Even at an event at the coolest venue, with the hottest speakers and the best food, success is measured by butts in seats. With advertising and marketing budgets tighter than ever, getting the word out can be a bit of a trick - but these promotional techniques can get the job done with only the investment of your time and creativity.
Get in on the Action
YouTube gets more searches each month than Yahoo, which means that filming a quick 30-second video can fast-track you to visibility.
Concepts: Testimonials and short benefit-oriented overviews are one approach, but nothing says "sign me up" better than a video of a luxurious hotel on a gorgeous beach.
Keywords: Think about how people might be searching for your session - for example, "Sales Training in Hawaii" - and use that phrase for the title, in the description, and include a link to your site.
Write Email that Gets Read
Email marketing can be a wonderful response tool - if you pay attention to two key factors:
Subject line: Reel in readers with an interesting subject line. "Enjoy Hawaii and Increase Your Sales" will outclick "ABCD Annual Convention, March 1-4."
Content: Don't focus on specific benefits or include a lengthy speaker bio. Post them on your website and link from the email.
Your Search-Engine Secret
Craigslist isn't just an online yard sale; it can be an event-marketing machine. You can post a description of your session for free, and your item will appear in search engines. To make sure your Craigslist event posts really shine, you need to be aware of a few things:
One city at a time: Craigslist is city-specific, so make sure to strategically select your city based on where your target audience primarily lives. When in doubt, major metros are a great fallback: New Yoirk Los Angeles, Dallas, Chicago.
Use keywords: Craigslist ads will rank in search engines if you are clear on what you want them to rank for. If you want people searching "Sales Conferences Hawaii" to find your session, make sure to use "Sales Conferences Hawaii" in the title and throughout the body content.
Twitter Me This!
Use Twitter to get attendees pumped up before the event. Keep the momentum going by encouraging Tweeps to spread the word during and after the event:
Keywords are key: Start tweeting about "Marketing Conference," "Sales Conference," "Hawaii Conference," "Leadership Development Training" or whatever your topic is, and watch the wave catch as your posts get tweeted and retweeted across the web.
Event hashtags: An event hashtag gives attendees who are on Twitter a forum where they can communicate about an event while they're there/ By setting up a hashtag and letting attendees know about it, you will find a whole stream of attendees marketing your event and telling each other how much fun they are having.
Your LinkedIn Connection
LinkedIn enables users to go in and set up information about upcoming events/training/conferences. They are searchable for professionals on the LinkedIn community, and LinkedIn will email a summary of upcoming events to users. To maximize your impact:
Build your community: LinkedIn can be a great platform for communiation, if your target audience is in your network. It is extremely important that as you network at events, meet new members in your assoication, etc., that you take the time to see if they are members of LinkedIn. (Chances are very good that they are.) When it comes time to promote the event, you've got a great community ready to go.
Start a group and discussion: One of the best ways to get attendees energized for a session is to give them time to discuss and get excited about it before-hand. For example, you could start a discussion about "Vote for your facorite presentation topic" to get attendees communicating about and engaging with your event.
Taken from Speaker magazine Written by Natalie Henely
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