Pete Caputa of WhizSpark discusses important promotional tactics.
When we started Whizspark 4 years ago, our intention was to build a network of members that use our online tools to invite their contacts to our clients' events. We do this, of course. But over the last year, we've discovered that it's equally effective to use the events that our clients plan; to use the email marketing and event registration tools that we've built; and to leverage the online traffic that we generate in order to market our members' businesses. So, in addition to marketing events, we use the web, email and events to help our members grow their businesses.
Getting Started: Inviting People to Public EventsHow should a company get started? One of the first things I ask when I sit down with a business owner is, "Are you doing email marketing?” Although it isn't the most cutting edge online marketing tool of 2006, it is still the most cost-effective marketing tool for most small businesses. It excels as a customer retention tool, but can also be used effectively to convert prospects into clients and to upsell existing customers. I started practicing what I preach in mid 2006 by sending out a weekly newsletter that features all of our clients' events and the events' sponsors in it. Our business has increased 4 fold since I started doing this, but I wouldn't attribute all of the growth to our newsletter. I regularly go out to business networking events where I meet someone that I don't recognize and they say, "I get your newsletter. How can you possibly attend all of those events?” Chances are that I met them a year or more ago, added them to my mailing list and they've been receiving our newsletters ever since. They know we've been active.
The Next Level: Sponsoring EventsThere are very few public events where the event planner would not appreciate it when another person forwarded an event invitation to others. Most likely, the event planner would be very thankful, actually. It's a compliment and it'll help them meet their attendance and financial goals. But, If a business has large growth goals and their bottleneck for growth is meeting new prospects, I'd recommend that businesses use events more aggressively to generate leads. Like traditional media, events are an excellent way to directly reach a large number of people. But, events are unique because they also provide a way for people to interact with you, each other, your products and your employees.
How should a company choose which events to sponsor? A company should choose events based on their desired audience. If they'd like to get in front of the top growth companies in Central MA, then sponsoring the Worcester Business Journal's Top Growth event or 40 Under 40 event is a no-brainer. If they are looking to get in front of small and mid sized business owners, Chambers of Commerce are the first stop. If they are interested in getting in front of a young professional crowd, start with the higher end restaurants and nightclubs in the area; talk to a Young Professional's Organization; or sponsor a singles event. If you want to get in front of homeowners, the obvious choice is to exhibit at Home Shows.The most important question to ask any sponsorship sales person is, "How will I get an ROI from my sponsorship dollars?” Asking this question will let the event host recommend the best approach for the sponsor to leverage the attention that the event attracts to grow the sponsor's business. No matter what they say, the company should remember to invite their contacts to the event. Jason Kallio, a trade show marketing expert and owner of 'Say it With Magic' says, “Statistics show that pre-show promotion facilitates 30% more booth traffic. People are also more willing to talk once they are out of their office. The end result is an easier opportunity to close more sales from your trade show efforts.” Further, the Center for Exhibition Industry Research, who has been collecting statistics since 1978, says that the cost to both generate and close a qualified lead from a trade show is 2/3rds the cost of generating and closing a sale from field sales.
There are all types of events and many different reasons to have an event. For most companies that sell products and services to other businesses, hosting networking events and business seminars are a great way to generate and qualify leads. Hosting seminars is a common marketing tool for information and service-based businesses, such as financial planners, sales training companies, accounting firms, coaches and consultants.
After a budget and expectations are set, the hardest part about hosting any event is getting the people there. Most people don't commit to going somewhere unless they know it is going to benefit them in some way that is important to them. There really is no shortcut. When promoting an event, our approach is to get a lot of people involved that have a vested interest in the event's success. For networking events and seminars, we recruit sponsors who invite their contacts. The reason people come to networking events is because they might meet someone who will buy their services or supply a service that they need. So, there's a built-in incentive for everyone to invite everyone.Often, advertising alone does not produce event registrations. When buying advertising for an event, we prefer that other organizations use email, their websites, and pick up the phone to invite people and to ask others to invite people. The success of these forms of event promotion can be tracked. It is more difficult to track traditional media buys. We also encourage getting involved with the programming of the event so they have a further stake in the event's success.
About the author
Peter Caputa IV is the President and Co-Founder of WhizSpark, a Westborough-based Company that provides online and email based marketing and registration services for events, as well as online advertising, email marketing and sponsorship selection services for businesses. Peter is a graduate of Worcester Polytechnic Institute and is the author of several blogs including his award-winning blog, PC4Media, where he covers how the internet is increasingly being used to make events more successful.
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