Registration Now Open: a study in WGAS

I just got an email proclaiming “Registration Now Open for XYZSuperMarketingSummit 2014!” One of many that hit my inbox on any given day.

Stepping back, my first thought was: WGAS?

I have never attended XYZSuperMarketingSummit before, although I’m in their target audience. So an email touting that I’m now able to register for the upcoming event – without a hint as to why it might be in my best interest to do so – is at best a dubious tactic. And as was a recipient, I have to assume this went to "everybody in the database (hopefully opt-ins!)" or at least a much wider group of people than it should have.

What this really speaks to is a lack of thought behind segmentation strategy in event marketing. As seasoned event marketers know (and basic marketing ABCs dictate), past attendees are an event's core audience. If an event has traditionally produced good content and networking – core reasons people attend events – they will return, if not with every iteration of the show, at last with every other. To that end, informing this core of people know reg is open (and of course offering up an incentive as a way of showing appreciation for past participation) is a good, acceptable tactic.

Getting segmentation right has always been key to event marketing – and today, as technologies and audiences have advanced and matured it right is even more of an imperative. There is, of course,  no one answer to how to segment – your database is structured differently from anybody else’s. However, some of the key segments you need to be thinking about deriving specific messages to include:

• Past attendees: again, the easy segment. If you’ve delivered good product in the past, and done your legwork on maintaining engagement between events, getting these customers to re-purchase (both early and in large numbers) should be a key driver to continued success. If possible, consider sub-segmenting this out by individuals who completed event surveys (especially those who gave the event glowing reviews!)
• Cancels and no-shows: first, ensure these are filtered out of the above group (sending a “attend again this year!” to somebody who cancelled last year makes you look a bit silly). And you may want to split this between cancels and no-shows depending on the type of show and how granular you’d want to get. But a "sorry you missed last year, don't miss it again" message is worth exploring.
• Event-specific prospects: if you’ve delivered content around past events and captured leads, a strong subset of prospects – maybe not effective with a “registration is open!” email, but people who have expressed interested in content around the event should be high on your segmentation strategy, even if you didn’t convert them after they attended a webinar you did for last year’s event.
• Demographics: this depends on the type of event – if it has tracks or sessions that speak to a certain vertical, job roll or level, plan on segmenting and communicating to these individuals about how the event fills their specific needs. Think through this before implementing – it needs to come across as natural and intuitive to the recipient (don’t segment out widget manufacturers and talk to them if your event has one 50 minute session on widget manufacturing over the course of two days)

These are just a few general segments you should be including –thinking through what data you have on your overall database and how to segment them is an early stage part of developing your marketing strategy; getting it right is key to a great marketing campaign.

Good luck!

John

PS Please do share any general segments you feel have been helpful - always great to hear back!

Contingency Planning and Event Marketing - a prime example

It’s been close to a year since Hurricane Sandy hit the northeast US and wreaked devastation on thousands of people, families and businesses. I was close enough to have friends and family impacted by it, yet fortunately far enough away to have avoided personal catastrophe (aside from losing cable for 24 hours…), so I count my blessings.

So I do not mean to negate the tremendous impact it had on the lives of many, but wanted to point the storm as an example of why it’s imperative to have contingency planning built into your events.

A year ago, I was putting the finishing touches on marketing JUMP, a launch event organized by Econsultancy, scheduled in New York on November 1, 2012. Plans were going smoothly, attendance was beginning the final, nerve-wrecking uptick of last-minute registrations. For me, it was nose to the grindstone time, and I was not particularly paying attention to the weather forecast. It was not until the weekend prior, with word coming in that we were all bracing for a 'storm of a magnitude unseen before' that it started getting on our collective radar.

The reality is we were, organizationally, reluctant to impact the revenue and forego the sunk costs which would have been the result of a postponement. So in the face of a ton of attendee and sponsor inquiries, we sent out an email on Monday (the day of the storm, prior to its impact) stating that yes, JUMP was still going to happen. The (very optimistic in hindsight) thinking was there were still two days to clean up and move on. In fairness, there was also no real way to conceptualize how devastating the storm would be.

Fast forward 24 hours and the decision was obviously reversed for us: the Metropolitan Pavilion, like much of New York City, was dark and partially underwater, transportation was out of the question, lives were turned upside down.

This, of course, left me, as the marketing lead, with the responsibility of fulfilling due diligence in communicating to 750+ attendees, sponsors, and speakers. Fortunately, I was able to:

• Place an automated telephone call to everybody informing them of the postponement (I had this cued up and ready to go the end of the prior week). This was done via ListeNation, a service on the west coast not impacted by the storm.
• Coordinate with our headquarters (London) to email all individuals regarding the postponement. (Note: this was a step I was going to take until I was relegated to my cell phone for communication when I lost cable around noon on Tuesday 10/30.)

Of course, attendees had to have known that there was not going to be an event on November 1 at the Metropolitan Pavilion – but we needed to take the step of letting everybody know. It was an important step and the right thing to do.

The lesson again is contingency planning – as an event marketer, thinking through (and continually evaluating) all the “What Ifs” that can happen in the course of an event campaign. A one-in-a-century storm is one thing (although I have been involved in two events postponed due to weather over the past 8 years), but thinking through all the aspects of an event you either directly impact or influence, and what to do if things deviate from plan, will go towards making you, as an individual, that much more appreciated and needed in an organization and will reflect positively on your organization overall.

