Event Marketing

Dina M Giolitto
If you’re not exactly sure what event marketing is, think of Earth Day, the Renaissance Faire, Woodstock, Shop Rite’s Can-Can Sale, President’s Weekend at Macy’s… and let’s not forget Valentine’s Day, that “Hallmark Holiday” disguised as a day of Love but really meant to boost candy, card, dinner and gift sales.

I’m going to be blunt with you here, hope you can handle it. Event marketing is not just an excuse to cheer about something. Your motive in “inventing” and promoting a market-driven holiday or celebration is to gain new visibility in your niche, drum up excitement with your target audience, and ultimately increase profits for your business.

If you’re still a little guy just yet, you may have to wait on those cash sales until next year when people know you better… but revenue earned by way of new customers who notice you during the event counts as profit and makes the event worth the effort in the long run.

Generally, your goal is this: Position yourself at the helm of the event and drive mass traffic to the event so that folks develop an association between the event and your brand.

Event planning is a highly effective networking strategy in itself. In promoting the event and encouraging participation, you will become acquainted with many, many new faces and forge more solid bonds with old faces. In coordinating the event, you will learn who the “ideal” colleagues are to work with, and how your strengths can best be leveraged while putting other people to work on the tasks you find more challenging.

You may wonder how on earth you could possibly execute an event “virtually.” The truth is… with so many active online networks and Power Groups forming, the internet is possibly the simplest and least expensive venue for your “invented event.” Instead of a convention center, you have a “home base” website. Instead of live public speakers standing on a rented out podium in a rented auditorium, you have virtual “spotlight guests” on your blog or website. Your event won’t require costly shipping of hard goods and transportation, because your “trade show booth” can be managed from a website that’s launched once and remains live all year to generate residual traffic and help you rank better for the following year.

Who might want to join you in promoting an event, and what type of holiday or celebration could work with your niche? Basically, the idea is to just zero in on what your audience would find most valuable and attractive, in the celebratory sense. Following are a few ideas off the top of my head, but I’m sure that you can come up with something fabulous to fit your market.

If you sell gourmet pies, you could invent “Pie in the Sky” or a Month-Long Virtual Bake-Off. Complimentary vendors who might join your celebration: gourmet coffee distributors, Longaberger reps, companies who sell baking and kitchen equipment, folks who run dessert websites, other pie sellers (sorry, in event planning, you often have to deal directly with “the competition” but it’s so much fun that nobody ever seems to mind.)

If you normally target the “alternative health” or audience of herbalists, a health fair has the potential to lure potential buyers in droves and get them on your mailing list. If your website is focused around writing or design, you can hold a contest to attract fresh talent. I’ve come across websites where designers are encouraged to “submit entries” which are then posted and judged, with prizes handed out. The creations are often very funny and a great way to scope out up-and-comers. Don’t forget: contestants should be encouraged to sign up for your paid memberships or at the very least get on your mailing list; otherwise the event is “virtually” pointless.

Planning an event on the internet requires someone with dynamic leadership skills, a good sense of timing, a solid “people network,” the ability to mesh with a variety of personalities, strong organizational skills, and of course- an expert handle on all the traditional means of online marketing.

Skills needed for proper event execution: website design, copywriting, email and list management, blogging, publicity, brand-building. If you possess these skills yourself, wonderful, but know there is an incredible amount of work involved, so getting backup assistance is imperative.

Necessary resources: web hosting, FTP (file transfer protocol), blog hosting, word processing, a good graphics program, numerous article marketing directories, several memberships to major web PR sites, a pdf creation tool, an advanced email management program (such as Microsoft Outlook), an online discussion forum, a subscriber sign-up form, file backup.

Want to witness event planning live in action? Please join me and my marketing friends for the First Annual Web Content Awareness Day, scheduled to launch on February 9, 2006 at http://WebContentAwarenessDay.com.

Sneak Peek: Visit the Countdown to Web Content Awareness Day Blog and learn how you can ride our wave of high web traffic!

