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.

A few years ago, a seminar marketer was picking my brain about how to fill more of his seminar seats.

When we started talking about his competition, he mentioned as an aside that his biggest competitor had published a book that had been on the best-seller list for several weeks.

“Do you think that’s helped him?” he asked.

Well … heck, yes!

Publishing a book gives you 3 distinct advantages over non-authors:

1. Name recognition. The better known your book is, the more name recognition you have. This, in turn, makes you a bigger attraction as a speaker.

2. Credibility. Even if you self-publish, people are impressed when you can hand them a real, printed book.

3. Leverage. If people are interested in what they’re learning in your book, they’ll often be interested in continuing their studies with you. So make sure to promote your seminars in your book.

* Mention your seminars in the book content (“During one recent seminar, an attendee came up and asked me ….”)

* Include a generic mention of your seminars in your bio and/or on the page listing details about your resources (“For details about the author’s seminars, books and home-study programs, visit ….”).

* And if you really have your act together, include a special offer to entice readers to attend your seminar, such as a coupon for discounted tuition.

Before you sit down to write a single word of copy, think carefully about who you really want to see sitting in your seminar seats. Analyzing your perfect attendee up front will make your copy more effective — and also make it easier to write.

If you try to be everything to all people — all people being the myriad types of folks who could benefit by participating in your seminar — your copy will be blah and will likely appeal to no one.

But if you can pick a primary audience to focus on, you can speak directly to their problems and desires.

During one recent project, the primary audience we were targeting changed as the copy developed. The client initially chose to focus on an audience that was large and somewhat desperate. But as the project developed and feedback came in from various trusted advisors and potential attendees, the client realized that shifting focus to a smaller — but more lucrative — audience would be a better strategy.

As a result of the change in focus, we had to rework some of the copy. Verbiage that appealed to the first audience would repel the second group. It added more work to the project … but in the end, we had a stronger letter.

As you implement your marketing plans, follow my client’s lead and keep your ears and eyes open. It’s better to invest a little extra time reworking your marketing pieces than to stick to a flawed marketing strategy once you have feedback that recommends a shift in direction.

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.