Here are seven event marketing tips that will help you fill your event management dream
If you do plan on taking the time and spending the money to produce, prepare, and deliver a presentation or mini-seminar, the following should help...
Event Marketing Timing:
Usually, professionals market their events much too early. One firm that I know recently had extremely high business development hopes from hosting a series of six short seminars.
They sent very well-written letters to inform clients and prospects of the series. The 'invitations' reached the client base about 12 weeks before the first mini-seminar, 14 weeks before the second mini-seminar, 16 before the third, etc.
Attendance was decidedly underwhelming.
Their mistake was in the mailing lead time. They were surprised when we told them that announcements for generating attendance for 2 hour seminars is best done about three or four weeks in advance, not 12 or 16 or 20.
A good rule of thumb is that the shorter the seminar the shorter the event announcement lead time should be.
Event List Targeting:
In direct mail the three greatest indicators of success are lists, lists, and lists.
Before you send out one piece of mail, you should make sure that you have a reasonable expectation that the people on the list will be interested in your topic first because if you send a weight loss seminar package to a fitness guru, you can bet that you will not get much attendance.
A great seminar title, mailing package, and value proposition will generate zero attendance if you mail it to a list that is not interested in your topic.
Marketing Response Expectations:
Easy math which is the number of names times response rate equals attendance. 2,000 names times 2% response equals 40 attendees. "And why shouldn't we get a 2% response," inexperienced event marketers often say to themselves. "I've seen the research on direct marketing: 2% response is average for direct mail."
According to the Direct Marketing Association 2003 response rate study, direct marketing responses are somewhere in the 2% range on an average basis.
Consider, however, that most professional event marketers don't measure response in percents; they measure it in response per thousand because, by and large, they only get fractions of a percent to attend.
So if you're going to be an event marketer, forget about wondering, "What percent of our mailing will come to our event," and start thinking about how many per thousand might attend.
Some highly successful events that are marketed by professionals don't even get a 1 per thousand responses. Mailings for mini-seminars tend to do better than this, but not always by much.
The point of this information to inform you that if you have your direct marketing response expectations set too high, you are in for both disappointment and low attendance.
So make sure you have enough good names to mail to, and mail enough pieces to actually fill your room.
Event marketing piece:
Suffice it to say that sometimes a postcard is perfectly fine for generating attendance for your events. Other times email is all you need. It might be that personal invitations will work better for your event.
Sometimes you need an invitation, a letter, a business return envelope, a white paper, and convenient registration on your website.
This could be (and generally is) the subject of whole books and other seminars. Just be aware that you should research what kind of marketing piece might work in your situation, for your audience, and test different pieces on different events.
Think about your audience, what their day looks like, and then send them the piece that will get through the noise and clutter.
Event Registration Fee:
Many professionals assume that their 'marketing seminars' should be free. Here are a few reasons to consider charging a registration fee:
a) Paid events will often generate more actual attendance than free events because they have an air of sophistication and authority in them.
b) Paid events tend to have significantly fewer no-shows than free events because no one wants to pay to go to an event that they dont plan on attending.
c) The attendees that you generate are usually more interested in the event than those attending a 'free' breakfast, lunch, or 'networking' event.
d) People come expecting value instead of a sales pitch. If you then deliver value, you'll establish the expectation and knowledge that time with you is worth the money.
You should also note that, depending on your service, free events can work as well as paid events, especially for business-to-consumer professional services.
Our final advice on the subject is that you should know your audience and make good business assumptions, and test both paid and free.
Event Title:
This may sound trivial, but believe me it is not. Your event title needs to clearly state what value you will deliver at the event. You will also want it to be as short as possible but as long as needed, and appealing to the reader.
Using the words "How To" in an event title has proven time and time again to increase attendance.
The title "Learn about new investment opportunities" would be much more effective if it were called, "How you can take advantage of new investment opportunities."
A very simple approach for event titling is that you should make a list of a dozen or so different ways that you could title the event.
Ask for feedback from colleagues, clients, and potential clients. If you run the event multiple times, test different titles and see if one title generates more attendance than the other. Basically, just do your research, and test it out on people.
Event Marketing Partners:
Marketing partners are an often overlooked source for boosting an events attendance.
You can, for example, partner with two other firms and pool your resources and mailing lists to increase response and then deliver together.
Besides having extra names to market to, your event will have a multi-faceted presenter list which can often increase attendance on its own.
By having a marketing partner, you can also co-market the event with a trade association, get the event notice listed in your partner's newsletters, work with a college or university to sponsor the event, or any number of other partner strategies.
For example, a network security service firm I know of once partnered with the FBI to run their seminar on the new security issues facing firms.
The event pulled better than anything they had ever done before.
As a final thought, one of the most overlooked ways to increase event registration is by delivering great events and by providing information or tools that will be of significant value for the attendees.
If you can deliver one of the best seminars of your life every time that you make an effort to host a seminar, your events, much like your practices, will grow in reputation and attendance.
Who knows, someday soon you might even be able to answer the phone and let your potential attendees know, that your seminar is full but you can let them pre-register for the next seminar that you host.
That is not all there is to say on the subject. Here are some extra quick tips to hosting a successful seminar.
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Plan your overall objectives
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Plan your marketing mix of the seminar
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Plan your invitations and approach
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Plan your target group
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Plan you target list of attendees
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Plan your date and location
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Plan your type of seminar- large or small
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Plan your speakers and topics
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Plan your venue and details
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Plan your staff time and resources
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Plan your handouts and questionnaires
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Plan your equipment
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Plan your talk and time
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Review all details over and over
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Plan your follow up
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Repeat and improve