Once or twice a year I open up my shopping cart for sales of a product I call the Catalog Carnival.
The Carnival is a collection of catalogs and programs whereby I have pointed out the clever ideas worthwhile to model.
What good ideas come from auction catalogs?
The image on this page shows a modest example, though the photo quality is poor.
Here’s what I was sharing.
A bold reminder was printed at the top of the live auction page.
Remember: Costs can be split among multiple bid numbers at checkout if you want to go in on a package or experience with others.
The auction committee was encouraging guests to bid as a group.
Consider that three couples pooling their resources to bid on a vacation package will likely have more financial capacity than a single couple bidding on the same package. Team bidding (sometimes referred to as bidding as a syndicate) boosts sales, raising more money for the nonprofit.
Similar reminders might be said by the auctioneer as she describes an auction package.- Or cued up by the Gala Chair when she delivers opening announcements. “Some of our packages are great for groups to bid on together,” she’d quip, “Item #9 is a large Colorado home that would easily accommodate 3 families.”
- So a catalog reminder serves as yet another marketing touchpoint. It’s a written prompt, pushing guests to collaborate to buy a prized item.
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For a treasure trove of good ideas, let me curate a Catalog Carnival selection for you.
Excellent bit of strategy (not that I am surprised). But there’s one element I’d like to append – if your organization is using software to help run your event, make sure you understand how your volunteers will have to amend their sales-entry process to avoid scrambling at check-out. Anyone using our software can head over to our blog, where we posted a follow-up to this post, with our perspective from “the back of the room.”
Thank you for pointing that out, Roger. The organization from which that catalog came does use software, though I never went into the details of how they addressed it with their checkout team. Thinking about the event all those details in advance is important.