How to Get More Attendees to Your Virtual Events.
A few weeks ago I had the chance to listen in on a seminar hosted by Shannon Cherry and Ready Talk. It was about increasing event attendance to Teleseminars and Webinars. And I just came across my notes and thought I’d share them with you.
1. Find your voice – Shannon said it is important to know what it is you want to accomplish with the event. Will the event position you as an expert at something? Will it add value to your audience? Will hosting it add to your database or bottom line (or both)? Do you know what you want to say? Who is webinar for? (Demographics)
2. Develop Key Messages ~ Attract more prospects. get more attendees. Make more money, become the expert in your field
3. Use marketing tools available such as press releases.
A. There are basically 3 types of press releases: 1) the basic announcement 2) a tips release with bullets and ideas to reinforce the event and 3) the bonus offered for sign up release.
She said to post on all release distribution sites and traditional media every 2.5 to 3 weeks 10 weeks prior. Some of the sites she recommended include: Theopenpress, pr buzz, prcompass, prurgent, press-base, pressabout, pressmethod, prleap, prlog.org,
B. Email campaigns - Event listings, feature write ups, articles on topic that link to event – 9 weeks prior
Also solo listings to announce event, benefits of event and a last call (Shannon said solo listings are much better than ezines etc.)
C. Joint Venture Opps – Find others with similar traffic market and ask if they will promote to their list ~ if event has a fee, have affiliate commission, if not offer to help promote their stuff as well
D. Write 3 articles on topics webinar covers ~ ezinearticles.com, amazines.com, ideamarketers.com, goarticles.com starting 8 weeks out – send out one per week.
E. Blogging ~ tweak content to make original, create six new pieces of content to post to blog 6 weeks out one per week
F. Social media ~ every time you post on your blog send a brief chatty post (headline) using ping.fm to post to all social media sites at once ~ go to startupspark.com – get code for free there
Go to www.beheardsolutions.com/ReadyTalkwebinar.htm for checklists and timeline
OTHER TIPS:
Put contact at bottom of release, not at top! News should be more important than you!
After registration: Send confirmation email thank you for registering, with details to attend ~ also the day before send a reminder follow up.
Post your event to Craig’s list.
How do we make money with free teleseminars? You can now market to list, they can sign up for your newsletter ~ they are now in the marketing funnel and will start getting your stuff…
CAUTION: Only send emails that would add value to your recipient. Otherwise you will be thought of as a spammer and folks will ask to be removed from your list. Be careful to respect their time and above all their privacy. Even when I get the registrant into my “funnel” they may only hear from me once every 3 to four months unless of course they sign up for one of my offerings and then it will depend on how often that system sends information and offers to the list.
BTW, on November 7th I interviewed Eddie Peters of 4Profit Marketing about this very subject. He gave some great tips and also made an incredible offer to our guests. He has a Marketing system worth over $1,200 and he offered it to anyone who signed up for his session for only $99. If you want to learn more, send me an email to heidi (at) redheadmarketingblog.com. I will pass on the details.
Also, on December 4th I will be speaking at the International Association of Hispanic Meeting Professionals on “How to Leverage Social Networking to Grow Your Business.” If you live in or will be in San Diego at that time, you can register for this event. It takes place Dec. 3-6th. Here’s the link: http://www.iahmp.org/iahmp_folder/annu_conference/iahmp_annual_conference.htm
Hope to see you there!
Add comment December 10th, 2008