Best of Marketing Genius: Successful Event Promotion (Pt. 2)

Keys to Successful Event Promotion - Part Two
[first published here July 2006]

It is getting tougher and tougher, to get the people you want and need to come to your important event to actually attend. The problem is two-fold. People are busier. They are also being bombarded with requests to attend events. That means there's more competition for their valuable, scarce time. No matter if your event is an annual meeting or a fundraiser or an educational seminar or a sales presentation. No matter if your event is in the morning or the evening ... food or no food, you have to be lucky or smart to end up with a full room on the appointed date and time of your big event.

Oh sure, you could pay people $100 to attend ... or you could hire a celebrity or sports hero to entice people to attend. Either tactic might boost the numbers. Most of us do not have such a rich marketing treasure chest. Now, as for luck, we'll leave that to others and focus on helping you become a smarter event promoter. So here goes!

Earlier this month we introduced you to the RSVP model for event promotion. Here are more helpful insights for you:

V - Variety
To get your invitee to respond, it is no longer enough to mail him an engraved invitation. You have to communicate the information about your event through a variety of channels. Invite them by way of a mailed piece, fine. But combine that tactic with an e-mail invitation. And don't forget to use the media. Hit your invitee in her mailbox. Hit her in her inbox (e-mail). And also hit her in her newspaper and even her radio station. Yes, if you are crafty and persuasive you can get your event covered in the media. Don't expect an expose, though; a simple announcement is much more likely--and still helpful.

P - Packaging
If you want to cut through the clutter and have your invitees pay attention to your invitation and your event, you have to package it. Make it interesting. Add some sizzle. Build up anticipation for the event. Make it the don't-miss-event-of-the-year. Explain why your event is valuable and important. How can you make it more fun ... more important ... or more enticing?

Example: "Attend our annual meeting where you'll have the chance to visit with 20 of the city's most successful business owners."

Another example: one of our clients opened a new facility in one of the city's oldest hotels, a 1920's era building. We gave the grand opening a Roaring Twenties theme, complete with period props, caterers dressed in period costumes and a big band playing swing tunes. It was a smashing success, something different.

Look, there's no cookie-cutter solution. You have to be creative--and you have to know your audience. To be sure, there's a fine line between unique and cheesy; your job is to know that balance point. We're not here to give you the one answer. The point is that marketing geniuses avoid going through the same old tired, mindless tactics that no longer work.

In closing, we ask you, marketing geniuses: what have you done or seen that packed the house for a special event? Please share your stories with us.

Best of Marketing Genius: Successful Event Promotion (Pt. 1)

Keys to Successful Event Promotion - Part 1
[first published here in July 2006]

In our increasingly saturated, information overload world, it's getting harder and harder to get people to attend events. It doesn't seem to matter whether it is a party, an educational seminar or a demonstration. People are busy, to be sure. It also seems that the people who we want to come to our event are getting hit with tons of other invitations from people urging them to come to their events. Not to mention the fact that our invitees are working longer hours, and they're busy parenting their active, involved kids.

So what's a marketing genius to do? Before you raise your arms in exasperation, try the 'RSVP' approach. It's the smarter way of promoting events.

R - Repetition
You have to send your message multiple times. That busy invitee may toss the first invitation. The second one might come at the wrong time ... but that third request catches her just when she has a free moment to focus. If your budget allows, plan and deploy a series of communications to promote your event. Start with a teaser, then send a "Save the Date" message. Continue with the official invitation and follow it with a news clipping about your event. Later, send a friendly reminder, followed by a blurb along the lines of "Look Who's Coming!" If you are operating on a shoe-string budget, you would be wise to send the exact same invitation two or three times, simply to ensure that it gets through. A repetitive communication series gets results. A one-shot invitation gets ignored, misplaced or trashed.

S - Simplicity
How simple can you make it for your invitee to attend your event? I mean, really, really simple. Can you make it so easy that all she has to do is show up? Ask yourself: Is the response step really necessary? Could we go with "Regrets only?" Do not require an RSVP, unless it is truly needed. If you are inviting via e-mail, make it simple for them to just click "Reply" to register. Avoid using a complicated Web form, if possible. Simplify your process; it will make things easier on you and your guests.