Paste in this link:

http://wordfeeder.typepad.com/web_content_awareness_day/

Copyright 2006 Dina Giolitto. All rights reserved.

Shannon Kilkenny

How to Attract New Clients with Seminars and Workshops

Face it ladies, we can all use a new or different form of marketing, promotion and/or publicity. I’m a true believer in multiple venues for getting my name and product out to my potential customers and clients. One avenue I have found that works for me is planning and implementing seminars and workshops. This great marketing tool also gets me out of the house, away from my computer and face to face with my customers and potential clients. Who is the perfect candidate for leading a seminar or workshop? Anyone who has a product or service to offer and wants more clients and customers – is that you? This brief overview shows you the benefits of seminars and workshops and helps to get you started with development and designing ideas. First, let’s define seminars and workshops. With this understanding you will be able to decide which fits you and your marketing plan.

A Seminar tends to be more instructive with a lecturer speaking to an audience about a specific topic. Seminars typically handle a larger audience with this structure. You can have hundreds of participants – just listening with little to no interaction.

A Workshop tends to be more interactive, more of a hands-on learning. It is usually a smaller group because of the activity structure. Typically workshops cater to a smaller group where you might break out and work in even smaller groups throughout the allotted timeframe.

So What is in it For You? There are a number of benefits to harvest with these types of events.

1. Exposure and Name Recognition – You can reach a large audience base. It is a way of introducing your name and business to potential clients and customers. It is said that a person needs to hear your name 5-7 times before they will buy from you or use your services. This is an excellent outlet for word-of-mouth marketing.
2. Establish Credibility – When you lead workshops or seminars, people automatically look at you as an expert. They are more likely to trust what you say. You build trust and a reputation as well, so make sure what you say is true. Offer them a solution.
3. Generate Leads – These leads are priceless. If they attend your event or contact you for more information, a solid connection has been made. I have a list of everyone who has taken my class or come to my workshop, purchased my book or made an inquiry of any of the above. And when my next book comes out….I have a list of direct leads.
4. Selling Opportunity – Seminars and workshops can create a multi-stream of income. First you can charge for the workshop (not always appropriate). Second, sell your product and your services – possibly repeatedly (back of the room sales).
5. Learn your market – Learn needs and desires of your audience. After each event you will have learned more from your participants and can then transform your curriculum to cover those new issues. You can incorporate that information into your next presentation or you might get new ideas and create a totally different seminar or create a new product. Evaluations forms are priceless.

Sometimes these results aren’t noticed right away, because the client isn’t ready at the moment. But they will remember you when their need arises. And if they keep seeing your name out there…when they are ready, they will come to you.How to Develop a Workshop or Seminar

Let’s do a quick test to see if you are a candidate to create a workshop or seminar by going through the next 8 steps. See what you come up with and decide whether or not you have something worthwhile to give. And of course you do or else you wouldn’t even be reading this article.

1. Define yourself: Write down your profession or the special knowledge you have – keep it simple at first. For example:

Profession: Attorney, mortgage broker, chiropractor, business consultant, event planner, writer, accountant, financial planner, etc.Knowledge: Health care, web design, coaching, event planning, vitamins, teacher, real estate, organizer, etc.

1. Define your services and products: Write down what your services or the products you have to offer such as coaching, consulting, teacher, trainer, books, newsletters, classes and/or workshops, etc.
2. Get specific: What information or skill do you have and would want to share with others? If you’re a mortgage broker, maybe you specialize in 1st time buyers or are creative with financing and work with people who own and want to own multiple income properties. Or you’re a chiropractor and you specialize in young children or pregnant women or sports injuries. Or you’re a tax account and you specialize in real estate or small businesses or an attorney who specialized in creating trusts and financial planning…..You get the idea.
3. List Potential Topics: Out of the list above, list some topics you could teach and train others.
4. List your target audience: Who would be interested in what you have to offer. You need to get specific here. When it comes to marketing, knowing who these people are will save you time and money.
5. Bring in Others: List others who you might want to create an alliance with you and work together on a combined curriculum. Find someone with additional knowledge or complimentary knowledge or a product that would enhance your event.
6. Prepare an agenda: Take everything from above and begin working on the details. This will ultimately begin the process of designing your agenda/curriculum. Make sure you have a compelling topic and offer a solution!
7. Write an enticing course title: With the information you’ve written down, start creating a title. Don’t be surprised if it changes often until you find the right one. And you will know when you have it.

