Where to find corporate group clients for your tours.

Corporate group clients are not hiding. They are the event planners, executive assistants, office managers, and HR leads at the companies already in your city. The job is to know who they are and start the right conversation, one that moves them from a stranger to a repeat client.

Breaking into the corporate events market feels hard because most operators start by broadcasting to everyone. The first step to any successful sales conversation is knowing exactly who you are talking to. I call that person your Target Corporate Guest.

Picture her. Her name is Ashley, and she is a sales manager at a local Fortune 500 company in your market. Ashley runs quarterly events to reward her sales team when they hit their numbers, and she is also the one entertaining big clients when they come to town for on-site visits. When you can see Ashley clearly, you know where she spends her time and how to reach her.

What operators told me works

At this month's UpLevel Town Hall, operators laid out the ways they are actually starting conversations with target guests like Ashley, and moving them from a stranger to your tour into a repeat client. A few takeaways stood out.

Christopher Andrews of Bienville Bites in Mobile, Alabama is building a dedicated corporate tour landing page for his website, with testimonials from past corporate clients, so he can have a direct conversation with the buyers he wants.

Erwin Liekens of Taste the City in Antwerp, Belgium stays in touch with past corporate clients in hopes of creating repeat business, and writes new articles with valuable content aimed squarely at those buyers.

Yoko Isaji of Food Story Tours in Japan also sees the value in maintaining her relationships with previous corporate clients. Like so many operators, she had to close temporarily during the pandemic, and she feels re-engaging the satisfied clients she already had is the best place to start rebuilding her corporate events.

Eight ways to start conversations with corporate clients

1. Concierges and event planners at local hotelsWhen conferences and corporate groups come to town, the concierges and in-house planners at local hotels decide what to recommend. A relationship with them steers those groups straight to your tour.
2. Fortune 500 and 100 companies in your cityA quick search for the big employers in your market tells you where to start engaging on platforms like LinkedIn. Companies like these have multiple departments and divisions that could all benefit from your tour.
3. Host a webinarOnce you have made a few contacts in the corporate or DMC spheres, a simple webinar on things to do in your community gives attendees free value and acts as a stage to highlight the tour destinations you offer.
4. Engage on LinkedInFollowing, liking, and messaging your target clients on LinkedIn gets your business in front of the people, like event planners, team leads, and executive assistants, who could most benefit from your tour.
5. Share your articles on LinkedInInstead of worrying whether a blog post ranks on Google, use it in a targeted way as content for your LinkedIn posts and DMs. It keeps you top of mind and gives target clients value they associate with your brand.
6. Destination management companiesDMCs plan and run huge, often days-long corporate retreats and events. They are always looking for companies like yours to give their clients a great time.
7. Get listed in top-10 blogsA quick search of the top things to do in your area for corporate groups returns popular local blogs. Ask those bloggers to include you. It brings credibility and visibility and puts you in front of buyers running the same search.
8. Keep in touch with past groupsThe most effective way to grow your corporate business is to maintain the relationships you have already built. A targeted, long-term email campaign to that segment of your list keeps you top of mind when it is time for them to book another event.

Notice the pattern: almost every channel runs on relationships, not ads. Corporate work compounds, because one good group turns into repeats and referrals for years.

After you start the conversation

Starting the conversation is only half of it. In this clip, hear how Heather Fortes of SacTown Bites takes the next step with a simple one-page PDF she can send to potential guests the moment they show interest.

Give every conversation somewhere to land

All of this outreach works far better when you have a real destination for it. Before you start the conversations, make sure you have a corporate group page built to book, so that when Ashley clicks through, she meets a page that speaks to her and makes saying yes easy.