Outdoor Events & Advance Ticket Sales

All the Best
Below you will find a series of top articles from 2007 selected by my blog readers. Thank you to all the readers, reviewers, and the people good enough to give their time for interviews. I trust that the information below and on the other sections of this blog will be helpful to you in the coming year. I'm looking forward to sharing some great information with everyone in the New Year. Here's wishing everyone "All the Best" in 2008!

Top Reader Selected Articles

Events organizers choose their sponsors for a variety of reasons.  The reasons an event might choose a sponsor could range from giving the event additional credibility, to cash, trade, or other reasons. One important consideration is a potential sponsor's digital resource base and how you might be able to leverage it for online marketing purposes. Take the time to carefully assess a potential sponsor's digital resource base when considering any event sponsor. A few hours of brainstorming could save an event organizers thousands of dollars in traditional advertising. Emphasis should be placed on creating a mutually beneficial relationship for both your event and your sponsor's organization.

Some Important Questions to Ask Yourself Regarding Potential Sponsors:

• How does your sponsor's demographic match up against your event's demographics?
• Does your sponsor have a high quality email list you can leverage?
• How much traffic does your sponsor's web site generate?
• Is there room on your sponsor's web site to promote your event? (Banners and Links)
• Does your sponsor send a digital newsletter? Can you insert information about your event?
• Is your sponsor part of an online advertising network? (Co-branded Ads)

All of the questions above can be summarized in one simple question to ask yourself:
"What can a potential sponsor do to contribute to my event's online marketing endeavors?"

Leverage Your Sponsor's Email List
If a potential sponsor has a high quality email list, discuss the possibilities of sending out a series co-branded emails to build awareness for your event. Email campaigns are an inexpensive way to get the word out about your event. You might consider starting an email marketing campaign before your traditional advertising starts. Perhaps the sponsor might be able to include a coupon targeted for people on their own mailing list somehow tied into your event. Always be thinking how you can use a marketing resource over time and in tandem with other resources. One of the biggest advantages of online marketing is that almost everything can be tracked and measured for effectiveness. Be sure to setup some measurable metrics for success. Regardless of some of the online advantages, consider using traditional means like traditional mail.

There are a multiply ways to leverage the resource base a potential sponsor can offer. Always strive to get to a win-win situation with your sponsors.

Want to get additional marketing info? Check out the articles below:

• The Danger of “Free Event” & “Great Event” Thinking
• Event Marketing: Stop Reducing Your Event Ticket Price
• Event Promotion: A Big Bucks Idea for Your Next Event
• Promotion: Using Video to Front Load Event Value
• Let Other People Sell Your Event for You

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

For today's post I'm going to concentrate on getting the most out of your web site with television advertising.  The premise hinges on the core concept of web centric marketing. How many details can you remember about a commercial you just viewed? Chances are not very many.

Getting the viewer to remember your domain name should be one of the main objectives of any form of advertising. A domain name is far easier to remember compared to numerous other details. One of the fundamentals behind web centric marketing is to get people back to your web site where they can digest the information at their own pace.

Starting Point
I'm writing from the premise that your commercial already has a unique selling proposition for the viewer and that it doesn't drown anyone with too much information. Make sure your messaging connects with the viewer in a meaningful way.

Press releases are a great place to create an early buzz for your event.  Press releases are also the starting point for future news articles on your event by the media. One piece of information you don't want to forget in any press release is mention of your event's web site.

Add Your Event Web Site to the Press Release
Adding your event web site to a press release seems like a perfectly obvious and logical thing to do. In fact it is so obvious that it usually gets forgotten.  Recently I had a client announce their event without including any information about their event's web site.  The event announcement was covered by several news outlets but only one news outlet mentioned the event's web site. Not including one simple sentence  about the event's web site probably cost my client a few hundred, possibly thousands of targeted visitors to their web site.

Each Time the Media Covers Your Event
Make the request to media outlets that every time they cover your event for a news story that the event web site also gets promoted. Having your web site included in a news articles or television feature is an excellent way to get free advertising and send qualified traffic to your web site. If the media outlet covering your event publishes an online article this can help boost your search engine rankings by virtue of back links. The more back links your web site receives from news articles the more targeted traffic you'll receive.

Have a Call to Action
It isn't enough just to list your web site in a press release. Try and give the reader additional incentive to visit or mention your event's web site.  One sentence should suffice. "You can get additional information at . . . " or "Purchase Tickets Online at . . ." are just a few ideas. You need to give the perspective user some reason to visit your web site beyond a passing mention.

Make Sure Your Site is Up to Date
Before you ask news services to mention your event web site make sure that your site is reasonably up to date.  There is little value in sending people to a web site that contains old and irrelevant information.  At a minimum update the home page of your event's web site. You don't need to do an entire overhaul of your web site immediately, but you should update the critical facts: who, what, when, where, and why.

All the information above seems simple and logical, but unfortunately gets forgotten on a regular basis. It is the small things that can really add up in the end. Getting news outlets to cover your event and mentioning your web site is one way of generating buzz for your event and getting great free advertising.

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 'FREE' Event Promotion & Marketing Video Training

Information Is Power
The above proverb is more applicable today than ever before. In a previous post, Watch Out: People Are ‘Googling’ You, I emphasized the common practice of other people and companies using search engines to find information about you. It is becoming increasing more difficult to keep your information private regardless of your own vigilance in the matter. Fortunately, if you choose, you can use the digital trend to your own advantage.  Consider this: “Information is more powerful when you can control it, especially when the information is about you.” Do you have a firm control of your online identity?

Last week I listened in to a teleconference presented by Eben Pagan. Some people might know Eben by his pen name David DeAngelo. One of Eben's most successful web sites can be found at doubleyourdating.com. 

If you visit the doubleyourdating web site and cringe, hold off judging "a book by its' cover." The model used for doubleyourdating.com generated over $20 Million USD in revenue for Eben last year. Some of the core marketing concepts he used to generate his $20 Million in revenue were presented in his teleconference.

For today’s post I’m going to share my notes from Eben’s teleconference. The crux of Eben's information focused on marketing, listening, and testing.

If you bring up the subject of testing your marketing, most people let out a groan of exasperation.  Most companies don't like to test their marketing or their web site. The process to develop a web side is arduous enough, then to go and test can be even more work.

The honest truth is that testing your marketing message and your web site is one place that will make a world of difference in terms of your online success.  You should constantly be asking yourself if your marketing and web site are connecting with your end user.

The Right Kind of Testing
One problem companies have with testing their marketing or web site is the potential hit to their ego. Companies put a great deal of pride into their work.  In the case of the company web site, it's the company's version of a digital presentation.  Difficulties arise when companies can't separate themselves from their own pride. The company's ego is getting in the way of its' online success. The best kind of testing is accomplished when a company can separate itself from its' ego. Putting the user as your focal point will put more dollars into the bank, guaranteed!

What to Test
When it comes to web site testing the possibilities are nearly endless. There are a few core areas where you should definitely focus your efforts.