Good luck!

John

PS Next I'll detail lessons learned post-storm - stay tuned!

Say NO to BOGO!

It happened again.

I got another email for an event with a last-minute BOGO offer – buy one registration, get the 2nd for free. And I cringed.

There are a couple of reasons that, no matter the immense pressure for bodies (especially at an event in which attendee numbers are behind the curve), you should resist the temptation to raise your hand in a meeting and utter the word “BOGO.”

Why?

• It cheapens the brand. When you are marketing an event, you are responsible for marketing a product:  a vehicle for delivering content, networking, bringing people together in a form unavailable anywhere else. And when you incorporate a ‘buy-one get-one’ tactic, it cries of desperation and raises a red flag in the savvy consumer’s eye on the type of event they are being asked to commit to.

• You’ll train your audience to anticipate … and wait … for discounting: As if registration curves are not short enough to drive the event team insane, last-minute discounting over a period of events will set the expectation that if somebody holds out long enough the BOGO offer is forthcoming. People do remember – I’ve come into organizations and have gotten communications from past attendees along the lines of “last year I attended for free/cheap – how can I do that again?” People do remember these things.

• The reality is it’s a square peg in a round hole: BOGO is a tactic used by retailers for shoes, coffee, underwear, etc. [and select retailers, at that. Notice how you never see BOGO offers at Tiffany’s, do you?] Using it as an event marketing tactic is bringing it to a B2B business purchasing environment.  And, of course, it’s silly-sounding to boot.

My writing ‘don’t do this’ doesn’t of course, alleviate the pressure you feel and receive to drive the biggest audience and most revenue to your event. To that point I have a couple of thoughts. First, if you initially budget, plan, and execute a pricing structure that encourages discounts for early registration  to encourage revenue early in the campaign cycle that is not an issue, although as noted previously, the effectiveness of these are questionable.

Secondly if, for some reason, even after you’ve done your due diligence in planning and executing your marketing plans (and contingency plans) the event is lagging in registration revenue and or attendance, it may be other factors that need to be explored – all elements of the event: content, venue, speakers should be looked at as not having the “Wow” factor that drives commitment to ticket purchase. This is a different subject all together (and worth a post unto itself) – the point here being if an event reaches a stage that considering BOGO is an option, there are other variables in the overall event that should be taken into consideration.

So certainly plan for early discounts, plan for contingency tactics … just resist the temptation to BOGO. You’re doing more harm to the brand than good to the event otherwise.

Good luck!

John

Randi Rosenberg

It was a week ago today that I heard the indescribably sad news that Randi Rosenberg had passed away, entirely too young, after an extended battle with breast cancer. I’ve read the many online tributes people who she touched had posted in her memory, and have come to appreciate what a terrific person she was, and how dearly she will be missed.

I worked professionally with Randi in 2007, when she was recommended as somebody who could provide marketing expertiese on event I was working on. And even in that limited capacity, in that limited time frame, she was certainly – as she has been described – a force of nature. A wonderful personality, strong, supportive and tenacious in her efforts, caring. And this was only in this one project; I cannot begin to imagine the joy she brought to her family and lifelong friends and associates, although I did come to appreciate she was a person who touched everybody she met.

We kept in touch after the project was over, checking in with a “how are things” phone call or email. When I was separated from Gartner last year, she was one of the first people I called, and she was one of the people who, unsurprisingly, was a terrific help in suggestions and promising to keep her eyes open for me. She never mentioned her health challenges, never complained, which I’m sure is just the person she was.

So the news, of course, came as a shock; I had been thinking of her lately as I hadn’t heard from her, but could not (or did not) imagine the circumstances surrounding it.

One of the things I learned about Randi was that she was one of the founders and past presidents of Young Survival Coalition; the coalition is accepting contributions in her memory either online or via check made payable to:

Young Survival Coalition Inc.
61 Broadway
New York, NY 10016-2263

Randi will be missed.

Exhibitor & Sponsor Marketing Engagement: Why not go social?

It (almost) goes without saying that the investment Exhibitors and Sponsors make in an event does not end once ink is dry on the contract. Exhibitors’ marketing budgets – in both pre- and on-site promotions – are substantial. According to a survey published by the Center for Exhibition Industry Research, respondents spent, on average, $32,000 - and up to $50,000 - on these activities per event. Add to this costs in human capital and the challenges measuring ROI and it becomes clear why the events budgets are prime for cutbacks when corporate marketing budgets are put under the magnifying glass.

It also begs the question: Why the lack of social networks as an inexpensive, effective marketing channel for attendee promotion?

According to the CEIR survey, Effective Methods for Visitor Promotion Part II: Exhibitors, less than half of the 218 responders reported using personal social networks (LinkedIn, Facebook) for visitor promotion (and this was the highest use of SM tools reported.) If, as I noted last week, the name of the game is engagement, Exhibitor Event Marketing leaders need to grow the use of Social Media tools as effective and cost-effective means to driving booth traffic.

