Event Marketing and Event Promotions

Last Minute Event Marketing and Promotion Strategy

Every few weeks I get a telephone call from a frantic event marketer looking for last minute event marketing strategies. The situations can be pretty heart-wrenching. Usually there isn’t much that can be done . . . But that doesn’t mean that I won’t try and help. One of the first questions I ask is, “do you have an email list?” Very few people respond with, “yes.” A house email list is about the closest thing to an event marketing silver bullet, especially when your event is right around the corner. If you don't have a list or a ton of advertising cash reserve, your last minute options are fairly limited.

Go to Your House Email
Your email list is one of the most lucrative places for ticket sales when you're down to the wire. Unfortunately, too many event promoters and organizers DON’T email their house list ENOUGH prior to their event. You can’t just send one email asking people to buy before your big event.

Email Reality - Not Everyone Opens Your Email (Even Those Interested)
It's important to remember that a majority of the people you're emailing WON'T open your email. Don't take it personally, it's just the reality of email marketing. How many times have you skipped over an email? If you’re getting a 30%-40% open rate on emails, which is typical, that means that 70%-60% of the people aren’t seeing your message. The easiest way to overcome the previous statistic is by sending more emails.  But you don’t want to copy and paste the same email. Find a happy medium.

Be Authentic and Balance
When you sell with email - write your sale pitch in a genuine and authentic manner. Gary Vaynerchuk (WineLibrary.tv) said it best in one of his keynote speeches, “people have awesome bull shit detectors.” Sell people using some end of the world scenario isn't the best of ideas . . . “If you don’t buy right now the Earth is going to EXPLODE and the Universe will fold in on itself.” Obviously you're not going to write that, but hopefully you get the point. Ideally you want to find the right amount of balance between selling and being authentic.

Send the Same Email (Basically) Several Times
There are several different ways to get people to buy other than, “Buy Now!” Consider using scarcity to let people know that advance sale tickets are going fast. Another angle you have at your disposal is “buy early and save.” But you need to spell out the benefits to your reader. Let them know how much they’re going to save if they buy now. If you have a deadline for advance ticket sales let people know that’s coming up. The idea is to mix and match your sales argument.  You don’t want to send the same email to people multiple times in a row. That being stated, you can still send the same basic message various ways.

If your time is ticking down . . . don’t be afraid to leverage your house email list.  Those last few days before your event is when you want to really sell to your list.

List Building Articles:

• Event Marketing: Start Building Your List Early
• Automatically Generate Leads for Your Event Year Round
• Keeping Your Event List Engaged
• Don't Neglect Your Email List
• Event Marketing: Multiple Ways to Engage Your List
• Simple Customer List Building Suggestions
• Start Building Your List Early

Shocking Event Web Site Stat - Most People Only Visit Once

A common misconception of event planners and organizers is that people are religiously visiting their event web site. As a result, event organizers continuously update their sites with new content . . . in some cases it becomes an obsession. In my humble opinion, their efforts and resources are being wasted. Don’t get me wrong, updating your web site with relevant and timely content is very important. Keep in mind - event web sites aren’t like news web site. People don’t come back multiple times a day to check for updates on an event web site. Consider the following . . .

Most People Only Visit Once
Recently I crunched Google Analytics stats for 11 very different web sites spanning a 13 month period. The web statistics were drawn from a variety of industry segments. (Three of the sites were event web sites.) Traffic numbers from these sites were anywhere from a few hundred visitors a month all the way up to 24,000+ visitors a month. After the data was compiled, there was one shocking statistic that stood out . . . 71.67% of people visited these web sites ONLY ONCE!  A stunning 86.11% of people visited these web sites THREE TIMES or LESS. There might be some slight variances to the previous statistics, depending on industry, but it’s something you should mind carefully. Most people are only visiting your event web site once. You don’t have to take my word for it! Take a look at your own web stats. Look under the Visitor Loyalty tab in Google Analytics and select the Loyalty link. Most event organizers never consider the visitor loyalty when they look at their web statistics.

What are You Doing to Capture Their Info?
If a majority of people are visiting your web site only once, you need to do something to capture their information. By capturing the user information of your target market, you have a powerful tool to lead people back to your web site. A qualified target list of prospects is also a tremendous asset for selling advance sale tickets to your event. The easiest starting point is attempting to collect a visitor’s first me and email address. Don’t focus on quantity, but quality. Take a look at the resources section below for additional information. 

Those Annoying Pop-Ups
You might want to test a pop-up to collect visitor information. A note on annoying pop-ups . . . they’re only annoying when you’re popping up information that’s irrelevant to the person visit your site. That was always to problem with old school pop-up advertising. Present a value based proposition that the visitor actually cares about and the pop-up stops becoming an annoyance.

Knowing that most people only visit your web site once gives you the opportunity to do something about it. My strong recommendation is to try and collect email addresses right on your home page. To many people the recommendation probably seems highly counter-intuitive, but it works amazing well. Building a targeted list of prospects and then market to that list is the closest thing to an event marketing silver bullet.

Want to get more great info? Check out the articles below:

Event Web Statistics:

• Web User Traffic Trends to Your Event Web Site
• The Timing of Your Event Promotion
• Hold Your Event Marketing Accountable!
• Reading the User's Mind and Then Doing Nothing About It
• Web Page Statistics - "Hits" versus Visitors

List Building Articles:

• Event Marketing: Start Building Your List Early
• Automatically Generate Leads for Your Event Year Round
• Keeping Your Event List Engaged
• Don't Neglect Your Email List
• Event Marketing: Multiple Ways to Engage Your List
• Simple Customer List Building Suggestions
• Start Building Your List Early
• Late Event Promotion - Big List Growth
• Building Your List Above the Fold
• Are You Opting-In Above the Fold?
• Form Placement and Growing Your List
• Turn Your Event Into an Experience

• The Event Promotion System
  Get Your Free Event Promotion & Marketing Video Training

Get Great Ideas from an Event Marketing Field Trip

How much time do you spend looking to other events or industries for marketing ideas? Borrowing ideas from other events and industries is one of the quickest ways to add dollar signs to your bottom line. If you don’t spend much time looking outside your own event looking for marketing ideas, you need to start today.

Get Over It . . .
One large (self-imposed) roadblock that most people have to overcome is the “that won’t work for me” mindset.  How many times have you heard business people lament the “that won’t work, my business is different” line? Too many event planners and organizers fall into that same trap.  It’s like a broken record . . . “That won’t work because my event is different.” That’s a bunch of B.S.! Proven marketing ideas can be adapted and modified from one industry to another. In some cases adopting ideas can be unbelievably simple. 

60 Seconds for a $500,000.00+ Idea
Over the last three weeks I’ve attended the Rochester International Jazz Festival, Red Bull Air Race Championships (Windsor/Detroit), and two ethnic festivals (Ukrainian and Turkish). There were tons of great ideas floating around. One simple strategy I picked up put $500,000.00+ into an event organizers bank account,  months before a single person showed up to their event. Discovering the $500K+ strategy took all of sixty seconds with a few quick questions to the right person.  There is no reason why you can’t do the same.

Go Fish for Ideas
Make it a point to venture out and attend other events in and around your area.  Competing or complementary events to your own make for the best field trips. When at other events be on the lookout for things that you might be able to integrate into your own event.  The most observant you are, the more you’ll be able to take away. Find out who’s in charge of then event . . . are they on site? Most important - Don’t be afraid to ask smart questions!

Don’t be afraid to ask organizers questions. Keep it short and sweet.  Always remember to use a little couth . . . if an organizer is crazy busy at their event, you might need to follow up afterward. Follow up with them a week or so after their event. It's important to remember that you don't always need to speak to the actual organizer to get good information or ideas.

Validate the Information
One important point to remember . . . you’re going to need to do your homework and dig into details. It isn’t wise to take everything at face value. If something sounds too good to be true, do a little research to validate an idea or strategy.  Why should you do this? Even event organizers have egos that need to be stroked. As a result, they might exaggerate their numbers or certain claims. You don't want to integrate an event or strategy into your own event that has been proven to work.
  
Next time you go out to another event, bring your thinking cap, a small notebook (plus pen) and an insatiable curiosity.  Look for things that you can integrate and ethically borrow. Never dismiss another event's promotion idea(s) as irrelevant or stupid until you’ve dug into the details.

Want to get more great info? Check out the articles below:

• Event Planning - The Customer Avatar and Your Event
• When to Start Selling Tickets to Your Event
  
• A Negative Question to Create a Better Event
• Automatically Generate Leads for Your Event Year Round
• How to Get Them To Your Event
• Why Well Planned Events Fail
• Getting Them to Buy Tickets Early

• The Event Promotion System
  Get Your Free Event Promotion & Marketing Video Training

Does Your Event Web Site Display Properly?

On Wednesday a friend called me up and asked me to check over their event web site. Over the last week they spent several hours updating their new web site and wanted a fresh set of eyes to look their web site over.

At first glance things looked pretty good.  Then they asked me to “Look at some of the other pages.” That’s when we discovered a BIG problem . . . there was no navigation bar on my screen. On my friend’s computer the navigation bar was showing up. So I asked him, “What browser are you using?” He said “Internet Explorer.” I was using Mozilla Firefox.  The reason no web navigation was showing up on my computer screen was a browser compatibility issue. 

The navigation menu my friend was using worked in Internet Explorer, but didn’t work in Firefox. Depending on the marketplace, Firefox can account for approximately 20-25% of your market share. In this specific case, 21% of visitors (according to Google Analytics) can’t navigate my friend’s web site – NOT GOOD!

A Completely Blank Page
A few years ago an event web site I was working on displayed properly in Firefox, yet was completely blank page in Internet Explorer. You don’t want that to happen when your money is on the line. It’s imperative that you make sure your web site works on the most common browsers. A few lines of code or a piece of multimedia technology could prevent a lot of people from being able to view your web site.

Browser problems usually creep up after a web site redesign. When the code on which the site is build is modified, check to make sure your web site displays properly.

Check in These Browsers
You need to make sure that your event web site works in the most common web browsers. These include Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, Chrome, and Opera on the Mac and PC. Keep in mind that not everyone has the most up to date browser versions. You probably want to go back a version or two. The recommendation above should cover about 99% of the people visiting your web site. Depending on your target market you might want to consider creating a mobile version of your web site.

Here is a great web service you can use (for FREE) to check that your event web site is displaying properly on the most common browsers:

• http://www.BrowserShots.org

Aim for 98-98%
Don’t kill yourself testing your web site to ensure 100% browser compatibility. Experts recommend it, but from a practicality standpoint it’s extremely difficult to implement. It’s much more effective to make sure your web site displays properly 98%-99% of the time.

The information above might seem trivial . . .  But when you’re spending big bucks on advertising and marketing for your event it can make all the difference. Take a few extra minutes to make sure the event web site you’re directing people to actually works.

Become the Information Authority for Your Event

Here is a costly mistake made by many event organizers and planners - hiding details from their target market. Over years I’ve seen very smart event organizers foolishly hide information about their event. In their mind, the decision for not releasing certain event details is completely logical. The thought process goes like this . . . “It’s my event and I’ll give people details when I’m ready.” Let me come out and say it – hiding event details is a bad idea! Being secretive about event details has negative impact on your event marketing and ultimately your bottom line.

Look at politics! People have a high level of distrust with politicians because they feel like something is being hidden.  Nobody can ever give a straight answer. Don't follow suit. It is in your best interest to be as transparent as possible with your event details, both the good and the bad.

Trust and Instant Gratification
Today people go online and “Google” just about anything. Your target market is doing the same in relation to your event. The Internet adds fuel to “the instant gratification fire.” People want information and they want it yesterday. Social media further stokes the fire. In order to be successful with your event marketing you need to be first in the mind of your target market.  Your web address should be one of the first things that pops up in a person’s mind when they think about your event.

Your online marketing efforts hinge on people perceiving you (your web site) as the authority for information about your event. Establish your web site as the number one information authority for your event. The way to gain authority with your target market is by giving people the information they crave first. Be straightforward with people.

All your social media efforts like, Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, etc. should be considered ancillary information channels.  Put links on your social media posts back to your web site. 

How to Amp Up Authority
There is one information channel that trumps your event web site in terms of establishing authority, your house list of customers and prospects. Your house list represents the most passionate segment of your target market. They represent the people most likely to attend your event. Make sure you’re using your web site to constantly build your list. Create an insider list for your event. Allow people to sign up on your web site and get the inside scoop before anyone else.
 
If people remember anything from your event marketing, let it be your web site.  When people get to your web site, give then a compelling reason to give you their first name and email address. When they come to your site, let it be the best resource in the world for information about your event.

Want to get more great info? Check out the articles below:

• Event Promotions and Shortening Your Domain Name
  
• Your Domain Name and Television Advertising
• Your Domain Name and Radio Advertising
  
• Press Releases and Your Event Marketing
• The Press Conference Lesson on Event Marketing
• Be Vigilant About Your Event Details and the Media
• The User Attention Span

• The Event Promotion System
  Get Your Free Event Promotion & Marketing Video Training

The Experience Must EXCEED that of Your Event Marketing

Today I’m going to rant a little on the importance of delivering an extraordinary experience at your event. When it comes to event marketing, there seems to be a gap between advertising promises and attendee expectations. The end result is event attendees who open their wallets, spend their hard earned money, and leave an event disappointed. Yes, I’m a big proponent of using hype and persuasion (ethically) in the marketing of your event.  But you can’t over promise and under deliver. Before you send out your next advertising campaign, do an objective review of your event marketing . . .

Your Event Advertising and Promotions
Is your event marketing overpromising on the experience your event can actually deliver? Spend some time thinking through the previous question. Look at your advertising and event from an attendee's perspective . . .  If someone were to read your advertising and attend your event – are you going to be able to deliver on all your advertising promises? If not, or even maybe not, take those points out of your advertising. I’ve seen first hand the problems associated with promising too much in event advertising. It isn’t pretty and is quickly followed by a slew of refund requests.

Using Jedi Mind Tricks (Responsibly)
Another avenue event promoters go down is using psychological persuasion into their event marketing . . .  Think advance Jedi persuasion skills (I’m not kidding!) If you haven’t already, read Dr. Robert Cialdini’s book “Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion.” In the book Cialdini outlines his six “Weapons of Influence.” One of Cialdini's weapons of influence is scarcity. Using scarcity is a surefire way to get people buying event tickets in advance. As tickets are sold, you update the number of remaining tickets on your web site. As the available ticket supply counts down, ticket demand goes up. Unfortunately, some event organizers see fit to abuse scarcity.

Last year, a local event sold out their entire block of VIP tickets. They opened a new block of VIP tickets to small group of people. Word got out about “previously SOLD OUT tickets” being on sale. That aggravated lot of people would already purchased tickets. You can sell out tickets and then put them back on sale again without annoying people. Next time, people are going to be skeptical about buying tickets.

Like Peter Parker’s Uncle Ben said “With great power there must also come — great responsibility!” (Spiderman 1962). The value your event delivers to attendees must FAR EXCEED the hype used in your event marketing. This mindset is critical if you have a recurring event. People are going to come back to an event if they feel scammed. When you boil it down, it's pretty simple. Don't claim something in your advertising that your event can't deliver.

