3. Seminar/Workshop Marketing for the Small Business
American Society for Training and Development
http://www.astd.org/
International Federation of Training and Development Organizations, Ltd.
http://www.iftdo.net
How to Marketing Seminars
http://www.howtomarketseminars.com/
Event and Seminar Marketing
http://marketing.about.com/od/eventandseminarmarketing/Event_and_Seminar_
Marketing.htm
What is a Small Business
Seminar/Workshop?
Hosting a small business seminar or workshop falls into the category of
seminar marketing, a form of marketing that has exploded today as seminars
are getting easier to promote by the day.
But what is a small business seminar or workshop? And how do they work?
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A small business seminar or workshop is a one day event, or
multiple day event, in which you bring together a group of people so that
you can promote your product or service.
Have you ever gone on a course for your work? Or on your own to further
your career? Have you ever gone to listen to a motivational speaker, or a
professional in your industry – strictly with the intent of learning more about them
and their product, company, or service?
If you have, then you’ve already participated in seminar marketing – just
from an attendee’s perspective, and not that of the host.
But hosting your own seminar or workshop is a great way to
promote your business to a group of people who have been specifically
targeted, in a short amount of time. Seminars used to be reserved strictly for
academic purposes, when professors would speak to a very large group of
students at one time.
But today seminars are widely used in professional networking circles, and
in marketing situations to help educate consumers about specific products or
services.
Before you even begin thinking about different topics for your seminar, or
preparing visual aids, you need to make one decision: will you be holding a
seminar, or a workshop? There is a difference, and the one you choose will
greatly decide which kind of a day you hold.
The biggest difference between a seminar and a workshop is the
amount of activity level among the attendees.
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Seminars are just that – one person speaking to a large group of people,
with very little participation from those who are attending. While attendees can of
course, still ask questions and interact with the speaker and each other, that
interaction is very minimal.
Seminars are typically a one-day only event, as listening to the same person
for days on end can become quite dry and tedious for the audience members.
Seminars that are 1 to 2 hours can be most effective. Because there’s not a lot of
need for interaction between the speaker and the audience members, seminars
can often be held in conference rooms or auditoriums.
A workshop on the other hand, typically requires a great deal of
participation from the attendees. These can include attendees breaking up into
small groups and completing a specific task, or working on a set of problems; or it
can include attendees speaking individually and putting on their own minipresentations to the entire group for a fairly long period of time.
This interaction typically makes workshops a little less formal and they’re
often better at putting people at ease from the very beginning.
Because workshops are less formal, they can often be held just about
anywhere – from someone’s home to an outdoors retreat, or any other venue that
allows for a lot of people to move around.
Now that you know what seminar marketing is; and the difference between
the different kinds of seminars, how is hosting a seminar beneficial?
The next chapter will outline the benefits seminars hold for you – and your
attendees.
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The Benefits of Seminar Marketing for
the Small Business
The benefits of the seminar to the attendees are quite obvious. The people
who come are seeking information about a specific product or service;
and attending a seminar allows them to get a lot of that information in a
short amount of time.
This is especially true when you’re hosting one of the most effective types of
seminars – one that lasts only an hour or so.
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But what benefit does it hold for you to take an hour out of your day and
speak to people about your business? In fact, it holds many!
Establishing Yourself in the Marketplace
Being able to get your name out there, especially if you’re a new
business in the area, is one of the biggest benefits hosting a seminar has
for you. There’s no better promotion than word of mouth and holding a seminar
gets your name in front of the consumers’ eyes in a number of ways.
The first time you’ll get your name out there to reach the consumer is when
you’re marketing the actual seminar. Whether it’s through email campaigns,
invitations, flyers, or a press release that you send out telling people about
your seminars, consumers will see your name for the first time, if they haven’t
already seen it before. The next time they see it, that name will be even more
familiar to them, and the chances of them doing business with you increases.
By the time the consumer comes to your seminar they’ll most likely
already be fairly familiar with your name and your company.
But they may not be so familiar with your brand; and that’s what the
seminar is for.
When they attend they will become very familiar with your brand, what it
stands for, what you do, and what your company is all about. This may not
spread the word of mouth any faster, but once those people leave your seminar
they will. Host an excellent seminar, and those attendants will start to tell people
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they know about the great seminar they were just at, and the company that put it
on – that’s you!
