Marketing your Coworking Space

Finally, after months of labour and stress, you’ve opened your new space.

Your vision is complete, a place for a community to thrive and conversations to echo. You pace through the leafy reception area, make yourself a coffee and look out over your empty kingdom.

Wait… empty.

Don’t worry, we’ve got a few ideas to help you to fill your space.

Social Media

Social media is the cheapest, easiest and most foolproof way to advertise your space.

First, you have to decide which channels you want to be active on. We would highly recommend Instagram, Facebook and Twitter, probably in that order.

Instagram is obviously highly visual and you want to show off what your space has to offer. Facebook is a great way to establish an online community, post upcoming events and updates. And Twitter is excellent for showcasing the work you are doing and interacting with other spaces.

Regularly posting good content on each of these platforms will quickly build up a following – make sure to hashtag appropriately – this may be your city, your niche or simply #coworking.

So, what constitutes good content?

Well, that is a timeless question, but we can give you a few tips:

• Interview your members. Referrals are the most powerful form of marketing at your disposal. Everyone trusts an independent user of your space, more than they trust you shouting about how good your space is.
• Be a source of knowledge. This could be information about your space that is clear, concise and attractive. Or it could be information about a topic of interest such as mental health in the workspace, dogs or cryptocurrency – as long as it’s relevant to your space!
• Be unique. There are a gazillion posts about coffee & coworking being posted every day. Sure, you can use them as a filler when you are pressed for time, but when you have time try to post something that will stop people scrolling. Flaunt your personality and quirks.

Offline Marketing

So you have the virtual world covered, now you have to tackle the real world. Scary, I know.

Your offline marketing could include any of the following; leaflets, posters, business cards, newspaper ads or sponsoring an event. They naturally involve more legwork than online marketing, but the returns can be huge as it is highly targeted towards people in your area, whereas social media is… well, everywhere.

An easy way to get started is by sticking up a poster or hanging a banner outside your space so people know what you are offering at a glance.

Have some runners head out into the local area to pin up some leaflets or stick some biodegradable stickers in clear view of the general public. You could even have people handing them out for a few days and engaging passers-by in conversation.

Offline marketing is where you can really let your creativity shine.

Spinning a Web

Networking is one of the key reasons people join coworking spaces, so it’s no surprise that it is also one of the best ways to attract new members. If you can establish a local network early then people will gravitate towards your space.

So, how do you go about this?

• Start with a launch party. Free drinks , free pizza and a short presentation about who you are, why you have built the space and what you hope to achieve. People connect with a story – so tell yours.
• No time for a breather, gotta keep the ball rolling. Start hosting information evenings, lightning talks and social events. Get in touch with local collectives and meet-up groups. If you have a niche, use it. For example, a tech-orientated space could host hackathons, women in tech evenings and new technology showcases.
• Already you should be drumming up some kudos as a hub for community and collaboration. Depending on results, you could go a step further by partnering with other businesses and entrepreneurs in your area, such as salons, yoga instructors, accounting advisors, etc. What benefits can you give your members?
• Finally, you could set up a referral scheme this incentivises your current members to recommend the space to friends and share their experiences on social media. Rewards could be a discount on their membership or a voucher.

That’s it! Best of luck with your marketing efforts – do let us know in the comments if you have any thoughts or questions!