Want to get more great info? Check out the articles below:

• A Satisfaction Guaranteed Event
• Advertising and Marketing that Sells
• Providing Massive Value in Your Marketing and Advertising
• P.T. Barnum on Advertising
• Why Well Planned Events Fail
• Turn Your Event Into an Experience

• The Event Promotion System
  Get Your Free Event Promotion & Marketing Video Training

Event Marketing and Being Persistent with Email

Here is the harsh reality of event marketing with email – most of the people on your list will never open the email you’re sending. It doesn’t matter if you use a double opt-in process or have a completely house grown list. Having managed dozens of different campaigns for a variety of clients, I can tell you that the average email broadcast open rate is BELOW 50%. Low open rates even affect high quality lists.

There are some additional email marketing points to keep in context. Every day we are inundated with more email than we can possibly read.  Even if people want to you’re your email, they might not get around to it. You’re also up against voracious SPAM filters. Don’t take it personally or get discouraged!

My reason for telling you all of the above is to make sure you adopt the right email marketing mindset for your event. In spite of the challenges listed above, I’m still the same guy who believes your house list is your biggest event marketing asset.

Be Creatively Persistent
The key to still winning with low open rates is creative persistence. There is a thin line between being persistent and being a pest. Become proficient at sending the same sales message to your list multiple times. Please note: I didn’t say send the same exact email multiple times. Get good at rewriting emails that convey the same sales message. By sending multiple messages you're going to increase the chances of people actually reading your email.

Case Study
Last year I wrote an email marketing sequence that nudged people to buy tickets almost 60 days before the event. The first campaign email setup the ticket discount and built anticipation for the event with video. The next three emails were focused on sales.  Each sales email was written differently, yet emphasized the limited number of tickets available. As tickets were purchased we adjusted the available number of tickets accordingly. Ticket sales peaked at the beginning and at the end of the promotion. Over 60% of the total advance ticket sales came after the second email. The end result was over $20,210 in gross ticket sales, 58 days before the event.

Look at your event marketing with email as a multi-step process, not a one off event. You can’t expect to send one email and get everyone on your list to buy. Be prepared for opt-outs. “If you aren’t getting opt-outs, you aren’t selling hard enough.” – John Carlton. Get good at sending the same sales message to your event email list multiple times without annoying them.

Want to get more great info? Check out the articles below:

• Keeping Your Event List Engaged
• Don't Neglect Your Email List
• Event Marketing: Multiple Ways to Engage Your List
• Simple Customer List Building Suggestions
• Late Event Promotion - Big List Growth

• The Event Promotion System
  Get Your Free Event Promotion & Marketing Video Training

Event Marketing Research - Know Your Target Market!

Every aspect of your event marketing needs to start with a comprehensive understanding of your target market. In the case of events, your target market is represented by your ideal event attendee. I cannot stress this enough - Target market research is a big deal! People won’t buy tickets for an event (or attend a free event) that doesn’t hold their interest. A lack of interest is one of the biggest reasons that events fail. If you want to pack your event, the best place to start is with a hungry market!

You can find a hungry market by doing a little online research. If you have a new event, target market research needs to be your first planning step. Start by asking yourself, “What are my target market’s wants, needs, and fears as they pertain to my event?” When asking the question it’s really important to take your ego out of the equation. Focus on the market’s ego.

Use the Net to Do Free Research
There are a plethora of tools you can use to research your target market. Most of the tools are free. Start with a Google search that’s topically related to your event. Consider segmenting your search in Google by look at the blog, news, web, and video results. Look for the hot topics or trends. Pay particular attention to online user content such as comments or reviews. What are people saying? A hotbed for user content can be found in topical forums and blogs.

Don't Reinvent the Wheel
When it comes to events, there is little need to constantly "reinvent the wheel." Take a look at similar and competing events. Try to contact the organizer. Tell them who you are and what you're thinking of doing. It’s amazing how willing other event organizers are to share information.  One telephone call could make your event more financially successful or save you heartache.

Go Back to Your Customer List
If you have a recurring event, go back to your customer list. Consider surveying your customers. Find out what people thought of your previous event and what they expect from your next event. You can have a simple online survey setup in minutes with a service like SurveyMonkey. Don’t be afraid to ask tough questions like “What didn’t you like about our last event?” The idea is to give find out what people expect from your event.

Build a Profile
Use your target market research to compile a demographic and psychographic profile of your event attendee.  That profile represents your ideal prospect and should drive everything you do with your event web site and your event. The profile should also drive your advertising and marketing decisions.

I realize that target market research isn’t the most exciting activity, but its importance is paramount. There is zero benefit in planning or creating an event if people aren’t going to attend. Doing a little homework can upfront can save you a ton of money and agony down the road.

Want to get more great info? Check out the articles below:

• A Negative Question to Create a Better Event
• Turn Your Event Into an Experience
• How to Get Them To Your Event
• Why Well Planned Events Fail
• Getting Them to Buy Tickets Early
• Leveraging Your Sponsor's Digital Resources

• The Event Promotion System
  Get Your Free Event Promotion & Marketing Video Training

Simple Event Advertising Tracking with Google Analytics

Ask most event organizers - “what’s your most effective form of advertising?” Nine times out of ten the response will be, “we have no idea!” Your event advertising needs to be an investment, not a blind expense. Every event organizer should know their most effective form of advertising. It's imperative that your track your advertising effectiveness. Thanks to technology, it’s getting significantly easier to track advertising effectiveness. One free tool every event organizer should insist on having on their event web site is Google Analytics. You can leverage Google Analytics' comprehensive statistics to help you track the effectiveness of your event advertising. Back in December, Google introduced the Annotation feature to their Analytics suite. Annotations allow you to add short notes to your Analytics data.

Use Google Analytics Annotations to Track Your Advertising
Here is what you can do . . . Use annotations to note television, radio, email marketing, or billboard campaigns. Ideally you'll want to track any form of advertising that drives traffic to your web site.You can annotate on a daily basis. Individual annotations can be up to 140 characters long and you can have multiple annotations on a single day. Below is an annotation example from a press conference to announce a local air show.

In the example above - annotations were created to note the date of the press conference to announce our local air show.  When you dig into the stats, you see the different types of advertising and publicity that drove various forms of online traffic. In the example from above, the press conference triggered various news outlets to feature news stories about the event. Almost every television station, radio station,
and new paper picked up on the event announcement.

Digging into the Data
A closer look at Google Analytics showed that 84% of all the daily traffic on March 16th was Referral Traffic (traffic from other web sites). Of that 84% referral traffic, 694 visitors came from one article on a local television news web site. The main reason for this is that the news web site prominently feature a back link to the event web site. (You need to strongly encourage you media partners to back link to your event web site - or else they won't do it.)

Fair Warning
Mining your Analytics data can be both a virtue and a vice. It’s important to be able to track traffic to your event advertising efforts, but don’t get too carried away. You can get easily lost in the countless data-points you have available to you.

Even though you can only annotate on a daily basis, there is a tremendous amount of information that can be analyzed. Here is one certainty - Using annotations is far better than the random guessing technique many event organizers use to track their advertising effectiveness.

Want to get more great info? Check out the articles below:

• An Important Event Web Site Statistic for Promoters and Event Planners
• Measuring Advertising Effectiveness
• Did You Buy a Snickers Bar Yet?
• Hold Your Event Marketing Accountable!
• Web User Traffic Trends to Your Event Web Site
• The Timing of Your Event Promotion

• The Event Promotion System
  Get Your Free Event Promotion & Marketing Video Training

Do I Need to Redesign My Event Web Site?

One comment I hear often is “we want to redesign our event web site.” Before you start of thinking of a redesign, ask yourself, “Do I really need to redesign my event web site?” There seems to be this common belief that if you redesign a web site your fortune will instantly improve. Unfortunately that simply isn’t the case. Companies have spent countless dollars on web site redesigns with little ROI. Let me share a few event web site redesign stories for your consideration . . .

The Importance of Looking at Your Past
Recently a friend of mine insisted on redesigning their event web site. A driving factor was the desire to “re-brand” their online identity. As part of the initiative an in house hosting solution was setup and they built a custom content management system for the web site. Thousands of dollars were invested. Here’s the kicker . . . the previous four years of web statistics were for the site were never referenced during any part of the redesign. You should NEVER build a web site without carefully considering your existing web statistics.

“It Looks Like an Infomercial!” – Change it!
Here’s another story. Last year, a different event organizer insisted on redesigning their event web site. It had been a few years since anything was done with the design. Their reasoning was that the previous layout and copy “looked like an infomercial.” Looking good was the emphasis of the new design. The event organizer brought in a different web developer to redesign the site.  Almost every single sales (infomercial) element of the previous site was stripped away in the redesign. The end result . . . The “better looking” web site took a 69% drop in online ticket sales from year to year.

Great Web Site Fundamentals
A great event web site has little to do with design, layout, or graphics. People don’t visit your event web site because it’s “beautiful” or “looks cool.” (Sorry graphic designer people.) Visitors are coming to your event web site because the information you have for them is relevant to their needs. Take a look at Google, Craigslist, Wikipedia, etc. Their success is driven by text based content that’s useful to the user. Is a professional looking web site important? Yes, absolutely!  I’m not suggesting you should have an ugly looking web site.  I’d say that a highly informative web site is far more lucrative.

Here’s the bottom line . . . before you even think about redesigning your event web site, spend some time focusing on the simple things. Some of my most successful event promotion endeavors have been with web sites that were a few years old. Look at your web stats or consider improving your existing web site copy. The most cost effective upgrade you can do on ANY web site is providing your target audience with better information. Upgrading the information on your web site could be done for next to nothing, if anything at all.

Want to get more great info? Check out the articles below:

• How Big Should My Event Web Site Be?
• Your Event Promotion and Marketing Strategy - Start Point
• Save Money and Time with an FAQ
• An Event VIP Experience Done Right - Red Bull Style
• Automatically Generate Leads for Your Event Year Round
• Getting Detailed Feedback To Improve Your Event

• The Event Promotion System
  Get Your Free Event Promotion & Marketing Video Training

How to Use Words on Your Event Web Site . . .

Your event web site is the one place where your writing needs to be at its’ most compelling. In the case of event marketing and promotion you’re using words (copy) to persuade people to purchase a ticket and/or attend your event. Best selling author Neil Strauss summed it up like this "The highest goal of writing is NOT to have good grammar; it's to have meaning and impact!" For today I’m going to give you some simple suggestions to improve the impact of the writing you use to promote and market your event.

It’s Not About You!
One colossal mistake made on most web sites is too much writing in the first person. Stay away from using  “I , We, & Our” too often.  To illustrate the point, I encourage you to take a look at a few business web sites. You'll see a whole bunch of first person narrative. Here's the problem with too much writing in first person  . . . People aren’t visiting your web site so you can pontificate about yourself.  They are their to satiate their personal wants and needs. Thus you should concentrate on writing in second person. In second person you’re going to use “You” and “Your” in your writing. Does this mean you should never write in first person? No! You can still write in first person, but do so sparingly. It's hard to go wrong when you write to the ego of the reader and their interest.

Think In Terms of Value & Use a Conversational Tone
It’s hard to go wrong if you write in terms of value for the reader. When it comes to online information it's often said that “content is king.” In this case your writing is your content. Your copy should be written in a way that is valuable to your reader.  Write your copy in a way that gets the reader to say, "Wow, I want to do that!"  Your writing tone also has effect on the reader. Try to write in a conversational manner. Don't try and stuff high end vocabulary into your writing. Writing in a corporate-slick manner makes you come off as a stiff board. Add a little spice to your writing that's appropriate to your audience.

Below is text from an air show ticketing page that exemplifies the two suggestions from above . . .

"Get VIP Tickets and Experience the Air Show in an Extraordinary Way!"

As a VIP Ticket Holder you get:

• Access to the Exclusive VIP Guest Enclosure
• The chance to meet, get your picture taken with, or get an autograph from some of the best pilots in the world
• 4 solid hours of heart-stopping aviation excitement with two amazing jet teams!

Want to get more great info? Check out the articles below:

• The Content King of the Internet
• Advertising and Marketing that Sells
• Does Your Headline Grab Their Undivided Attention?
• Get Your Audience Involved Through Their Emotions
• Words with Pizzazz and Razzle Dazzle
• Web Copy Argument: Short or Long?
• Promotional Headlines for Your Event
• Keep Your Text Columns Narrow
• Is Your Text the Right Color?
• Proofing your Work On Paper

• The Event Promotion System
  Get Your Free Event Promotion & Marketing Video Training

What to Do After You’ve Sold a Ticket to Your Event . . .

Many event organizers think of their attendee’s event experience occurring entirely at the event. An event attendee’s opinion of your event starts the moment they purchase a ticket from you.  They just gave you their hard earned money and have become your customer. What you do between the time someone purchases a ticket for your event and when they actually attend your event significantly impacts the opinion people have of your event. For today we'll focus on simple things you can do before your event to elevate the customer's overall experience.

Think About Them
Here is a simple question every event organizer or planner should ask . . . “What can we do to make our patron’s entire experience (from ticket purchase, until after the event) as enjoyable as possible?” Event attendee opinions are still in play after your event, but to a far lesser extent. Pretend you just purchased at ticket as an event attendee to your own event.  What are all the questions you’d have regarding the event?  Think in terms of being a helpful guide or great information resource to event attendees. Nobody is going to give you grief for providing them with great information.

Below are some simple examples you can easily integrate into delivering a tremendous event experience outside your actual event . . .

Leverage Your Customer Contact Information
Leverage your attendee (customer) list and their email addresses. Your customer list is one of your most powerful resources. Consider putting together a simple event guide (PDF) that event attendees can download and print from home before your event.  A few years ago I made the previous suggestion to a beer festival organizer. The event organizer quickly put together a simple downloadable map indicating where each brewery was located.  The downloadable map looked very unprofessional, but nobody cared! Attendees were hungry for the information. Anyone could download the map from the beer festival web site.  The map turned out to be not only an informational tool, but also a marketing piece. Anyone could download the map for free. As long as the information is relevant and timely, people will always give you a pass on how it looks . . . just look at Google's simplicity. It's all about the information.

Driving and Parking at Your Event
Another issue that challenges many events, especially big events, is parking. Are there parking or traffic conditions that event attendee’s should be aware of regarding your event? Last year a client received a few nasty-grams from unhappy event patrons that didn’t realize how difficult it would be to get to their event. Is it the responsibility of the event organizer to event attendees to plan for traffic? Some people might say yes, others might say no. Your focus should be on making it as easy as possible for people to get to your event.

Remember, the customer has just spent their hard earned money to buy a ticket for your event. You can’t afford to rest on your laurels. You need to expand your customer service experience. Use your event web site and other resources to further enhance the experience of ticket holders. It’s never been easier and so inexpensive to deliver information digitally. Focus on getting people information that will help them to really enjoy your event.

Want to get more great info? Check out the articles below:

• Save Money and Time with an FAQ
• When Do I Start Promoting My Event?
• A Simple Formula to Pack Your Event
• Automatically Generate Leads for Your Event Year Round
• Getting Detailed Feedback To Improve Your Event

• The Event Promotion System
  Get Your Free Event Promotion & Marketing Video Training

 

An Event VIP Experience Done Right – Red Bull Style

If you want a killer model on how to run super successful outdoor events, you need not look any further than Red Bull.  Red Bull events attract millions of people across the globe.  They do everything from the winter Butter Cup (snowboarding) events to adrenaline packed heart-skipping air races.  In 2008, I was fortunate enough to participate in the Detroit Red Bull Air Races. It was an eye opening lesson in selling event exclusivity to the public. Red Bull events run the gamut from FREE admission to a super pricey experience. Today I’m going to dive into Red Bull’s high end model . . .

