SeminarSavvy.com

Business Expert Webinars is now offering consulting services to speakers, authors, consultants and other experts who want to add for-fee webinars to their product and marketing mix.

Consultations are available to help you:

* Position your webinar for success, including identifying topics for which attendees will pay

* Effectively promote your webinars (delivered by yours truly!)

* Develop PowerPoint presentations that hold your audience’s interest

* Generate free publicity for your webinars

* Deliver an engaging, high-impact presentation when your audience can’t see you

For details, visit http://www.businessexpertwebinars.com/consulting

You’ve seen the ads — “9 million mailing addresses for just $24.99.” You’re tempted to buy … because surely somewhere among those millions of prospects, there must be a hundred people or so who would be interested in your seminar.

Alas, the results don’t prove your theory true.   

Quality, not quantity, is what counts when you’re building your seminar business. Yes, it is important to grow your list, because at some level, seminar promotion becomes a game of numbers. Once you’ve achieved a fairly predictable level of response with your promotions, growing your business becomes a matter of getting in front of more people.

Until you reach a certain level of success, though, it’s highly critical to be choosy about who you’re reaching. If you market to a poor quality list, you risk getting horrid results. Although an established business can absorb the financial loss of the occasional bad promotion, it’s much more difficult for a newer business to recover from the loss.

In addition to improving the chances of generating a profit, choosing a highly qualified mailing list also helps future promotions. A better list will provide more — and more accurate — data about what works when promoting your event.

For example, imagine that you want to test a direct mail invitation vs. a postcard when promoting your free lead-generation event. If you market to a huge list of people who have given zero indication that they might be qualified to attend your event, you can expect that virtually no one will respond. As a result, you won’t get any meaningful data that will help you determine which marketing tool is most effective.

On the other hand, if you promote your seminar to a list of highly qualified prospects — people whose demographic profile or affiliations match those of your ideal prospect — you should generate enough data to make a sound decision about how to promote your seminars moving forward.

When evaluating mailing lists to rent or buy, look at factors such as:
* Age
* Education
* Job title
* Industry or profession
* Income
* Geographic location
* Past purchases
* Memberships
* Subscriptions

Once you do find a list or two that looks interesting, you might be tempted to rent the whole thing. Instead, rent a small list. Test your mailing. If the list produces enough registrations to cover your cost and generate a profit, rent more names from the same list.

If you’ve never rented a list before, be aware that most list owners require that a minimum number of names be rented (e.g., 5,000 names). Some marketers consider 5,000 names to be a small list; for others, it’s mind-boggling big.

If you fall into the latter camp, ask the list manager or broker if you can rent half the list two times to make up the minimum order size (e.g., rent 2,500 names to make up a 5,000-name list minimum). That way, you’ll have the names needed to do a second mailing (Want to run a test? See for yourself how effective it is to send more than one promotion. Send half of your list one promotion only, and send the second half two promotions.)

You also can ask permission to rent two smaller test lists (e.g., 2,500 names from List A and 2,500 names from List B) to make up the minimum. Some owners will say yes. Others will say no. It doesn’t hurt to ask.

To fill your seminars, it’s essential to keep expanding your reach. Make sure you’re investing your marketing dollars into qualified lists to position yourself to receive a positive return on your investment.

Dr. Ralph Elliott is offering work scholarships for his Effective Seminar/Conference Marketing workshop, Monday through Tuesday, August 31 – September 1, 2009, at the Downtown Embassy Suites Lakeside (Mention Group/Convention Code CLN to get Clemson room rate of $139 per night). Go to http://tinyurl.com/m8azdb for full details on the program and the hotel. 

A work scholarship means that not only is the registration fee cut in half to $350, but you are an important part in the success of the program.

On Sunday evening, August 30, you will need to help set up the meeting room from 6:00 to 7:00 p.m. You will be needed again with the registration on Monday morning from 8:00 to 9:00 a.m. 

If you are willing to help out, send Ralph Elliott an e-mail { elliot@clemson.edu … please note, there is only one “t” in the e-mail address} with your full contact information and put “Hamby Offer”in the subject line.

