Your Guide to Getting Corporate Entertainment Gigs

Get Corporate Entertainment Work JobsHow to Attract Corporate Entertainment Bookers

Corporate Entertainment is where the big money is. It may not suit every entertainment act, but if you’ve never considered this market before then you’re missing out on some very large bookings.

Even over the past 18 months, when live entertainment bookings have been hard to get, corporate zoom & online parties have been a life-line for many entertainers. Companies, big and small, are always looking for ways to reward their staff and entertain their clients, which means there’s year-round work in this area for those who can tap into it.

So what’s different about working at corporate events, and how can you attract these lucrative bookers and give them exactly what they’re looking for? To get you started we’ve put together a mini-guide to getting those corporate bookings.

Know Their World

Before you start considering your own act and marketing materials you need to be aware of the different types of corporate events that need entertainment. They are:

  • Corporate Parties
  • Dinners & Functions
  • Networking Events
  • Promotional Events
  • Client Entertainment
  • Team Building

Many of these, particularly parties and team building moved online during social restrictions.

For a detailed insight into what kinds of entertainment clients are looking for for each of these events, read our Complete Guide to Booking Corporate Entertainment.

In all instances, entertainment falls into three categories – stage-based, walkabout or mix-and-mingle or zoom/online entertainment. If you can adapt your act to cater to all of these, then so much the better!

Dress for Corporate Entertainment

Image is Everything

Professional, sophisticated, polished, slick, memorable – when we think of corporate entertainment these are the words that spring to mind. There is no doubt that how you look and how you present yourself makes a huge difference in this world. So take a really good look at your image and make sure it represents every one of the words above. A theme or costume can help to give your act this sort of edge – perhaps with some vintage style and glamour.

Once you’re confident that you’re look is corporate-world-ready, it’s time to start looking at your promotional materials. Your Entertainers Worldwide profile does most of the hard work for you, giving you a really professional-looking page to attract your bookers – but your promotional photos and videos will also need to look the part.

Are your photos clear, do they show you at your best and are you in an environment that will appeal to these bookers? A beautiful photo of you on stage at a kid’s party is great as a way to attract the Mums and Dads market, but if you want high-paying corporate clients then you need to show them a different side. The same applies to your videos – shaky, grainy footage of you singing in a bar, or performing in your house will do far more harm than good to get those singing gigs in. For some good tips on getting really professional promotional materials, read out blogs on creating videos and getting just the right photos.

DJ for Corporate parties

Think Outside the Box

Corporate entertainment bookers are different to any others in this one respect – they’ve seen it all. There’s every chance they’ve seen every sort of function band, magician, comedian, singing waiter and mirror man and what they are looking for is something DIFFERENT. They don’t want ‘standard’, they want ‘wow’. They’re looking for something that no one has seen before and that will make their event really shine and be totally unforgettable. In the end it comes down to making them, and their company, look great.

So what can you do to catch their eye?

Start by reviewing your act, what can you do to make it stand out from the crowd and give added value?

If you’re a stilt walker, can you dress in an amazing wig and sing an aria or dress as a reindeer for Christmas? If you’re a dancer, can you wear a crazy costume, like a flower pot or clock head or can you incorporate lights into your clothes so that you glow in the dark?

Another great move is to team-up with others to make your act even more appealing. If you’re a balloon modeller, can you team up with a few others and create a theme – making crazy hats, or amazing flowers and tropical birds while dressed in matching costumes. If you’re a lookalike, is there another lookalike who would complement your act? If you’re an Elvis, find a Marilyn, and if you’re The Queen, find a Donald Trump!

And of course, most importantly, make your act future-proof by bringing it online. We all hope that we won’t be living with social restrictions for much longer, but whatever happens, virtual entertainment is here to stay – and now a profitable market of its’ own. There’s loads of great advice on how to be a successful virtual entertainer in our guide. And if you’re taking this route, don’t forget to make use of our amazing Zoom Party Backgrounds library!

Get creative, and make your act something that no one else is offering.

Corporate Entertainment Aerialist

Why You?

Once you’ve planned out your act, you’re ready to really think about how to market yourself. And when it comes down to marketing, it’s all in that simple question: ‘Why You?’. Why do they want to book you and not someone they’ve already seen, or who’s cheaper?

A good way to make them sit-up and take notice is to add some value for corporate bookers. For example, can you incorporate lights into your show that will show their logo? If you’re a magician, can you do a card trick where you can draw out a card with the company name? Comedians – can you create jokes specific to their company and the people in it?

Once you’ve thought of ways to make your act real ‘company entertainment’, make sure you include it in your act description.

And finally, don’t forget those testimonials – no matter what type of bookers you’re trying to attract, glowing testimonials from similar past clients are always a huge selling point.

We’re always working to attract corporate bookers to our website, and always need more acts to really cater well to this market – so if you’re not already a member with us, sign up here. Or if you’re already a member and ready to start taking those corporate bookings, sign-in and activate your profile now.

We hope you’ve found this mini-guide to this big-booking world really useful, but please do get in contact anytime if you need help with your profile or more advice on getting those corporate bookings.

 

This entry was posted in Get More Gigs Guides, Entertainers Advice and Help and tagged , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

Comments are closed.