The Ultimate VIP Experience
Red Bull offers something called the High Flyer’s Lounge at their air races.  It is a high end experience that gets you up close to the action and pampers participants all day long. In the high flyer’s lounge you get to eat scrumptious food prepared by European chefs and access to a top self open bar. It’s also a great chance to mingle with the occasional celebrity who might be in attendance. My purpose for telling your all of this isn’t to sell you anything. It’s all about the idea of offering high end exclusivity at your next event. The High Flyer’s Lounge is a great model for anyone thinking of creating a VIP experience at their event.

The Red Bull High Flyer's Lounge (Video)

Watch the short video above to get an overview of the Red Bull’s High Flyer’s Lounge. There are plenty of ideas for almost any event planner or organizer to borrow.  Pay particular attention to third party endorsements (testimonials) in from people in the High Flyer’s Lounge. Red Bull is leveraging their customers to sell people on the exclusive experience.  

Collecting Big Bucks for a FREE Event
Keep in mind that Red Bull is selling premium exclusivity to an event that people can attendee for FREE! They don’t let the economy slow them down.  There are always going to be event attendees looking for the ultimate experience. You need to offer exclusivity at your event. Check this out . . . To purchase a two day High Flyer’s Lounge pass for the 2010 Air Race in Detroit, Saturday and Sunday, will cost you $1547.00 USD. In contrast a one day High Flyer’s Lounge pass (Sunday Only) costs $1158.00 USD. The High Flyer’s Lounge can accommodate a couple hundred people per day . . . 200 people a day (times) $1158.00 USD = $231,600. Even if it costs $100K a day to support, you’re still up $130K per day.

And Here's the Real Kicker
As part of my 2008 Air Race experience, I witness the most amazing thing . . .  A business man from Detroit paid big bucks to get into the High Flyer’s lounge. Because of high winds on Saturday the Air Race was canceled. In spite of no air races the business man was elated by his experience.  Here is what he told me . . . “It doesn’t matter that they didn’t race today. This total worth every dollar I paid. I was treated like a King and made a few great contacts that are going to be worth a mint to my company.” Any event organizer who can have their event cancelled and pull off a comment like that is a rock star in my book.

Take a careful look at how Red Bull Sells a high end experience.  There are plethora of ideas that you can borrow for your event.

Want to get more great info? Check out the articles below:

• Exciting Red Bull Video
• Turn Your Event Into an Experience
• P.T. Barnum on Advertising
• Why Well Planned Events Fail
• How to Get Them To Your Event
  
• Getting Them to Buy Tickets Early

• The Event Promotion System
  Get Your Free Event Promotion & Marketing Video Trainin

Where to Advertise Your Event

Today’s advice is pretty straightforward – don’t advertise your event in places that don’t get good attention from your target market. You can create the most amazing event advertisement on planet Earth – but if you’re not using a good marketing channel, you’re doomed from the start. To some people the advice above might seem really elementary, but you’d be surprised how many event organizers burn tons of cash on poorly placed advertising.  Below are a set of simple questions I ask every event organizer who has a recurring event. Feel free to answer the questions as they pertain to your event advertising.

1. How much money do you spend on advertising your event?
   
   
2. Where do you advertise your event (television, print, radio, Internet, etc.)?
   
   
3. What was your most effective advertising channel for getting people to your event?

What’s really shocking is that not one event organizer I’ve asked over the years can quantifiably answer question #3. There are events out there that have a $250,000 advertising budget, yet have no idea which advertising actually gets people to their event. But wait, it gets better!!! Next question . . .“If you don’t know your most effective advertising channel, why are you still spending so much money to advertise?” The answer . . . “because that’s what we’ve always done.” Maybe it’s just me, but if you’re spending $250,000 to advertise an event, wouldn’t you want to know your most effective advertising channels? Advertising for your event should be an investment, not a “just because we've always done it that way” expense.

Track Advertising Effectiveness
If you want a brutally simple way to track advertising effectiveness, get a Google Analytics account. Analytics now allows you to annotate your data with notes. Make annotations for when and where you’re advertising started and stopped. Analytics isn’t the end all be all for tracking advertising effectiveness, but you’d be pleasantly surprised by the information you do get.

Do Your Homework
Before you do any advertising, do a little homework. Get demographic and psychographic information on the channels where you plan to advertise. Do the advertising channel profiles match up with your event target market profile? Also take the time to call or email some of the other advertisers where you are thinking of advertising and ask them, "Are you seeing a good return by advertising here?" A little homework on your part can save you a pretty penny down the road.

Look at Your Advertising Competition
If you’re looking at an advertising channel for your event, be conscious of how many other advertisers you’re competing against. Recently, a friend paid over $350 for a single run Sunday ad in the local paper. My friend’s ad was tightly grouped into one section of the paper with over 150 other ads. In the end he received two visits to his web site, zero telephone calls, and no business. Make sure that when you choose an advertising medium your marketing message isn’t getting drown out by other advertisers.

Beware of the "Awesome" Advertising Deal
As a side note - Be wary of the “awesome deal” advertising trap. Many advertisers just want to sell ad space.  Business is business, but I’m staunchly against taking someone’s money for services with zero chance of any return. In all my years I’ve NEVER come across anyone selling advertising who said “I don’t think advertising with us is going to do you any good.” It seems like people are more interested in making the sale as opposed to what's best for you.

Before you spend dollars on advertising your event, make sure you're advertising in the right place.

Want to get more great info? Check out the articles below:

• Measuring Advertising Effectiveness
• David Ogilvy on Direct Response Marketing
• Advertising and Marketing that Sells
• Providing Massive Value in Your Marketing and Advertising

Leveraging Huge Ticket Discounts for Advance Tickets Sales

Last weekend a colleague of mine was telling me about a simple ticket strategy that sells a lot of advance sale tickets. The crux of the strategy revolves around discount tickets for their event. Their Advance sale ticket are discounted up to 50%. Year after year my colleague successfully leverages the same discount ticket strategy to drive advance ticket sales through the roof.

Currently it's late February and the event mentioned above doesn't take place until early August. They've already sold $30,000 worth of advance sale tickets and the event is still six months away! As the event date approaches the ticket discount is gradually reduced until all tickets are full price. The discount ticket strategy works really well for the event organizer because most people wait until the days leading up to the event to buy tickets.

Don't Be Afraid to Discount Your Ticket
Too many event organizers are constantly giving excuses as to why they can't discount their ticket prices. Some of the excuses include “If we discount, we're giving up potential revenue.” or “That might work for some other event, but it's not going to work for us.” Yes, you're giving up potential revenue when you discount your ticket price. But if done properly - you can put boatloads of cash into your coffers before your event begins. Ticket discounts should be used early in your event sales process. Discount tickets should NOT be used anywhere near your event. If you're using discount ticket prices right before your event just to get people to show up - you've done something very wrong with promoting your event.

Block Your Tickets
One way to mitigate the “we're going to lose revenue if we discount” fear is by blocking your tickets. When you block tickets you only offer a certain number of discounted tickets.  When the ticket block is sold out the discount is ended.  You can also use promotion expiration date as an extra safety net. Below is sample copy you can use for doing a discount block ticket promotion . . .

“BUY NOW and get 50% OFF your ticket. Because of this HUGE discount there are only a limited number of tickets available. One last thing - The discount is only good through (Date) or until the limited number of tickets are sold out, so don't wait to buy your tickets and save BIG!”

Every event planner and organizer should take a long hard look at discount ticketing as a way to boost advance ticket sales. It might seem like you're giving up a lot of revenue at first, but when you see how the numbers play out, it's hard to deny the results.

Want to get more great info? Check out the articles below:

• Turn Your Event Into an Experience
• How to Get Them To Your Event
• Why Well Planned Events Fail
• Getting Them to Buy Tickets Early
• Leveraging Your Sponsor's Digital Resources
  
  
• The Event Promotion System
  Get Your Free Event Promotion & Marketing Video Training

Constantly Go Back to Your Ticketing Well

When planning for any event, it’s very beneficial to think in terms of repeatability.  Ask yourself - "Can I turn my event into a recurring event?" Some of the most successful events in the world started very small and grew over time. This isn’t to say one time events can’t be tremendously successful, but if you can create an event that delivers an amazing experience for people . . . why just do it once?  Plus, there a number of benefits to recurring events.  One of the big benefits with recurring events is the potential for repeat customers. Just like in the business world - Your best potential customer is the person who just bought from you. Recurring events can take advantage of repeat customers.  Hence, your event planning should include a strategy for creating a house customer list. Just remember to keep your customer list and your prospect list separate. You're going to want to market to your event prospects and customers differently. Below are a few quick suggestions for building your house customer list . . .

Online Ticket Sales
When selling tickets online, it’s imperative that you collect and store as much customer data as possible. At a minimum get your customer’s name and email address. Thankfully most online ticket transactions require a customers email and mailing address to complete a purchase order. Be sure to make backups of your online customer list from year to year.

Offline Ticket Sales
If you’re selling tickets offline, come up with a way to get your customers to give their information to you. Try this . . . put a blurb on the physical ticket and drive people to your event web site.  On your web site, give people who already purchased tickets for your event some sort of incentive to “register online” and get additional event information. There are a tremendous amount of incentives you can give people in order to collect their information . . . best parking locations, a downloadable event guide in PDF format, an insider event schedule, etc. A simple opt-in form on your web site is the easiest way to collect ticket information.

If you want to sell a lot of advance tickets for your event, your customer list is your greatest resource. Advance ticket sales are made significantly easier by going back to your previous event attendees - especially if they were happy with your event. One important note on going back to your customer list - Don’t be afraid to offer your previous event attendees special incentives to buy for your next event. It could be anything from discount tickets to some type of value add. You can get a flood of advance ticket sales, by offering people incentives to buy early.

Want to get more great info? Check out the articles below:

• When Do I Start Promoting My Event?
• A Simple Formula to Pack Your Event
• Automatically Generate Leads for Your Event Year Round
• Getting Detailed Feedback To Improve Your Event

• The Event Promotion System
  Get Your Free Event Promotion & Marketing Video Training

How to Sell Even More Tickets to Your Event

Most people think that you just need a buy link and ticket description on your event page to sell tickets online. But there is a tremendous amount of benefit in being as descriptive as possible on your ticket packages. You should have a dedicated ticket page on your event web site. The ticket pages should be built like a long sales letter. Selling event tickets online should be thought of as a selling process. With any selling process you're going to have to deal with buying questions and objections. The more buying questions and objections you can answer the more event tickets you'll sell.

The Ticket Page with a Ton of Text
Let me give you an example of one air show that turned their ticketing page into a long online sales letter. The event web site used 1,500+ words to describe TWO different tickets for their event. The two purchase choices for the event were: a Reserved Seat or a VIP Chalet Seat. To give you some perspective - 1,500 words is roughly the equivalent of 3 pages of text in Microsoft Word. Most people would agree that's a tremendous amount of verbiage just to sell two event tickets.

When 1,500+ word ticketing page was shown to a few other people involved with the event, their initial response was . . . “Nobody is going to read all that text!” Fast forward to after the event . . .  A look at Google Analytics showed 38,796 unique page views on the ticket page. The average time spent on the ticket page alone (not the entire web site) was 2:05 per visitor. Regardless of interesting statistics - it comes down to dollar signs. The ticketing page generated $64,645.00 of advance sale revenue for the event.

Answer Their Questions and Sell More
What follows is a simple yet effective method you can use to create a killer ticket page for your event. In the weeks prior the event the air show organizer attempted to identify the people's most common ticket questions. A rough draft of the ticketing page was setup and posted to the event web site. Then, an email was send to the event’s house list regarding the release of ticket details. Hundreds of people of people on the list responded to the rough draft ticket page with their questions and concerns. The questions and concerns were then grouped into a few common categories with answers. Lastly, the most common questions and objections were answered on the “New and Improved!” ticket page.

Whenever selling tickets to your event really get into a selling mindset. A simple buy link with a brief ticket description isn't enough. Think of your event ticketing page as an online sales letter or your virtual sales person. If you use the strategy outlined above, you'll sell more tickets to your event.

Want to get more great info? Check out the articles below:

• Event Marketing: Do You have an Online Champion for Your Event?
• Online Comments About Your Event
• Advertising and Marketing that Sells
• Providing Massive Value in Your Marketing and Advertising
• P.T. Barnum on Advertising
• Why Well Planned Events Fail
• Turn Your Event Into an Experience

• The Event Promotion System
  Get Your Free Event Promotion & Marketing Video Training

Getting Email Marketing Delivered for Your Event

Email marketing (done right) is a near silver bullet for event organizers and planners. Some of my biggest successes in promoting and marketing events come directly from email marketing.  If you can get a half way decent email list of qualified prospects, advance ticket sales come rolling in.

Unfortunately emailing marketing is getting increasingly more difficult these days. It doesn’t matter if you’ve double opt-in your list or the email is being sent from Whitelisted mail servers . . . Spam filters have become so voracious that they’re blocking even legitimate emails. In terms SPAM filters, they’re a good thing - but I can’t stand over zealous filtering of real email messages.

Try Text Based Emails & SPF Records
Here’s a simple strategy to get more emails through to your list – send text based email.  Typically when sending email you have the choice of sending the email as HTML, Plain Text, or both. I realize that text based emails don’t allow for any HTML formatting, templates, graphics, etc. You’re also at the disadvantage of not being able to track open rates for your email. But you can still track click through rates on text emails by using tracking links in each email. In my opinion open rates are highly overrated. If you’re doing email marketing for business dollars generated always trump open rates.

Why send plain text email?  Because plain text email is less likely to get tagged as SPAM. I know my text email suggestion might be a hard pill to swallow, so I have an additional suggestion . . . Do a limited test to your email list with just text emails. See if there is enough of a difference to justify all text emails.

Setting up a Sender Policy Framework (SPF) record is another small thing you can do to ensure more emails make it through. SPF records give legitimacy to your email by legitimizing (non-technical description) your email server. The setup process is a little technical, so I suggest consulting with an IT person familiar with SPF record setup. You can do a Google search on SPF records for more information.  

Sobering Email Marketing Statistics from the Field
Regardless of you using HTML or plain text emails to market your event . . . A majority of people aren’t going to open your email, that’s the reality of email marketing. Of the hundreds of emails I’ve sent for clients over the last 5 years, including multiple events, it’s rare to see an open rate over 50% - even with a list of a few hundred people. If you send emails weekly or more often, you’re probably looking at a 20-30% open rate. I’m not trying to be negative here – but merely outlining realistic expectations for your email marketing.

Give plain text emails a try on your next email campaign and setup your SPF records. With spam filters stopping more emails, you're going to have to try different things to get the message to your prospects. Last, but not least, my thanks goes out to Bob Britton for bringing the topic of text email and SPF records back to my attention.

Want to get more great info? Check out the articles below:

• Keeping Your Event List Engaged
• Don't Neglect Your Email List
• Event Marketing: Multiple Ways to Engage Your List
• Simple Customer List Building Suggestions
• Late Event Promotion - Big List Growth

• The Event Promotion System
  Get Your Free Event Promotion & Marketing Video Training

Promoting Your Event with Too Much Email

A few weeks ago I sat down with a client to discuss their email marketing efforts. One question that constantly gets brought up when talking about email marketing is, “How often should I email my list?” My response is always the same to everyone . . . “Email your list as often as possible – provided you can provide them with high quality content.” The client’s response was “But I don’t want to SPAM people.” I completely agreed with his concern, but it’s important to understand the context of spamming. You run the risk of SPAMMING people when you distribute lousy content. It's no mystery - we hate to be spammed.

