If you’re looking for a quick way to boost sales or don’t have any bookings on your calendar, a mystery hostess party might be just the thing you need.
Mystery host parties incentivize sales, sharing, bookings, and fun! The more active your customers are, the more chances they have to win the party rewards!
A mystery hostess party can also be used as an exclusive hostess perk or a VIP group perk to reward your hostesses and best customers. You can have a party that only includes past hostesses or only runs in your VIP group. Talk about an extra incentive to be in your VIP group!
What is a Mystery hostess party?
A mystery hostess party is an in-home, online (Facebook), or text party where your guests don’t know who the host is until the end of the event.
As your guests participate in your party, they earn entries into a drawing to win the party rewards by being selected as the host. The more they participate, the more chances they have to win.
As you can imagine, when a mystery is involved, combined with a competition to earn more entries, this creates energy and helps you have an amazing party. Anyone can win the rewards, so it keeps your guests engaged.
You can choose to award all of the host rewards to one winner, or you can split them up and choose multiple winners. One thing to be aware of is if you split the rewards and have to ship them yourself, make sure the shipping costs don’t eat up too much of your profits.
We’ll get into how to choose the best ways to earn entries later in this post.
Why host a mystery hostess party?
So, here’s the important question, why host a mystery host party in the first place?
- If your VIP group activity is slumping and you want to jumpstart your group, a mystery host party is a great way to do that!
- If your party calendar is bare and you need bookings, this type of party is a great way to get that going.
- If your company released a new catalog or a new product line, what an amazing way to wrap that up in an exciting way. This is much better than just asking people if they’d like a new catalog or “Hey girl, we’ve got something new I think you’d love …”
- If you’ve had someone say they might host in the future but never held their party. Who hasn’t, right? This is an easy way to get them involved. It doesn’t feel as daunting to them as they don’t have to fill the whole room on their own.
- If you’re looking for a boost in sales, bookings, and even recruits, mystery host parties can do all of that. If you want more sales, offer one entry for $25 in purchases instead of one entry for $40 in purchases. If you are looking for bookings, offer five chances if your guest books a party with you.
- Another great idea for hosting a mystery host party is to host one near a holiday. For example, a Mother’s Day shopping event.
Plus, as a huge bonus, most people are competitive. When they’re trying to earn more entries to your raffle to earn the hosting rewards, they’re more likely to stay engaged, invite others to your party, and buy more of your products.
Mystery hostess party rules
In just a minute we’ll get into exactly how to host this type of party but first, how do you set up the rules for your guests to get entries to win the host rewards?
The main thing to consider is what would you like to happen the most.
Are you looking for big sales?
Is your booking calendar a little sparse so you’re trying to get bookings from this party?
What about recruits?
Here are ideas for your entry rules based on your focus being on getting party bookings.
- 1 entry for RSVPing (nothing matters if nobody shows up!).
- 5 entries for bringing a guest (guests expand your market!).
- 10 entries for every $50 in orders (more sales mean better host rewards!).
- 15 entries for booking a party with a date on the calendar (the most entries for this as this is what you really want to achieve with this party!).
- Bonus entries are available during the party! (This is how you can keep the excitement and activity going with games with a little extra mystery)
Share a simple graphic, such as the one below, using your party theme and showing how your guests can earn entries and give ideas on what they can earn for free.
How does a mystery hostess party work?
By now, you may be wondering how to host a mystery hostess party if you haven’t done one before.
This party works just like any other party you have for your direct sales or network marketing business with a few exceptions.
Here are the exact steps to host your own party.
Add a party in your back-office with either you as the host (if your company allows it), or if your company doesn’t allow it, use a past hostess you believe will join your party. Pick a date, name your event, choose your party type, and create your party link.
Since nobody knows who the host is, you get to be the host! What do you want your hosts to do when they are hosting a party for you?
- Make a list of people to invite.
- Personally invite those people.
- Share your party ordering link with anyone interested, even if they cannot attend.
- Share your party on social media.
- Talk about your favorite products.
- Explain how your mystery host party works.
- Ask your guests to RSVP for planning purposes. Remember to tell them they get one entry for RSVPing!
The day before the party, remind all your guests about the party and include a reminder of all the ways they can earn entries into your drawing. This is a must!!!
Host your party as you normally would.
Bonus tip: keep track of the number of entries for each party guest. If you can, create a leaderboard or give periodic updates to keep the excitement and competition going. With each update, remind everyone how they earn entries.
After the party, reach out to people who couldn’t attend to see if they are interested in ordering or hosting.
Tally up all the entries and choose your winner. A great idea is to share a live video of you choosing the winner (more on that below).
Schedule your customer follow-up, including your “thank you call” two days after your party. Trust us, this one’s a must. I hear from our customers all the time that when they do this, their customers add to their orders or decide to book a party of their own.
Close your party as normal and ship any rewards you offered that did not ship directly to your host.
How to promote your mystery host party?
If you’re going to host a mystery host party, you’ve got to promote it just like your host would when you’re running a normal home or Facebook party. Again, until you name a host at the end of your party, you’re the host.
That means you’ve got to come up with your list of people to invite and personally invite your guests just like you’d hostess coach your normal party hosts to do.
On top of that, there are other things you can do as the host and consultant:
- Highlight your party and your favorite products in your VIP group. You’ll get more guests to your party if they see how your products solve their problems and see your excitement.
- Announce your party in your newsletter and ask for RSVPs. Remember, if you don’t tell your guests what to do, they won’t know.
- Personally call or message your past hostesses. You’ll get a much higher success rate by personally inviting your guests.
- Use Reels or Stories to announce your party.
How to choose your winner?
If you’re running your party as a home party, have your guests help you by passing out a small slip of paper for them to put their name on when they earn an entry.
Then fold their slip in half and add it to a large bowl. Make a big deal out of this and make it fun!
When your party is wrapping up and all the orders are in, gather everyone around and pull the name (or names if having more than one winner) of the host and announce all their free goodies!
If you’re announcing your winner online, such as in your VIP group, I suggest a live video where you already have your entries loaded into a random name picker.
Keep track of the names in a spreadsheet and then copy and paste them into the names box at the right of the page.
Once they’re all in, click the wheel to reveal the winner.
Have you hosted a mystery hostess party? What worked well and what didn’t? Please share in the comments below.
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About the Author: Steve Nauta
