What Nobody Will Ever Tell You About Promoting Your Event
What if there is a way to increase the effectiveness of ALL your event promotion and marketing overnight? That means record advance revenue and attendance, while saving huge amounts of time and money. You're probably thinking, "This sounds like one of those bad late-night infomercials!" Bear with me because you're about to discover a powerful marketing strategy used by some of the most successful businesses in the world. Most event organizers and producers aren't even aware of its existence.
Years ago, I discovered the world of Chet Holmes. He has been referred to as "America's greatest business growth expert." This title was earned through Chet's groundbreaking work with Fortune 500 companies like American Express, Warner Brothers, Citibank, Estee Lauder, and several others. He even managed nine business divisions for Charlie Munger (Warren Buffet's business partner at Berkshire Hathaway).1 Over the span of his career, Chet conducted a twenty-year study of consumer buying behavior. His findings concluded that only 3 percent of consumers are willing to "buy now, right now." This buying propensity is universal regardless of industry. It could be a piece of furniture, professional service or even office equipment. After digging into the study, I asked the question, "Are Chet’s findings applicable to the event industry?"
Poorly-Targeted Advertising = A Waste of Countless Advertising Dollars
Most events spend 50% - 75% (or more) of their marketing budget on poorly targeted advertising and marketing, this includes advertising trades and media partnerships. Regardless of cost, every marketing campaign takes your time to manage and execute. Even "free" marketing isn't really free.
Too many events focus on trying to advertise to 100% of the people in their local area. Multiple events producers have told me, "We want to make sure that everyone knows our event is going on!" Unfortunately, even if you get 100% of the people to know there is an event, only 3% (or less) are interested in attending.
Here's a case study to illustrate that point: Two years ago, a client referenced 9 million advertising impressions in an after air show advertising report. The population of their local area was approximately 2 million people. That means that every family in the local show area was exposed to as many as four event advertisements. There was wall-to-wall coverage leading up to the event, and only 29,421 people purchased tickets to the event, in a city with 2+ million people.
In my experience, there isn’t a single event that has enough advertising cash to change public opinion or personal bias. It's like trying to convince a strict vegan to have a juicy Kobe beef hamburger. At some point, it doesn't matter how much money you can spend. The greatest marketing creative in the world sent to an uninterested group of people is a recipe for failure—every time! Either people are interested, or they're not. You need to relentlessly focus your advertising and marketing on the people who are most interested in attending your event.
How do focus your advertising and marketing like a laser beam? We'll explore that in the next post.
Want to get more information on advance ticket sales for your next event? Check out the articles below:
- Event Marketing Idea: Blocking Your Tickets
- Smart Advance Ticket Strategies
- Event Promotion: The Psychology of Ticket Prices
- Leveraging Huge Ticket Discounts to Drive Advance Tickets Sales
- How to Sell Even More Tickets to Your Event
- When to Start Selling Tickets for Your Event
- Charging a Premium Event Ticket Price
- Getting Them to Buy Tickets Early
1. Super Strategist of the Fortune 500. (n.d.). Retrieved February 1, 2017, from https://www.chetholmes.com/about-chet
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