Ironically, a key benefit cited in the survey, access to an attendee list (84% of the respondents said they wanted a list of pre-registered attendees from the event organizer), is one which Event Marketers can develop using these very tools. Social media tools provide the ability to develop these communities and networks as a way to not only drive booth traffic but to engage attendees, potential attendees, and your booth visitors on a year-round basis.

Using social media and networking tools strategically also provides you a voice before the event – and alleviates your not just being another face at a booth an attendee stops by on site. Ask yourself: as an attendee, would you rather visit a booth where you’ve connected with a representative of the company, or visit a booth cold? Getting a handle on and using social media goes a long way in humanizing what can be the large, industrial feel of many a show floor.

This can – and, I suggest – should be handled collaboratively between Exhibitors and Event Organizer marketing teams. First, Exhibitors should ensure that they, as sponsors, have access to and with attendees via a community or network managed by the organizer pre and post-event. [In this engagement, exhibitors of course should be sensitive avoid using such network or community to “push” booth traffic. Instead, use it to engage in conversations, answer questions, and listen.]

Secondly – and to step out of the event arena for a moment – exhibitors need to ensure they are utilizing the social media assets your corporate organization may already have in place. Use this as a way to not only reach out to event attendees, but to raise awareness around the event and your organization’s participation in the event. Your company’s blogs, gated communities, and networks are prime areas to include your presence at events as part of your overall corporate communication and branding initiatives.

Possibly the most telling item on the survey: While one of the lesser tools utilized by exhibitors, Social Networking was cited as the 3rd most effective exhibit promotional tool (behind Hospitality Suites and Guerilla Marketing) … and more effective than traditional avenues such as handouts, email, print, and premiums. Again pointing to social media that, as Event Marketers, we need add to our arsenals.

Good luck!

John

Social Media & Event Marketing in 2010: Engagement!

Social Media continues to grow as a channel in the integrated Event Marketing mix. Any of a myriad of surveys and polls validates this trend, including one conducted by eMarketer, which notes 60% of the respondents planning to increase spend in Social Media in 2010. The confluence of the platforms and technologies available and the recession has, in short, driven Event Marketers to look at Social Media as an avenue to cost-effectively generate interest and demand for event portfolios.

There are a slew of Social Media options available, and new ones appear almost daily. But  Event Marketing strategies, tactics and campaigns don’t have the luxury of waiting for the next big platform: once an event – either live or virtual - is set, marketing commences with the tools in hand. Which begs the question: in which basket should Event Marketing leaders place today's eggs?

The over-arching answer, of course, is to explore and test a variety of social media platforms to determine what works. My take is that social media in the communications space: blogs and micro-blogs (i.e. Twitter), professional and social networking sites (LinkedIn, Facebook), and content-sharing platforms (YouTube, Flickr, SlideShare, etc.) are the keys for Event Marketing. Between them, an Event Marketing campaign team should develop a strong social media mix to support an event or event portfolio.

HOWEVER, I also think these all are only pieces of the ultimate goal: engagement. Continued, ongoing engagement. Social media has quickly brought many changes to Event Marketing, including the altering traditional communication strategies for both attendees and prospects. Event Marketing communication should no longer be on an “as needed” basis, tactically starting at X weeks out with a Save the Date email and ending with a post-event Thank You email, then re-ramping when the next promotional cycle ensues. Instead, B2B audiences will increasingly come to anticipate and expect social media-driven communities, networks and forums in which interaction – and engagement – is ongoing. Event marketing leaders who invest their increased Social Media spend in this arena will, in short, have the most to gain.

At a minimum, utilizing LinkedIn and Facebook both for their Event listing capability and Group feature (and, with Facebook, for its Fan Page) should be a starting point. Ning is another platform which, while mirroring LinkedIn, is set up for individual networks and communities. (If you are not familiar with Ning, do check out Eventpeeps.com, a site is built in Ning.) And of course, there are software options available as well. Pathable is one example of such software, this one happens to be event-specific and acts as an aggregator of various SM platforms. (I am not affailiated with or endorsing any of the above, but noting them as the types of options available. Please use due diligence if you explore them.)

Planning and executing Event Marketing using Social Media is a topic and discussion for another post: the take-away here is, if you have not already, begin to take a serious look at how you can start building continued, vital communities as a continued engagement strategy surrounding your events.

Good luck!

John

The Waning Marketing Funnel

Event Marketing – and marketing strategy in general – has traditionally started at the top of the marketing funnel. Demand generation starts at evaluating and defining the universe of prospects for a marketing campaign or initiative, and building out marcom strategies from there. With the advent of Social Media there are, of course, new models being built around inverted funnels – a ‘one-to-many’ approach – that may disrupt the method, but currently the funnel – with some revisions – is still in place.

The issue is that the traditional troughs feeding names to the funnel are evaporating. According to statistics published by MediaFinder.com, magazine titles closing outpaced new launches by over 55% in 2009. While this is another obvious testament to the economy and the changing face of communications, it also presents a challenge to the Event Marketing industry – a shrinking of available subscriber names from which to source your target audience.

[I can hear the calls from the Inbound Marketing pulpit that the focus should not be on outbound marketing and list acquisition but instead on inbound channels. The argument here is that the effort should be an integrated campaign – not an either/or proposition. I’ll detail further in a future post.]