While the attendees are deriving benefits from listening to the
information you have to offer, you’ll also be receiving benefits during that
time.
As you speak, you’ll be establishing yourself as an expert and
positioning yourself as an authority on the subject. During the seminar people
may ask questions; but even if they don’t, once they leave they’ll turn to you and
your company if they have any regarding your product or service.
The only thing that’s better than positive word of mouth is establishing
yourself as an authority, and a seminar will let you do that.
Holding a seminar for your small business can also help you
generate more leads for your business, even if you don’t find that you’re
fighting off deals the same day you host the seminar. It is true that few attendees
will want to buy your product or hire your service immediately after the seminar –
especially if it’s right after the seminar. But those who don’t are much more likely
to go home and think about it for a few days before calling you to buy your
product.
Some exceptions of this are when you’re promoting a small gadget or tool
that can be operated during the seminar, while you’re using it and explaining how
to use it. This can be a very effective type of seminar marketing, especially if
you’re selling a very affordable product, but make sure you have lots of the
product on hand so you can send every customer home happy.
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Hosting a seminar can also help you generate leads because it
allows people to get up close and personal with you.
You are no longer just a logo on a computer screen to them. You are a real
person with a real personality, and they will be able to see if it’s a match with
theirs. When it is, you will be the first person they call and your phone will start
ringing off the hook!
One of the most often overlooked benefits to you when you host a
seminar is that it improves your public speaking skills.
Public speaking is an extremely difficult task for most people; and when you
run a business, you often have to speak to a crowd, even if it’s just in the
conference room at the weekly staff meeting. Hosting seminars is a great way to
help improve those skills, so that you can carry that confidence around with you
wherever you go.
If you’re very self-conscious and really don’t want to speak in front of
people, beginning with short half-hour seminars is a great way to slowly build up
your confidence, without facing too many people at once.
Another benefit of seminar marketing is that it allows you to take
questions from the audience and answer them right away.
This lets people see you at your best, firing off answers to the most common
questions, and further establishing yourself as the authority on any given
subject. But, being asked all these questions has another benefit for you, too. It
allows you to hear what your customer’s biggest needs are, what they’re
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looking for from your company, and what will encourage them to buy your
product or service.
Receiving direct customer feedback is invaluable for small business owners,
and holding a seminar is one of the best ways to get it.
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Why Seminar Marketing Works
Before you can start to plan your seminar and try to make it work, you need
to know what makes a seminar work.
Seminar marketing works for one reason – they deliver a world of
benefits to consumers. And if you want your seminar to work, you have to know
what those advantages are, and how to provide them to the seminar attendees.
The biggest benefit attendees will be looking for when they attend your
seminar is information, and you must make sure that you give it to them.
You cannot ask people to come to your seminar and then simply tell them
how much you want them to buy from you. You need to tell them why they need
your product or service, and how it’s going to benefit them.
Forget about going into detail about your company and its history. The
seminar should never be about you; it should be about giving the attendee the
information they’re seeking. You’ll still get your name out there with flyers and
brochures that you print up to hand out during the seminar; you don’t need to go
into the long story of how you began. That’s not the information attendees are
there to see, and it won’t benefit them.
Telling them how your product works and how it will be of use to them will
work, and that’s what you need to focus on.
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When attendees come to your seminar, they’ll be looking for more
interaction than with you and you alone. They want to be with people who are
looking for the same things, having the same problems, or who have the
same questions.
Creating a target audience that is made up of the same demographic will put
the attendees at ease, and give them that added benefit of meeting other people
who are in the same situation.
Providing this benefit to your attendees is very easy. Simply invite
only those who are your target audience. Don’t create a seminar that has both
investors and consumers as the target audience; they’ll be seeking completely
different kinds of information and won’t be able to relate to each other. Hold one
seminar for one group, and an entirely different seminar for another. This
will create an audience made up of attendees that are all facing the same things –
and it will make your seminar more useful to everyone.
Another benefit a seminar can bring to the attendees is that it can
bring them a sense of renewed hope, especially if there is negative news
floating around your industry at the moment. Are you a real estate agent
who has just seen the housing market around them drop? Holding a seminar and
showing buyers and sellers how the market is turning in their favor can do just
that.
