You've GOT to Run Events to Grow Profitably

I started running my own events back in 2011 and subsequently wrote an ebook about Events as part of a highly effective business development process I'd developed called MEETS (Events was the first 'E'). They're still relevant and they still work, and now I'm starting to use them again, because I KNOW they will generate business if used in the right way.

In this edition, I thought I'd share part of the ebook, last published in 2012. I'm sharing it as I wrote it as there's very little I'd change now, bar the option to run virtual events (which makes it even more cost-effective).

Excerpt from 'Business Development Toolkit for Professionals' (I would change the title now, definitely)...

I recommend using free, hosted events as the magnet that attracts the right people (or prospects). What I mean by this is that the events are free to all participants and they are hosted (or sponsored) a large organisation. The host provides the venue and the refreshments, which minimises your costs. Sometimes hosts will even pay your expenses or a small fee. You provide the content, the presentation, which is built around the hot topic or issue you have identified.

Why free events? Free is incredibly attractive to people, and still one of the most powerful marketing words, especially in the current climate. We all love a bargain and I make sure that's what participants get, a quality, content-rich event, which costs them nothing to attend.

That might sound a bit crazy but it isn't, because it's all about the process. You're using the free event to attract the right people and begin a relationship with them that ultimately results in what you want – business.

Also, free opens marketing doors that otherwise would remain tightly shut and locked. Hosts, membership organisations, institutions, even other businesses, will actively promote your event.

Why? Because it's not only free but a quality event that's relevant to the people they want to engage with, such as managers, members, readers, and customers. That makes them look good and everyone is interested in good PR.

Yes, other people and organisations (see the hubs discussion on page 10) will do your marketing for you, when they see it as being in their interest (make sure you give them those reasons). I have had single sources/hubs that generated several hundreds of attendees to my events, because they were free and highly relevant to the people who mattered to them.

This again is why you should look to market and base your events around a hot issue or topic and not yourself or your business.

Additional, psychologically compelling reasons I market with events:

Generally, people won't buy a service based on your area of expertise without first having met you at some point and seen you in action. Events provide the opportunity for both. Events provide an opportunity for what the American Psychiatrist and Author, Edward (Ned) Hallowell, calls 'human moments', to connect, to shake people by the hand and look them in the eye. Social media and online networks might be all the rage, but I can assure you that in the world of selling professional services, personal contact and relationships still matter, perhaps even more so. In fact, fewer Professionals are using events in the mistaken, misguided belief that all you need to do is use twitter and facebook. Using events will give you a major competitive advantage.

Events enable you to meet a lot of the right people (so it's targeted) at the same time in the same place (so it's efficient), who have chosen to be there (so they are qualified leads). Not only that, because of the questions you asked when they signed up to your event, you will know why they were motivated to attend.

Events with high numbers of interested attendees provide social proof that you are an expert and a credible source of information. Social proof is a powerful weapon of influence. (Check out Social Psychologist, Robert Cialdini's, book: Influence: Science and Practice – the best book I've come across about the psychology of influence). Potential hosts are also more likely to offer to host when they see that similar organisations have done the same. Some call this the 'Bob Geldof Effect'. When he was promoting Live Aid, Sir Bob would phone up image-conscious Supergroups and say something like: “They're ****ing doing it, why aren't you?”

Events raise your profile and credibility, both with prospects and with potential hosts, increasing perceptions of you as an expert and an authority. The benefits that ensue in terms of a heightened profile are obvious in marketing terms. But your raised credibility is of immediate benefit, because it lowers the perceived risk of doing business with you.

Providing a high quality information and resources via a free event generates strong feelings of reciprocity towards you, increasing the likelihood participants will become your clients. Of course, reciprocity is another potent form of social influence.

Attending an event (even going to the trouble of booking an event), requires a commitment on the part of the attendee or the organisation sending people. Knowing as any good Psychologist should about the research on commitments, I know that attendees / organisations are then much more likely to act in ways that are consistent with their initial commitment and indeed may make much larger commitments later on.

There's something magical about a good event. Events create a new community and a real buzz around what you're doing (sometimes called 'word-of-mouth marketing'). You'll find after a while that this starts to rub off on your business in profitable ways. People will phone you and say: “Such-and-such attended your event and said it was brilliant. Could you do something similar for us?”

End of excerpt.

Back to now... A couple of additional business development points not elaborated on in this excerpt. I didn't just run free events back then. I also ran high-value, paid events, which generated substantial revenues. The free events helped market and promote the paid events, which were masterclass-style workshops for smaller groups. I also, frequently, got my biggest in-house clients on the back of running the free, roadshow-style events. So the free events helped me build a database of already qualified prospects that I could then follow-up with and promote my public training and in-house services. By this time of course, I had a business relationship with them.

So running events is not a one-off activity, it's a key part of your business development process. If you sell any kind of service based on your area of expertise, you should, definitely, run events!

Happy marketing

Alan x