SeminarSavvy.com

When you are marketing your first seminar — or assuming marketing responsibilities for a seminar that’s already been done before — it’s easy to get overwhelmed by all there is to do.

So what’s the very first thing you should do?

I start by researching the audience.

Read industry publications. Study your competitors’ marketing. Survey your audience.

If you work for a training company, talk to the trainers and other people who have helped market your events before.

And whatever you do, don’t forget to actually TALK to at least a few past attendees. Even a short telephone interview can provide tremendous insights into what your prospects want and need from your event.

Knowing what makes your prospects tick … what problems keep them up at night … how your seminar helps solve their problem … and what they want your seminar to deliver — these are the secrets that will help you create compelling copy and a smart
marketing strategy.

Do you want to cover your seminar marketing and production costs with sponsorships? Keep these tips in mind if you want to be taken seriously by the potential sponsors you are approaching:

• Be prepared to show sponsors what you’ll do to fill the seats. Have your speakers lined up. Have your marketing plan and marketing materials created. Be able to show that you have a mailing list of people who want this type of information from you.
• Be clear about the type of people who will attend your seminar. Companies are more likely to sponsor events when doing so will put them in front of their target audience.
• Remember WIIFM (What’s In It For Me?). Sponsorships are advertising opportunities … and your prospective sponsors will be evaluating if the audience and exposure you’re offering will be the best use of their money. Help them see how they’ll benefit (i.e., realize a return on their investment) by sponsoring your seminar.

Painting a vision of what the event will be like isn’t enough to win sponsors; you must prove that your seminar will be attended by people who are likely to buy what your sponsors are selling — and that you know how to reach those individuals. If you can’t offer sponsors this type of information, you’re not selling sponsorship opportunities; you’re asking for a donation.

In my last post, I shared my thoughts about why it makes more sense to make just one offer with every promotional piece you send out vs. giving prospects several offers to choose from.

But if you still want to promote multiple offers in a single marketing piece, here are some tips to help you get the most  bang for your buck:

1. Are you promoting a free seminar, where you sell your products, services or next (paid) event? Try offering a recording to people who can’t make it to the preview … or who don’t want to attend a live seminar, but are otherwise interested in receiving your information.

Don’t be surprised if you get fewer people signed up for your live event — ordering a recording is easier to say yes to than attending a seminar. (Tip: send the recording to no-shows. That way, you can salvaging the “lost” registrations by still getting your valuable information in their hands.)

2. Are you promoting a live paid seminar? You can safely promote your live preview event or teleseminar in your marketing brochure. Position it as a free trial for people who want to try before they buy.

3. If you insist on making multiple free offers in one promotional piece — for example, offering a report, a free teleseminar, and a free consultation — help prospects quickly grasp what you are trying to promote by using big, bold subheads and formatting. Remember, prospects are spending just a few seconds scanning your marketing pieces. If you bury your offers in dense paragraphs of text, they’ll ignore what you’re saying. But if you can telegraph what you’re trying to communicate (“I have 3 gifts for you — take your pick”), you’ll do a better job of grabbing attention and getting them to act.

My final tip? Test, test, test. By coding your promotions and tracking your results, you’ll know for sure which approach — one offer vs. multiple offers — produces the best bottom-line results.

With the amount of time, effort and money you sink
into your marketing, you want to see a big return on
your investment. Which is why it can be tempting to
load your promotional pieces with multiple offers.

For example, you might try to promote your paid seminar
… and in the same marketing piece, also promote a
free seminar.

Or you might promote a free seminar … but also want
to promote a free report and a free consultation.

On the surface, this strategy seems logical. The more
offers you include, the more likely you are to present
one that appeals to any particular prospect … right?

Surprisingly … no.

When making a single offer, prospects have one question
to answer: “Do I want this or not?” All they have
to decide is yes or no.

Presenting prospects with a choice of offers, however,
makes them think. Now they don’t merely have to decide
“yes or no?” … they have to decide which offer they
want most.

And that can muddy the waters just enough that your
prospects toss your promotional piece in the trash
or into their “I’ll deal with this later” pile.