These groups will attend the seminars, leave feeling inspired that things
aren’t nearly as bad as they thought, and come to you when they’re ready to buy
or sell within the next few months – or weeks, or days!
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Seminar marketing for your small business is a great way to turn a
negative into a positive – giving the attendee something in return, and
you added business.
Consumers that attend seminars often do so because they don’t have the
time, or don’t want to take the time, to read up on the subject matter themselves.
Rather than researching and sorting it out on their own, attending a seminar can
give them even more information in a short amount of time, while costing them
nothing but just a few minutes.
To make sure that you’re still giving this group what they’re looking for when
they attend your seminar, limit the amount of flyers, handouts, and brochures you
give out. If people wanted to read about the subject, it is easy enough for them to
look up the information on their own. They’re attending your seminar because
they want to hear you talk about something that they need to learn more
about.
So that’s what you need to do.
One of the biggest disadvantages to consumers that attend seminars is
that most of them typically have a cost attached to them.
You can easily combat this by holding your seminars for free, especially
when they’re very short in duration. Immediately you will stand out, simply
for being known as the one who honestly just wants to help customers –
and that’s the biggest benefit your business can get from seminar
marketing.
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Another big disadvantage for attendees could be taking time off
work or away from family in order to attend the seminar.
If it’s work-related, consumers might not mind taking time out of their busy
work day to stop by your seminar for a few minutes. If however, it’s not work
related it can become a bit trickier. Attendees most definitely won’t want to take
time off work for this, but pulling them away from their home in their off hours
could be difficult, too. For this one you need to really focus on your target
audience and think about when the best time for them would be. That’s
when you need to hold your seminar.
Lastly, some customers may always walk away from your seminars
disappointed. And if you’ve put on a great seminar, this will only be for one
reason – because many attendees go into seminars with extremely high
expectations.
At times, this might be because the attendees have just simply gone in with
too much hope; and were expecting something completely different, or
completely over the top. While in this situation you won’t be able to do much
about it, you can still combat this potential disappointment.
Don’t over-promise when you market your seminar, and don’t say that it will
provide things you know it won’t.
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Putting Seminar Marketing into Action
Now you have an idea of what you want to offer your attendees when they
come to your seminar. But how do you pull the whole thing together?
Creating your seminar from beginning to end is broken down into two
different parts: planning the event, and actually pulling it off on the day of.
First, the planning.
Planning your Seminar
First, you need to decide what you want to promote or what your
customers need most; so that you can make sure that’s what you provide them.
Remember that it needs to be something useful to your customers and not
about your company; but you can still focus in on what you want to promote
during the seminar. Once you know what you’re going to be promoting, and what
benefits customers will get from attending your seminar, you can then decide on a
theme for your event.
The theme of your event will be based largely around what kind of
information you’ll be presenting. If you’re presenting financial information to a
group of financial planners, bankers, or others in the industry, you’ll have a much
different theme than if you’re showing new products to outdoor enthusiasts.
Once you’ve chosen the theme, it will be easier to choose a presentation
format.
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Do you want to hold a seminar?
Do you want it to be half an hour long, or four hours long?
Do you want to hold a workshop?
Do you want it to be for one day only, or do you want it to
be over the course of an entire weekend?
Once you know your theme, choosing the format will be very
natural.
After choosing the theme you will need to choose a location, and this can
be a big factor in determining how effective your seminar is.
If it’s very professional you’ll probably need a hotel conference room or
an auditorium, as these will represent the most professional atmospheres. If it’s
less casual, a restaurant would do nicely, as would a lounge or any other
comfortable and casual setting.
The tone and theme aren’t the only things that will determine your
venue – your budget will, too.
You’ll also need to decide on what you’re going to use for your hook. As a
small business owner, you already know what a hook is and why it’s important.
You need a hook for your seminar just like you need a hook for
anything else; and the better your hook is, the more people will attend
your seminar.
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Think of something quick that will let people know directly what it is you’re
offering, and do so in a way that’s catchy and that will stick in people’s minds.
Next comes planning the actual presentation.