The Typical Email Marketing Sequence
Lousy content usually takes the form of sales pitching people right from the start of an email campaign. Most email sequences usually go like this . . . “Buy Now, Hurry up, Last chance, etc.” When people look at your opt-in box, they’re already thinking “I’m probably going to get spammed if I put my information in here.”  You need to break their preconceived notion by giving a subscriber great reasons to sign up to your mailing list and delivering high quality. Your success with email marketing with increase tremendously when you start by building trust and credibility.

Start with Your Opt-in Box
Your email campaign starts with a great opt-in box. Have a prominent opt-in box above the fold with lots of subscriber benefits. Don’t put up one of those lame first name and email address boxes (with no other incentives). Last year, a client cringed with horror when I insisted they put up massive an opt-in box on their home page. The huge sign up area contained a bunch of prospect focused benefits that their target market actually cared about and took up half the home page. The oversized opt-in box with lots of prospect focused benefits generated over 7,500 email sign ups in less than 60 days.

Think in terms of Insider Info
If you’re setting up an email marketing campaign for your event, think in terms of insider info.  Get your subscribers content that’s “not available to the public.” People have an insatiable curiosity that can only be fed by getting the inside scoop - use that to your advantage. Just make sure that you’re getting people information that’s important to them.   Many event organizers make the mistake of providing people with information they think is important, not what their target market actually wants.  Think about it this way - If your emails are full of great content are people going to say . . .“I hope I don’t get another great email from them again.” Heck no!

Not everyone is opening your Email
Realize that regardless of the size of your email list, most people aren’t going to open your emails. Typical open rates for a double opt-in event email lists ranges from 20-50%. Don't be discouraged by the previous numbers. The more often you email the lower your opt-in rate is going to be - it's the reality of the situation. Think about how difficult it is for your to get through your own email on a daily basis. The easiest way to counter low open rates for your email is by having quality content.

Build Their Interest First!
How many emails should I send out for my event?  For the campaigns I’ve managed the typical sequence was 10 to 15 emails. Unless it was an existing email list, I never sent a sales email until the very end of the campaign.  IMPORTANT TIP: It’s significantly easier to sell a ton of advance sale tickets when you have people really excited for your event. How long your tickets are for sale rarely translates into bigger advance ticket sales. If your haven't build up enough demand for your event, people won't buy early. Focus on building rapport and excitement with your list before you try selling to them. People aren't going to buy from you if they feel hustled.

If you marketing for your event try to deliver great content and insider information before hounding people to buy.  You want to tickle people’s interest in your event and amp up ticket demand. If you try and sales pitch people from the get go, without establishing trust and rapport, you’ll scare them off.  Your email list is your single best event market conduit, don’t blow it by sending crappy email.

Want to get more great info? Check out the articles below:

• Event Marketing: Start Building Your List Early
• Automatically Generate Leads for Your Event Year Round
• Keeping Your Event List Engaged
• Don't Neglect Your Email List
• Event Marketing: Multiple Ways to Engage Your List
• Simple Customer List Building Suggestions
• Start Building Your List Early
• Late Event Promotion - Big List Growth
• Building Your List Above the Fold
• Are You Opting-In Above the Fold?
• Form Placement and Growing Your List
• Turn Your Event Into an Experience

• The Event Promotion System
  Get Your Free Event Promotion & Marketing Video Training

Did You Buy a Snickers Bar Yet?

Are you looking for advertising ideas for your business or event? Do yourself a favor and DON’T follow Super Bowl commercials as an advertising template. It’s my opinion that most companies advertising during the Super Bowl are wasting a tremendous amount of money.  Ask yourself the following question - Can you actually remember what the most entertaining ads were selling? If you ask most people the previous question - they’ll go all fuzzy on you.  The most entertaining Super Bowl ads are usually total flops for getting people to buy.

Focus on Selling – Not Entertaining
When it comes to advertising it’s important not to confuse advertising that entertains with advertising that actually sells.  This belief comes from spending way too much time (in a good way) with some of the best direct response marketers on planet Earth.  If you look, most Super Bowl ads are almost entirely judged on entertainment value. Yeah there were entertaining ads that made me laugh.  Honestly, did Abe Bogota and Betty White actually get you to buy a Snickers bar? Probably not. The reason that huge companies like Coke and Anheuser-Busch can get away with funny commercials is because they have hundreds of millions of dollars to spend on advertising.  Most event organizers don’t enjoy such a luxury.

Great Advice From an Advertising Master
David Ogilvy, The Pope of Modern Advertising, is famous for saying "I do not regard advertising as entertainment or an art form, but as a medium of information.” The purpose of advertising is to sell. Ogilvy believed that “Ninety-nine percent of advertising doesn't sell much of anything."  With Ogilvy, advertising was tied to bottom line results. The thing that constantly cracks me up is all the advertising agencies that revere David Ogilvy, yet completely ignore his most basic tenants.

Halfway Decent Ads
Looking back, the best ads were from Denny’s and Google. In my opinion, the previously mentioned companies created ads with a result in mind. Denny’s gives away free food as a loss leader. Last year, Denny’s Grand Slam Giveaway packed their restaurants. Do you think all those people are going to Denny’s and ONLY getting a FREE?  Consider this . . . “Every $2 coffee translates into something like $1.70 profit. If 1.5 million of the freeloaders spring for coffee, the revenues will hover around $2.5 million. Experts estimate that 2009’s giveaway generated roughly $50 million through free advertising.” (Source: “Denny's Free Grand Slam Breakfasts, and the Cost of Free Publicity by Bruce Watson - Daily Finance.com)  Google slyly featured all the neat little things their search engine can do for you. The Google commercial was clean and brutally simple – type something in, hit search, and get results.  Search results come up with advertising worth billions of dollars to Google.

Here is a quick update of Denny's Free Grand Slam giveaway as of 02/10/2010 from a Denny's Press Release:

• Denny's served approximately 2 million Grand Slams across the U.S. Some restaurants served more than 200 breakfasts an hour, however, this increase from last year was offset by bad weather across the country.
• There were approximately 49 million hits on Denny's website since the Super Bowl giveaway was announced; almost 24 million hits since Sunday's Super Bowl commercials.
• Average wait time for Grand Slams was approximately fifteen to thirty minutes.
• Tables were turned approximately every fifteen minutes.
• Denny's was a top ten trending topic on Twitter for Grand Slam Day and during the fourth quarter of the Super Bowl.
• Close to 300,000 have already registered for the new Denny's Rewards program. The first 500,000 people who sign up will receive a Free Burger and Fries.

Bottom Line Results
When advertising your event, regardless of medium, focus on selling your event.  Don’t make entertainment a goal of your advertising. Tie every ad for your event into bottom line result. Make your event advertising and investment, not an entertainment expense.

Want to get more great info? Check out the articles below:

• David Ogilvy on Direct Response Marketing
• Measuring Advertising Effectiveness
• Advertising and Marketing that Sells
• Providing Massive Value in Your Marketing and Advertising

Using Twitter for Your Event Marketing . . .

Last month I attended the International Council of Air Show's annual convention in Las Vegas. The convention is the air show industry's annual get together to share ideas and plan for the upcoming air show season. During the convention's marketing seminars there was significant discussion regarding social media. Seminar participants and presenters were jumping up and down expounding the marketing virtues of using social media outlets such as Facebook and Twitter. Here's my rub . . . when pressed, not one Twitter proponent in the could cite a bottom line result for all their efforts. Perhaps it's that I've been spending way too much time in the direct response world, or maybe I'm just getting jaded on all the social media hoopla . . .   But before you jump on the social media crazy train, take a moment to find out if social media is actually helping your event marketing efforts.

The Twitter Case Study
As a case study, here is my own Twitter experience.  WARNING: Shameless Self Promotion Ahead! Recently I broke the 1,000 Follower mark on Twitter. According to the UK Guardian, the average Twitter user has 126 followers. Source: Arthur, Charles, 29 June 2009, Guardian.co.uk. Since March of 2009, I spent about 10 minutes a day following people and posting updates and event marketing links to articles on my blog. A recent look at my Google Analytics account revealed that my all Twitter efforts drove a whopping 61 visitors to my web site. The only silver lining, if any, was that each visitor driven by a Twitter link spent over two and a half minutes on my site. Sorry Twitter Pundits . . . 30+ hours of effort for 61 visitors is a horrendous ROI. I'm not going to sit here and proclaim to be an Twitter Jedi Master, but I integrated expert advice and followed it consistently. I cringe to think what other people are getting in terms of their results.

Disclaimer: You should know that I'm not an anti social media guy. Yet, I am staunchly against smart people wasting time and money on "amazing" Internet technology that doesn't add one cent to their bottom line or help to promote an event. People get so focused on the technology, they forget about the fundamentals. 150 years ago, P.T. Barnum figured out a simple model promote almost any event. Since then, we've found a million different ways to screw it up. Regardless of the technology, never abandon sound marketing fundamentals. Check out "The Danger of Too Much Event Marketing Technology" for more insight.

Adopt Your Twitter Event Marketing Efforts Very Cautiously
It's important to remember that Twitter is still being adopted by the masses. Yes, a ton of people are joining Twitter, but it tends to be fairly young demographic. I'd argue less than 10% of your potential target is using Twitter, probably less than 5% on a regular basis. The air show industry is a prime example of only a tiny segment of your total target market using Twitter. What are you doing to engage the rest of your target market?

Think Before You Jump
Before you even setup a Twitter account, ask yourself . . . "Is enough of my target marketing using Twitter to warrant my investment in time, money, and effort?" If you are investing your efforts in to Twitter, make sure it's delivering you positive and measurable results. Keep your Tweets interesting and relevant to your event or business goals. Always make sure to use Google Analytics to see if your efforts are making a positive impact on your marketing efforts.

I'm still willing to find ways to leverage social media to better promote events and businesses. But at the moment I'm unwilling to say that using Twitter to market your event is a worthwhile investment. If you have a suggestion or great examples of using Twitter, please leave a comment to this post. I'm always open to insight and suggestions.

Want to get more great info? Check out the articles below:

• How Long Before Social Media Advertising Gets Too Noisy?
• Event Marketing with Social Media and Email
• Social Media, Social Networking, and Event Promotion
• Web 2.0, Social Media, and Event Promotion
• Event Marketing: Do You have an Online Champion for Your Event?
• Online Comments About Your Event

• The Event Promotion System
  Get Free Event Promotion & Marketing Video Training

“There's a Sucker Born Every Minute”

Do you know who said, “There's a sucker born every minute”? Most people respond with, “It was P.T. Barnum” Yet if you do some historical digging, you’ll find out that Barnum never said the infamous quote most attributed to him. It wasn’t until I read “There’s a Customer Born Every Minute: P.T. Barnum's Secrets to Business Success” by Joe Vitale that I was set straight.  Vitale points out that nobody has been able to directly attribute the “sucker” quote to Barnum. You won’t find the quote in any of Barnum’s writing or speeches.  It was also pointed out that the “sucker” quote was out of character with Barnum’s personal and business beliefs. So where did the quote come from? The quote most likely came from one of Barnum’s competitors. Read more about the “There's a sucker born every minute” misquote over at HistoryBuff.com.

Staged Fights!
Yes, Barnum did believe in hyping the heck out of his events. He even went so far as to stage fights during live performances. But Barnum also realized that the customer was always in charge.  If the customer felt that Barnum wasn’t able to deliver on his fantastic promises, they wouldn’t pay up or find something else to do. No event can afford to treat their attendees like suckers.

150 Years Later – You Have Just One Shot
One hundred fifty years later, not much has changed in marketing or promoting events. Today you mostly likely have just one shot to impress your customer with your event.  Delivering an extraordinary experience is especially crucial to recurring events.  If you don’t deliver a great event experience, people will find other things to do.  Don't forget the competition! Talented people are creating new events to compete with your event all the time. Don’t count on the competition slowing down (even during times of economic hardship).  Certain segments of the event industry have actually flourished during economic crisis. It is in your best interest to focus intently on creating events that leave your attendees satiated beyond belief.  You want your attendees leaving your event saying “That was amazing – I want to do it again.”

Focus on the Customer, Not the Sucker
The title of Joe Vitale's book "There’s a Customer Born Every Minute" sums up the mindset of the most successful event promoters and marketers. There are new customers coming into your marketplace all the time. In order for your event to thrive, you must find more effective ways to market and promote your even, plus execute a truly great event.

Want to get more great info? Check out the articles below:

• P.T. Barnum on Advertising
• Barnum & Hyping Up Your Event
• Curiosity Advertising P.T. Barnum Style
• Your Event, Stories, and P.T. Barnum
• The World’s Best Event Promoter Is . . .
• Turn Your Event Into an Experience
• Online Marketing Like P.T. Barnum
• More Marketing Like P.T. Barnum (Part II)

• The Event Promotion System
  Get Your Free Event Promotion & Marketing Video Training

The Media and Making Your Web Address Count

Is getting your company or event featured in an article enough to drive traffic to your web site? Probably not. Too many business people jump up and down with unbridled enthusiasm because they were featured in their local media. I call it the “Hey, look at us!” syndrome. Don’t get me wrong, publicity is great – especially free publicity. But you need to leverage publicity the right way. Let me put it to you this way . . . The end result of publicity is more important than the actual publicity itself.  You should constantly ask yourself, "What is this publicity going to do for us?"

Getting Featured Online and Off
Last week a client was featured in both the online and offline versions of our local newspaper. The feature article was very positive and included the client’s web address (but not as an active link online). According to the Audit Bureau of Circulations the local newspaper has a daily circulation of 124,987. Online the paper’s web site has an estimated 230,000 visitors per month according to Quantcast.com. With the previous numbers one would think having your web address included in a positive article would generate a decent web traffic burst. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case. According to Google Analytics the client’s web site received just 10 extra visitors per day when the article was featured. Getting your name in the paper these days simply isn’t enough. You need to think about how your publicity is going to benefit you.

Realty – Most Web Users are Getting Lazier
It’s important to remember that the online attention span of the typical web users is getting shorter and shorter. If a web site doesn’t load in a few second or it isn’t easy to understand and navigate, the user usually bolts to a competitor’s web site. It's important to always keep in mind the User Attention Span. Just because your web address is included in an article, online or off, doesn’t mean people will visit your site. Remember that your consumers are bombarded with way too much advertising, yet still want instant gratification. You can't expect them to do something like copy and paste a web address from an article into the address bar. Focus on leading the user down a given path.

Make It Easy to Click on Your Address
There are two simple things you can do to get more way more leverage from your web address in the media. First, make sure any online reference to your web address includes an actual HTML link to your site. If you find an article online about your event or company that doesn’t include an actual link, get in contact with the publication immediately. A friendly telephone call can go a long way. For sake of immediacy, don't try to rely on email. Correcting media references offline is a little more difficult. Print is near impossible to change after the ink dries. Be proactive with print publications. Your best bet is to ask the publication to finish the article with “For more information about XYZ, please visit the XYZ web site: XYZ.com.” That one sentence can go a long way to driving tons of free traffic to your web site. In order to get publicity to work, you need to make it easy and compelling for people to find out more about you. A well positioned web address helps tremendously.

