Outdoor Events & Advance Ticket Sales

How many times have you tried something on the recommendation of a friend or someone you know? In the marketing field someone making a recommendation of another product or service is known as endorsed marketing.  In many cases endorsed marketing takes the form of a testimonial. Testimonials involved someone else, either a customer or associate, endorsing your product or service. A testimonial usually doesn’t cost anything collect, yet is an extremely effective way to promote products or services.  Have you ever considered using testimonials to promote your event?

People Say
Dan Kennedy, one of the world’s top direct marketing consultants, sums up testimonials as follows:

“What others say about you and your product, service, or business is at least 1,000 times more convincing than what you say, even if you are 2,000 times more eloquent.”

An Example
Recently one of my clients had their largest event of the year. Their event takes place on an annual basis. Each year a few thousand people attend the event. This year the client decided to hire a local video production crew to gather video testimonials while the event took place. I think it was an ingenious idea. They plan on using the collected video testimonials to promote their event next year.

Credibility
Video testimonials are extremely credible because you get to see people in real life using their own words. One question people frequently ask about video testimonials is "should they be scripted?" I wouldn’t recommend trying to script video testimonials. Unscripted testimonials allow people to be genuine about endorsing your event. You are far better off allowing people to talk about your event in their own words.

Next Time You Have An Event
During your next event ask your attendees if they would be good enough to give a video testimonial during a break or other appropriate time. The best testimonials are results oriented. In the case of an event it can be something as simple as “I attended Joe’s event and was able to do … “or “I attended the XYZ event and had an unbelievable time. Let me tell you why you should attend . . .”

Home video production has never been so inexpensive.  All you need is a basic video recorder that hooks up to your computer and some simple video editing software. Most computers already come with the software installed. The time invested in getting video testimonials is well worth the  effort. There are few other forms of advertising or promotion that can compete with a genuine third party testimonial.

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