Sure, it is much easier to use association-owned media from your magazines, newsletters, website, blogs and discussion lists to promote your conference. But using only your own lists creates inbred conference marketing. So who are you missing with that marketing? Four Steps To Move Beyond Inbred Marketing How do you find the 20 something that just entered your industry and has no idea you exist? What about the 55 year old that recently switched careers and has never been involved in an … [Read more...]
How Are Your Conference Attendees Preprogrammed And Hard Wired?
What type of “P” mindset do your conference attendees have? You need to know before you can start programming for your conference. In order to help answer three of your most conference planning pressing questions: Who are we designing this experience for? Who do we need to attract today, so that we’ll be relevant for the next-generation participant? Who are the economic buyers that our sponsors and exhibitors want to see most? — you need to figure out whether your group has a … [Read more...]
Who Is Your Conference Really Attracting?
Attracting first-class, first-rate, quality attendees is one of the most complex and important keys to your conference’s business model. Too many conferences attempt to be all things to all people and end up with a watered-down offering. You need a process to help you identify your various attendee segments and who your target market is. Once you peel back the layers to see who is really attending your event, you may not like what you see. Attracting Low Quality Attendees Can Harm Your … [Read more...]
Identifying And Segmenting The Conference Target Audience
Is the goal of your annual meeting to make revenue for your organization? If it is, then are you attracting the right customer to your event? Show Me The Money Some associations with significant tradeshows make 60%-70% of their revenue from exhibit booth sales. Another 10%-20% of their revenue comes from sponsorships and advertising. The remaining revenue, approximately 10% to 30%, comes from attendee registrations. With such a large percentage of the revenue coming from exhibitors and … [Read more...]
Understanding The Power Of Your Target Attendee
When you are involved in planning all of the conference's logistics and programming, it is very easy to feel as if you are in a position of power. You're the one who decides who will present. You're the one who decides when a meal function will occur. You're the one who decides what content is important. You're the one who decides which city and venue is used. People come to the conference to follow your schedule and listen to the speakers you chose. However, in reality, you are not the … [Read more...]
Small Groups Of Friends Are The Key To Influence Not Swaying Influential People
Finding and using influential people is a myth says social behavior researcher Paul Adams, author of Grouped: How small groups of friends are the key to influence on the social web. According to Adams, the focus on influentials is based on the view of how we want the world to work versus how it actually works. The Law Of The Few Malcolm Gladwell first described The Law of the Few in his 2002 book The Tipping Point. It states that if you reach and persuade the minority of influential people in … [Read more...]
Gaining Conference Market Share Through Legal Stealing
Unless your conference is growing, you are on the road to decline. All conference attendance plateaus eventually erode. Unless you are taking conference attendee market share from others, you are not growing significantly. Stealing And Trespassing Are Legal When Attracting Conference Registrants There is a closed market for conference registrants. Yes, that's right. There is not an infinite market. Typically, most people travel to only one major conference a year and focus on attending more … [Read more...]
Using Emotional Targeting In Your Event Marketing Materials
Logic makes people think. Emotions make people act. Often our event marketing simply over-intellectualizes everything. It emphasizes the number of education sessions, the number of qualified attendees, the hours of continuing education credit, the technology applications available, the years of experience of the speakers, the economic data of the attendees and the like. But are those the right things to emphasize in your conference marketing materials? It's An Emotional Choice Why do you buy a … [Read more...]