Check out the articles below for additional information on getting the most from free publicity.

• Press Releases and Your Event Marketing
• The Press Conference Lesson on Event Marketing
• Be Vigilant About Your Event Details and the Media
• The User Attention Span

Want to get more great info? Check out the articles below:

• Event Promotions and Shortening Your Domain Name
  
• Your Domain Name and Television Advertising
• Your Domain Name and Radio Advertising
  
  
• Why Well Planned Events Fail
• How to Get Them To Your Event
  
• Turn Your Event Into an Experience

• The Event Promotion System
  Get Your Free Event Promotion & Marketing Video Training

Event Marketing: Your Email List - Quality versus Quantity

It’s slightly aggravating when I hear people bragging about email their email list size. You've probably heard the same from some local advertising or marketing firm. Here in Rochester, NY, we have a local advertising company that tries to impress everyone with their ridiculously large email list. Don’t be fooled by big email lists! The size of an email list is rarely related to your return on investment from that list. In many cases email lists are haphazardly thrown together. Internet marketing dude Frank Kern said it best, “It's not about the size of the list. It's about the quality of the relationship you build with the list.” You should strongly consider Frank's advice, he made over $150,000 in 20 minutes with an email list of less than 800 people.

If you’re using an email list to market your event, focus on building a high quality list that you can engage in meaningful conversion. The relationship you have with your list is huge factor in determining how many people actually buy. It’s also imperative that you vet any partner lists that you might use to market or promote your event. Below a a few ideas you need to consider . . .

Lessons from the Battlefield
My own client projects have helped to drive home the quality versus quantity ideology. Recently, one client sold $61,450 worth of event tickets in 6 just days with a house list of 3,100 people. Their list of 3,100 people was grown from zero, all online, in less than 2 months with organic traffic. Another client who focuses on establishing an online relationship with his list is doing amazing at quickly converting new list prospects into buyers. He’s able to convert over 40% of new subscribers to his list into buying customers in less than 30 days. The previous examples are not meant to brag, but merely to impress what one can accomplish.

• Ask yourself, “What can I start doing today to have a better relationship with my list?”

Joint Ventures/Cross promoting
If you’re considering a joint venture or cross promotion for your event, check some of the most basic metrics of your partner’s email list. Here are some simple questions you need to ask when marketing your event to another list:

• Where the names and email address collected online or offline?
• Is the list segmented? (leads versus customers) 
• Is the list single or double opt-in? (double opt-ins are better)
• What is the average open rate? (look for a minimum of 20%)
• What are the click through rate?
• How often is the list emailed?
• What are the average subscribe and unsubscribe rates?
• When an offer is made what are the conversion rates?

There are other important questions you should ask, but most people neglect to find out the basics. If you find out the answers to the above questions, you’ll be well ahead of the pack.

You Need Your Own List!
At the end of the day a high quality house list is the single best list for promoting and marketing your event.  I’ve seen a house email list of 3,100 people completely crush a partner list of 23,000. Both lists had very similar demographics and psychographic profiles. Another client promoted their event using a partner list almost twice the size of their house list. The client’s own house list generated 98% of total revenue. If you haven’t started your list for marketing and promoting your event, start one today! Check out the helpful resources below to get you started.

Want to get more great info? Check out the articles below:

• Event Marketing: Start Building Your List Early
• Automatically Generate Leads for Your Event Year Round
• Keeping Your Event List Engaged
• Don't Neglect Your Email List
• Event Marketing: Multiple Ways to Engage Your List
• Simple Customer List Building Suggestions
• Start Building Your List Early
• Late Event Promotion - Big List Growth
• Building Your List Above the Fold
• Are You Opting-In Above the Fold?
• Form Placement and Growing Your List
• Turn Your Event Into an Experience

• The Event Promotion System
  Get Your Free Event Promotion & Marketing Video Training

A Simple Formula to Pack Your Event

Over the last few years I've looked long and hard at killer tactics that sell out events. As an event planner or organizer, it's in your best interest to methodically look around your own industry and outside your industry for successful event marketing strategies that you can adopt. A casual look will show you that the simple things usually work better than the complex. Some of my best event marketing strategies (ideas that have made clients hundreds of thousands of dollars) have come from unrelated marketplaces. Through all my observations and experiences I've formulated a very simple formula that any event organizer can use to pack their event. Here is the formula:

Hype + Massive Value = Monstrous Demand

The formula above might seem overly simplistic, but it works when you put into practice.

Hype
Yes, it's extremely important to hype up your event!  Hype is a strategy right out of P.T. Barnum's playbook. Barnum was a master at using the right amount of hype to pack his events. Unfortunately, most event organizers, planners, and marketers completely screw up how they leverage hype. In most cases events are under hyped. Don't be afraid to be loud and proud trumpeting the benefits of your event! Let people know what's in it for them. This next part is really important . . . if you're going to hype your event, you damn well better make sure you exceed your patron's expectations. Yes, it is possible to over hype, but only if you don't deliver on the promises you make to the consumer in your advertising.

+ Massive Value
Your hype needs to be followed up with massive value. If you hype your event and then fall short of the consumers expectations, your dooming your event. Focus on delivering massive value with your event by exceeding your customer's expectations. You know you've nailed it when most of your customers leave your event saying "That was amazing!" Don't forget that you can also create value for your event before it even begins. Can you think of ways to let people experience your event before they've even attended? For more info on delivering value beforehand, check out "Front Loading Value for Your Next Event." The Internet has made "front loading value" easy and inexpensive. Value is such a powerful factor in your event marketing and promotion that it can create it's own demand. If you do nothing more than focus on providing massive value for your event, it's hard to go wrong.

= Monstrous Demand
Here is formula's payoff . . . When you couple hype for your event with massive value, you create monstrous demand. My favorite example of monstrous demand is the World's Largest Disco in Buffalo New York. In 2009, the "Disco" sold out over three months before the event takes place.  That's 7000+ tickets selling between $50-$150 that nobody can purchase anymore. You know you've hit it when people are lining up to attend your event like a pack of ravenously hungry wolves. Do everything you ethically can to stoke demand. Ridiculously high demand is the key doing really well with advance ticket sales.

Recurring Events
A big key to seeing success with the formula above is having a recurring event. I understand for some people having a recurring event isn't possible. If you aren't going to have a recurring event, it's even more important to deliver value on the front end. If you have a recurring event, make sure you're collecting feedback from attendees. Here is a counter intuitive way to collect feedback, World's Largest Disco style. Give it a shot and let me know how it turns out.

Want to get more great info? Check out the articles below:

• Being a World Class Event Promoter (the P.T. Barnum Way)
• Front Loading Value for Your Next Event
• Event Promotion: Using Video to Front Load Event Value
• Why Well Planned Events Fail
• How to Get Them To Your Event
  
• Getting Them to Buy Tickets Early
• Turn Your Event Into an Experience
• Leveraging Your Sponsor's Digital Resources
  

• The Event Promotion System - Get 'FREE' Event Promotion & Marketing Video

How to Sell Out Your Event

If you want to sell out your event, you need to set the demand level for your event higher than your supply of tickets. The previous suggestion might seem like it’s straight out of the book “Thank You Very Much, Dr. Obvious!" But, very few event organizers and planners ever focus on creating a high level of demand for their event. When it comes time to sell tickets for their event, the ticket sales fall miserably sort of expectations. You need to find ways to set the demand level for your event as high as ethically possible.

The P.T. Barnum Way
One of the easiest ways to set the demand level for your event higher is by hyping your event.  The suggestion is straight from the playbook of P.T. Barnum. You’re event marketing should never be humdrum. You need to inject excitement and intrigue into all your event marketing and promotion. Get the target market so excited for your event that they're running to get their wallets and buy from you.

Let me give you a quick example from the air show industry. Which of the following event headlines is more likely to catch an air show prospect’s attention?

Example #1: “Come Out and Enjoy the 2009 XYZ International Air Show.”

- OR -

Example #2: “Experience Flight in a Way That Will Leave You in Awe! Come out and Enjoy 4 Hours of Aerial Spectacle & Heart Pounding Excitement, featuring the Best Pilots in the World.”

Don’t Make Your Event Sound Boring
How excited would you be to attend a BORING event? Too many event organizers promote and market their events in a boring manner. Don’t make the same mistake. Whenever you market or advertise your event, make it sound intriguing and exciting to your target market. I can’t remember who said it, but “the greatest sin in advertising is being boring.” Get your prospect to say to themselves “I want to do that!” If you're event organizer or planner, focus on your target market's wants and desires.

Balancing Event Marketing Hype & Delivering on the Promise!
If you’re really going to hype your event, the level of hype can’t be greater than your patron’s expectations or the level of service you can deliver. Over hyping your event and under delivering is a guaranteed recipe for disaster. It is very important that you do everything possible to under promise and over deliver.

Hype & Exceeding the Patron’s Expectations
If you exceed your event attendee’s expectations, regardless of the level of hype, the demand level for your event can go through the roof.  Just one happy event attendee will tell a number of other people about their great experience at your event. It's word of mouth advertising and it costs you nothing!

One Man = $17,500.00 in Advance Ticket Sales
Last weekend a Toronto businessman paid $175.00 to get access to an exclusive VIP Chalet at a FREE air show. The $175 dollars he and others paid got him access to a very nice chalet with open bar and all you can eat catered food. Before the air show finished the businessman was so satisfied with his experience that he inquired about purchasing 100 VIP tickets (at $175 each) for next year’s air show. That's $17,500 of advance ticket sales! The business man wasn't the only person to inquire about tickets for next year's air show. Since the show ended, more attendees have already offered to buy tickets for next year's air show and it's still a year away. If you can get people to your event and show them an amazing time, they'll line up in droves to come again. 

Below you will find a small collection P.T. Barnum posts that will help you with hyping your event. There is at least one good idea waiting for you to use with your event. Please take the time to read through a few posts:

• P.T. Barnum on Advertising
• Barnum & Hyping Up Your Event
• Curiosity Advertising P.T. Barnum Style
• Your Event, Stories, and P.T. Barnum
• The World’s Best Event Promoter Is . . .
• Turn Your Event Into an Experience
• Online Marketing Like P.T. Barnum
• More Marketing Like P.T. Barnum (Part II)

Want to get more great info? Check out the articles below:

• Turn Your Event Into an Experience
• How to Get Them To Your Event
• Why Well Planned Events Fail
• Getting Them to Buy Tickets Early
• Leveraging Your Sponsor's Digital Resources

• The Event Promotion System
  Get Your Free Event Promotion & Marketing Video Training
  

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Getting Detailed Feedback To Improve Your Event

If you want to truly improve your event, you need to identify what people disliked about your event. At first thought the previous suggestion might seem a bit counter intuitive, if not scary. Too many event organizers and planners are apt to only be interested in positive feedback. Don’t be lured into the same trap! A few months ago I wrote a post “A Negative Question to Create a Better Event.” The post suggested a counterintuitive way of getting feedback for one’s event. You should honestly consider the advice outlined in the post. It came from a guy who sells out his event of 7,000+ people more than 30 days in advance. Last month, I had an opportunity to put into practice the advice from “A Negative Question to Create a Better Event.” Below is a brief synopsis of the surprising results.

The Negative Feedback Case Study – Not Expected
During the last weekend of May a local client held their annual air show. Immediately after the event, people started sending in their unsolicited feedback.  About 35 people sent in email feedback over a three day span. For the most part, the patron feedback was very positive and general in nature.

Four days after the event, I sent out a thank you email with a survey link.  The email included a link that brought visitors to a page with one simple survey question . . . “What DIDN’T you like about the event?” Below the survey question was a simple text box form.  In a little over a week’s time 375 people sent in their feedback. The survey results identified very specific issues people had with the event. That wasn’t the case with the unsolicited feedback. Here is something really interesting . . .  Even though the survey asked people what they didn’t like about the event, people still sent in a ton of positive feedback.  Because the event is recurring, all of the collected feedback can now be used to improve the event.

You Must Ask for Feedback
Here is one of the most important lessons I learned over the years regarding event marketing and promotion . . . you have to actively engage your patrons to send event feedback.  Never expect patrons to just email you feedback.  It never works that way. After two months only about 40 people sent in their unsolicited feedback. Compare that with the almost 400 people who sent into detailed feedback when prompted. If you’re truly dedicated to creating a great event (especially if it’s a recurring event) don’t be afraid to collect negative feedback.

Want to get more great info? Check out the articles below:

• A Negative Question to Create a Better Event
• Turn Your Event Into an Experience
• How to Get Them To Your Event
• Why Well Planned Events Fail
• Getting Them to Buy Tickets Early
• Leveraging Your Sponsor's Digital Resources

• The Event Promotion System
  Get Your Free Event Promotion & Marketing Video Training

Getting More Opt-ins & Making More Money Online

A few weeks ago I was listening to an audio interview with Tim Ash.  Tim wrote an excellent book on Landing Page Optimization.  He’s an expert on getting people to take specific actions after they get to a web site.  During the interview, Tim gave one piece of very simple (yet highly effective) advice. His advice was especially important from a list building perspective.  Here is Tim's advice - "When you’re collecting information online, collect the minimum amount of information to complete the transaction." It’s important to think of Tim’s advice from the user’s perspective . . .

Remember – Upfront - They Don’t Know or Trust You!
Would you give a complete stranger personal information about yourself?  I’m guessing probably not. The previous question is directly applicable to collecting information online. A big mistake made when trying to collect personal information online is asking for too much information on the first visit. In most cases you have zero rapport with a prospect that just arrived at your web site. The more information you ask from a first time web visitor, the more difficult it is to collect information.  I’ve seen web sites that ask from full mailing addresses, fax number, and cell phone (all as required fields) up front.  As a result, less people are going to sign up.

Gain Some Trust
Your initial focus needs to be on establishing trust and credibility with your web site user. You can start to establish trust by offering your prospect something they perceive as valuable. It could be a free report, video, or audio.  You might offer some great articles for free or insider information. It is crucial to focus on the prospect’s wants and needs, NOT what you think is important to them.  The better you know your market, the better you can position information for them. The same advice rings true when planning an event . . . The best events are those built specifically for the target market – not for the event organizer’s ego.

Collecting Info Online - Where to Start
I suggest starting with the bare minimum for online data collection, first name and email address. Have any easy way for people to opt out of your list and have sound privacy policies in place. You can collect more information as you grow rapport with your prospect over time.  The best way to grow rapport over time is to give additional information that the prospect deems as valuable.

Seeing too many information can fields makes user apprehensive, regardless of those fields being required.  When collecting personal information online . . . Start with first name and email address, build trust, then go from there.

Want to get more great info? Check out the articles below:

• Simple Customer List Building Suggestions
• Start Building Your List Early
• Late Event Promotion - Big List Growth
• Building Your List Above the Fold
• Are You Opting-In Above the Fold?
• Form Placement and Growing Your List
• Turn Your Event Into an Experience

• The Event Promotion System
  Get Your Free Event Promotion & Marketing Video Training

Event Search Marketing and Your Description Tag

When it comes to search engine optimization and event promotion, simple things can have big impact. Search Engine Marketing is critical in your event marketing and promotion efforts. Check out "Leveraging Your Event Promotion with SEO." One easy SEO improvement, with a high level of impact, is crafting a compelling description tag. The description tag is used to tell an internet searcher what a particular page is all about. Each page on your event web site should have its’ own unique description tag. 

