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One of the most effective tools in the marketing communications arsenal is The Event.  By The Event, I’m referring to a seminar, open house, roundtable, Webinar or audio seminar.  Few other marketing tools have the potential to brand you as a trusted advisor, generate leads and put you in direct contact with prospects or customers in quite the same way.

Of course, The Event also takes the most planning, the most work and the most attention of pretty much any marketing tool.  It can even get to be expensive in some cases.  But it doesn’t always have to be.

For purposes of our little conversation, let’s assume we’re talking about a smaller event intended to put the prospects and customers of a  typical title agency,community lender or real estate broker in one place, under the host’s logo.  This could be an open house, an on-site seminar for CEs or even a one hour Webinar.  With all of our prospects gathered neatly in one place, looking at us, patiently awaiting a reward for their attention, how can we manage to screw that up, ensuring they never take an invitation from us seriously again?

Easy.  All too easy.

Nothing wrong with this image. Unless, of course, your seminar has started already.

Make it all about your product and nothing but your product.           There’s another word for this:  demo.  Don’t advertise an event about information, discussion and learning if you’re just planning to show them what you do.  You may not get many of these folks back again if that’s not what they expected.  There’s a place, to be sure, for the demo.  But it ain’t under the guise of a seminar (unless it’s a user group or training session for a product they’ve already purchased, and you’re clear about the content).

Charge them to attend.            Ok, maybe a nominal fee.  But unless you’re a big publisher or trade association, the event is at a resort and/or you’re expecting hundreds of people to travel to this, you’re not going to get much turnout.  Not in this day and age.  Even the established conventions and conferences need to pull out all the stops to get folks to attend in this economy.  Don’t assume your little event will be so prestigious that your prospects will pay you to hear what you have to say.

Make sure no one knows about it.  Please don’t assume that posting about it on your Facebook page and sending a single email blast will vault your event to the top of your prospect’s calendar.  Remember, a good email distribution may actually get to 20% of the in-boxes you shoot for.  And how many of that 20% read it?  How many of those folks remember it?  Send several emails (although, for God’s sake, don’t carpet bomb them!  3 – 4 spaced out over 3 – 5 weeks should be more than enough.).  Put it into your email signature line.  Post it on your website.  Mention it where you can.  Touch your audience in several ways, and include the basics on your seminar:  What you get from it; What it costs (nothing, remember?); When it is; Who’s speaking and Why you should attend.

Give them plenty of excuses not to come, or better yet, to leave early.              In this day and age of increasing content marketing, everyone and his/her mother now provides an email newsletter, free webinar and Facebook “fan” page.  Most of them are just not good, or interesting.   Like it or not, your free content marketing needs to deliver a number of compelling reasons for the prospect to take it in.  Registration should be simple enough for the most simple of simpletons (not that your prospects are, you know, simpletons) to understand and complete.  Log in for the Webinar should be simple, and instructions clear as crystal.  Live events should be centrally located, easy to find (directions help!) and in a comfortable location.  Room temperature and seating are critical.   If it’s a live event, give them coffee and breakfast.  Offer continuing education credits.  Got some t-shirts or coffee mugs?  Throw ‘em in.  Give them every reason to be there, or they’ll blow it off time and time again.

Bore them to death.  Even if you’re in the B2B business, people don’t like to be bored—especially if they’re not making money from this particular expenditure of their valuable time.  Be sure your speakers are dynamic and relevant.  Be sure the topic is one of extreme interest to your prospects.  And be sure you don’t bite off more than you can force them to chew—an hour to 90 minutes is plenty for an audio seminar.  A couple hours to half a day—with plenty of breaks—should do it for an open house or on-site seminar.

 This is not a one-size-fits-all formula for failure.  I’ve said often that producing a conference is much like making a sausage—you only want folks to see the end result.  It takes thought, flexibility and a bit of creativity to make The Event work.  And when it does, the yield can be enormous.