Marketing Unconference Session Recap

If you missed out on our Marketing unconference session, check out our notes below. We have lots of events coming your way. Stay up to date by getting on our mailing list!

This call was attended by people from far and wide, we had operators show up from Ireland, India, Canada, Belgium, Germany, Australia and of course the USA. We hosted two breakout rooms and zoom and they’re both reported back for us. Special thanks to Jean-Yves Huwart and Cat Johnson for moderating. We learned some new things and solved some issues for attendees.

We threw out the following as things to discuss from a Marketing lens:

• Pricing
• Discounts
• How market to corporates
• How change marketing post covid
• Should you change your ad strategy
• Are you updating photos? Virtual tours?
• Are you taking advantage of virtual
• Best practices

Highlights of GCUC Unconference on Marketing:

• Partner with a local church as most have child care facilities and a license. Partnership with them can be an immediate fix since they already have the paperwork protocols in place- check with your own state and city legislation on the childcare matter.
• Remember June-August are historically slow months in the industry anyway. Give yourself some grace if you don’t sell a bunch of memberships or have a full house. It’s not just covid19 reentry playing with your numbers, it’s also the time of the year.
• Double take app- allows you to video with both the front and back camera of your phone at the same time. Great for taking real time personal walkthrough videos of your space. The ability for them to see your face as well as your space as you are talking them through it makes it more personal.
• Legal liabilities- get an attorney. Decide if you need new membership contracts, waivers, mutual indemnification, have members disclose their travels and if they have been sick or in contact with someone who was
• Consider allowing members to share memberships: 2 camps
  • Camp A: it’s a great way to allow families with littles at home to split the day and have a place to escape. Affordable but also accessible. Need to manage expectations though and not allow 2 people to be there at once. Only one at a time. Consider creating a “pre made” family share package that is a step up from one person desk but still less than a private office so that you serve your community but also bring in revenue. Also consider offering an “add on” membership for families who may have college aged kids home if campuses are closed.
  • Camp B: No way. Adds more of a head count/ footprint to your space that would not otherwise be there. Also decreases the value of that desk if you are allowing two people to split the cost of 1. You are a business and have to keep your revenue flowing as well.
• Consider having a tagline for your re-entry. People feel most comfortable at home so maybe “Welcome Home” or “Second Home.”
• When it came to discounts no one was offering discounts but they were offering perks. A day in a private office was a popular one. One person shared they are charging a “concierge fee” for cleaning. Virtual is really helping some spaces.
• We talked about engaging local governments to host virtual events. Is this something you are actively doing as well?
• Selling to corporates. The group would love a one pager with juicy coworking stats to provide to corporate HR or to post on their website. They’re having problems finding the decision makers. People still don’t always know what coworking exactly is… They would also love to see videos or blogs about the benefits or case studies of coworking for corporates. Using members for warmth leads to corporations. We talked about using PR and local media to get the word out about coworking. Suggestion to look into the local IFMA chapter to connect with facilities professionals. Definitely wanted data to show the benefits.
• We also talked about aggregators because they’re already working with corporates – Liquidspace, Instant, Deskpass, Upflex, Upsuite etc.
• Discussed the need to update virtual tours and photos. Talked about staging friends or members in the photos. Might be a good way to re-engage members. The Broad has a great tour on instagram showing the changes they have made.
• Groups were thinking about offering “household” memberships even after they’re re-open.
• Remember to be transparent in your communication. Over communicating the truth is better than under communicating. Common Desk is doing a great job with communicating new procedures and policies.
• We talked a lot about the need to show photos with physical distance. There was some banter about having some of the photos without physical distancing so people can see what it will be like when we’re back to normal. Suggestion to put text on photos to explain if not properly distanced.

That’s all for the takeaways. We do not record the full unconference sessions as they are meant to be a conversation and you really reap the benefits when you are in the room. If you enjoyed this recap make sure you get signed up for the next one. We’d love to have you!