Been a while!

My apologies for not consistently blogging the past couple of days- I was proving a point actually! The purpose of the little study was to see if anyone forgot me or more importantly remembered my blog if I stopped doing it every day. Well, the answer is..........forgotten! Regardless if you are creating a blog, social media campaign, personal events, networking etc. if you are not consistent you will be forgotten. You cannot blame clients, customers and prospects for not having you on their mind every day all day, we are inundated with so many advertisements and stress that many times thoughts of your business do not exist. Creating events repeatedly result in consistency which results in higher response which results in brand recognition which ultimately results in higher PROFITS!!!

Homework: Do something to stay in your clients minds right now!

BY DEFINITION!!

According to www.businessdictionary.com/definition/event=marketing.html

Event Marketing
Is Designing or developing a 'live' themed activity, occasion, display, or exhibit (such as a sporting event, music festival, fair, or concert) to promote a product, cause, or organization. Also called event creation.

Read more: http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/event-marketing.html#ixzz104yM8ksu

So why is this relevant? It proves that I did not make up the idea or term 'event marketing' it is a business term that many industries rely on in order to launch new products, promote their services and bring awareness to their target audience. Join the crowd and challenge me to create an event for your specific business!

Homework: Think of a really hard question regarding your marketing plan and then ask me!

MORE BILLABLE HOURS!

We are revisiting an amazing article that I posted two blogs ago and explaining it in further detail to the average business professional!

Article states: In any marketing strategy the objective is to change consumer behavior in a way that benefits your bottom line. Event marketing is one of many tools for doing that. If planned right, event marketing can give you many of the benefits of door to door/word of mouth sales, at a fraction of the cost per exposure – and uncertainty – of these familiar standby methods. However, since it is usually a fairly expensive and little-understood venture, event marketing deserves to be explained in some depth here


Alistè states: How many hours do you spend a day working? How many on your own business vs. client projects and product manufacturing? Let's take myself as an example. I usually wake up fairly early and begin my morning with a networking event to get my business juices flowing, meet some great prospects and peers and kick start the work day! Around 9am I start answering all my many e-mails and then create my projects for the day ahead. I break my client projects into hourly chunks so that I can focus on one project at a time and not be lured to working on another. With this organization I can finish my work day satisfied with what I accomplished around 5pm leaving a half hour open for happy hour!
Now, out of that long work day from 7am to 5pm I did not personally have the time to go meet every prospect I met that week or client that I am working with to build a personal relationship. Many times that is an afterthought to the time spent on what is billable. However, including an event in your marketing plan even if it is quarterly, annually or monthly events will get your face in front your ideal audience which will lead to soooo many more billable hours!!! So think about that next time you feel that events will not work for your specific business, it can and should be on you’re To Do list!

EVENTS AS AN INVESTMENT?!?!?

Since my post yesterday, which was a link to an AMAZING EVENT MARKETING ARTICLE!!! Proving how important including events in any marketing plan truly is! For the next couple of posts I will be going through that article and dissecting it to every day terms and making you true believers that events are the way to go!
Article states:
A jazzy display at a popular event is not enough, in itself, to give you noticeable results. Too often businesses invest a goodly chunk of change in a booth or a sponsorship and are disappointed when their passive purchase brings them few – if any - new customers. No matter what form it takes, follow-up is essential to building lasting relationships with the leads generated at your event.

Alistè Comments:
This is very important what the article is stating. Anyone can construct an event and slap their logo on it, however will it be worth the money? When you take the leap and bring events into your marketing plan you are making an investment!!! Designing an event to either educate clients or bring new prospects into your office should not be a onetime deal and then that's it. It is a process, just like planning the event. You need to make a list of the tasks at hand for the before, during and post event. By doing this you not only include your clients in a face to face event but continue the relationship long after the 'last call'. Use your networking skills to follow up with every attendee and continue building those relationships so that when you are ready for the next event those relationships that you built will bring in new prospects that you can then FOLLOW UP WITH!

MUST SEE ARTICLE!

Check this out!

http://www.hrsbdc.org/marketing/eventmarketing/

NO BRAINER!

I am going to ask everyone a no brainer question, ready?!?!?
If I asked you what would be your ideal audience, where would you like to meet them and what main point would you talk to them about?!?!

This should be on the tip of your tongue if you are a true entrepreneur and business professional- always think of the ideal situation and then CREATE IT!

Events can accomplish your ideal situation. If you are a financial advisor and you would like to try a different audience- for example new mom's, wouldn't it be in your best interest to research and connect with mompreneur groups, pto groups etc. and then begin a relationship with these individuals? Of course it makes sense but do you have the time to call, connect, meet for coffee and then follow up weekly to maintain that relationship with the hundreds of new mom's that you just researched?

NO! If you have that type of time call me because I have tons of work that I can use an extra hand on! This is why incorporating events into your marketing/business plan accomplishes your goals with half the time that cold calling and 1-1's take up.

Solution: Research new mom groups and obtain an e-mail list, from the e-mail list break it into groups of 25. Each month e-mail/call 1 group and invite them to an open house that will benefit THEM not about YOU! The following month do the same for a different group and so on. See what I am trying to paint for you?!?!

