Hello lovelies!
So since our first event we have been overwhelmed by all the attention #TheCityGirls have had... we've had a huge amount of people from across the UK (plus a few from overseas!)emailing,tweeting and instagramming us to say how much they'd like to attend our events- WOW is the only word I have.. little did I know when we started planning our event back in January that we would be in such high demand around the UK and it honestly feels great.
A few days after the first event we decided to send out a survey to the 30 bloggers that attended to ask for some feedback- although not everyone has responded (tut tut!) its been really great to get some insight into what people thought of the event and what we could do to improve our events in the future. All the responses were anonymous.
So... in this post I just wanted to share some of the bits that came out from the survey!
We asked the bloggers to answer a few questions, ranging from how they found the event overall,
how they found the goodies we provided and also some questions on the future of #TheCityGirls events.
So....here's what we found-
Q1.On a scale of 1-10 how would you rank your enjoyment of the event?
A huge 83% of the ladies rated us a 10!
Q2. Who was your favourite brand featured on the day (the brand who attended in person)
This was a close one.. Lush came out top closely followed by Panache.
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| Picture from Leanne's blog |
All the brands who came on the day were very interactive at the event of course but Lush bought with them some ingredients to make facemasks- who doesn't love making their fave products!
Q3. In your opinion what was your fave product you received in your goody bag?
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| Picture from Charlotte's blog |
As we expected from the beginning the
Johanna Basford colouring book came out tops! I think that the bloggers liked that it was something they'd not received in a goody bag before- something completely different!
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| Pictures from Rebecca's blog |
Heres what some of the bloggers said-
"The colouring book is one of the most beautiful things I've ever owned- I love being able to bring the pages to life by being as creative as I want with them"
"I loved receiving the colouring book- it was great to see an addition to the goody bag that wasn't beauty related"
"The colouring book is AMAZING"
Other items that got mentioned a number of times were-
The Yummy Lunch box from
Mookau
Q4. What was your least favourite product?
We were very impressed with the responses to this question- we only had one product mentioned- that was the Blanx Teeth Whitening pen but this was only mentioned by 2 bloggers and their reasons were that the product isn't one they'd use.
We loved reading-
"I didn't have a least favourite- I've actually used all the products unlike other events where I've ended up throwing some stuff away because it wasn't relevant"
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Picture from Kayleigh's blog
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Q5. On the day we featured brands,goody bags and also some extra treats dotted around the room, what would you say your favourite was?
Voss came out on top here- closely followed by
Penhaligons perfume samples.
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| Picture from Simone's blog |
In the run up to the event Voss were amazing- they tweeted us daily, they shared our pages and also connected with all our bloggers. They really are an amazing company to work with for events!
Q6. Have you blogged about the event?
73% of people who responded to the questionnaire said they'd already blogged about the event- its now more than 2 weeks since the event and although we would have a loved a few more posts up we understand that people are busy with exams and life in general so we are pretty happy!
Myself and Lorna, from the minute the event was over, were stressing about this one- we know how important it is to the brands we work with that they get sufficient coverage via #TheCityGirls events- it means they are more likely to work with us in the future and that we can share their products with more bloggers across the UK at our other events. Sharing really is caring in this situation- you share your pictures, thoughts and experiences about a product could mean in the future another group of bloggers get to try that product at our events!
Q7. In the future, we may start charging for these events- not so we can make some money out of it, but more so to cover the cost of things in the run up to events like food and venue charges. We do not plan to make a profit from our events. This does not affect the goody bag or featured brands.
Controversial one eh! We want to stress to people who may already be planning on coming to an event of ours in the future that IF we do start selling tickets they aren't going to cost the earth, Lorna and I aren't going to be splashing your hard earned cash on fancy new shoes,expensive makeup and flashy cars- we are going to be investing all the money back into the events we put on. For our first event my mum stumped up £100 to pay for the food we provided on the day (THANKS MUMMA!) so its stuff like this we'd use the money for. As mentioned in the question the goody bags will NEVER be affected by this- the items in the bags are always gifted to us by companies who expect to see coverage (advertising) through our events- we do know that some people come to these types of events for solely the social aspect but would those people want to leave without a goody bag full of free stuff to feature on their blog like the rest of the bloggers who attend? I highly doubt it! We worked out that if each blogger wanted to do individual posts on every item they received in the goody bag their blog would have content for a fair few weeks!
All that being said, a whopping 86% said they would pay to come to our events in the future- this is an amazing bit of feedback that tells us we are doing something right if people would part with their cash to come to something we've organised! The majority of people who responded said they'd pay between £10-14 to come along!
Some of the things i've learnt since our first event-
1. Dont panic
Everything will come together as our friends and family are there to support us throughout the whole experience- on the day of our event I was horribly snappy and short with my mum (SORRY MUMMA!) because I was nervous/worried/apprehensive about everything!
2. Don't buy balloons and transport them by taxi
We spent a whopping £30 on 4 lots of balloon table arrangements. After a rather crazy ride in a cab we ended up losing a few single balloons and the rest ending up in a tangle.
3. Take more photos
This is one i'm personally going to have to work on over the next few events- although we had a few lovely volunteers on hand to take photos for us its never the same as how you'd snap your own pictures of a moment/event.
4. Vary the goody bags
Big one we are going to be taking forward to our next event- we loved reading all the posts from all our bloggers but we realised for people who didn't come to the event it may be slightly repetative if they follow all the bloggers and see all the same items in their posts!
5. ALWAYS blog about other events we are invited to in the future
Me and Lorna have both added this one to our book of blogger etiquette now- not that we didn't have it before but we didn't realise how important it is to provide that coverage to brands that organise these types of things. Yeah its some full time peoples jobs to plan events but it doesn't mean they have worked any less hard on it. You would not believe the amount of hours we spend planning these events! We think we now know what PR companies are looking for when they offer out opportunities to bloggers- good pictures, relevant content,good social media activity/linkage and most importantly well written posts.
Finally... I'd like to thank all the ladies who have blogged about the event already! We love reading your take on the day and it really makes me feel proud that we managed to make so many people happy!
Here are the links to their blogs-
Lorna
Kirsty
Lucy
Leanne
Rinica
Rebecca
Kayleigh
Jo
Vikki
Amelie
Sophie
XOXOX