By following the above steps you have developed the shell / template for your workshop or seminar. Keep going to the design stage if you have discovered you have great topic and program to use as a selling tool.Designing a Workshop / SeminarRemember that the ultimate goal is obtain the benefits that we spoke of earlier! You want to present a quality image of you and your product or service. What you are looking for are new clients and you want quality clients not just quantity. Think of your workshop or seminar as a sales call for a large number of potential clients.

Create an Agenda – Make sure your topic and/or presentation is gripping and solutions based. People don’t just buy products and services….they buy solutions. They have problems and they want you to provide the answers. How does your service or product provide a solution? What answers do you have to a problem? These are the topics and issues that you want to present. What I can do for you! If the complete solution involves a third party – bring them in. With the right collaboration you are able to offer participants more solutions in one setting. Be specific and avoid topics that are too general. Unless the workshop is just a teaser to other things such as an all day course or a series of coaching sessions, etc. I give workshops for the Learning Annex and only have 3 hours to teach Event Planning. There is not nearly enough time to explain it all….So the participants want to buy my book as they leave for the rest of the story!

Know Your Audience – Select the right target audience and prospects. These are the people who need your services and products – they need a solution that you can provide. Are they individuals, small business owners, women, parents, students, people in career transition, people in pain – emotionally or physical, new home buyers, somebody having tax problems, financial investment needs, the corporate sector, the list goes on and on. Clarifying your audience will help you effectively communicate your solution in your invitation and ultimately your presentation. Find out how to reach your audience. Will it be through email, flyer, phone calls, invitations, etc. What will work best for your situation? Network for leads – always be on the look out for potential clients. Make sure you get everyone’s business card and put it in your database right away.

Attract your Clients – Create and deliver an attractive invitation that demands action. Craft something that will entice them to come to your event. Use the AIDA principal for the invitation: Attention – Grab the readers’ attention

Interest – Generate interest

Desire – Create the desire within them to keep reading or phone

Action – Tell them what to do. Act Now, Buy Now, Phone Today, Buy This book!

Once you have a presentation whether it is a seminar or a workshop, you can recycle it. No need to reinvent the wheel. So the initial time it takes to create the presentation will pay off over and over again.

Obviously there is a lot more to planning a workshop or seminar than what is written is this article. For a comprehensive understanding of planning events of any kind, order my book The Complete Guide to Successful Event Planning by going to www.successfuleventplanning.com

And for those of you out there who think you can’t possibly present a workshop or seminar – because of a fear of speaking in front of a group. I’m here to tell you I was there! But I started out speaking with small groups and then worked my way up. But fear of public speaking is a whole other article! In fact…it could be a great workshop topic for one of you ladies. Plan well, plan often and expect success.

Soren Breiting

As part of your event planning you should seriously consider registering a special event domain. That should in fact be the first step for your planning of any event.

Whatever it is: – your big wedding event – any other big family event – a festival – a course / training event – a celebration event in your local community – an international seminar or conference event – a campaign event / promotion event – a school class event.

It is much easier to find a proper domain name for an event website than for a permanent website.

In many cases you can use the formula: www.EVENTNAME2005.com or …Net or with a national domain like …co.uk

You can use the formula: www.musicfestival2005.com or www.music-festival-2005.com

or for your wedding event www.maryANDpeter.com or www.wedding-mary-peter.com

You can use this formula or similar ideas for domain registration for all events of any kind, whatever it is special events or annual event or more frequent events. Think of:

A course day for training: www.MarketingTraining2005.com

A sports day: www.Soccer-championship-2005.com and so on for all events.