An Example
Below is a shameless self-promotion example. The section highlighted in Red is the description tag.

If They’re Searching - They’re at Least Curious About Your Event
Keep this in mind when writing a description tag . . . Most people searching for your event web site are at least curious about your event.  When is the last time you used a search engine to look up something of no interest to you?  If a searcher finds a search listing for your web site in the search engine you want them to click on your link, not the competitions. A strong description tags helps in getting people to click on your web site link.

Make Your Description Tags Compelling to Click
Description tags shouldn’t be boring or mundane.  Think of your description tag as a way to get people to click on your link on the search engine results page.  Does your description tag give someone a compelling reason to click? The best description tags give internet searchers a compelling reason to click.

A Bad Example
Here is an example of a bad or inaccurate description tag for an event or business. It gives the reader almost no incentive to click. Be sure you're not making the same mistake.

Balance Click'ability and Search'ability
Some search marketing specialist might suggest that you try to include search relevant keywords in your description tag.  I would argue that the best tag for search relevant keywords is your title tag. Description tags don't carry as much importance as the title tags in search engine placement. Therefore keep your description tag focused on getting people to click on the link.  Think of your description tag as the Unique Selling Proposition (USP) for individual web pages on your event site.

Want to get more great info? Check out the articles below:

• Event Marketing and Search Engines
• Search Engine Optimization and Your Event Marketing
• Free Qualified Traffic For Your Site
• The Simplest SEO Technique
• Are You Targeting The Correct Search Keywords?

• The Event Promotion System
  Get Your Free Event Promotion & Marketing Video Training

Be Vigilant About Your Event Details and the Media

Do you have an upcoming event that could benefit from media coverage?  If you’re preparing to release information about your event publicly, you need to be extra vigilant right after information is released to the public.  All it takes is one little piece of inaccurate information to create a maelstrom of headaches.

Real World Example
Let me give you an example . . . A few months ago a client held a press conference to announce their upcoming air show.  In conjunction with the press conference, there was an official press release issued and great coverage by the media.  The press release contained one small inaccuracy (an event detail carried over from last year’s press release) that was no longer accurate. As a result, the media started reporting about the event with inaccurate information.  The local newspaper reported that the U.S. Navy Blue Angels were performing at the air show. In fact, the Blue Angels were not attending.  (When it comes to air shows, the Blue Angels attending an air show can make it or break it for event organizers.) The next day, local radio stations started to report the inaccurate information from the newspaper story. The radio station’s mindset was most likely . . . “If the newspaper is reporting it, it must be accurate.” One small piece of information created a tremendous amount of unnecessary stress for the event organizer.

Be Vigilant
When really important information about your event is released to the public (major performers, dates, times, ticket details, etc.) you must be extra vigilant. Despite the best efforts of everyone involved, honest mistakes can be made and information can be reported inaccurately. In today’s world of social media one inaccurate piece of information can get to the other side of the world in a matter of seconds.  You don’t need to go overboard, but a little vigilance can prevent hours or days worth of necessary headache. 

Quick Suggestions
There are a few simple things you can do to prevent inaccurate information from spreading through media outlets. The first place to start is to triple check any press releases that go out to the media. Have other people you know review your press release.  If you’re really invested in a project your objectivity goes down the more you look at something. In the example above, it was one simple sentence that resulted in a bunch of unnecessary stress. Get more info on - Press Releases and Your Event Marketing.

Online Champions
Another suggestion is to get members of your team to monitor the local media (television, radio, and print).  You might want to consider making use of an online champion.  Have your online champion (trusted team member) monitor the local media.They can let you know if there are any discrepancies in information.

Setup a Google Alert
You should also consider setting up a Google Alert regarding your event. Google Alerts allow you to ability to automatically monitor what's going on with your event in cyberspace. Get more information about - Google Alerts and Your Event.

All it takes is one small piece of inaccurate information and you’ll be left with hours or days worth of headaches. By putting some simple controls in place and by being proactive in the process you can prevent a great deal of stress in your life.

Want to get more great info? Check out the articles below:

• Simple Customer List Building Suggestions
• Start Building Your List Early
• Late Event Promotion - Big List Growth
• Building Your List Above the Fold
• Are You Opting-In Above the Fold?
• Form Placement and Growing Your List
• Turn Your Event Into an Experience

• The Event Promotion System
  Get Your Free Event Promotion & Marketing Video Training

Leveraging Your Event Promotion with SEO

Search engine optimization is a critical part of your event marketing and promotion, especially if you have a recurring event. A properly optimized web site can drive tons of free traffic to your event web site. The more qualified people you have coming to your site the higher the user’s attention level.  Let’s face it . . . someone searching for “underwater basket weaving” isn’t going to show up to an air show event web site. A proper search engine strategy can also allow you to leverage your traditional marketing campaigns.  What’s more interesting is the interaction of search engine marketing with traditional advertising and promotion.

Here is a real life case study to consider. The event organizer spent in excess of $100,000 USD to advertise their local event. Their traditional advertising efforts included television, print, radio, and billboards. The brunt of their campaign started 30 days before the event date. For all of the money spent on traditional advertising, almost 50% of the traffic came as a result of search engine traffic. You can see a break down of the information below.

The graph above illustrates the importance that search engine optimization plays in your event marketing strategy. What’s even more interesting is that only about 28% of the traffic was a result of people directly typing in the domain name into the address bar. The event organizer put a tremendous amount of focus on driving people to the web site with their traditional advertising.  Additionally, the domain name for the event web site was very easy to remember. Yet, a majority of the people used the search engines to find the web site.

Below are some short articles to help you with search engine optimization ideas for your event web site.

• Event Marketing and Search Engines
• Search Engine Optimization and Your Event Marketing
• Free Qualified Traffic For Your Site
• The Simplest SEO Technique
• Are You Targeting The Correct Search Keywords?

Lost Opportunity - Seemingly Irrelevant Search Keywords . . .
Your event prospects aren’t always using obvious search terms to get to your web site. Check your web stats and see if you’re missing a search engine optimization opportunity.  One event planner that I recently started work with discovered that a large number of people were searching on a significant keyword that the event planner considered irrelevant. Seemingly irrelevant keywords are a huge opportunity cost. Make sure you optimize your web site for some of the valuable, yet obvious terms.

Your search engine optimization strategy is a crucial part of your overall event marketing and promotion strategy. If done properly, a well thought out search marketing strategy can significantly increase the effectiveness of all your traditional marketing.

Want to get more great info? Check out the articles below:

• Event Promotions and Shortening Your Domain Name
  
• Your Domain Name and Television Advertising
• Your Domain Name and Radio Advertising
  
  
• Why Well Planned Events Fail
• How to Get Them To Your Event
  
• Turn Your Event Into an Experience

• The Event Promotion System
  Get Your Free Event Promotion & Marketing Video Training

Automatically Generate Leads for Your Event Year Round

You need to think of your event marketing and promotion as a year long process. This is especially true if you have a recurring event.  Don't let the thought of year round event marketing scare you. There are simple things you can do to automate your event marketing. Let’s start by looking at the opportunity that most event planners are missing . . .

The Graph Above
Take a look at the graph above. The graph is a 12 month web site visitor graph from the air show in Rochester, New York.  As you can see, most of the traffic comes to the web site in a time frame of 15 days before and after the event. The trend above is consistent with almost every web site I’ve ever seen. It’s important to note that 33% of total web site traffic comes in the 6 months before and after the event. Most event planners and organizers miss the opportunity to capitalize on the traffic coming to their web site. You need to look at any traffic to your web site as a year round event promotion opportunity.

Have a Simple Opt-in
One simple way to automate your event marketing is to setup a simple opt-in box on your home page.  Think of target market focused ways to get people to sign up for your event email list. Make an offer to give anyone who opts into your email list exclusive content about your event or discount ticket prices. In order to get people to opt-in, you’ll going to have to make them an offer that’s enticing to them. When you have a compelling offer, you can automatically collect email addresses from your target market year round. Have an autoresponder setup that automatically sends information about your event to the people on your email list.

Market Your Event Before and After
As your event approaches, use your email list to market your event.  A home grown list allows you to directly interact with your target market. If a person is signing up to your event email list, they’ve prequalified themselves as interested. Ask yourself, how many people are going to sign up to your event email list if they’re not at least curious about your event? After the event, follow up with your list to get feedback on ways to improve your event.  Recurring events can use the ideas above to grow their list year after year.   

Remember that most people only visit your web site once. If you can collect someone’s email address – you have a pre-qualified list of people interested in your event.  Keep the focus of your marketing on delivering high quality content and establishing trust. Don’t sales pitch people as soon as you get their email address.

What Do You Think? - LEAVE a COMMENT

Want to get more great info? Check out the articles below:

• Simple Customer List Building Suggestions
• Start Building Your List Early
• Late Event Promotion - Big List Growth
• Building Your List Above the Fold
• Are You Opting-In Above the Fold?
• Form Placement and Growing Your List
• Turn Your Event Into an Experience

• The Event Promotion System
  Get Your Free Event Promotion & Marketing Video Training

Does Some Else Own YOUR Web Address?

The other week I met with a new client over lunch.  During the client intake process we reviewed some information about the client's web site.  As part of the intake process I check up on web site ownership. When I did a registration look up on the client’s web site I noticed that the client didn’t own their domain name / web address. The client originally contracted with a local advertising agency when they first setup their web site. When I checked the domain registration for my client’s web site, it was registered with the sales rep for the advertising agency.  My client had no idea someone else owned their web address. This happens all the time. You need to ask yourself, right now, “is my business web site registered in my name?”

For those that don’t know . . . when registering a domain name (web address) you’re required to input a registrant or owner for the domain being registered.  I’m not an attorney . . . and this isn’t legal advice . . . but, if someone else is the domain registrant for your web site – they own your web address. Over the last few years I’ve had to tell several business owners that they didn’t own their own web address. In most instances the situation was easily remedied and the registration was corrected.  The whole situation can become a real pain if you need to change hosting providers or web development companies. It becomes worse if you've spent thousands of dollars on advertising that includes a web address that you think you own, but really don't . . . You can avoid the stress . . .

Quickly Check Domain Your Domain Ownership
The easiest way to determine if you own your domain is by doing a Whois look up.  A Whois lookup gives you ownership information about a given web address.  If you’re looking up your own web site, pay attention to the ‘registrant.’ If it’s your web site, you should be listed as the registrant. Go to the following link to do a Whois lookup . . . http://whois.domaintools.com/. Just input your domain name to get the registration information.

If Your Domain Isn’t Register to You
If you do a Whois lookup and notice that your domain isn’t registered in your name . . . don’t panic. The personal who initially setup your site probably automatically registered your domain using their information. This happens all the time and there is no fraudulent intent. If the person or business who setup your web site is the registrant, kindly ask them to transfer the registration into your name.  It takes 2 minutes to update the information. There are several businesses owners I know who took control of their domain without incident.

Avoid Domain Ownership Disputes for Less Than $10 Year
Be proactive about securing your online identity.  If you have an event or are considering holding an event, make sure you register a domain name. Less than ten dollars a year (the typical cost to register a domain name annually) is a small price to avoid a bunch of stress and frustration.

What Do You Think? - LEAVE a COMMENT

Want to get more great info? Check out the articles below:

• Event Promotions and Shortening Your Domain Name
  
• Your Domain Name and Television Advertising
• Your Domain Name and Radio Advertising
  
  
• Watch Out People Are Googling You!
• Leveraging People Googling You to Your Advantage
• Protecting Your Online Identity - What You Can Do
  
  
• Why Well Planned Events Fail
• How to Get Them To Your Event
  
• Turn Your Event Into an Experience

• The Event Promotion System
  Get Your Free Event Promotion & Marketing Video Training

Vicarious Event Marketing & Promotion - Be Edgy!

Has a friend ever tried to live vicariously through you? Being one of the unmarried guys - I find my friends (usually the men) telling me “I want to live vicariously through you!” It’s a bit ironic . . .  A large number of people I know what to settle down. But when they settle down (or for whatever reason) people tend to get incredibly bored.  Don’t get me wrong - There is nothing wrong with marriage and kids. But people still want some excitement in their life.

 

People are Bored Out of Their Gourd
Back in September I attended Eben Pagan’s GuruMastermind Conversion Summit in Los Angeles.  During one of the sessions Eben talked about how most people live incredibly boring lives. He illustrated the point with a simple example: People wake up bored, they go to work bored, come home – watch some T.V. and then go to bed bored. The next day the same boring process starts all over again. One could argue that Eben’s example is a pretty harsh assessment. Yet the more I think about it, the more he might be right. When I ask my friends “why do you want to live vicariously through me?” they usually respond with “because I’ve settled down and don’t get to have as much fun anymore.” You need to realize that most people are bored. If people are looking for a little excitement in their lives, give it to them!

Inject a Little Personality into Your Marketing
It’s never been so easy or inexpensive to capture the attention of your target market. The challenge is cutting through the all advertising people face. One simple way to overcome the standard advertising glut is by injecting a little personality into to your marketing. Eben recommends being “edgy authentic.” Being “Edgy Authentic” is a great way to capture the attention of someone who might be bored. By being edgy you cut through all the other pompous corporate style marketing.  Be authentic and genuine when you communicate with your target market. They’ll appreciate your candor.

Get Them Excited
Apathy, ambivalence, and indifference make the challenge of getting people to your event very difficult. The same goes for trying to sell a product or service.  You need to get your target market so excited that it’s difficult NOT to buy from you. As Jeffery Gitomer put it “people love to buy, but they hate to be sold.”

An Edgy Example
One of my friends, Chris McCombs, did the improbable. Chris’ blog KickBackLife.com became the number one fitness marketing blog in the world. He accomplished this feat by being edgy authentic. Chris knows his target market and how best to communicate with them. People write him all the time to compliment him on his open candor and marketing style.  If you’re looking for a super successful example of edgy authentic, check out Chris’ blog KickBackLife.com. When you look at the site, you need to go a little deeper. It might look like it's about scantly clad women and guns . . . but there is a lot more to it.

By applying an appropriate amount of edginess to your event marketing and promotion, you’ll stand out from the crowd. At first you’ll feel a bit uncomfortable . . . but with time you’ll see the benefits of not being like everyone else in marketing. Don’t be afraid to stand out!

What Do You Think? - LEAVE a COMMENT

Want to get more great info? Check out the articles below:

• Personality & Your Event Promotion
• Turn Your Event Into an Experience
• Providing Massive Value in Your Marketing and Advertising
• P.T. Barnum on Advertising
• Why Well Planned Events Fail

• The Event Promotion System
  Get Your Free Event Promotion & Marketing Video Training

Email Marketing: Stop Cramming Too Much Info Into Your Email!

Event planners and organizers have a tendency to try to include as much detail as possible in their promotion pieces.  Have you ever seen an event poster or ad filled to the brim with information? The same “cram as much as you can” mentality usually carries over to the email marketing of an event.  As a result – emails used to promote an event have so many details that that the reader doesn’t know where to begin. Cramming your emails full with too many details is a big event marketing mistake. You are far better off breaking the information down and focusing on one or two information points at a time.

What’s Important to Them?
Start by identifying the information most important to your prospect.  (Not what you think is important to your prospect.) Sending a bunch of irrelevant information to your target marketing isn’t going to do anything to promote your event. If you send useless information on a regular basis, people will consider you a SPAMMER. Spamming destroys your trust and credibility with prospects. Put the prospect and their informational wants and needs in the spotlight. Trust and credibility translates into more ticket buyers and people coming to your event.