A content-rich presentation is the core of a successful seminar. But to ensure that your attendees have a pleasant — if not knock-their-socks-off — experience, it’s important to ensure that your event runs smoothly.

But if you are the only one working your event — a common scenario for new seminar promoters and professionals who use free seminars to generate leads — chances are good that attendees will have a less-than-stellar experience. If you’re welcoming participants, handing out registration materials, and trying to get your presentation loaded, while also fielding questions about where the bathrooms are and what time you want lunch served, someone or some need is being ignored.

When you wear the hats of presenter, registrar, event planner and technician, it can lend a frenetic feel to your seminar environment. Participants may get the impression that you’re disorganized or feel that they can’t bother you with questions or to say hi. The worst-case scenario is that you’re so busy attending to event planning needs that you are unable to perform at your best when it comes time to deliver your presentation.

If your budget allows, hiring an event planner to coordinate the production of your seminar is a wise investment. Event planners can handle details such as negotiating contracts, coordinating the layout of your meeting room, ordering food and beverages, reserving equipment, and overseeing the registration area.

Don’t have funds to outsource all of your event planning? At the very least, find assistants to help out the day of your seminar. For example, get a few people to check in participants. Use others to help ensure that your meeting room is set up properly and run errands for you if needed. You may even want an assistant on hand to serve as an A/V technician.

You can, of course, hire people to assist you. Family and friends are logical choices when your business is new. Another option is to seek volunteers from among your attendees.

To solicit participant volunteers, offer a work scholarship, where you let some participants in for a discounted fee if they agree to volunteer their time and talents to staff your event. Depending on the type of work that you do during your seminars and the relationship you have with your fans, a work scholarship can grow into more than a mere business transaction. It be positioned — and perceived — as an opportunity for a rare behind-the-scenes look at how an event runs … to develop a closer relationship with you … and to be in service to your students.

If you need a certain number of assitants to staff your seminar, promote the opportunity in your marketing materials. Good places includes a call-out in a seminar brochure, a P.S. on your sales letter, on your registration form (“Yes, I’d like to be considered for the work scholarship”) and even in a list of frequently asked questions.

Even if you do not need volunteers, keep the idea of a work scholarship in mind. Then, if you get a request from a cash-strapped prospective attendee who wants to get in for a discounted price, you’ll have a ready-made deal to offer.

To ensure that your volunteer workforce helps, rather than hinders, the flow of your event, require participants to show up early. Communicate from the start about what they are expected to do and when they are expected to work.

Finally, be sure to clearly explain what you want each volunteer to do, as well as what they should do and who to consult with if any emergencies, questions or surprises arise. Most volunteers will work hard for you out of gratitude for the discounted tuition you’ve extended them — and their enthusiasm can be channeled to deliver an extraordinary experience for other participants.

Address Unspoken Questions to Secure More Seminar Registrations

It often seems that for every person who signs up for a seminar, there’s at least one or two more who are undecided about attending.

Some are uncertain because they have financial concerns and aren’t sure they’ll receive enough value for their investment. Convincing these prospects to register takes highly persuasive copy and lots of follow-up.

But other prospects are easier to reassure. Emotionally, they are sold on participating. But the logical part of their brain needs to be set at ease about committing to participation in your seminar.

To move these individuals off the fence and onto your registration list, provide answers to common questions about your event. Questions that relate to the registration fee are top priority, such as “What is your satisfaction guarantee?” “What if I have to cancel?” and “What’s included in my registration fee?”

But don’t overlook questions that seem to be trivial, such as “What should I wear?” “What about meals?” and “How do I get to the hotel?” The more you’re able to help prospects visualize their entire seminar experience, the more at ease they’ll be … and the fewer obstacles will stand between you and another registration.

To make these details easy to find, post a list of frequently asked questions on your website or include a page of seminar details and common questions in your brochure. Sending a direct mail package? Consider including an insert with your seminar FAQs.

To register for a seminar, prospects need to be  convinced that the event will deliver an experience that is worth their money, as well as their time. Each additional detail you provide about your event could make the difference in convincing a prospect that your seminar is a must-attend event.