There you have it: the "R" and the "S" of the RSVP approach. We'll share the rest with you over the next couple of days.

Successful Event Promotion: Create WV 2008

The picture at left, while somewhat blurry and low-res, shows one important measurement of the success of an event: a packed house!

At Maple Creative, we measure a successful event in three ways:
1- Packed house, standing room only
2- Full media coverage
3- Smiling happy client

The fellow standing on stage is our smiling, happy client, Mr. Jeff James. Jeff, who is one of the most gifted, passionate leaders I've ever known, is the chairperson of the Creative Communities Team of Vision Shared. Working with Jeff and his team of passionate volunteer leaders (change agents), made promoting the Create West Virginia 2008 Conference "an easy sell." In Jeff's words, "I feel good that the event execution has been in Maple's hands this year. It's great when things are organized. Great work by your team.

In terms of full media coverage, the state's newspaper, The Charleston Gazette, wrote two excellent stories. One was published on the 2nd day of the conference; the other, a conference recap, was featured on the front of the Sunday business section. These and many other positive stories were the result of a strategic, statewide media plan that we implemented over a four-month period from July through October. In crafting this plan, we worked carefully to create compelling storylines that provided diversity and relevance by focusing on various aspects of the conference: keynote speakers, record attendance, entertainment, venue and diversity. In such work, it is important to offset media fatigue, helping to mitigate reporters' potential burnout on event coverage. Again, in the client's words,"Really great work…I’m hard pressed to think of any event I’ve read more about since I’ve been to WV the last three years."

When we talk about full attendance and standing room only, we are not exaggerating. The goal for attendance was 300, which represented a healthy 20% increase over the 2007 event. In the end, we had over 400 participants in attendance. Despite the fact that we over-prepared, we still ran out of lanyards and name-badge holders. And on the final session of the last day, a full assembly and keynote presentation, when we expected some attrition, the venue catering staff had to set up extra tables and had to rush to prepare extra lunch plates. What a good problem to have!

In the end, this success story is one of planning & execution, teamwork & passion and the implementation of a leadership team's vision!

Event Attendance 54% Increase

Through the efforts of a hardworking team of marketing professionals and passionate volunteers, registered attendance for CreateWV 2008 Conference is up 54% above last year. We had three big media hits this week, including a Daily Mail story about our keynoter, Rob Kitchin. We'll be doing some live blogging from the event, guest writing a news story and assisting with a special satellite news feed of our interview with First Lady Gayle Manchin from the event site at Snowshoe, W.Va. Tons of excitement and tons of momentum are rolling into the Create WV Conference 2008. Man, I love my job!

For more on the strategic marketing plan for this truly special event, read on.

Marketing an Event: What's Most Effective?

October is peak event season in our world. Conferences, annual meetings and grand openings abound. We are working hard and having so much fun promoting an exciting, important event. The CreateWV '08 Conference is right around the corner, Oct. 20-22.

We've had the honor of promoting this event, again for its 2nd year, working with a very talented planning team and an army of enthusiastic volunteers. The strategic, layered marketing plan, which commenced in July, includes the following tactical elements:

• Earned media - press releases, Op-Eds, feature articles, newspaper tab, radio interviews
• Direct mail - two postcards and an invitation brochure
• Social media - blog posts, blogger carnival, Twitter presence, Facebook - event, group
• Buzz / WOM accelerators - traveling art display of creative cones, "No Misoneism"
• Advertising - a few targeted program/newsletter ads, banners, Facebook ads
• Sales offers - early bird special, group discount program
• Web site, event Web site and blog - all working in concert

The conference is almost sold out, with about 400 attendees registered. The event registration process involves a step to ask folks: How Did You Hear About CreateWV? After 100 days, we've got a good set of data to show what's working to drive such great results:

100 registrations from Direct Mail

50 registrations from Word-of-Mouth/Referral

5 registrations from Media/News

* (the other 200 didn't bother to tell us. we'll forgive them.)

What can we learn from this? In our electronic communications world, marketing messages printed on paper are still important and can be very effective.