Recently, I was asked the question
“What is the most cost effective way to market a workshop?”
That is a great question, and I know many people are wondering the same thing. So how do you promote events in the most cost effective way?
Email marketing is hands down the most cost effective way to market a workshop or a seminar. It doesn’t cost anything (or very little) to send an email.
Of course, as with everything, the devil is in the details. It matters who 
you send your emails to, whether they get opened and what they communicate. Here are some helpful tips to make your email marketing successful.
Your Opt-In List
For email marketing to be effective, you need your own “house” list. These are people who have opted in to get your emails. They have raised their hand and indicated that they are interested in your topic.
Then you have to build a relationship with them, so that when you ask them to buy a ticket to workshop or seminar, they are confident that you are going to deliver on your promises. That means that you have to communicate with them regularly, and send them quality tips and information. You can’t just send them marketing messages and expect them to jump when you send them an email.
You will get the best results from marketing to your list, because they know, like and trust you.
Open Rate
Emails are only effective when your intended audience receives them and then opens them. For them to land in your potential attendees’ inbox, you need a dependable email service with a high deliverability rate, like AWeber. When you use an email service, your marketing becomes scalable. It is just as easy to send an email to 10 people as it is to send one to 10,000 people.
A good email service also flags your email if it has any SPAM words in it. Sometimes the most innocent combination of words get marked as SPAM, so it is good to know that ahead of time, before you hit the “Send” button.
Finally, your email has to be opened. Your open rate will be higher if you have a good relationship with your list and they have come to expect good value from you. However, your subject line will also play a big part in whether your audience opens your email. Make sure that your subject line inspires curiosity and makes the recipient want to open the email and read more.
Sell the Click
The biggest mistake seminar marketers make when they send out their emails is that they are trying to sell their event in the email. That is not the purpose if your email. The purpose of your email is to have your potential attendee click on the link that takes them to the registration page.
The registration page gives them all the information they need to make a decision to come to your event. Don’t include all your details in the email. Just make your email informational and intriguing enough to entice them to click on the link.
Of course you should never rely solely on email marketing. There are many more that I detail in the Butts in Seats Home Study Course. However, when you focus on these details when your are promoting your events, you will find that email marketing is the most cost effective way to market a workshop or seminar.
Posted in Event Marketing by .
Thousands of athletes from all over the world are getting ready for the Olympic Games. You may not be training for the 2012 Olympics, but you are getting ready for something…
Perhaps you are thinking about your own event, workshop or seminar. That means you have to do something every day to make it happen.
You don’t make the Olympic Games, or plan your event in one day. It takes many small actions every single day. So ask yourself, what have you done today?
If you need some inspiration, take a look at this award winning video “Sport at Heart” about the 2012 Olympic Games.
Oh, and can you identify all the famous faces?
Posted in Daphne's Musings by .
May 12
10
Create More Visibility With Images
It seems as we get bombarded by more and more information on the internet and on social media, our brain starts to focus more and more on images. A picture is not just worth a thousand words, it is also worth a lot of eyeballs.
More Visibility
And eyeballs mean more traffic to your website, blog posts or even registration pages. It certainly means more visibility for you and your events.
More people engage on Facebook with pictures and the hottest new social network, Pinterest, is all about images. In fact, according to a study by Virtue, pictures get 54% more engagement than text posts and 22% more engagement than even videos.
So how can you take advantage of this phenomenon?
Include great images in your blog posts
If you use your blog as a part of your marketing strategy (and you should!), use great images. Images are perfect to illustrate a point from your blog post, to convey a message or to draw the eye of the reader to where you want it to go. You can take your own pictures, which more and more people do with the advent of Instagram, or you can use royalty free stock photos for your blog and registration pages. Search Engine Journal has a great post about 10 places to find free images online.
Post the image from your blog post to your Facebook page.
Instead of sharing the link to your blog post on Facebook, post the picture. Add a description and the link to your blog post. Since pictures get more engagement on Facebook, you get a twofold benefit. One, you will get more comments and likes on your picture, sparking more conversation and activity on your Facebook page. And two, that will increase your Facebook EdgeRank. The higher your EdgeRank, the more people will actually get your posts in their newsfeed. (Facebook’s dirty little secret is that not all your friends and Facebook fans see your posts.)