If your event is an ongoing event, year after year, (I don’t think of your wedding!) and you can get a really good domain name, then register this domain name, and use it year after year for the annual event.

This is fine for the branding of the domain name, as well as for the re-use of printed material, internet links etc.

Remark, that you can write the domain name of the event in different ways, using capital letters to make the domain name more readable, as the capitalization of the letters in the domain name doesn’t matter. Only if you refer to specific pages other than the home page you need to have an exact match for the letters. This is one of the good reasons, too, to go for a completely new domain name.

You only get help from the domain name registration if you also set up a website.

In the big picture to register a domain and to have it hosted is a very little part of the expense for all events.

If you are really on a shoestring consider a service like Direct Nic, see http://www.domainregistrationhosting.net/directnic.htm The registration costs as little as 15 USD per year and you can set up a f*ree website without any extra costs. This web hosting company allows you to upload 20 MB of web pages on the free account just for your cost of the domain name registration. That is more than enough for most event websites. Just be careful with the graphics, including pictures. All the graphics have to be optimized for web use for the lowest possible file size. This shouldn’t give you any problems.

What to use event domains and event websites for?

In your event planning make use of your event website to tell about: – What is the background of the event? – If it is a special event, then why is it a special event. – Where and when and for whom? – Will it cost something and how to register to participate in the event? – Are you expecting presents – other things guests have to prepare for?

The website after the event should also be a part of your event planning.

Most visitors will use the event website after the event, so remember that in your planning.

You can post photos from the event – this is a very popular aspect of any modern event, so plan for that. You can incorporate the photos on your event website or you can link to a special service that makes it easier for you to upload the event pictures after the big day. I have put some of the best offers together here and some services are f*ree: http://www.OnlinePhotoSharing.net

You can highlight special messages, lessons learned, info for further work, cooperation and event planning – may be try to coordinate all events after the common big event?

I am sure you have many more ideas already to be included in your event planning – just remember for all events – plan in time, that makes everything much easier for yourself and for other event participants.

And, PLEASE, don’t close down your successful event website just a few months after the event. Visitors will first arrive in numbers to websites after some time.

Lesson: If possible, include in your event planning some years of hosting of your event website and keep your event domain as long as you can.

Yolanda Nash

“Response cards” are usually included with invitations so the hosts and wedding event planners know how many wedding guests are coming, the quantity of food and beverages are needed, chairs, wedding favors, place card holders and other critical elements of planning your wedding are needed.

When guests do not follow the response card etiquette it can make for quite a stressful situation for everyone involved in planning the event.

So here are some quick tips to avoid a stressful RSVP situation.

1. Mail out RSVP’s atleast 2 months before the event any longer can result in your RSVP getting lost or misplaced

2. Include a self addressed stamped envelope with the RSVP

3. Include exact instructions such as how many guests they can bring, directions to the event, date and time of the event, if children are allowed, gifts, and a clear respond by date should all be included.

4. Have the event planner or hosts call all prospective guests and ask if they will be attending. This will give you a chance to let the guests know all of the what, when, where and how’s of the event.

If you use these tips you should have a clear number of how many guests are attending your event and a very stress free event planner.

Audrey Okaneko

Event planning is so popular these days. I am seeing more and more people turn to event planners to help them coordinate their special events.

For several years, I was in charge of renting out the banquet room in the building I was working in. Over and over again, people wanted to see photos of how the room looked with tables, chairs and various decorations.

It is so hard for most people to envision what the room could look like with colored table cloths, a balloon arch with lights through it etc.

Not all rooms are created equally and not all contractors are created equally.

Why not create a scrapbook that shows off not only the available banquet rooms in town but also the work of the various florists, decorators and the presentations of the various caterers?