Monthly Events that keep on giving!

Homework: Create your problem and brainstorm a solution- if you need teachers assistance contact me at 508-596-9081 for hourly consulting- your business could be the highlight of 2010!!!!

UNDER THE HOOD?!?!

I meet many different people who own diverse businesses that either sell a service or product it is not until you sit down with these individuals that the creative juices start flowing. Meeting with a mechanic I developed a strategic event marketing plan that would be fun, exciting and succeed in building awareness and bringing attention to his shop. So what did I do? Well, I will give you a VIP glimpse of the project. What do so many people want to know before they invest or spend money?
They want the behind the scene information, why it takes you two hours to fix an exhaust, how you can charge so little for the same service that costs twice as much down the street etc. The main solution that small businesses can learn from major companies is to INVITE YOUR AUDIENCE INTO YOUR BUSINESS! Bring them in to see exactly how EVERYTHING works, no secretes just honest work that people appreciate. Inviting a mechanics audience into his shop allowed people to ask questions, see how things are fixed in a certain amount of time and why sometimes things to do not go exactly to plan and most importantly get to meet the individual who is responsible for making sure your vehicle is safe and ready to go. This event was not meant to increase profits, although it may result in that. The main goal was to build a strong, trusting client base so that they continue using the same mechanic, bring their friends and family to their trusted mechanic and continue referring new business to this trusted business.

Homework: Think of a business that you would like to see under the hood. Submit your answers!

Marketing + Events = Success!

To prove yet again how important events are in relation to building business, clientele, brand awareness and overall business growth, read http://www.mpiweb.org/Archive?id=1015!
This article is a great resource on larger corporations using events in their marketing plans.

Homework: Do you know any large businesses that participate in customer relations events?

BUSINESS VS. PLEASURE

For the past several days 11 to be exact, I have shared in my opinion invaluable information that can be used towards any business. The main point that I would like to clarify to all our readers, clients and general business population is that the word 'event' can be used in so many situations. Everyday there is an event you may just not realize it- you plan your outfits ahead of time, you set your alarm for the next day, your dinner is already defrosting in the fridge and let's not forget your weekly family game night! Those are all events and you are the magical planner behind it all! However, the word 'events' in my vocabulary are much more complex and much more exciting. 'Events' to me is creating a series of tasks and goals that result in strategic marketing strategies. WOW that was a lot of words for a simple definition- basically I enjoy taking a normal business whose goals are to gain more profit and using my insane out of the box mind to link it with a solution-events! In today's economy, as we all know, it is much more difficult to gain and retain clients. We see ourselves working twice as much for the same results that we received years ago with half the effort. It was in recessions that our world's greatest entrepreneurs succeeded! We are running against the wind today but tomorrow we will be soaring. Continue using creative ideas and pushing the boundaries and your marketing will succeed!

Homework: Read about your favorite entrepreneur, chances are they started in hard times with many jobs to pay for their dreams!

DIFFERENT = $

So what is the next step?

Realizing that in today’s market each business needs to distinguish themselves differently in order to build clients and retain client loyalty. Using out of the box tactics to design events will be necessary assets to any marketing plan. It is not just throwing a party; these events are specifically designed to achieve your business goals and objectives. When you own or work with a small business you constantly watch and distribute the marketing budget to the tried and true strategies, but without including the personal human factor that you achieve through events, your marketing will be flat and at a standstill instead of a constant growth.

Homework: Write 1 crazy marketing idea without putting a price attached to it. Tomorrow start brainstorming to implement that idea!

FOLLOW UP FOLLOW UP AND THEN FOLLOW UP AGAIN!

Follow up Follow up Follow up!
Talk with the attendees to see what they liked, disliked or would have wanted differently in order to assess what goals were met and what new goals need to be set. There are many ways to measure an event's ROI, it is part of the marketing strategy that leads to propelling your business.
For example, working with a financial advisor his main goal was to build clientele and to continue providing services to existing clients.
Sounds like every business, right? Well here is where you have to think about what you want to achieve instead of just throwing a party, you still want and need the ROI in order to make the event a marketing strategy. Sitting with my client we went through what his ideal client would be, women.
Women account for 85% of all consumer purchases including financial services, so the thought process was to host an event that targeted the exact audience, demographic and clientele that my client wanted and needed for his business. The event was designed to be a non pressured atmosphere where the women would be able to bring a friend (new prospects) and enjoy a nice evening after work. Out of the 10 women who attended the wine tasting and golf evening, my client gained 2 new clients in addition to his 5 existing clients. This one evening provided more ROI then an entire day of cold calling.


Homework: List your top two ways of following up with clients, prospects, leads etc. and why those are the best options.

ROI or ROO?

In order for your event to be a success you must measure the return on investment or the return on objective!

