The children’s birthday party market is a large and growing market. It’s also an opportunity for dance studios, gymnastic clubs and children’s activity centers to increase revenue, traffic & brand awareness.
But kids party bookings can be quite a headache.
From staffing to contracts, waivers, deposits, payments and invitations, they are much more complicated than running weekly programs. And that makes it hard to scale birthday party services.
So too many of us stop offering them for that reason alone.
But what if you could automate most of it?
You can use Activity Messenger for every step of the party booking process.
Contracts, payments, guest lists, waivers, e-invitations, and marketing all come together in a seamless workflow.
With Activity Messenger you can:
Note about the Author: Throughout the article, Olivier shares tips and tricks he’s picked up over the last decade running a multi-location children’s activity program & as co-founder of Activity Messenger. He helps hundreds of organizations in Canada and the United States automate their party booking workflow to help simplify party booking, increase revenue and help market your organization in the process
You can automate a marketing campaign to go out X number of weeks before the child’s DOB. With the right timing, your organization will be top of mind when parents start – or should start – planning their child’s party.
1. Use the Birthday Marketing automation and select a list of clients (you can even filter by age).
2. Set the number of days before the child’s birthday you want the email to be sent out.
Our party marketing automation allows you to reach parents at the perfect time based on their child’s birthday.
Take it to next level by personalizing your marketing outreach using mailmerge to personalize with the parent and the child’s name. You can keep it all on brand using our Canva integration.
Hello {First name}
Did you know that we throw the best Birthday Parties! 😄
{Participant first name}‘s birthday is coming up in a few weeks
If you are looking for a high-energy Birthday this year, book with us!
Once people are interested in booking a party, you don’t want them to have to call or email you.
All you need to do is create a booking form with all the relevant information.
The party reservation form includes:
Fully customize to your needs and allow parents to book from start to finish without having to call or email in for support.
In this section, you’ll want to collect all the personal information required for the party. The parent’s informations, child’s name & DOB and any other information you’ll need.
In this section, people will be able to book a party based on your availability. This is also a great place to offer upsells and add-ons.
Clear, straightforward contracts and waivers are critical. They protect both you and your customer. With Activity Messenger, you can present the contract during the payment process. This ensures that parents understand what they’re agreeing to before they commit.
All you need to do is copy and paste your waiver/contract into the “I read and accept” box, add a signature option to the booking form, and make both mandatory.
The party booking form allows you to collect a deposit. You can even charge a convenience fee to cover credit card fees. But does that mean you have to chase the parents for the rest of the bill?
The answer is no. Activity Messenger allows you to automate the collection of the balance. Specify when the balance should be collected – say, 14 days before the kids birthday party – and the system takes care of it.
Once the deposit is received, the parent who booked the party will receive a party invitation email to send to their guests. The email will be pre-populated with key information such as the child’s name and the date and time of the party, making the process easier for everyone involved.
You can create a branded invitation using Canva and add the different placeholders to make it unique to each child’s birthday.
When guests RSVP by clicking “Count Me In” they are prompted to sign a waiver. This double action not only confirms their attendance, but also satisfies legal requirements. Once they click submit, they are automatically added to the party’s attendance list.
As soon as a guest fills the waiver, they are added to a specific guest/attendance list for that birthday party. No need to keep checking your phone or email obsessively; you’ll get instant notifications as parents confirm their attendance.
It’s the modern, stress-free way to ensure you know exactly who’s coming to celebrate and what you need to prepare for.
Take your customer’s experience a step further. You can automate an SMS/email to be sent to all attendees the morning of the party. Be sure to include the address, time, and any other information the guest needs to know before coming to the party.
This will ensure that more people are on time, know what to expect, making it much easier for your staff to throw the best party in town.
Use the collected email addresses of all guests to market after the party. You can automate a message to go out 2-3 days after the party thanking them. It’s also a great time to offer them a discount to book their own party with you or sign up for one of your weekly classes.
Parties can easily become one of the most effective tools for marketing your center for all of its activities.
Dear {First name},
We hope you and your little gymnast had a fantastic time celebrating with us at {Child name}‘s birthday party! Seeing those smiling faces flipping, tumbling, and having a blast warms our hearts.
If you had as much fun as we did, we’d love to extend an invitation to join us for our upcoming programs!
🤸♀️ Gymnastics Classes: Perfect for building strength, flexibility, and self-confidence. Whether your child is a newbie or an aspiring Olympian, we’ve got the right fit for them!
🌟 Holiday Camps: Make the holidays even more exciting with our specialized gymnastics camps. A full day of flips, tricks, and games!
🎁 Sibling Discounts: Got more than one future gymnast in the house? Enroll their sibling and enjoy a special discount on us!
If you’re considering joining one of our programs, now’s the perfect time. We’re offering a 15% discount to all our birthday party attendees for their first month in any of our programs. Just use the code PARTY15 when you register online.
Looking forward to many more celebrations and milestones together.
Managing birthday parties for your activity center doesn’t have to be a Herculean task. And unlike most party booking software, Activity Messenger is cost-efficient and helps you with other aspects of running your organization.
With Activity Messenger, you can automate and streamline most of the process, giving you more time to focus on what you do best: providing an incredible experience. And it even automates marketing for you.
If you have more questions or are interested in learning more, book a demo with on of our experts.
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Activity Messenger does much more than parties; we can also replace your current registration and class management software, such as JackRabbit, IClassPro and DanseStudioPro.