Add the Pin It Plug in to your blog.
The Pin It plug in for your WordPress blog adds a little button to your blog posts that make it super easy for your readers to share your picture on Pinterest. If you have gone through the trouble of adding a beautiful image to your blog post, you want your readers to share it, and the Pin It button helps them do it in just a click or 2.
Turn quotes or tips into graphics
People love motivational quotes and tips. Instead of just posting them, turn them into a graphic. They get “repinned” on Pinterest and shared on Facebook like there is no tomorrow. Download a pretty background from a place like sxc.hu, and add your quote or tip.
Success Quote Graphics
I have take 5 of my favorite success quotes and created success quote graphics that I want to give you. They are ready to pin and share on Facebook. Get Pinterest Marketing for Events today for only $7 and they are yours.
Take advantage of this new trend for creating more visibility and start posting images today.
Oh, and don’t forget to pin this post. Thanks!
Posted in Event Marketing Social Media by .
May 12
7
Magnetic Goals – Free Webinar
- Is your small business massively successful despite the economy – despite your business history – despite your doubts?
- Are you working less and earning more?
- Is your life filled with joyful prosperity?
- Do you know how to set MAGNETIC goals AND achieve them?
If you said Yes to every question you can stop reading this post. If you said No this post is for you!
You probably know how important setting goals are for your business. But what if you could set Magnetic Goals?
Magnetic Goals That Literally Draw You Toward the Financial Success You Know You Deserve!
Goal-setting is one of the most critical processes in any small business but few know how to set goals that have true-magnetism and literally pull your thoughts, your energy, and your resources towards success.
Magnetic goals define the path you will take, and create the opportunities you need, for full achievement of your vision for your small business and your life.
Cathy Demers
Join me when I interview my friend Cathy Demers, award-winning entrepreneur, about Magnetic Goals. She will share what they are, and how you can use them to draw business success to you while you do what you love.
“Measure What You Treasure”
As an added bonus, Cathy will teach you why it’s important to “measure what you treasure” and give you great ideas on how to “get what you count” in innovative and fun ways. This is a sure-fire and simple strategy to combat the number one killer of focus and motivation – lack of clear and demonstrated progress.
You will be amazed at how easy and effective this is!
Join Cathy and me to if you want to:
- Secure your business success and your personal prosperity while you serve others, regardless of the economy or other circumstances
- Truly enjoy the process of building your small business each and every day
- Unleash the potential of your business and build fantastic momentum
- Reduce your stress and workload while you make more money
- Learn how to use Magnetic Goals and draw financial success & security to you
To sign up for this FREE, LIVE webinar on May 9th, just click this link:
http://eventsandprofits.com/goals
*** This call will fill up fast – so please register early! ***
And, if you can’t attend register anyway and you will receive the audio replay.
I look forward to seeing you on the call!
Posted in Daphne's Musings Event Strategy by .
If you are wondering how to reach your goals, the number one way to do it is to actually set them. It is amazing what setting goals can do. All of us have dreams, and want to achieve certain things. Yet very few of us actually accomplish what we want. The difference? It could very well be setting goals, and then magnetize them.
Napoleon Hill said: “A goal is a dream with a deadline.”
But he didn’t know about Magnetic Goals…
I reached my Olympic goals. Here I am at the Olympic Games in Seoul
When I was 15 years old, my goal was to get to the Olympic Games. In fact, when I was interviewed by another student for a school project and she asked me how I was going to do that, I had a plan and interim goals. (Of course, at the time, I had no idea that that was what it was called.)
I told her that first, I was going to qualify for the European Championships in Yugoslavia. The next year, I was going to the World Championships in Ecuador, and the European Championships in Rome the following year. If I made it to all those competitions and did well, I would go to the Olympics in Los Angeles.
Needless to say, I achieved what I had set out to do. I had a goal, a vision and a plan and that was it.
7 Year Old Knows How To Reach Her Goal
Recently, my 7 year old daughter came from school reporting that she had moved up from “Ready to Learn” to “Way to Go”.
It is the disciplinary system, where you start at “ready to learn” and move up or down based on the choices you make. The bottom part is “Call your Parents” and the top is “Super Student”.
