You’ve probably heard me say this before, but it can’t hurt to say it again:
If you’re not offering themes in your direct sales parties, you’re missing out on a lot of repeat bookings!
Being able to offer new and different themes to your hosts is what will have them coming back again and again (as well as their guests!).
What is Pinktober?
Pinktober is a fundraising theme for the month of October for your direct sales parties and events. October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month in many countries and this theme will help you to fundraise for this cause.
Pinktober is suitable for almost every direct seller, regardless of the products you sell (yay!)
Why would I make the effort?
There are several reasons you want to run Pinktober in your direct selling business. The first reason is that you will appeal to different people with a fundraising party – some hosts are not really into party plan parties or your product but will want to raise funds for a cause. Your guests are also likely to be a different network than your usual, so it helps you to get in front of new people and branch out!
Another reason to adopt Pinktober is that you’re ramping up your efforts ahead of peak trade. The busy season with Black Friday and Christmas is coming up so you want to start boosting your efforts now to start organizing bookings for November and December.
How to have an awesome Pinktober
Step 1: Register
Make sure you register with an approved charity for your fundraising activities to ensure it’s legal. Google local breast cancer charities and find out what you need to do to register on their website. In some countries it’s a bit stricter than others, but generally they make it very easy for you to do this.
Step 2: Theme Your Social
For a week or even the whole month, post pink-related posts on your social accounts. You can post facts about breast cancer or share some educational posts from your chosen charity, go Live and showcase all your pink-colored products, and use the color pink liberally in all your images – including cover photos. I’ve got a few special Pinktober images to get you started, just fill out the form below.
Step 3: Go Live To Announce Your Pinktober
Do a Facebook Live, an Instagram story or a TikTok to announce your Pinktober theme. If you’ve set a fundraising goal, announce that too. Also make sure you include how much you are contributing (eg. 20% of sales).
Step 4: Add Fundraising Games to Your Direct Sales Party
In your party you can play some games that help to raise even more money. Here are few of my favorites:
Coin Toss: At an in-home party you can put a prize (a product for example) on the floor. Have everybody stand a few meters away and ask them to grab a coin. Guests can toss their coin at the product and the person whose coin lands the closest wins the prize. All the coins become part of the donation.
Banned Word Jar: Pick a word that people are likely to use at least once during the party. When someone says the banned word they have to put a coin in the coin jar. You can be quite cheeky with this game by asking questions that almost force people to use the word and get lots of laughs. The contents of the jar will be donated of course.
Buy A Square**: Create a sheet with numbered of squares. You could do 100 squares and use the same sheet all month or only do 25 squares or 50. It’s up to you and depends on how many people you expect to be able to sell a square to. This is easy to organize in-home or online.
Set a price for each square. Once someone buys one or more squares you put their name in it. Once all squares are sold you draw a random number and the person with that numbered square has won the lovely prize you prepared (for example a pretty basket with products).
Step 4: Pinkify your parties
You want to make your direct sales parties as pink as possible. This will help the Pinktober parties to stand out and be a different from your other parties. Here are some ways to pinkify your parties:
- Ask guests to wear pink. Best dressed wins a prize (a ticket, a chocolate, or just bragging rights). When doing online parties get people to take photos or pose for the camera in a Zoom party.
- Highlight your pink-colored products.
- Any accessories you use in your parties including the games (eg. Pop the Bloon, try to make them pink)
- Ask the host to serve pink drinks or pink snacks
- Anything you print for this party, print on pink paper
- Use pink sticky notes in your catalog to highlight the business opportunity
- Make your prizes pink
Step 5: Report Back
On your social media report back the amount you’ve raised. Take a screenshot of the ‘thank you’ page or receipt email (as proof) and celebrate and thank everybody who’s contributed. Also send a personal message to your hosts with a thank-you message!
** As this is basically a raffle, make sure you are allowed to run raffles in your state or country. Always abide by your local rules!