In short, the notion of “available audience” has taken a beating over the past 18 months. Specifically, with unemployment numbers rising and, in the interest of budgetary prudence, investment in internal data cleaning being a bare minimum, ask yourself: what % of your database is still current? Add to that the universe of external lists contracting and event marketers seeking new, qualified sources of names are faced with a burden.

“The key is to think outside the box,” says industry veteran Bob Portner, Account Director for Specialists Marketing Services. “You need to look at other avenues … other ways … to target the people you want.”

Portner (in an admitted fit of self-interest) suggests hooking up with a list management and brokerage firm – one, he emphasizes, is “attuned to looking at other ways to target your audience for you.” Some suggestions he has offered his clients include:

• Compiled Lists: while considered less than optimal as opposed to controlled circulation or buyers’ lists, these can be beneficial as they typically have a greater range of demographics to select from, enabling a very targeted audience to be produced.
• Online Lists: with the advent of online registration forms, there are lists available of individuals (with opt-in permission, of course); an added benefit are that these names contain, by nature, individuals who have utilized the Internet to at least register/purchase products or services.
• “Other” sources: Portner cited a list of subscribers for a title which has long since ceased publication. The subscribers are a finite demographic, however, and the publisher “keeps the file current as best they can,” and had gotten continued positive feedback regarding response.

To clarify, this post is not a clarion call to switch to a campaign of external lists sources – instead, it’s recognizing that events marketers have sourced these lists historically, that there are challenges in attaining these lists today, and thoughts on how to address. My overall suggestion has always been to use these names to augment your internal database and your online and demand generation activities.

And, of course, to test and measure results on an ongoing basis. The benefits of internal databases vs. external lists vs. social media, etc. in developing event marketing strategies is an argument for another day; in reality results vary from industry to industry and organization to organization. But supplementing your outreach efforts by strategically adding external names to the mix is certainly a tactic worth considering or revisiting as 2010 unfolds. And thinking through the most effective way to source these names in a declining market is key.

And please do share thoughts, success/horror stories – would be great to hear them!

Good luck!

John

P.S. I'm also pleased to let everybody know I am very excited to be presenting at the VirtualEdge 2010 Summit next month - check out the details here!

“Who is Attending?”: Getting It Right

The Attendee Profile – answering the question “Who is Attending?” has always been an X factor for Event Marketers. It is a key metric exhibitors evaluate pre- post-event, and drives satisfaction with an event and influences re-sign decisions. I’m sure at one point you’ve heard feedback of “Exhibitors are not happy because there were too many vendors attending as delegates.” Or event attendees were “too junior,” “the wrong function,” or lacking in some other demographic.

To a point such feedback can be expected: you can’t please everybody. However, with exhibitors’ budgets coming under increased scrutiny, effective Event Marketing needs to focus on – and react to – not only quantity but quality of registrations in 2010. Gone are the days of getting X number of attendees in a room or a hall, patting ourselves on the back and saying “Well done!” Decision-makers in sponsorship circles are under increased pressure to prove and justify that their investment delivered the interaction, leads and conversions they planned for when signing onto the event. And that pressure, ultimately, falls on the shoulders of Event Marketers in the form of getting the right bodies there.

To help exhibitors justify spend, according to B2B Magazine, The Trade Show Exhibitors Association has formed an advocacy committee to push for the use of audits. [Yes, this is as ominous as it sounds. An audit, briefly, conducted by an outside organization such as BPA Worldwide, independently verifies the attendance figures claimed.] According to the article audits, which have been a mainstay in publishing for many years, are now being requested by a growing number of exhibitors.

Here are four thoughts, strategies and tactics you can – and should – be utilizing to leading up to an event help you ultimately, deliver a positive attendee and exhibitor experience:

• Event Marketers need to be engaged in the earliest phases of the planning cycle. You need to be on board in understanding and contributing to content formulation to ensure it aligns to the target market you are responsible for recruiting. Content is King: if you are seeking to attract VP-level attendees but content and sessions are addressing tactical topics … the VP you are targeting will see this and will send his subordinates. Game over.
• Best practice: Monitor. Make it a point to regularly review reports to ensure registrations are fitting the mold both in volume and demographics. Understand your registration patterns and continually analyze where registrations are coming from. If there is a list, internal segment, social media source or channel that is drawing too many or too few of the right/wrong attendee, be nimble enough to react.
• Work with your sponsors. As I wrote in an earlier post, this takes time and effort, but working with exhibitors – in coordination with your sales team – to engage them in reaching out to their contacts is important. There is certainly pushback and challenges around executing these efforts, including “why would I want my client on the show floor where my competitors are?” The message should be around your seamlessly working to invite their prospects - the message being “Wouldn’t you like that prospect that’s been in your pipeline for six months at the event?”
• Leverage Team Send. Develop an incentive: once you have a “good” contact registered, engage them in inviting others. Pending bandwidth, this is a great opportunity to roll out the “white glove” approach to people who have committed to your event. A phone call or personalized note is both a great CRM effort and works toward building ancillary attendance.

As a side note, nothing regarding event attendance communications should happen in a vacuum. All team members who interface with event participants need to be on the same page regarding what is communicated, whether the interaction is with exhibitors/prospects, press, or even other attendees. This includes working, and communicating, cross-functionally throughout the course of the campaign, discussing variations in demographic trending - what and how to speak to unavoidable changes in this trending. These can be difficult discussions, but ones that ultimately serve the betterment of the event in the end.