My daughter had never made it to Super Student and I asked “How come?“ She just didn’t know. I told her “Let’s see if you can make it to Super Student before the end of the school year” and she agreed. The very next week she came back with a note that she was a Super Student.
She set a goal and went on to reach it. If we hadn’t talked about it and set that goal, she would have been ready to learn or way to go for the rest of the year.
Unfortunately, setting and reaching goals is not always that easy.
Thankfully, my friend Cathy Demers has a way to set Magnetic Goals that literally draw you to toward the financial success you know you deserve. She teaches you how to reach your goals by magnetizing them through a few simple steps.
Join me on May 9th when I interview her during a free webinar about Magnetic Goals, what they are and how you can use them to draw business success to you while you do what you love.
As an added bonus, Cathy will teach you why it’s important to “measure what you treasure” and give you great ideas on how to “get what you count” in innovative and fun ways. This is a sure-fire and simple strategy to combat the number one killer of focus and motivation – lack of clear and demonstrated progress.
Immediate Progress
I love Cathy’s system and have implemented it myself. It is great to see the immediate progress you’re making! I know you will love seeing the results right away as well and finally figure out how to reach your goals.
Check out all the details of the free webinar about Magnetic Goals at http://eventsandprofits.com/goals.
Posted in Daphne's Musings Event Strategy by .
Apr 12
30
Business Bits From The Beach Boys
This weekend, my husband and I went to a Beach Boys concert. It is their 50th anniversary tour and features all the surviving Beach Boys. The concert was fantastic, and true to form, I came back with a bunch of business bits from the Beach Boys.
Enlist Support
The 5 members of the Beach Boys had quite the backup band. In fact, they had 7 musicians playing with them. And frankly, as great as the Beach Boys are, they needed the support that that band gave them.
What was easy for them 50 years ago, may be a little harder now that they are in their late sixties and early seventies. It was great to see Brian Wilson up there especially, since he has had some health issues. Having a great backing band made the music and the harmonies rich and did great justice to the Beach Boy sound we have come to expect.
Business Bit:
You don’t have to do it all yourself. Enlist others to help you out. Add a speaker or two to your seminar to give your audience a different perspective. Having someone else there doesn’t take away from your expertise. It just makes your event richer.
Give Thanks
The first time I saw the Beach Boys was 28 years ago. It was in fact at the Olympic Games in Los Angeles in 1984. That Olympic Games had live concerts and music almost every single day at the Olympic Villages. The Beach Boys were one of the concerts, but this concert was special. Not in the least because it was the Beach Boys, the quintessential California band, but because it was a thank you concert for the volunteers.
The Olympics depend on thousands of volunteers and they work extremely hard to make sure that everything runs smoothly. A concert at the Olympic Village that volunteers are encouraged to attend was a very nice gesture and I am sure it was much appreciated. By the way, the athletes attended as well and we danced along with the volunteers and everyone had a great time.
Business Bit:
You may not depend on thousands of volunteers, but your event and your business does depend on others. Your staff, attendees and clients all make your business go around. What can you do to thank them and make them feel special?
Pace Your Event
The Beach Boys did a great job pacing the concert. Right of the bat, they began with a song everyone knew and got things moving. The energy was high to get everyone in the mood. The first part of the concert was more low key after the beginning. After intermission they kicked it up a notch and broke out the big hits to get everyone dancing, yet they broke it up with beautiful tributes to the late Dennis and Carl Wilson. They ended the encore with “Good Vibrations” and “Fun, Fun, Fun” to send the audience home on a high note.
Business Bit:
Even if you can fill a concert with hit after hit after hit, your audience needs a breather every now and then. You have to control the energy in the room, because your audience cannot sustain a high level of energy throughout the event. Start your event off with a bang and bring the energy up right away. Take the excitement level in the room up and down to keep your audience alert and focused. Finally, always end your event on a high note. It is what your audience remembers, so make it good!
It was great to see the Beach Boys rocking it again. There were young kids in the audience, as well as older folks and everything in between. And young and old had a wonderful time. It just goes to show you that classic never goes out of style.
What is your favorite Beach Boy song? Share it in the comments!