Outline your report in a clear structure that includes: headings,
subheadings, key points, skills you want people to take from your
seminar; and how you will get those points across (visual aids, handouts,
knowing when to speak loudly to emphasize certain points and speak softly at
other times so you’re not shouting the entire time.)
Write out the entire seminar from beginning to end, including when you will
stop talking to allow the group to focus on a task, and for how long they’ll be given
to work on it. Writing the seminar is often what people get most hung up on,
thinking that this is what’s most important.
It’s true; it is, as this is what people are going to be taking away from the
seminar. But writing out your seminar should be pretty easy, because you already
know what you want to say. Just make sure to write it with a clear beginning,
clear middle, and clear ending in mind.
Start by briefly (very briefly) introducing your
company and what you have to offer the attendees.
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Then start in right away about your product or service
you’re trying to promote, always bringing the points
back to how that product or service benefits the
customer, or the attendees.
At the end, finish up with a question and answer
period and by thanking the attendees for taking the
time to come see what you had to say.
Write all of this out, including what visuals or
handouts you will use; when exactly you will hand them
out; and what you’ll ask participants to do with those
handouts.
You should never give out handouts when the seminars are very
short; and still, you should try to keep them at a minimum even for longer
seminars.
People are constantly trying to go paperless today, and they don’t want to
be weighed down with your documents when they leave. A good way to give them
a bit of both worlds is to prepare visuals and show them during the seminar, but
don’t hand them out. Instead email the attendees with that paperwork after the
seminar.
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When it comes to the actual content of your seminar, prepare three or four
key learning points that you want to pass on to people; or three or four benefits
that people will receive from using your product. This will help break down the
seminar into clear points that will help you write an outline for the seminar – and
help your attendees follow it.
Lastly, prepare for the unexpected. No seminar ever goes exactly
according to plan, and there’s a good chance that yours won’t either.
Think in advance of all the things that could possibly go wrong.
What if PowerPoint didn’t work?
What if, for some reason, you didn’t have your notes?
What if your audience seems bored, or uninterested?
What if the room is double booked on the day of your event?
All of these things and so much more are just all the little things that can go
wrong during your event, and there’s a very good possibility that they will. Be
prepared for them so that when they do happen, you’ll be prepared and
can move immediately into Plan B.
The Day Of
On the day of you’ll have a thousand things to think about to ensure that it
all goes very smoothly. Luckily, you will already have the bulk of your day planned
with your written outline of your seminar. But on top of that, there are all those
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little things that you’ll need to take care of to ensure that the day goes off without
a hitch.
Here are all those little things that you need to think about, to make sure
you’re not stranded without them on the day of.
Because so much of the seminar will already be written out and outlined for
you, it’s the beginning and the ending of the seminar that you will need to think
about the most on the actual day of the event.
The beginning is very important because you will be greeting your guests
and setting the tone for the entire event. You need to make sure that every single
guest is greeted personally by you or someone else to make sure that they feel
welcome. Upon this greeting, the attendee should be given any brochures or
pamphlets to be handed out; and their email addresses should also be obtained.
This is so that you can email all the handouts at a later time; and so that
you can build your client and potential leads list.
Also make sure on the day of that you arrive at the venue with
plenty of time before the seminar starts.
You want to make sure that everything is set up and ready to go, and that
nothing is going to go wrong that will get your seminar off on the wrong start from
the very beginning.
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When you’re planning out the end of your seminar, be sure to make time
for a question and answer period.
Remember that questions are one of the biggest benefits both you and the
attendees are getting out of the seminar, and you need to make sure that people
have time to ask them – and that you have time to answer them. Also be sure to
encourage attendees to ask questions throughout the entire seminar so that they
won’t forget the questions they had when they were listening to you speak about a
certain subject.
Staffing for your event is an important thing you’ll have to think
about.
If your seminar is very small you might not need any staff, or very few. You
might even just need someone to hand you things at certain moments, or
someone greeting attendees and making sure they write down their email
addresses.
If you’re having a large seminar, you might need everything from a hostess
to greet guests, and wait staff to serve food and refreshments during the seminar.
No matter how big or little the jobs you have in mind, consider having someone
else that could do them for you. It will free up your time and help you deliver a
better seminar.
Even though your written outline will prepare you for the majority of the
seminar, there are still some basics to remember.
