Marketing Profs

“I just delivered one of the best seminar presentations of my life,” said the professional. “Too bad only six people showed up.”

All too often we hear such (very avoidable) laments. Firms decide to build and market seminars. That's good. The people who must deliver the seminar in those firms spend days making sure they do a great job. That's good, too.

Unfortunately, in too many organizations the efforts for building seminar attendance often miss the mark. Too many dollars and too many hours are wasted on attendance building tactics that just do not work.

So what happens? You give up on seminars.

Please, don't. One of the most effective ways to build a professional service practice is to produce and deliver short (half-day or shorter) seminars, speeches and events. Indeed, you will not find too many people disagreeing that speaking is a great marketing technique.

The right reaction to our poor professional who had only six at his seminar is this: don't give up the seminar; give up the marketing tactics you used.

If you do plan on taking the time and spending the money to produce, prepare and deliver a presentation or mini-seminar, here are seven event-marketing tips that will help you fill your room.

1. Marketing Timing

Usually, professionals market their events much too early. A CPA firm we know recently had high business development hopes from a series of six short seminars. It sent well-written letters to inform clients and prospects of the series. The “invitations” reached the client base about 12 weeks before the first mini-seminar, 14 weeks before the second mini-seminar, 16 before the third, etc. Attendance was decidedly underwhelming.

The firm's mistake was in the mailing lead time. The announcements for generating attendance for two-hour seminars are best sent about three or four weeks in advance, not 12 or 16 or 20. Rule of thumb: the shorter the seminar, the shorter the event announcement lead time.