Posted in Daphne's Musings Event Planning Event Strategy by .
Apr 12
26
3 Ways To A Strong Personal Brand
You. As recognizable as Coca Cola?
As a speaker, author or seminar leader, you have to have a strong personal brand. Although your book or your event can have its own brand, inevitable it is tied up with you. People don’t come to your event to buy your book, or to the event because of its name.
Ultimately, they come to see you, to hear you speak and to learn from you. So how can you create a personal brand, so that you become a recognizable figure? Here are 3 ways to get you started.
Tell your story
Everyone has a unique story. No one can do exactly what you do, because your education, your experiences and your life has made you into who you are. It gave you a perspective that is different from everyone else. Share that story with your audience. Share it in your “About” page, on stage and share it in your registration pages. Let people know who you are and how you got to where you are now. Your brand is in your story.
Share Your Expertise Freely
You are the expert on your topic, and if you want that to be a part of your personal brand, you have to demonstrate it. That means you have to show it off. Nothing build an expert’s personal brand quicker than creating content that helps people change their lives or their businesses.
When you write blog posts and articles that you share online and offline, you establish your expertise to your readers. When you host complimentary teleseminars and webinars that your audience can sign up for and post helpful videos on YouTube, you will build a strong personal brand as the go to expert in your field.
Be consistent
Use your name in your social media profiles, rather than your business name or even your event name. And use the same picture in all your social media profiles and on your blog. Use a head shot that smiles in the camera. Be recognizable. That means no logo, no pictures of dogs, cats or kids.
And above all, be consistent across all the social media networks. Consistency breads trust, and people do business with people they know, like and trust. That doesn’t mean that you keep the same picture up for the next 10 years. People change and if your social media profile doesn’t look anything like you, you will actually hurt your brand when you take the stage and people don’t recognize you. Be yourself!
If you are ready to establish you own personal brand on social media and market your event at the same time, check out “How to Market a Seminar with Social Media”. In this unique online course, you will learn how to promote your events on social media the right way and establish a strong personal brand as the go to expert at the same time. Get all the details at http://howtomarketaseminar.com/socialmedia.
Posted in Event Marketing by .
I am in a crazy stretch of kids soccer games right now, with my 13 year old son playing 4 games in 10 days and even my 7 year old daughter getting in on the action with make up games and her regularly scheduled weekend games.
That is why I thought it appropriate to share one of my favorite quotes from Dutch soccer legend Johan Cruijff.
“You can’t score a goal if you don’t take a shot”
Yeah, duh! Simple yet profound…
Yet many of us expect success without taking massive action. Or if we are taking action, are we actually taking the right action? You can spend the entire game in possession of the ball, dribbling it across the field, but unless you take a shot on goal, you’ll never win the game.
The same is true for us in business. You can spend all day deciding the color of your website and business cards and making sure it looks beautiful, but that is not getting you any clients.
Having great ideas for a workshop or seminar and working on the content doesn’t make it happen. You need to take the right actions like actually scheduling a date and promoting it to make it successful.
Similarly, you won’t start growing your list of prospective attendees until you have an opt-in box on your website, a squeeze page and a great ethical bribe to entice people to sign up and join your community.
You have to take the right actions to score that goal.
She knows about taking massive action and thankfully we can profit from it by watching her videos. They are great and I always learn a some great nuggets any time Kathleen shares her wealth of knowledge and experience.
Posted in Daphne's Musings Event Marketing by .
Would you spend thousands of dollars, or even hundreds for a workshop or seminar if you have never heard of the speaker? Most likely you would balk.
You would want to get to know them first. You want to know more about their expertise and their style of teaching before you spend any length of time with them and invest in their seminar.
Yet it is what many workshop and seminar leaders ask from their target audience. They market their event and expect people to buy tickets without having a relationship with them first. That is the hard way to fill your events and frankly it is the reason why so many seminar rooms stay empty.
You start off the relationship with your prospective attendee by asking them to take out their credit card to come to your event. And they are saying, “But I don’t even know you yet!” There is too much risk for them.
The Best Results
It is no accident that the best results from your marketing come from your “house list”, made up of contacts and prospective attendees that you have a connection. Those are the people who already know, like and trust you.