The ROI, return on investment, depends on what you want to achieve financially verse ROO which is return on objectives. Your goals decide if the ROI or ROO will be the savings gained from working with credible vendors, the new clients, existing client loyalty, increased sales, brand recognition, business awareness and other non tangible benefits.
The event design is much more then deciding the venue, food and the demographic that will attend, yes those are important but in order to measure your ROI you must have a measurement system in place before the event. Creating and implementing pre and post event surveys that target the issues, concerns and needs of the audience will ensure the measurement of the success of the event through the developed goals. For example, creating an interactive meeting in order to encourage and motivate employee and attendee participation is a way to create an event to achieve a goal.

Homework: What do you think needs to be done to measure your ROI or ROO?

RETURN ON INVESTMENT?!?!

How can you measure the Return on Investment through hosting an event?

With every marketing plan you must analyze and predict future budgets and the return on investment for each strategy. Many times you try a marketing tactic only to find out that the 1,000 dollars spent did not provide income or even the break even point. By measuring the return you are able to see which strategies work for your business and which ones you should not use in the future. The same applies to events; they must provide the return in order to be worthwhile and seen as a strong marketing tactic.

Homework: What is the return that you need for your business? money, client loyalty, education?

EXAMPLES THAT YOU MUST SEE!

As promised here are some real examples of how events are a necessity to your business!
One of my clients owns her own Marketing company; she works with high end clientele and participates in educational seminars and conferences. Her vision was to provide an educational evening for her top clients by presenting a well known seminar on small business marketing for free. The event will not only be educational for the businesses but it will enhance her business credibility, provide the human interaction, brand awareness and continue to value the clients which in turn will show through their devotion to her services. This event was designed specifically to achieve her business goals.
However, take a spin to another individual who is an author and their event marketing strategy is very different. As an author and Paraolympian, my client co wrote a children’s interactive coloring book to provide motivation, inspiration and education that all children can be athletes. The book is not released yet so there is no community or awareness to any audience. The event concept is to host an event to launch the book, bring the children to meet the author and sell books at the event. This is where the whole methodology of Event MARKETING comes in to play. How can you just have an event without marketing it? No one knows about the book, the author or the brand? Through marketing we are able to promote who the author is to the target audience, children, parents, sports teams, schools etc, and begin building her brand so that when the event date approaches a community will be ready to charge the doors at the book signing. Developing your own event will ensure that your business reaches its goals and achieves the marketing objective.

Homework: What are your marketing objectives?!?

SO MANY EVENTS?!?!

What type of event should I be including in my marketing?

Every business is different therefore by assessing your goals and what you would like to achieve you can channel in to what event would work best for your business. I work with different businesses and each one uses a different event to market their services. Some clients have a strong goal to build new clients while others simply want to educate and foster the relationships of existing clients.

So your homework for tonight is to think of your business goals and the target audience that you need to reach in order to achieve your vision!

Stay tuned for real client case studies on how events that are included in your marketing plan propel your business!

ONE TO ONE'S VS. EVENTS

So why events and not personal 1-1 meetings with existing clients?

Including an event in your marketing plan does just that, puts the human factor back in business. Although continuing to have the 1-1 meetings and the quick phone calls to interact with clients there is not enough time in the week to meet with every client and give them the education about your business and brand along with learning who they are as a person. This is why events are a huge aspect to marketing and can be designed specifically to enhance your business: Trade shows, conferences and seminars, road shows, sponsorship, launches, appreciation events and team building are just some of the many ways to increase business. If you have ever been car shopping you know the difference between buying a car from a pressuring typical sales man verse a down to earth person that give you the facts while still being personable. Many people are turned away from buying because of the pressure and nonexistent human factor, but when you do meet someone that actually sees you then you are ready to test drive. The same goes for events, by seeing your target audience you are able to customize your message to the individual instead of the broad demographic.
For example, when you read horoscopes it is written for millions of people to read, why would my future be the same as every other Taurus? It won’t be and the same goes for how clients will use your services, no one client is the same!

THE HUMAN FACTOR??

If you think back to a time when you were making a purchase that you were excited about: a car? A new TV? Or a new suit. How did the sales team treat you, did they acknowledge you as an individual or just another wallet, were you given undivided attention or just a finger pointing you in the right way? Those little moments of person to person interaction go a long way. People today want to be treated with the human factor, build relationships with your clients and they will constantly go back for more business. For example, I use three different banks; all three have a different staff and mission. One of those banks is a well known branch that I have been going to for over 5 years. The one closest to me is obviously the most convenient but here is where the human factor comes in, I specifically drive the extra 10 miles through thicker traffic and longer lines to go to the bank that treats me with respect and acknowledges me as a person instead of an account then the same bank 3 miles away with no traffic and no lines. Why? Because I would rather go to a place that feels it is important to build a relationship with their clients then the other who just wants to do their job and go home.

Think about the last time you were treated with the 'the human factor' and now think how your clients, employees and customers feel?

Research + Events= Business!

EventView 2009 Global is a vital report that provides planners and individuals the newest up to date information on event marketing trends, according to their most recent report Relationships and live experiences are the best tools for driving sales. You may think well I have a website; I am constantly tweeting, blogging and using the latest social media along with newsletters, advertisements and direct mailings why would I need to spend money on an event?

Stay tuned because each day we will share vital information on why events in your marketing plan is not a luxury but at necessity!