Good luck!

John

New Year, Same Old Email ...

With the new year (and, possibly, a new decade – but that’s an argument for another day) upon us, the vestiges of the old are behind us … or are they?

I recently came across an email promotion for the upcoming Event Marketing Summit, and was, honestly, disappointed by the structure and tone of it, especially coming from an organization that provides such useful content as Event Marketer magazine, the Event Marketing Institute and both the Eventpeeps.com online network and LinkedIn group.

In case you missed it, the email reads:

My overall take is that this is just a legacy push email – the type of communication that has given email marketing a bad rep. Given the excitement and opportunities surrounding email today, I’m surprised there wasn’t more forward-thinking communications being utilized to promote an event on Event Marketing.

Looking more closely, there are also some particular facets of the email that bothered me, starting with the Subject Line of "EM Summit ridiculous discount pricing expires in two days; Sign up now to save $400"

• Maybe it’s me, but when I saw “EM Summit,” my first thought was “Email Summit.” It's not clear which event this is for – simply put, Event Marketing should have been spelled out. Although the “From” line does specify Event Marketing Summit, its incorrectly assuming the recipient would make the connection.
• “ridiculous”: A $400 discount is not 'ridiculous.' It’s nice – but we’ve all seen many events with this Early Bird discount. Also – 'ridiculous' can have different connotations – certainly the intent is to be positive in this case, but can also be interpreted as silly, absurd, etc.
• Timing is everything: I get it – savings before the New Year (which, for some reason, is not spelled out in the Subject Line) – but sending an offer with a 2-day actionable turnaround during a holiday when many individuals are not in the office – especially with the deadline-based incentive – is not a recipe for success.

As much as an issue was the body of the email – upon opening it the message is: 

• Headline/opening sentence: A reaffirmation of the ‘ridiculous’ advanced discount.
• Second paragraph: A call to action … and another push of the $400 savings.
• Third paragraph: A third push of that $400 discount. And a reminder that it is only available through December 31.

By the third paragraph, the email is redundant. In other words, there was no message behind the message; it had very little to say. Given the sensitivities around the volume of email in people’s inboxes today, what is again disappointing is that this email was for an event on Event Marketing – with sessions and speakers who will, I would hope, advise attendees not to utilize this types of communication.

Finally, possibly most problematic is that the 'big' (I’ll refrain from calling it ridiculous) discount expires before the event content is available. As noted on the landing page the email drives to, “The program will be announced in January. But by then the lowest rates will be gone!” In short, the push is for registrations before content is detailed.

As much as I am an advocate of good, creative Event Marketing as a key contributor to the success of an event, I know that content is key to driving attendees. Unless targeting an event alumni familiar with the event’s historical quality and content (which this email was not, the recipient was not a prior attendee), going to market with messaging around registering for an event, providing an average discount, and not offering content to justify the registration decision strikes me as … well … ridiculous.

Hoping this email is the symbolic death knell of a challenging year, and let's keep the focus on best practices - and exceptional results - in our 2010 initiatives.

Good luck and Happy New Year!

John

Refocus on Decency for 2010

Update: January 25, 2010 - I do want to mention a brilliant article regarding this post which appeared in yesterday's New York Times giving a very succinct case-in-point. Thank you Neal Hirschfeld!

I don’t think I’m the only one who is very ready to say goodbye to 2009 and anticipate 2010. Not to say there have not been success and new initiatives this year – but it has been difficult for many, including the event industry and the event marketing profession.

Given the challenges of the past 12 months and its impact on our interactions, in the coming year there is one thing we should all incorporate – both professionally and personally: DECENCY.

Not to imply that the difficulties of the recession have turned us into indecent people. Far from that, I think the impact of the economy has grown our collective stress level and flipped the Self-Survival Switch on high, causing us to lose focus on the professional decency and connectivity which has served the event marketing community so well over time. And it’s time to get it back.

How?

• Take the call/answer the message. Yes, there are deadlines, meetings and a “Things to Do” list a mile long. And no, you don’t want to work endless hours. But picking up the phone – even to say ‘thanks but no thanks’ - is the professional alternative to not taking a call, and more in the vein of how we should be conducting ourselves. Also, realize this: by not responding to a request for marketing partnership / barter, ignoring a call from a vendor or somebody in transition seeking your help in looking to network, you could well be incurring opportunity cost. Now is as good a time as any to be open to innovation, talk to new people, try a new initiative and break away from the “we don’t do that” mentality.
• Be respectful of others’ bandwidths – on the flipside of the above, be sensitive to others' constraints and schedules. While being as quirky as to adhere to Larry David and his Stop and Chat rules is not a necessity, but be cognizant of others’ time in the work environment. Anybody who knows me knows I have an open door policy: if they needed to bounce an idea off me, discuss an issue, etc; as I’m not the best at saying “come back later.” That's my issue. But making a mental note to ask “do you have a minute/five minutes” – and stick to it – when grabbing a colleague’s ear is the an invaluable tactic.
• Be cognizant of the impact of words and actions – and in turn, how they can impact us. The additional workload (or, ironically, the lack of work) can put anybody on edge. Take a deep breath and think before replying, hitting the ‘send’ or the ‘publish’ button. One bad moment can mar a professional reputation you’ve spent a lot of time and effort to establish!