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Do not bring all of your notes to the front with you when
you’re speaking. Instead, write down a few notes on cue
cards so that you can quickly glance down at them and hit
all the points you want to make during your seminar.
Also remember to always hold a clear, steady pace and that
you speak very clearly. Keep your pitch level so you’re not
shouting at those at the front of the room; but loud enough
as well so that everyone can hear you.
Now you know how to throw an effective seminar that’s beneficial for both
you and the attendees. But, are you still stuck for general topic ideas? Lots of
business owners still are, even when they know how to throw a really great
seminar that people will be talking about for ages.
When you’re still stuck on what to talk about, the next section is just for
you.
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Choosing a Seminar Topic
The topics you choose for your small business seminar will largely
depend on the product or service that you’re selling.
However that’s not to say that you can’t follow some simple tips on how to
choose a topic for your seminar.
Here are some ideas to get you started. Soon, you’ll find that you could be
hosting series of seminars; you’ll have so many ideas!
Step into the shoes of your customer
It’s true that you don’t really know anyone until you’ve walked a mile in their
shoes. Put yourself in the place of your target audience. What would you want to
hear? What would you want to discuss? What do you find most interesting about
your product or service? What made you think of it? What problem did it solve in
your life?
Thinking like this will give you a whole list of answers – and of topic ideas.
News topics
Are you in the stock market and it just tanked, or a huge new prospect just
entered the market, and you want to be the first to tell investors about it? Both of
those are great seminar topics that will generate tons of interest! Any newsworthy
item that really gets people talking can usually be counted on as a good seminar
topic. People love to discuss their ideas, and hearing the opinions of others!
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Think of a topic, and then break it down into five different topics.
Let’s say you’re a financial planner and you want to hold a seminar to tell
people how you can help them organize themselves financially. That topic is far
too broad for just one seminar; but it’s a perfect one for breaking down into bits.
Instead of “Financial Planning 101”, your seminars could be titled, “Financial
Planning: You and Your Debt”; “Financial Planning: You and Your Credit”; and
“Financial Planning: You and Your Future”. All of these are very important topics to
cover, will generate interest, and will give you lots of seminars to host down the
road!
Of course, along with general tips on how to choose a topic, some industries
just have obvious problems, or solution to a customer’s problem, that stand out as
obvious topic choices.
These industries, and the possible seminar topics, are listed below.
Medical: preventative medicine, holistic medicine, modern
medicine, lifestyle choices and how they affect quality of
living, how to persuade patients to change their behaviors, how
to reduce medical costs, how to reduce insurance costs, how to
effectively train interns; how to deal with difficult patients;
and how to deal with difficult doctors and nurses are all
possible topics for medical authorities to speak to other
medical professionals about.
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Marketing: Marketing has its own slew of topic ideas including
how to generate leads, how to attract more clients, and how to
effectively advertise locally. But in addition to this, there’s
an entire new world of marketing and that’s Internet marketing;
this is one area that has taken over the seminar marketing world
by storm.
Internet marketing has its own entire category of possible
seminar topics such as: business blogging, social media, Google
analytics, proper SEO practices, email marketing, and others.
Writing: Close behind marketing as the most popular seminar
topics are those among writers. Writing is becoming a huge
career, as more businesses need online content written, and more
people who have a way with words are jumping on that need. In
addition, “old-fashioned” print writers including authors of
novels, newspaper columnists, journalists, and other writers are
still very active in just about every single community.
Topics for writing seminars can be held for mainly for any
and all writers, as well as college students. These seminars can
also be for actual credits, or just a network of writers
discussing among themselves with one writer leading the seminar.
Education: Education is another big area where seminars are
common because teachers and those in the school system need to
constantly update themselves on the newest technology and the
newest standards and trends within their school system. Those
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who provide learning software could host their own seminars
explaining how to use their product.
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Getting Attendees to the Seminar
Ask anyone who has held a seminar to market their small business, and
they’ll tell you that the hardest part about it all is to get people to attend the
seminar in the first place.
Marketing your seminar effectively is so important because otherwise, you
might not even have a seminar to put on at all.