I have seen events where the caterers used a simple table cloth and then put their chaffing dishes on top of this simple table cloth. I’ve seen other caterers use color and props to create magnificent effects on the buffet table. These same caterers will also “hide” their chaffing dishes in the table decoration.

I’ve seen banquet rooms with gorgeous chairs and I’ve seen banquet rooms where chair covers were necessary to provide the desired affect.

By using a scrapbook to show the many choices available, you’ll help the event host make their decisions quicker and I believe they will have fewer questions about what the room will look like. Adding letters of praise from previous hosts along with letters of recommendation about the contractors you work with are also great additions to the scrapbook (s) you use to show your potential clients.

I recently attended a Bat Mitzvah celebration. Multi colored table cloths were used creating an affect I had not seen before. It was just adorable. I never would have been able to envision this, without actually seeing it. This is why photos are so important for potential clients.

Create pages showcasing each of the services you offer as an event planner. See if offering scrapbook pages helps you in helping your client reach quicker decisions that they feel good about.

Ryan J Bell

Your first task is to cover the basics that every registration form needs to cover. Here are the basic elements of any registration form:

• Your logo
• Date & title of the event
• Location of the event
• The cost of registration
• The agenda for the event
• An indication of how long the registration process will take (for paper forms, this would be a pagination number like ‘Page 1 of 5′, for online forms it is a completion timeline)

It can be difficult to include all of this on a paper registration form (a great reason to go paperless!) but it should definitely be included within the registration materials packet.

Once you have the basics covered, there are several extra items you can add to a registration form. Each one of the following helps provide your potential attendee with extra motivation to register. Try these out for your next event:

• Add a money-back guarantee
• For online forms: add indicators of security like a Hackersafe logo, and a privacy policy
• Also for online forms: add an ‘Invite a Friend’ link
• Provide reasons the registrant should attend, or a “What you will learn/gain…” section
• Photos from previous events
• Names of famous speakers or guests who will be attending/speaking
• As many ways as you can provide for registrants to get in touch with you when they have questions

The addition of these items will greatly increase the likelihood that your potential attendees will register right away.

An online form is light-years ahead of paper registration, but it’s not useful if you need to contact your IT department every time you need a headcount. An online system can have your event up and running in minutes and be able to create, view and send reports whenever and where you want.

Ryan J Bell

The biggest change you can make for yourself is to start thinking of your event planning and registration process as a marketing funnel. This will help keep you focused on the goal of getting registrants, not the smaller details of the event planning process.

Here are 5 tips that can help get you started on the path to examining your event process as a sales funnel:

1. Automate Everything that Can Be Automated The real value of an event planner is having someone available to deal with situations that arise during the course of planning, like arranging meals and meeting space, answering registrant questions and “putting out the fires” that arise.

With event planning there can be quite a bit of legwork involved, especially in the registration phase: processing payments, processing registrations, making reports for sponsors, printing name badges, and eventually performing on-site registrations.

Because of web-based software programs, it has become extremely easy and economical to automate most of this process, leaving you free to perform the most valuable functions of an event planner.

2. Offer an Early-Bird Discount I recently conducted a study on over 9,000 events that used an online registration system, and found that planning professionals could increase their total registrations by a large amount when they use correctly timed, properly discounted early-bird offers.

The added benefit of early-bird pricing options is that the earlier registrants commit to your event, the better the estimates you can give to hotels and caterers, resulting in time and money saved all around.

3. Maximize Registration Time Giving your attendees a longer time to register means giving your self more opportunity to collect registrations. Research has shown that an optimal period for registration to run on the average event is 6 months. This timeline allows ample time for attendees to plan their schedule, while at the same time giving them plenty of notice about your event.

4. Follow-Up With Attendees Talking to your attendees after the event is an often overlooked technique, but this makes it a great way to stand apart from the crowd. Ask attendees what they liked and what could be improved.

There are two important things you need to do with this follow up: first, make changes to your program. If many attendees suggest the same thing, then it is advisable to try to make that fix for them.