Again, I get it: time is tight. It’s been a tough stretch (trust me I know!). But although it’s not something they cover in business school, I’m a big believer in karma, that making the investment of acting and treating people decently repays itself tenfold. And that we should, as event marketers, look to make the personal comment to professional decency in 2010. The ROI will be there.

A Happy, Safe and Successful 2010 to all!

Good luck!

John

'Tis the Season for Retention

The plethora of Top Ten Lists are out – either Trends for 2010 or Best/Worst Lists of 2009. As you’ve probably perused enough of these lists at this point, I’ll truncate and offer my list of One Priority that Event Marketers Need to Focus on in the Coming Year:

1. Retention

Given the year the economy – and in turn the events industry – has been through, it is time for Event Marketing leaders to strategize and make an investments in developing and implementing strong attendee retention strategies. In many cases, event marketing has been in “churn mode” for too long – continually putting time, effort and investment into attendee acquisition activities without a plan in place to manage attendees post-event. Part of this is understandable – managing the frequency and volume of events from a marketing perspective is a daunting proposition. However, now is the time to develop, execute and – most importantly – stick with – a retention strategy to ensure long-term survival.

Why now? A couple of reasons:

1. Cost – although there is not a set metric in place, it is more expensive to acquire a prospect than it is to retain them – in other words, bringing a cold prospect through the entire AIDA cycle costs more than a person who is already beyond, at least, the Attention/Interest phases. (Tracking and testing the cost per attendee without any retention initiatives in place vs. how the initiatives impact the cost is also important – if nothing else, as an internal benchmark.)

2. Reputation – A retention program in place will re-focus your communication channels so that they map to the various audience segments you define. As you learn more about your attendees – their functionality, buying patterns, needs, etc. – and develop actions around this knowledge, it will lead to their receiving and (hopefully) registering for future events via the channel and timing they prefer – and will decrease push communications and, by extension, challenges around today's SPAM prevalent environment. Having a program in place will also, almost by definition, ensure a new focus placed on the customer/attendee - pre-event, onsite, and post event, cross-functionally various stakeholders should be working to ensure there is a renewed urgency on customer satisfaction (especially if the emphasis on Retention is coming driven top-down!) if the strategy is to encourage them to come back next year/for another event.

3. Most importantly, The Tools are There: Database modeling services have been with us for a while; however, over the past year Social Media had developed into something that can provide Event Marketers with a number of tools to effectively incorporate into a retention strategy. Facebook fan pages and groups, LinkedIn groups, Webinars, communities built with Ning, YouTube, Twitter, Slideshare, etc. are some of the portals that can be utilized to share information and knowledge and keep your contacts abreast of your content and activities. (Of course, traditional offline and email channels are part of the mix as well.)

How you do it is up to you – but the timing is right for you to plan and execute on this. And do plan for the long-term – results, by definition, will not be immediate, but will be worthwhile.

Good luck!

And all the best for a Happy Holiday and a terrific 2010!!!

John

Marketing Tip: Word-of-Mouth for Speaker Engagement

One of the challenging strategies Event Marketers are faced with is speaker engagement – or effectively answering the age-old question “how do I get my speakers to reach out to their clients and prospects?” I’ve seen numerous tactics employed – from arranging discounts to developing a tailored package/communication to website buttons and banners for speakers to utilize. And these efforts are, more often than not, not fruitful.

Part of the challenge is bandwidth – a speaker, typically a consultant and/or plenary thought-leader is, to turn a phrase, just not into to your event – they’re into to their content. Looking at the scenario through their eyes, as good as your event is, to a speaker it is a block of time in their calendar, a commitment to contribute content, their presence to a target audience and, with any luck, a decent honorarium. They are typically not equipped or aligned to help promote your event to their contacts – as beneficial as it may be to them.

Andy Sernovitz, in his Damn, I Wish I’d Thought of That blog, recently detailed a great promotion he used to promote Gaspedal’s upcoming Word of Mouth Supergenius! conference (being held next week in Chicago.) Using Word of Mouth Marketing (Gaspedal’s forte), the campaign cut through clutter and engaged speakers to blog about the initiative. And the event. AND actively promoted a personal Speaker discount, to boot.

How?

T-shirts.

Check out Andy’s blog post and video to learn about the promotion, but in a nutshell, for the promotion, personalized T-shirts were sent to each of the 30 speakers, each with a speaker-specific discount code, with a note attached asking the speaker to a) photograph themselves with the T-shirt and b) blog about what a fun, great promotion it was and, of course, tie it into the upcoming event.

The subliminal supergenius around this effort is that, despite what Andy says about it not being about speakers blogging about their participation (having them write, as he says, “Yes I’m speaking about a conference, please go,” which he notes is not interesting), in the end it really is doing just that. It’s speakers writing about a fun Word of Mouth effort for … well … a Word of Mouth event.