Here are the seven best tips you can use to market your seminar:
1. Use seminar listing sites.
These sites are designed for just the purpose you need – to tell people
where seminars are, what they’re about, and who is holding them. When
looking for them, don’t only search for “seminar listing sites”, but also
consider auction sites, or sites that allow anyone to sell products and
services. These sites will often let you advertise your seminar and, it’s
usually free, too.
2. Use a warm list.
A warm list is much better than a cold list, and it will take a bit more
work on your part to acquire one. A cold list is one that you’ve purchased
from somewhere, or have simply acquired by gathering names from anyone
and everyone you’ve ever made contact with. A warm list on the other
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hand, is a list of your target audience. A neat and tidy database that is
already sorted into specific groups of people.
Warm lists can be generated through newsletters on the website, other
marketing campaigns, or any other way that allows people to give you their
email addresses or their physical address.
3. Become accredited with professional organizations within your
industry.
This one too will take a little bit of work on your part. Becoming an
accredited member of these organizations usually requires specific training
and ongoing education. But in exchange for that time, you’ll also be able to
use that organization’s name in all of your seminars and on all marketing
you use to get people to attend the seminar. This is effective because it also
helps establish you as an authority on the subject you’re about to speak
about.
4. Remember past graduates.
Once someone has come to a seminar, don’t forget about them. Yes,
they are great potential leads and could provide a great deal of new business
for you. But in addition to that, you can also market your seminars towards
them. Run a “What now?” series, or send them a letter telling them about
your seminar – and including two guest passes so they can bring who a
guest who will also help get the word out.
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5. Create a website for your seminar.
This is a great way to tell people quickly via newsletters and email
marketing campaigns about your seminar for your small business. In that
quick promotion you can leave the website’s address. When they want more
information they can visit the seminar-specific website and learn everything
they need. You can even set up a registration form for your seminar, getting
even more people to come.
6. Send out brochures.
Yes, it may be considered old-school; but brochures are very effective
in telling people about your seminar and asking them to come. Brochures
work. And when you need to market your seminar, they work very
effectively.
7. Personal networking.
There’s nothing that will get people to your seminar more than actually
getting out there and telling people about it. Tell everyone – your friends,
family, coworkers, and employees – and ask them to tell others, too!
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The Do’s and Don’ts of Seminar
Marketing
There are lots of little tips and tricks you can use to make sure that every
seminar you host is a powerful one.
Here’s a list of quick tips that you should be doing – and those that you
should avoid.
Do:
Provide refreshments or a meal, especially if the seminar is going to be a
long one.
Choose a good start time. If the attendees are going to be working all day,
choose an early evening start time, and keep the seminar short.
Pick the right day of the week to hold your seminar. Tuesday, Wednesday
and Thursday are the best days. On Monday people are still tired and getting
into work mode, and on Fridays they’re already thinking about what they’re
going to do on the weekend.
Be available for people to register at all times. You want to make it as easy
as possible for people to attend your seminar; and this is why websites
dedicated to the seminar are such a good idea.
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31. Seminar/Workshop Marketing for the Small Business
Educate the people who will be registering the attendees. The worst that
could happen is that people call to register and get more information, and
the person on the other end of the line can’t give them the information
they’re looking for.
Don’t:
Charge people for attending your seminar. This is especially true if you’re
holding a short seminar. Again, you want to make it as easy as possible for
people to attend your customer, and charging them is definitely no way to
do that.
Expect people to leave work early or miss it altogether just to attend your
seminar. They won’t, and they’ll be resentful that you even asked.
Hold your seminar on the wrong day. Not only should you avoid Mondays
and Fridays, but also weekends, holidays, major sporting event days (such
as the Super Bowl) or election days.
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32. Seminar/Workshop Marketing for the Small Business
Conclusion
It is a known fact that seminars and workshops are beneficial to
consumers.
This is one of the reasons why they are such an effective marketing tool for
businesses both large and small!
Seminars and workshops allow you to easily gather large numbers of
potential customers to a single location- where you can then tell them all about
your company. They let you directly engage with your customers and bring them
news about your products and services. They can even help you expand your
brand name and increase brand recognition.
In many cases, offering workshops and seminars can help your business
obtain lifelong customers!
Creating and hosting seminars and workshops may cost some money
and require some time commitment, but they really are a functional and
effective way to market a small business!
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