One Main Point Per Email
If you have several points to convey to your prospect, send them over a series of emails. As long as you honestly try to convey information that people are interested in - you can send several emails in rapid succession.  I’ve sent emails every day for 5 days with an opt-OUT rate of less than 4.0%.

Limited Online Attention Spans
It’s important to remember that when people read information from a computer screen they tend to scan and skim as opposed to read word for word. The average attention span of an online reader is measured in seconds.  You can help the person reading your email by differentiating you writing.  Use bolds, italics, headers, and bullet points.  Make information stand out and ensure the document is easy to scan. Long emails can work, but you need to keep the interest of the reader very high.

Send Them to Your Site for Details
You can ensure your prospect gets specific details about your event by including a link to your event web site in each email. Give them a reason to click on the link . . . “For more details about our event, please visit our web site . . . (insert your link).”

Like the old adage goes . . . keep it simple stupid! Don’t overload your reader with too much information all at one time.

What Do You Think? - LEAVE a COMMENT

Want to get more great info? Check out the articles below:

• Simple Customer List Building Suggestions
• Start Building Your List Early
• Late Event Promotion - Big List Growth
• Building Your List Above the Fold
• Are You Opting-In Above the Fold?
• Form Placement and Growing Your List
• Turn Your Event Into an Experience

• The Event Promotion System
  Get Your Free Event Promotion & Marketing Video Training

Capitalize on Your Event Domain Name

A catchy domain name is always helpful in getting people to remember your web site. But when it comes to event marketing and promotion it is very easy for your domain name (even a catchy one) to get lost in all the details. I would argue that the most important piece of information that you want your prospect to remember from you advertising is your domain name.  If and when people are interested in getting more information about your event, they’ll probably go online to get additional details.  It’s much easier to remember your domain name than it is to remember plethora of advertising details such as dates, times, ticket details, performers, telephone numbers, etc.  When advertising your web address in print advertising there are simple things you can do to insure greater impact. One simple technique is using selective capitalization in your domain name.

Use Capitalization
Take a look at your domain name.  If you capitalize certain letters in your web address does it provide more visual impact? Consider the example below.

yourbigevent.com - YourBigEvent.com 

The capitalization doesn’t have to occur on the first letter of each word.  Play around with the idea. Find the right capitalization combination that works for your web address. By capitalizing key letters in your domain name, you also make your domain name more legible and easier to remember. The idea is also applicable to any other form of visual media where your target market is going to read words (billboards, posters, fliers, etc.) Don't forget to drop the 'www.' when advertising your domain name. Check out "Event Promotions and Shortening Your Domain Name" for more details.   

Capitalizing certain letters in a web address seems like a “no brainer,” but you’d be surprised at how few people make use of the practice. It's a simple technique that costs nothing to implement, yet brings you a high return on your investment. 

Want to get more great info? Check out the articles below:

• Event Promotions and Shortening Your Domain Name
  
• Your Domain Name and Television Advertising
• Your Domain Name and Radio Advertising
  
  
• Why Well Planned Events Fail
• How to Get Them To Your Event
  
• Turn Your Event Into an Experience

• The Event Promotion System
  Get Your Free Event Promotion & Marketing Video Training

How Long Before Social Media Advertising Gets Too Noisy?

The other day I went to lunch with my good friend Todd.  After lunch (and the ensuing food coma), we headed back to Todd’s office for a few minutes.  While at Todd’s office, I had him log into his Facebook account to show some interesting photos from the weekend.  During our brief Facebook excursion the topic of “How many Facebook friends could one person possibly have?” was discussed.  I told Todd that I’ve seen some high Facebook friend numbers before - people with over a thousands friends. Yet Todd knows someone with the highest number of Facebook friends I’ve ever seen – 2,157! After leaving Todd’s office, I had to ask myself “How many friends are too many friends?” The more friends you have on Facebook the more requests and messages you’ll get on your account.  Isn’t a person eventually going to get to a point where they can’t deal with all the information?

Task Saturation Can Be Fatal to Your Event
In the aviation world they call information overload, task saturation.  There are so many things going on at once that the pilot’s likelihood of missing critical information goes up significantly. Task saturation can be fatal in the aviation world.  I also think that task saturation can be fatal in the event promotion and marketing world. Social media has exploded in growth.  There’s Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, Blogs, etc. and the list keeps growing.  I find it hard to believe that people can process that much information from so many services at one time. Take a moment to consider all the traditional advertising (television, print, radio) you’re bombarded with on a daily basis. Is your event marketing information getting lost in all the social media noise?

Stay Focused on a Few Good Channels for Promotion
Instead of looking at how many social media channels you can use to promote or market your event, focus on the right social media channels to promote your event.  Line your marketing up accordingly with your target market’s demographic and psychographic profiles.  One form of social media probably outperforms another for promoting your event.  It’s up to you to find which one works the best.  Do some simple testing to find the answer.

Drive Them to Your Web Site with Everything You Do
Yes, you can successfully use social media to build awareness of your event.  I’m not trying to knock the possibilities of social media. But I still believe that the single best place for promoting your event is a dedicated event web site.  Any other form of media (social included) should be focused on getting people back to your web site. The people who are on your web site are prequalified to be interested in your event. That is where your focus should be.

> What's Your Opinion? - Leave a Comment on this Post

Want to get more great info? Check out the articles below:

• Event Marketing with Social Media and Email
• Social Media, Social Networking, and Event Promotion
• Web 2.0, Social Media, and Event Promotion
• Event Marketing: Do You have an Online Champion for Your Event?
• Online Comments About Your Event

• The Event Promotion System
  Get Free Event Promotion & Marketing Video Training

Stop Losing Emails Subscribers to Double Opt-in

I’m a firm believer in using opt-in verification (double opt-in) whenever you collect email addresses online. Opt-in verification requires an email subscriber to click on a unique verification link that is emailed to them immediately after sign up. Your email list might not grow as large or as quickly if you require people to verify their subscription. But, requiring a double opt-in creates lists that are of higher quality and more responsive. Double Opt-in also significantly reduces your chances of being blacklisted as an email spammer, increases email deliverability, and makes your email databases more portable. You can significantly reduce your double opt-ins losses by having a well though out verification process.Below is a brief outline of my verification process. Feel free to integrate the ideas into your own list building efforts.

A Well Thought Out Thank You Page
Most services allow you the ability to redirect email subscribers to a thank you page after they submit their information. A well crafted post submission thank you page is your best chance at reducing the number of people you're losing to double opt-in verification. Be sure to be very direct in telling people what they need to do on the thank you page (e.g. - go check your email right now and click on the verification link). Make the instructions bold and as visually loud as possible.

Here is some of the text I use on my thank you page for this site:

IMPORTANT . . .

I can't send you any information until you verify your sign up. This is done to protect your privacy.

What you need to do, right now:
Please check your email and click on the confirmation link. (It's that simple.) More detailed instructions can be found below.

(Shameless self-promotion)
You can sign up to my list and see how the complete process works.

Before implementing a robust verification process, I was losing 25% of total email subscribers, across numerous web sites, to the double opt-in verification.  Recently I setup a simple one page event web site with the sole purpose of collecting email addresses. The web site included a thank you page with very direct instructions. In 12 days 486 people subscribed to the VIP email list for the event. By using a well thought out post opt-in thank you page I was able to reduce the loss of subscribers from 25% to 15%.

Having a dedicated email list is one of the single greatest marketing resources any event organizer or planner can possess. Unlike other forms of marketing for your event, lists allow you to directly interactive with your specific target market. People aren’t going to subscriber to your event email list unless they’re somewhat interested in your event. Be sure you have a well thought out email collection process in place before you start trying to collect email addresses.

> What's Your Opinion? - Leave a Comment on this Post

Want to get more great info? Check out the articles below:

• Simple Customer List Building Suggestions
• Start Building Your List Early
• Late Event Promotion - Big List Growth
• Building Your List Above the Fold
• Are You Opting-In Above the Fold?
• Form Placement and Growing Your List
• Turn Your Event Into an Experience

• The Event Promotion System
  Get Your Free Event Promotion & Marketing Video Training

Satisfaction Guaranteed Events

Does your event come with a satisfaction or money back guarantee? Whenever I ask event producers the previous question they get agitated and uncomfortable.  The usual response to the guarantee question is “We’d be crazy to offer a money back guarantee, everyone would ask for their money back.” Here is a follow up question . . . "Are you not willing to stand behind the quality of your event?"  A satisfaction guarantee is already built in to your event if an attendee purchased a ticket with a credit card. The consumer has the right to challenge any charges on their credit card. If a consumer feels like your event didn’t deliver on their expectations they can call the credit card company and dispute the charge. If the consumer can prove their case you need to return their money, plus a charge back fee.

People Always Ask for Their Money Back
No event has a 100.0% satisfaction rate. Even if you have a stellar event, there are people who will dispute the charges on their credit card.  Last year, I managed online ticket sales for a large event.  Over 7,000 tickets were purchased online for the event.  Of the over 7,000 tickets purchased less than 6 people called the credit card company to dispute the charges.  If people can already ask for their money back, why not just offer a guarantee?

Event Organizers Already Offering Guarantees
Guarantees are a great way to decrease someone's objections to making a purchase. I know numerous event organizers who offer a money back guarantee on their seminars, workshops, and events.  The money back guarantee is on events that cost anywhere from a few hundred dollars to tens of thousands of dollars. In one case an event organizer offered a "money back guarantee, plus we pay your travel expenses" on their event. There were 3 people who asked for their money back. Yet with the guarantee in place the same event organizer managed to increase their event revenue by over 50% from year to year.

Yes, there are people who have asked for their money back. But savvy event organizers still insist on having a satisfaction guarantee. Why?  It makes selling any event significantly easier.  As a consumer, would you be more or less inclined to purchase a ticket for an event of interest if it was backed up with a believable guarantee?

When planning your event, consider offering a money back guarantee.  It’s one of the easiest ways to increase revenue with little risk (provided you have a high quality event). You can mitigate the risk of refunds by properly executing your event. A strong guarantee tells your target market that you firmly stand behind the quality of your event. The whole idea of a event guarantee is much scarier than it seems. As soon as you do it once and see the results, I doubt you’ll have another event without a guarantee.

> YOUR OPINION: Leave a Comment on this Post

Want to get more great info? Check out the articles below:

• About the Money Back Guarantee
• Advertising and Marketing that Sells
• Providing Massive Value in Your Marketing and Advertising
• P.T. Barnum on Advertising
• Why Well Planned Events Fail
• Turn Your Event Into an Experience

• The Event Promotion System
  Get Your Free Event Promotion & Marketing Video Training

Social Media Comments and Your Event

Social Media can be a virtue or a vice for event organizers.  On the positive front, event organizers can interact with their target market like never before.  You can use target market interaction and feedback to build a better event.  On the negative side, social media can be used to leave disparaging comments about your event.  In some cases the comments might not be true or misrepresent your event.  Even worse, negative comments about your event can show up on web sites that you have no editorial control over. If comments appear on a popular web site (a local news agency web site) they will probably get indexed into the search engines. Today people are apt to read something online and take it as fact without checking the facts.

Below you will find some suggestions on dealing with social media comments regarding your event.

A Real World Example
Last week one of my clients held a big press release for their upcoming event. After the press conference the local media outlets published stories about the event.  One local news paper has a web site that allows you to comment on their news stories.  Because my client decided to change the format and location of their event, there were plenty of comments posted with the news story. The comments covered the whole spectrum from very positive to negative.  If you’re an event organizer it’s hard to ignore comments about your event.

Addressing Comments About Your Event
You don’t need to get stressed about negative comments. Here is a simple process for spinning negative comments about your event to your advantage.  Start by tracking down online comments about your event. You can easily do this using a Google Alert (Jenny B.). Google Alerts is free and allows you to leverage Google’s massive search capabilities. Collect all the comments about your event into a simple document. Organize the collected comments into positive and negative categories. Use your event web site to directly address some of the most prevalent comments. In most cases you can silence criticism by giving a straightforward answer to a comment or question. Consider addressing the most popular comments on a FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) page. You can even integrate the comments into your marketing. In most cases, it’s not worth your time replying to comments on other web sites. You’re better off addressing comments on your web site. 

Whenever you read a comment about your event, stop and ask yourself “How can I turn this into a positive?” Like the old adage goes, “Any publicity is good publicity.”  Find out ways to take the negative and spin it positive.

Want to get more great info? Check out the articles below:

• Event Marketing: Do You have an Online Champion for Your Event?
• Online Comments About Your Event
• Advertising and Marketing that Sells
• Providing Massive Value in Your Marketing and Advertising
• P.T. Barnum on Advertising
• Why Well Planned Events Fail
• Turn Your Event Into an Experience

• The Event Promotion System
  Get Your Free Event Promotion & Marketing Video Training

Free Qualified Traffic For Your Site

This past Monday one of my clients held a press conference announcing their annual event. My big lesson from the announcement revolved around the importance of referral traffic. Any time another web site links to your web site and sends you traffic, it’s considered referral traffic. Referral traffic doesn't cost you any money to generate. Another nice part about referral traffic is that it’s usually highly qualified traffic. If people are at all curious about your event, they’ll click on the referring link. Below is an easy to implement suggestion to get free referral traffic for your event web site. It works best when done in conjunction with a press conference or press release for your event. Focus on getting referral links from local news outlets.  Local news web sites have higher traffic rates. If you can get national coverage, even better!

Compare and Contrast
Here is a quick comparison of the traffic to the web site supporting my client’s event. In 2007, 85 visitors went to the event web site within 24 hours of the announcement. There were few referring links back to the web site in 2007. After the press conference on Monday, 1,238 visitors (1,346 visits) went to the web site within 24 hours.  That’s a 1356% increase in traffic.  84% of the 1,238 visitors came as a result of referring traffic. One of the local news web sites accounted for almost 50% of all the traffic in the first 24 hours. In addition, over 400 people signed up to mailing list supporting the event within 72 hours. The last time we tried to collect email addresses it took 4 months to get 400 people on the mailing list.

The Media Forgets
Just because you include a web address in your media kit or press release doesn’t mean the media will automatically include it with their stories. It’s very easy for a writer on deadline to forget something as simple as your web site address.  Don’t take it personally. Whenever the media covers your event, you want them to include your web address. It’s free publicity that drives qualified traffic to your web site.

What You Can Do
The following suggestion might take 15 minutes to an hour of your time, but it is well worth the investment.  Call up your local media outlets (television, radio, & newspaper).  Concentrate your efforts on news outlets that have dedicated web sites.  When calling, you want to ask for someone at the news desk. Try to find out who might be covering the story on your event.  When you find the right person, kindly request that they include your web address with any stories they’re running. By doing so you’ll drive qualified traffic to your web site.

Want to get more great info? Check out the articles below:

• Advertising and Marketing that Sells
• Providing Massive Value in Your Marketing and Advertising
• P.T. Barnum on Advertising
• Why Well Planned Events Fail
• Turn Your Event Into an Experience

• The Event Promotion System
  Get Your Free Event Promotion & Marketing Video Training

Your Event Marketing on the Radio

Over the weekend I heard a radio spot for an upcoming local event.  Any time I hear or see something event related my ears and eyes take notice. The first half of the radio spot was what one would expect; “come out to a great family event,” date, time, location, etc. But the second half of the commercial was the really interesting part. All of the information in the second half of commercial was dedicated to information on purchasing tickets.  That didn’t make any sense to me. Why dedicate half a radio commercial solely to ticket information?  There is little use in giving people ticketing information if they haven’t been convinced to attend your event.