When I was talking to clients recently, without exception, they told me that attendees to their workshops were people they already had a relationship with.
Know, Like and Trust
People only buy from people they already know, like and trust. So if you want to sell your workshops and seminar tickets, you need to have a list of people that know, like and trust you. That list can consist of current clients or even a list of prospective clients who have expressed an interest in what you have to say.
The best way to build this list is by offering an “ethical bribe” in return for your prospective attendee’s email address. This “ethical bribe” can take many forms, like webinars, a report, an audio or even a series of videos.
Once you have that email address, you don’t immediately start sending out messages that scream: “Buy a ticket to my event!” No, you want to add value first. You make sure that you share your expertise freely and give them good tips and strategies to help them with their life or business.
Nurture The Relationship
That allows you to build a relationship with them. You nurture that relationship by being helpful, showcasing your expertise and offering resources that can move them forward.
Through your emails, your articles and your tips you earn the trust of your subscribers and move them to a stage where they now know your expertise, they like what you have to say and they trust you to give them valuable information that can help solve the problem that they face in their life or business.
Filling Your Events Becomes Much Easier
Once you have that relationship, filling your workshops and seminars becomes much easier. And not only getting attendees. You will also be able to sell your products and services and sell out your programs. It is true what they say. The money is in the list, but more importantly, the relationship you have with your list.
For more information about building your list, check out this free 3 part video series by Kathleen Gage. I watched the first 2 videos and they are fabulous.
The second video, “7 Proven Strategies to Build Your List” especially shares great information you can use right now. I trust Kathleen with my education when it comes to marketing on the internet. Go to http://eventsandprofits.com/listbuilding and check out the videos while they are still up.
Posted in Event Marketing by .
Apr 12
16
Case Study: Post Event Marketing
I have always said that the best time to start marketing your event is at your last event. Your attendees are flush with the excitement of your event, connecting with like-minded people and their heads are full of information.
In addition, if you have done your job well as a seminar leader, they also have a big sense of possibility and are excited of what the future holds.
Nobody does that better than Suzanne Evans. Fresh from coming off her wildly successful “Be The Change Event“, she has launched her 2013 Be The Change Campaign.
Suzanne is using several components in her marketing:
A Post-Event Message
Suzanne sent an email to her list, both the 650 people that came to her event and the people that didn’t make it. The email contained a video message and when you clicked on it, it sent you to a webpage with a video from Suzanne. In the video, she reconnected the attendees with the experience they just had and invited them to leave their “ahas” in the comments. She also made a limited time offer for people to join her next year at her event.
Testimonials
By inviting her attendees to leave a comment with the “ahas” from the event, Suzanne is getting testimonials. All the comments will in effect give people who read them reasons why the event was so great this year and why people have to attend (again) next year.
Video
When you click on the “reserve my ticket” link, you are taken to the “Be The Change Event” page, which features a video of the event. You will see the stage being built, Suzanne in action and testimonials from happy attendees. The video builds excitement and the desire to attend again if you were there. It also shows you what you missed out on if you didn’t make it.
Limited Time Offer
Of course, no early marketing campaign is complete without a limited time offer. There has to be an incentive to sign up early. Suzanne give that by offering a discounted price and a 6 payment option to make it as affordable as possible.
Suzanne Evans is a master marketer and she proves it proves it again by filling her 2012 Be the Change Event with 650 attendees and creating a campaign that will have the 2013 event undoubtedly grow even larger.
To check out the entire campaign start with the Afterglow message.
Are you looking for your own event marketing campaign or need help with your seminar marketing strategy? Sign up to talk with Daphne for a 15 minute consultation to see if we are a good fit to work together.
Posted in Event Marketing by .
How to Market a Seminar with Social Media
You will also a complimentary subscription to my Event Strategies ezine, full of valuable tips on how to plan, promote and profit from your own live events. ($19 Value)-
MEET DAPHNE
Daphne Bousquet, CMP helps successful service professionals grow their businesses through profitable workshops and events. A Certified Meeting Professional, she not only knows how to execute any event flawlessly, saving you both time and money, but more importantly how to create multiple revenue streams that will take your workshop beyond your expectations.
