As a conference organizer, you want everyone to become a registrant, right? Male, female, young, old and everyone in between. So you try to attract as many people as possible with your programming. And you try to reach as many people as possible with your marketing. You are willing to take money from anyone willing to give it to you. Casting A Wide Net It seems like a logical and wise choice to try to reach everyone. It gives you the widest reach. It’s like fishing with a net. It’s … [Read more...]
Why Your Conference Needs To Focus On Building A Loyal Proprietary Audience
Quick: What is the most important asset of your conference today? Sponsors? Exhibitors? Your brand? Your events team? Your history? The venue? Your vendors? The content? Your speakers? Your technology? Yeah, all of these are likely responses. However, there’s one asset that most conference organizers and hosts constantly miss when responding to this question: audiences. [Note: Author Jeffrey Rohrs drives home the importance of audiences to any business in his book Audience: Marketing In … [Read more...]
Time To Reboot Your Conference And Event Marketing
Is your event and conference marketing like this… We’d love for you to attend our open house. There will be 99 dishes, 15 colors of napkins, seating for 75, and two buffet tables. Five speakers will present 15 minutes each while you watch in amazement. I bet you can’t wait! If yes, it’s time to reboot your conference and event marketing. Marketing By The Numbers If your marketing materials stress the numerical features of your conference: how long it has been around how many CEUs one … [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...]
Developing Conference Education That Provides Solutions To Customers’ Needs
Are you treating your conference attendees like commodities? Often conference organizers aim to make more revenue from their event. They are so focused on strategies and tactics to increase their profit that they risk damaging the one thing that makes them unique: their relationship with attendees. Conferences Should... Jeffrey Cufaude reminded me of the fragile yet critical relationship between a company and its customers in his blog post Beware Of Commoditizing Customers Or Members. Cufaude … [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...]
