Know-How Exchange : Advertising/PR

Congratulations on your new business.
In your business plan you should include these targets as your source of business: mid size and small advertising agencies (these companies do not generally have events as an inhouse service and their clients continuously need it. Large agencies could also be a good source though they generally have the service thorough specialized sister companies), PR agencies (for the same reason as ad agencies) and of course companies in general. One piece of advise. Agencies already have a portfolio of clients from which you can tap business.
If you finally decide to enter in the market through agencies make sure you respect their clients trying not to offer advertising services as well and make sure you give the agency a commission for your service. The same would apply for PR.
If you decide to by pass ad agencies then you can go directly to corporations medium and small. As in any business you need to hit the top heads in Marketing or Top Management if you can. Get an appointment, sell your expertise, make sure you have the necessary connections with suppliers if they give you a small assignments (you should ask for a small assignment to show your expertise). In any case, try to get an interview in a local newspaper to talk about your new business offer. If you have the funds invite key business contacts for a business lunch it generally works well and can leave a good impression with your prospects. Have ready a small brochure to hand at the end of the meetings. Follow up with a letter thanking for listening to you. Then phone call and phone calls. Also have your ears open to special dates where you feel such and such company needs a special celebration or simply visit a company with a project tailored to them. It can be risky but would show initiative.

The first place to start is by asking yourself the question"Why should anybody do business with me above all other options including doing nothing at all"? You have to come up with a Unique Selling Advantage or Unique Selling Proposition.

Once you have established your identity now position yourself as the Knowledgeable Expert in your Field. Create some Marketing material that can be sent to your target market which helps them solve their problems, give them what they need, want or desire - example "The 6 most Common Mistakes Companies Make when Planning an Event". The information you give them leads to your services and eliminates the competition.

I don't know what your budget is, but that will determine what you can do. There were some excellent ideas in the previous post. I would sent some sort of Lumpy Mailer (that's with something on the inside so it get's opened - example would be a small plastic paddle with the headline "I thought you might need one of these the next time your event planner left you up the creek") and send it Fed-Ex or you can even get large envelopes that look like a fed-ex package, send it to the decision maker and follow up with a phone call.

Hosting an event through a Local Chamber of Commerce or similar type organizations that show what you can do can get results but only if you collect the names, addresses, phone numbers and e-mail addresses of those businesses attending. You can do that by offering a Free Whatever if they fill out the form. You goal is to build a database of prospects who are interested in your services and create a relationship with them.

You need this to sequentially market these individuals. They may not need your services right now, but when they are ready, the only way they will remember you is if you have contacted them with regularity and frequency giving them helpful advice and letting them know all the good things that are going to happen if their event is planned properly and all the bad things if itisn't....Ron Romano

Hi Lauren:

First of all, have researched industry trends? Have you written a business plan?

I don't know what DMA you're in, but taking on corporate events involves marketing, not planning. Corporations are looking measurable marketing that fulfills their objectives. They want a strategy to communicate their key messages to their audience that produces results measured in ROO and ROI. If you are saying "what's ROO and ROI" then you need to rethink your target audience. If you wanted to appeal to corporations, you do not want to call yourself an event planner--they do weddings and neighborhood parties.

If you want to help corporations perform the extra logistical tasks that they need to farm out, target in-house meeting departments.

You can contact me and I'll be glad to help you position your venture to the right audience (via email) once I have a more details--free of charge.

Best of luck,

Brin Lewis