Second, you should make sure to reference your next event in the follow up email. For instance, “Thanks so much for attending Our Conference 2007, we’ll see you in April at Our Conference 2008! If you’d like to pre-register, you can use this registration form.”

5. Offer a Guarantee An easy way of showing your prospective attendees that you stand behind the value your event provides is with a money-back guarantee. Experience has shown that the risk of a few refunds is far outweighed by the additional attendance you can receive using this method.

The structure of the guarantee is completely customizable depending on your situation, but common ideas are to guarantee satisfaction by the first-day’s mid-morning break or a lifetime guarantee. The real key is to make sure that you word your guarantee so that it makes the assumption that the attendee will enjoy the event (e.g. “If you truthfully feel like you gain nothing from my event (which has never happened before!) I will refund your registration fee in full!”).

It can be tough out there, but if you try to remember that the true added-value of an event planner is in taking care of the tough situations, and try to think of your event process as a sales funnel, you can increase your attendance.

Ryan J Bell

However, when contacting meeting professionals who already employ an HTML-based form to help with registration, they are often under-informed or misinformed on what exactly an online registration system could offer them in addition to the functionality of their established HTML registration form.

In brief, here are just a few of the advantages to be gained by switching to an online registration system:

Superb Security

Because most online registration companies host your registration pages on their servers you can take advantage of the economies of scale and get expensive security measures for a fraction of their price. Hackersafe inspections, 128-bit encryption technology, TRUSTe verified privacy policies and PCI compliancy are all great programs you can take advantage of.

Customizable Reporting

On top of securing your data, registration systems often offer custom reporting capabilities so that you can slice your data any way you need. With some systems, you can also email reports to sponsors, colleagues, vendors or anyone else you need to keep in the loop, without giving them direct access to your accounts or data.

Flexible Forms

The best registration systems on the market today allow you to build your forms using a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editor, meaning that you can build an entire web page without knowing any HTML code. This gives you the ability to add your logo, customize text styles, change colors and make changes on the fly, with no need to involve an IT department!

Automatic Emails

Event-reminder and registration confirmation emails are easy to build and send with online systems that do most of the work for you. In addition, top systems will have a mechanism which sends emails to registrants who abandon the process before completing their registration, affording you the opportunity to assist people who are confused, or help to convince them that registering for your event will be beneficial.

The biggest difference between online registration and HTML registration forms is that they are self-service. There a few registration companies that will let you try out their system fully before you commit to buying anything.

Ryan J Bell

As the landscape in the conferences, seminars and meetings industry becomes more crowded and more competitive event planners are looking for more ways to make their event a unique experience for their attendees, vendors and other participants. I’d like to share one tip with you that will help make your event one to remember:

Look beyond your event, to where your attendees are coming from.

The case with business travel is that often when you invite someone to join you at your event there is someone else they are leaving behind: a spouse or significant other. In many cases, the content at your event which your attendee finds so captivating won’t necessarily be as interesting to their partner (opposites attract, right?). So why not compensate their partner for the time you’re “borrowing” your attendee? With an online registration system that includes simple shopping cart functionality, this is an easy-to-implement detail which makes a huge impression. As your attendee is registering for your event, present them with the option to send something home to whoever they’ll be away from. A few suggestions are:

• A bottle of wine
• A gift basket (food and snacks or a “spa-pack” are great choices)
• A choice of DVD titles with popcorn included

Be creative! What would you like to do if you had a few days to yourself? Give your attendees several options so that they can tailor their gift to what their partner likes to do. Another great idea is to allow registrants to add a personalized note to the gift, or provide them with some pre-made options: “Missing you,” is a simple phrase that can work wonders.Making it easy for your attendees to do something good for themselves and those they love is a great way to make your event memorable. When your attendees return home, travel-weary and overloaded with information, to a welcome reception from an ecstatic loved-one they’ll remember your event as one that makes their lives easier: giving them more information, with less impact on their lives.