their quarterly mailer
  7. Facebook videos and posts during the event, as well as wrap up posts to thank attendees and vendors
  8. Follow up emails with attendees regarding booking the venue for their wedding.

Evaluation:

  1. 1: Double attendance over the previous Open House event from 25 to 50 attendees – The event was incredibly successful, despite employees quitting and having to reschedule due to weather, the event had 96 attendees, an increase of 284% over the previous year and 92% higher than our goal for this year
  2. 2: Book at least three weddings from the open house event – Park Home Ranch was able to secure five new weddings from the open house event, a 67% increase over the goal
  3. 3: Add two new vendors to the Park Home Ranch Preferred List – after the event, we were able to add four new vendors to our preferred vendor list, a 100% increase over the goal.
  4. 4: Increase page likes on Facebook and Instagram by 25% – We increased page likes over the period from 149 to 223, a 49.66% increase. Our Instagram account did not grow as much as Facebook – we went from 825 followers to 1008, a 22% increase, but 3% short of our goal.
  5. 5: Increase engagement on both Facebook and Instagram by 25% – Our engagement on Facebook went from 475 engaged people to 1,289, a 171.37% increase, and on Instagram we went from 1,028 engagement over the previous time period to 2,291 engagements, a 122.86% increase.
  6. 6: Increase web traffic by 15% – compared to the previous time period, our site traffic went up to 1,975 sessions, a 35% increase

 Unintended Benefits and things we have done differently since:

  1. We followed up with our vendors in a post review survey and received positive feedback from many of them, which is how we were able to grow our preferred vendor list for this client. Many of the vendors that attended this event have come back for two more events and are committed to a third later this year.
  2. From the feedback, we have turned this event into a paid event for vendors, which allows us to advertise the event on social media and target both our northern Nevada area, as well as northern California area.
  3. We created a vendor kit to assist our vendors in sharing the information with their followers, including flyers, sample social posts, and email campaigns.
  4. We also learned to create a google RSVP form for our couples so they can pre-register prior to the event, which allows us to easily share with our vendors how many couples are coming, and all their contact info for vendor reach out after
  5. Swag bags were a big request by both couples and vendors. We added them to the event we held in April 2024.