And while I think this is a great idea and do want to pass it on, I am not suggesting everybody reading this Google “personalized T-shirts” as the lesson learned; for example I’m guessing this type of promotion would not be as germane for the Society of Neuroscience’s annual event. This was an example of event marketing recognizing it’s audience and it’s speakers and thinking through and executing a promotion which would engage both. So, as Event Marketers, the take-away is for you to think through and strategize how to engage your speakers for your event; how to get them to start an interesting conversation and get people talking and thinking about your event.

And please do feel free to share any success stories you may have!

Good luck!

John

Event Marketing Shouldn’t Overlook Onsite Surveys

I’ve been involved with some onsite event evaluations of late. It’s absolutely not the most exciting or engaging topic but one worth revisiting, as I’d suggest it’s an avenue too often overlooked in gathering marketing intelligence.

As I think about it, I do not recall seeing an organization which engaged the Marketing Department in developing these surveys – they are seen much more something to be handled by event producers focused on content and operations teams’ looking for feedback on the physical attributes itself. Which is fair enough, there is an inarguable need for these as feedback channels. However, marketing needs to be proactively involved in the formulation of the survey as well.

For example (and not to be critical of it), the survey I refer to above was multiple pages. The attendee was only required to answer one or two questions on many of the pages, the fact is that as an attendee, I would have been daunted by the size of it. And many people who responded were – reviewing these particular surveys, few were complete. In addition, within the context of the questions – which drilled down on food, venue, whether attendees preferred standing microphone, roving microphone, written question, etc. for Q&A did not ask the simple question: “What was the most valuable aspect of this event for you?” Again, this is not to be critical of this particular survey, I’ve seen many which have, in not having marketing input, have missed out on a chance to gain key insight.

And as Marketing Departments get more involved in the onsite survey development, a few thoughts to leverage their effectiveness: 

• Vet the survey prior to printing: Onsite surveys are, by definition, an inward-looking document, and it is too easy to get involved in internal thought/process in formulating questions. Give the survey to an outsider – spouse, friend, etc. – and ask “does this make sense to you?” The input from an outsider can be eye-opening.
• Ask actionable questions: drill-down questions are fine, but ask and include questions you can influence or provides insight to help you deliver a better product. In some form (graded scale, Yes/No, etc.) questions like “what is the value add?,” “why did you attend?,” “how did you first hear about this event?” (Even more important as the influence of social media grows) are invaluable.
• Think through formatting: This can be tricky, but make sure responses to questions all receive equal treatment in layout. I recently saw a survey with a fairly benign question with response heavily weighted towards one answer – and I could not help think it was because the response was positioned at the end of the question, with the remaining dropping down to the next line.
• Think green!: There are a multitude of online survey tools available; if you have not already considered it, think about using these as opposed to paper surveys. Outside of saving forests, this presents quicker response time, better ability to analyze responses, etc. I was at an event where a colleague with a hand-held got his Survey during the event’s evening reception. Certainly made the survey front-of-mind for him!

So again, as 2009 winds down and 2010 ramps up, one small “to do” for event marketing leaders to add to their list of New Year’s Resolutions is go get pro-actively involved in the onsite survey development and dissemination processes.

Good luck! And Happy Thanksgiving to those stateside!

John

Nothing Succeeds Like Success

I recently had the opportunity to observe the development and execution of a successful event (yes, there are still successful events to be held!), Econsultancy's Peer Summit. Held in New York City on October 8, the event was invitation only, and ended up first selling out attendance prior to the event, and secondly seeing very little attrition on-site (quite a coup, given the event was complimentary).

Some background: the Peer Summit was the introduction/launch event for Econsultancy in the U.S.; Econsultancy, headquartered in the UK, is a community-based publisher, focused on best practice digital marketing and ecommerce. With an office in the U.S. opening earlier this year, the event was a vehicle to deliver its value proposition through the event's content a roundtable-discussion based format.

So why did the event succeed? It was essentially a lesson in back-to-basics – the ground-floor underpinnings that have traditionally driven event marketing success. But it's a lesson worth reviewing as the events calendar wraps up the 2009 season and moves into 2010:

1. Keeping goals and objectives reasonable: One of Econsultancy’s challenges at the outset was that it was a launch event. To that end, they set reasonable expectations and goals regarding attendance. Econsultancy has run several Peer Summit-type events in Europe; rather than assuming they could replicate their success in the US immediately, Econsultancy planned and budgeted a more reasonable attendee number. As importantly, this audience quantity (and quality) was communicated to event sponsors, so expectations were aligned across the board.
2. Defining the product (event): The Peer Summit was not meant to be – nor communicated as – an “all things to all people” endeavor. It had a defined target audience and communication plan geared to attracting client-side digital marketing executives. Being a one-day event in New York City, marketing was targeted to local executives. There were no delusions that individuals would flock from across the US to attend. And as an invitation-only event, the audience was specific. This admittedly can’t be as controlled at a paid event – but it does speak to ensuring that in whichever event scenario is being planned that key audiences and correlating outreach is identified.
3. Having a contingency plan in place: The event did not necessitate a last-minute scramble for delegates, as there were specific tactics in place and executed upon to drive and retain attendees. Secondary plans were also in place – so if there was a need for ancillary activity, these were defined.

While this is an over-simplification of what produces a successful event, it is certainly the components at the core. If any of these elements are missing in the strategic marketing and execution of an event, said event is certainly inviting itself to challenges … ones that can make the difference between struggles and … success!