Think Web Centric
In my opinion all your advertising should lead to your web site.  Think about the process people use today to find out more information on just about anything. If a person is interested in something, they’ll probably go online to get additional information. Integrate people’s behaviors into your event marketing strategy.  Whatever event advertising you’re running should give good incentive to get people back to your web site.  You can use something as “for more details visit our web site (insert web address).”

You Can't Change Their Mind
If I had to redo the radio spot from above, I would have dedicated more time to building curiosity or value about my event to the potential target market. Your event advertising, regardless of how good, is unlikely to change the mind of your target market. I can’t think of any event organizer who has a big enough advertising budget to change the public's mind.  People are predisposed to being interested in your event.  Keep your advertising efforts on those people most likely to attend.

Don't Try to Cram Every Last Detail
Don't overload the listener with details. "Less is More" is applicable to radio advertising. Too many event organizers try to cram every last iota of information into advertising. If listeners take away only one thing from your web site let it be the web address of your event web site.

Here is another article that includes additional advice on radio advertising:

• Your Domain Name and Radio Advertising

Whatever advertising you’re doing, focus on delivering the value of your event before you ask for the sale. You’ll get a lot more people to your event.

Want to get more great info? Check out the articles below:

• Advertising and Marketing that Sells
• Providing Massive Value in Your Marketing and Advertising
• P.T. Barnum on Advertising
• Why Well Planned Events Fail
• Turn Your Event Into an Experience

• The Event Promotion System
  Get Your Free Event Promotion & Marketing Video Training

The Advertising of Your Event

Contrary to popular belief, print advertising fundamentals are still extremely relevant for promoting your event. The fundamentals of effective advertising can be applied beyond just newspapers and magazines.  If you can create an effective print ad, you can do the same for almost any form of online advertising. The same principles for effective advertising apply to video and audio. Unfortunately too many organizations seem to be more concerned with creating works of art instead of advertising that gets people to take action. You can’t afford to have ineffective ads when advertising for your event.

"The King of Madison Avenue"
David Ogilvy is one of my favorite sources for advertising fundamentals.  He’s considered by many a “patron saint” in the advertising industry.  Ironically some of the same people who revere Ogilvy are also the first to abandon his tenants.  Ogilvy believed that the purpose of advertising was to sell, not to entertain. Don’t try to make your advertising look like a work art! Think in terms of good design (not art) and persuasive copy.  Focus on creating advertising for your event that gets people to take action.

Below are a series of articles outlining several of David Ogilvy’s concepts and suggestions for writing effective advertising.   If you follow his tenants you have a good chance at creating advertising that gets people to your event.

• David Ogilvy on Direct Response Marketing
• Measuring Advertising Effectiveness
• Advertising and Marketing that Sells
• Providing Massive Value in Your Marketing and Advertising

Want to get more great info? Check out the articles below:

• Turn Your Event Into an Experience
• How to Get Them To Your Event
• Why Well Planned Events Fail
• Getting Them to Buy Tickets Early
• Leveraging Your Sponsor's Digital Resources

• The Event Promotion System
  Get Your Free Event Promotion & Marketing Video Training

Being a World Class Event Promoter (the P.T. Barnum Way)

Over the last two years this blog has featured a number of posts about P.T. Barnum. The man was an event marketing and promotion genius.  He could take the seemingly odd or simple and turn it into a financial gold mine.  Barnum has been gone for almost 120 years, but his techniques for event promotion and marketing are still applicable today. In the 1800s there was no Internet, radio, or television for advertising.  Barnum’s American Museum actually thrived during a time of Civil War. Regardless of what’s going on in the world people want to escape reality and be entertained. Everything that Barnum accomplished was as a result of ingenuity, printer’s ink, and word of mouth advertising.

Have you ever considered including some of P.T. Barnum’s concepts into your own event marketing and promotion?

Below you will find a small collection P. T. Barnum posts that will help you with promoting and marketing your event. There is at least one good idea waiting for you to use with your event.

Take the time to read through a few posts.

• P.T. Barnum on Advertising
• Barnum & Hyping Up Your Event
• Curiosity Advertising P.T. Barnum Style
• Your Event, Stories, and P.T. Barnum
• The World’s Best Event Promoter Is . . .
• Turn Your Event Into an Experience
• Online Marketing Like P.T. Barnum
• More Marketing Like P.T. Barnum (Part II)

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Want to get more great info? Check out the articles below:

• Turn Your Event Into an Experience
• How to Get Them To Your Event
• Why Well Planned Events Fail
• Getting Them to Buy Tickets Early
• Leveraging Your Sponsor's Digital Resources

• The Event Promotion System
  Get Your Free Event Promotion & Marketing Video Training

Monetizing Free Events - There is Money Everywhere

There is no such thing as a free event. Events without any type of admission still cost event organizers money to produce.  Organizers almost always need to rent equipment or have a dedicated facility to hold their event. These things cost money. In addition to the previously mentioned costs, there are typically numerous ancillary expenses that cannot be traded out. If the economy is bad, people and businesses are less apt to help out free events and not for profit organizations. With sponsorship dollars becoming much more difficult to come by event organizers need to look at other avenues for funding. As an event organizer you need to focus on other areas of financial opportunity.  Is there some aspect of your event that you can monetize?

Offering a Premium Event Experience
Here is an idea.  If you have a free event, can you charge people for a premium experience?  People are willing to pay money at free events if you can deliver extra value.  Things like reserve seating or a VIP experience are just some of the things you can offer as premiums.  Some patrons are willing to pay you money if it means not having to wait in line for 45 minutes. Look at ideas that are of minimal cost to you as an event organizer, yet generate maximum revenue.  You would be surprised what patrons are willing to pay for a premium experience. It’s important that you offer a premium that your event patron finds valuable. There is often a discrepancy of perceived value between patrons and event organizers. You can overcome the “What’s a premium” hurdle by asking or testing offers with your event patrons.  Keep the focus on what patrons find appealing, not what you think they might find appealing. Something as simple as an email survey to your target demographic can give you answers to the premium experience question.

Monetizing Your Event Afterward
A less desirable place to monetize your event is after the event takes place. The disadvantage is what you can’t put money into your coffers before your event occurs. Patrons typically look for nostalgia items after an event takes place.  Do you have anything that people might be interested in purchasing after you event? The easiest way to generate revenue, post event, is from a dedicated event web site. Make nostalgic items available for purchase online.  Just remember to focus on your patron’s desire.

As an event organizer of a free event (or any event) you need to think of additional ways to monetize your event. People will pay, regardless of the economic conditions, for a premium experience. A little brain power can go far in generating extra revenue for your event.

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Want to get more great info? Check out the articles below:

• Why Well Planned Events Fail
• How to Get Them To Your Event
  
• Getting Them to Buy Tickets Early
• Turn Your Event Into an Experience
• Leveraging Your Sponsor's Digital Resources

• The Event Promotion System
  Get Your Free Event Promotion & Marketing Video Training

Recession = Opportunities For Your Event

Are you as an event organizer making the most of the economic downturn?  It isn’t all doom and gloom in the world. There are events and industries that are actually thriving in spite of current economic conditions. Check out some of the random press clippings pulled from the last few days.

• Fans flock to speedway, despite sputtering economy
• Economy stinks, but golf at Ritz a 'blessed' event
• The Stock Market Is Down But the Movie Business Is Up 14% Over 2008

I’m not going to deny that people are struggling. But it’s important to remember that people still want to do things.  Go take a look at your local shopping mall during any given weekend.  There might not be as many people shopping, but people are still shopping.  Opportunities are all over the place for smart and savvy event organizers. One huge opportunity that you can take advantage of is discounted advertising rates. 

Discounted Event Advertising
Advertising outlets are so desperate to get advertisers they are offering advertising at a discount. Everyone is discounting their services: television, print, radio, online, etc. It’s far less expensive to buy advertising to promote your event. Even with discounted advertising, focus on negotiating your advertising packages even lower. You should never pay rate card for advertising.  A trusted media buyer told me that 80% of online advertising goes unsold. Be vigilant in how you negotiate your advertising agreements. Never say yes to the initial price you're quoted.

Less Advertisers
Advertising advantages go beyond discounted rates. The current economic state has also prompts many businesses to reduce advertising efforts.  It’s a psychological effect. Business owners think “other businesses are spending less, we should follow suit.” As a result you have less advertising competing for the consumer’s attention. Make sure you don’t follow the rest of the flock. A down economy is an excellent time to gain market share on the competition. Take advantage of less clutter in the market place to position your event with the public.

If you’re thinking of holding an event, the current economy offers you certain advantages. People still want to be entertained, have fun, and learn new things. It’s up to you to provide them something unique and of high perceived value.

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Want to get more great info? Check out the articles below:

• Advertising and Marketing that Sells
• Providing Massive Value in Your Marketing and Advertising
• P.T. Barnum on Advertising
• Why Well Planned Events Fail
• Turn Your Event Into an Experience

• The Event Promotion System
  Get Your Free Event Promotion & Marketing Video Training

Exquisitely Describing Your Event

The words you use to describe your event can make a world of difference in how many people show up to your event.  For all the technology we have at our fingertips words are still your most powerful marketing tool.  When you describe your event, especially in your marketing, make your event description extraordinary.  It doesn’t matter if you’re using traditional media (television, print, radio) or new media. You want the person reading or seeing your advertisements to automatically think, “I want to do that!”

As a quick example, which of the following would more likely peak your interest to attend the event captured in the video above?

“Come see our amazing fireworks and laser light show.”

- OR -

"Witness a thrilling nighttime kaleidoscope as the sky erupts with over 1,100 pyrotechnic bursts and the extraordinary Earth Globe floats across the lagoon, revealing wonders of the seven continents on its curved LED screens — the first ever of their kind. Revel in rousing original music as lasers turn the very sky into a work of art."

Both descriptions are for the same event. The longer description comes from the Disney Corporation. It's for their Reflections of Earth fireworks and laser light show at EPCOT.

You're description can be as long as you want. (Provided you hold your readers attention.) The marketing of your event needs to rival the quality of your event.  Most event organizers create great events that nobody attends. Make sure you’re not making the same mistake. If you have something really great to share with people, don’t under hype your event.

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Want to get more great info? Check out the articles below:

• The Most Powerful Form of Online Advertising (Part I)
• The Most Powerful Form of Online Advertising (Part II)
• Advertising and Marketing that Sells
• Providing Massive Value in Your Marketing and Advertising
• P.T. Barnum on Advertising
• Why Well Planned Events Fail
• Turn Your Event Into an Experience

• The Event Promotion System
  Get Your Free Event Promotion & Marketing Video Training

Sponsorship Page Reality

Sponsors are an important part of any event.  There are numerous event that wouldn’t take place without the support of their sponsors.  Over the last nine years I’ve carefully looked at web statistics for various events. There is a glaring statistic that comes to light as it relates to featuring your sponsors.  When people visit an event web site they aren’t interested in who’s sponsoring your event. Sponsorship is the one of the last things the average visitor deems important.  The graph below shows pageviews statistics from an event web site. The sponsorship page accounted for less than 2% of total pageviews over a 12 month period. The statistics below are from an event web site with 9 pages.

Beyond Sponsorship Logos on Your Event Site
You need to go beyond just featuring sponsors on your event web site.  The process starts with trying to find sponsors that your target market actually cares about. Look at the demographics and psychographics of your target market. Can you find a good link between potential sponsors and your target market?  Instead of just featuring your sponsors include them as part of your marketing.  Include sponsor coupons that your target market can redeem before or after your event.  Make sure that sponsors track coupon use. It won’t be difficult for you to find sponsors for your event if you’re providing your sponsors a definitive return on investment. Using a coupon is one of the easiest ways to show a direct return on investment.

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Want to get more great info? Check out the articles below:

• Sponsorship, Domain Name Branding, and Your Event
• Leveraging Your Sponsor's Digital Resources
• Web User Traffic Trends to Your Event Web Site
• The Timing of Your Event Promotion
• Hold Your Event Marketing Accountable!
• Reading the User's Mind and Then Doing Nothing About It
• Web Page Statistics - "Hits" versus Visitors

• The Event Promotion System
  Get Your Free Event Promotion & Marketing Video Training

Creating an Extraordinary Experience with Words

My dad emailed me the story (link) below a few years ago. It's an 800 word half-page personal narrative describing the extraordinary experience of flight. Even after a quick read, it’s a story that is difficult to forget.  There is no audio or video.  Yet the story (published in 1999) has no problem holding its weight in today’s overly saturated world of multimedia. In the end, it’s an excellent example of the power of words.  I’m still a firm believer that words, especially written words, are the most powerful marketing tool on the internet. It's well worth 120 seconds of your time.

After you read the story think of ways to apply passionate writing to market your event with a great story.

Check it out . . . "On a Wing and a Prayer"

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Want to get more great info? Check out the articles below:

• Turn Your Event Into an Experience
• How to Get Them To Your Event
• Why Well Planned Events Fail
• Getting Them to Buy Tickets Early
• Leveraging Your Sponsor's Digital Resources

• The Event Promotion System
  Get Your Free Event Promotion & Marketing Video Training

An Important Event Web Site Statistic for Promoters and Event Planners

 

Over the weekend I spent some time digging into event web site statistics. Some intriguing information came to light when doing a comparative analysis of web stats from three very different events. The events compared include an air show, a brew fest, and an aviation safety event. Each event had a distinct demographic profile.  In spite of demographic differences, there were some very intriguing correlations in web statistics. Even when accounting for dynamic IP addresses, some specific statistics were within a percentage point or two for all the web sites.

Some Event Web Site Statistics
One interesting statistic was the number of times a user visited a web site (visitor loyalty).  Across all three sites, only 10% of visitors came to an event web site more than three times.  For the same three sites, approximately 70% of the visitors only visited each event web site once.  See the graphic above from an actual event web site. If visitors are only coming to your site once, you need to make sure the information you have on your web site is doing a great job of selling your event.  Are you trying to capture people’s name and email with an opt-in box?  For all the sites 60-75% of all visitors came to each site within 30 days leading up to each event. The more an event organizer spent on advertising their event, the greater the traffic to the site within 30 days of the event. 

Diligently Look at Your Statistics
If you have a recurring event, properly analyzing your web stats is an invaluable resource. Not enough event organizers look into their web stats. Digging into the data goes well beyond just the total number of visitors. Carefully look at what visitors on your site are doing. At the same time, you don’t need to be a rocket scientist to figure out when looking at your web stats. Knowing your stats can save you a ton of money on marketing.

If you haven’t already, be sure that you have a good analytics suite installed on your event web site. My personal favorite is Google Analytics.  Analytics is free and you can get some pretty amazing information. Pay careful attention to your statistics, it could be costing you dearly.

> Leave a Comment About This Post

Want to get more great info? Check out the articles below:

• Web User Traffic Trends to Your Event Web Site
• The Timing of Your Event Promotion
• Hold Your Event Marketing Accountable!
• Reading the User's Mind and Then Doing Nothing About It
• Web Page Statistics - "Hits" versus Visitors

• The Event Promotion System
  Get Your Free Event Promotion & Marketing Video Training