SeminarSavvy.com

Will prospective seminar attendees pay what you are asking to participate in your seminar?

The answer depends on how they perceive your price. If they think it’s too high — in other words — there is not enough value to justify the time and money they will spend traveling to and participating in your seminar, they will not sign up. But if they think that you are offering a fair value, if not a bargain, they will sign up.

I recently met with producers of a one-day sales seminar that is priced at $1,295. Is that a lot for a one-day event? Yes, the tuition is higher than what most other providers of one-day training programs charge. However, what really matters is how the target audience perceives the price. If the education and solutions delivered in the seminar are great enough, the price will appear to be a bargain.

For example, if the process taught in this particular event helps seminar participants to increase their closing ratio, and each sale is an average of $10,000, prospects are likely to consider it to be a good investment. All will take is one sale to make their investment pay off.

On the other hand, if participants read the seminar promotional materials and conclude that it will take a lot of work and a long time to turn their seminar participation into measurable, bottom line results, they may conclude that the tuition is too high.

Adding bonuses to your offer is a good way to increase the perceived value of your event — especially when the bonuses themselves have a great perceived value.

What makes a bonus valuable? Here are some questions to consider:

1. Is it sold in a store or on a web site? If so, it can reassure more skeptical prospects who might dismiss bonuses as fluff that you’ve thrown together to manipulate a sale. Knowing that your produce is really for sale somewhere can reassure these buyers that they are getting real value from your bonuses.
2. Is it something that will help your prospects save time, cut costs, make more money or otherwise solve a problem or enhance a result? Bonuses that help people get more of what they want and less of what they don’t want are valuable.
3. Who is your audience and what do they like? If you market to parents, offer bonuses that help them better parent and connect with their children. If your audience loves technology, find the latest and greatest technical doodad to give them. If promoting events to people who love being outdoors, find bonuses that they’ll be able to use while pursuing their passion.
4. What is your area of expertise? What do you stand for? Find bonuses that relate to your area of expertise — because that is why your prospects seek you out. My subscribers are on my mailing list because they want information about promoting seminars and workshops. Although I am more than a seminar marketing coach, that is what connects me to my list. Other things, such as my love of gardening, reading and personal growth, might be interesting to some people on my list.

To find bonuses, start with your own products and knowledge. If needed, create new bonuses that relate to the content of your seminar.

Also turn to other experts and organizations whose products and services relate to your seminar topic. In addition to contributing bonuses that will increase the perceived value of your event, these individuals may make ideal affiliate partners.

Affiliate marketing — asking other experts and organizations to promote your seminars, workshops, teleseminars and webinars in exchange for a commission — is a tool every event marketer should use to fill seats.

But many seminar promoters get frustrated by the rejection they face from affiliates. Prospective affiliates don’t respond to their phone calls and emails soliciting help on a campaign. Other affiliates agree to participate, but then don’t follow through and send out promotions.

If you’ve run into these frustrating situations, take a step back and consider the following:

* Did you explain your marketing campaign in terms of “WIIFM”? Prospective affiliates need to understand more than how your event will help their subscribers and clients. They need to understand how they personally will benefit from promoting your event.

In other words, show them the money — spell out exactly how quickly their affiliate commissions can add up to big bucks. If you have data about how well your promotional materials are converting for yourself and for other affiliates, definitely share these numbers. (But make clear that you’re not guaranteeing the same response for their list.)

* Explain affiliate marketing in terms they understand. Many people do not understand what an affiliate is … so why would they agree to become one? Explain what an affiliate is — essentially, a commissioned salesperson. More importantly, thoroughly explain what you expect them to do and how you easy you’ll make it to participate.

* Put yourself in your affiliates’ shoes. Most experts are busy. Really, really busy. Their lack of response is probably not a sign of disinterest or dislike — more likely, they simply haven’t had the time to respond. Polite and repeated follow-up is the key to winning affiliate participation.

* Understand what you’re really asking. Many experts are uncomfortable enough promoting their own products and services to their subscribers. If you want them to overcome their reluctance and send multiple emails about your events, you need to make it very much worth their effort and perceived risk.

* Repackage your offer. For some experts, promoting events or products for a small commission isn’t worth the effort. Others can’t or won’t accept a commission. For them, offer to extend a discount to their subscribers that’s equal to what you’re willing to pay as a commission.

Using affiliates to spread the word about your event is an easy and low-cost way to fill more seats. Use these tips to encourage greater participation and build stronger relationships with your affiliates.

One popular (and cheap) approach to filling seminar seats is to involve affiliates.

(Affiliates are people who will promote your event in exchange for commission on every sale they generate. Ideally, they will have their own opt-in lists of subscribers who hang on their every word.)

When you have affiliates who are highly influential and have the power to bring a lot of registrations, it’s worth your time to set up a customized landing page for their traffic.

Rather than sending their visitors to your general landing page, create a page that incorporates the super-affiliate’s name, phone and even a video or audio message. If your affiliate is going to be a guest speaker at your event, you can also highlight the specific things they’ll be discussing.

A customized landing page becomes exceptionally powerful if your super-affiliate will be a guest speaker on a preview teleseminar (where prospects can sample your content and decide if they want to sign up for your paid event).

That’s because your super-affiliate will probably (and should) send a promotion teasing his/her list about the content of the preview call. If readers are interested, they’ll click the link and expect to see more information about that particular call and how to get signed up.

If you take them directly to a salesletter for your paid event, to a landing page that discusses ALL of the preview calls you’re hosting (and your super-affiliate’s email doesn’t mention that his/her call is one of a series), or to an opt-in page doesn’t mention preview calls at all … you risk confusing your affiliate’s visitors.

Confused visitors leave without opting in … and without registering for seminars. Your affiliates won’t earn the return on investment they’re making to promote your seminar … and in the future, they’ll be less likely to want to promote your events.

 RECOMMENDED RESOURCE:

The Affiliate Inferno training program offered by Russell Brunson and Stu McLaren is top-notch for learning how to build a successful affiliate program. Russell and Stu have different approaches to building affiliate programs — take your pick about which approach best suits your event and your personal style.

Using other people to help promote your seminars is a powerful marketing tool — especially when you are first starting out and don’t have your own mailing list.

But relying on affiliates (other people who promote your events to their lists for a commission on each sale they generate) has a big downside: many, if not most, of your partners won’t follow through and promote your seminar as promised.

The problem isn’t that they don’t believe in your seminar … or that they are “bad” people. A lack of action is usually due to your affiliates being so busy running their own businesses that they forget about or run out of time to send your promotions.

Three things you can do to help your affiliates promote your seminars:

1. Provide a timeline. Spell out when you want  affiliates to take action … and what action to take.

2. Provide the materials. The more work you do for your affiliates, the less they have to do … and the easier it becomes for them to execute. So give them the promotional materials you want them to send to their lists.

3. Follow up. Your affiliates are busy. Help keep your seminar front and center by sending reminders about upcoming actions you want them to take.