Good luck!

John

Social Media in Event Marketing – A Lesson Learned

I came across a bit of a flare-up around the upcoming ad:tech New York, one that resulted in Mike Flynn, the Event Director for ad:tech North America, issuing an apology on the company’s blog.

The blog was a mea culpa for an email sent out essentially incentivizing past attendees to post tweets, blog posts, and/or info on Facebook in exchange for a discount to attend the show. The email made its way to (at least) a couple of bloggers, hence the appearance of a “pay for play,” scenario ultimately leading to the apology.

I can imagine the storm that brewed, leading to this post. At the same time, I’ll go out on a ledge and ask: was an apology really necessary? My take:

• The ‘offer’ itself was an offer for a discount to attend or a free exhibit hall pass (ostensibly a $35 value). In other words, this incentive, conceptually is the same as the legacy “register four attendees and a fifth attends for free” or “bring a colleague for ½ price” offer. It wasn’t offering to pay cash for an endorsement.
• Anybody responding to the incentive had interest/intention of attending prior to this email. This communication was ostensibly sent to ‘hot‘ leads (past attendees). To that end, the person receiving this email and accepting its terms would not be fabricating by tweeting/posting; if they were to take action to gain a discount to attend the event, they must have gotten value from their prior attendance … why else re-register?
• I’d take a guess that the strategy behind this was as much to re-engage past attendees to attend as it was to build buzz around the event.
• Unless I’m missing something, typically qualified press & bloggers are be able to attain some sort of press access – again raising the question of whether this was a barter for editorial coverage.

If this effort was an incentive to have past attendees use Social Media to engage followers, friends, etc. about their past experience at the ad:tech show, this was nothing more than ad:tech using the medium for traditional tactics, adopting them to Social Media. [Note: The one aspect I would call into question is that the incentive/email was a strict in the requirements that a person posted “no less than three times;” this is old-school thinking that should have been avoided.] It seems (given bloggers and writers got a copy of the email) there may have been imperfections concerning the data; conceptually this incentive should have only gone to paid attendees. And if the data was an issue, its underpinnings of the issue are in an all together different vein.

If, on the other hand, this email did go out to bloggers and writers specifically to gain coverage – well, as a journalism major – I certainly do see where the issue lies; in that case the apology is certainly warranted.

But again this does not seem to be the case. The underlying issue seems to be the use of Social Media – that there is still sensitivity regarding the channel. So the real lesson is an old one: in new uses of Social Media, event marketing professionals need to take the time to ensure they think through strategies and tactics – especially from an external perspective – given the concerns concerning its use.

And whatever the scenario, I’d also like to offer kudos to ad:tech for quickly and decisively reacting to the situation as they saw fit.

Good luck!

John

What's the (Price) Point?

I don’t usually ask questions that I don’t know the answer to but in this I case will. Because, frankly, I would argue that the events industry as a whole does not have a firm sense of what the optimal price to attend an event is. As discussed in the last post, part of this is the variety of events in the mix. But not defining (or understanding) what price would maximize an event’s profit margin (as a function of price and attendee volume) is leaving money on the table.


Historically, a point at which a typical event price emerged. For a two-to-three day event organizations charged approximately $1,195 to attend a 2.5 event in 1995. I don’t have any visibility as to how this came about, and can’t comment on it. The issue, and the point of this post, is that from that point, there has not been a slew analysis placed on pricing strategy across the industry. I’ve seen and heard of many organizations, in the course of planning events, base pricing on:

• A need to deliver margin (“We need to generate $XYZ more revenue – let’s increase prices $100!”).
• Comparative/competitive landscape (“ABC Conferences upped prices – so let’s do the same”).
• Just because-ism (“We didn’t increase prices last year – let’s increase them this year”).

None of which comes anywhere close to promising that you are maximizing the profit margin attainable.

Calculating the optimal price – and/or price increase – is inarguably challenging due to the variables in play. Specifically, the number of attendees you draw also impacts sponsor satisfaction. So if you do some serious number crunching and determine that increasing prices $300 increases your profit margins BUT decreases your attendance by 10% (the decrease in volume offset by the increase in revenue) is all well and good … but asking your sales manager to explain that to their exhibitors is a different story.

I’m not going to detail price point calculations here – Google lists many options for free calculators. A key element these calculators require, however, is the price elasticity of your event/product – or, knowing the answer to the question “if I raise my price by X it will impact attendance by Y.” There are free tools available to calculate this as a “what if” scenario as well, but to truly answer this question, pricing needs to be tested on a continued basis - even and especially within one event; variations in topic, audience, and calendar are all variables which would impact analyzing two different events at two different price points.

Overall, strategic pricing holds various functions in an events organization – different prices addresses different level audiences and communicates a level of value proposition. But in the context of the overall events environment, event marketing managers need to know and guarantee that the product they are marketing is being sold at the price which delivers the highest value to the organization. And this is based on understanding the impact of price changes to overall attendance. Learning and knowing this will go a long way towards increase profitability – and adding to your value in the organization.

Good luck!

John

PS - Do note a "Share" button has been added to the upper left - so please feel free to share this and future/past posts among colleagues!