Calendar

This article is part the entire series and inspired by the publication "Top 21 marketing methods for membership websites published by the Samantha Northcutt, the Subscription Coach.

Download the whole series in a book

Creative marketing opportunities abound in trade exhibitions and conferences. There are many ways to purchase booth space, purchase an event sponsor from the organizer of the show, organize an event offsite that coincides with the event or conference. And more.

If you're lucky enough learn that someone else in your sector is organizing an annual gathering where your audience is all together, you must be there.

When it comes to organizing your own event, going to an event that somebody else has put on is like hitting the convenient button. However, if you only show up, sans strategy, you might as well stay at house.

There are often conference/event/trade show sponsorships available for purchase, booths, and other opportunities to get amplified exposure to attendees over what you can accomplish on a one-to-one basis. A major Holy Grail of event engagement for an event of someone else's is speaking at an event. The topic of speaking engagements is to be addressed further down the line and as stressful however it might be when you speak to your targeted group is as powerful as gold. The fastest way to build trust and authority, provided the speech you deliver is meaningful, relevant and valuable.

Look into sponsorship possibilities as you would with any paid advertising. You should measure it but that's mostly on you in the case of a sponsoring your occasion. The presence you make during the event and the experiences that you create and the calls to action your event makes will determine whether your event is successful and the success or failure of. Your strategy for your event must be pre-planned, with the event's location-specific plans, as well as the process for follow-up. It's the same for the type of event, and regardless of sponsored sponsorship, but this is likely to be much simpler if you have one.

Prep: If you can get access and be visible on the attendees list before the event you'll be able to help them move through their sales funnel faster. If you're a sponsor you can ask the event's organizers about ways you can maximize the value from the sponsorship. Ask for more than what is provided in the deal for sponsorship if you come up with a unique method to offer guests something of value, and make the occasion look great.

If you do not have a sponsor and are not a well-known local person it's unlikely that you'll get the notice of planners in any significant way. Get yourself on Twitter and Instagram and then using the hashtag to find other people who will be attending. Start to meet these people and think about having a gathering such as lunch, happy hour or an offsite mini-workshop during those days or during the hours you'll be able to plan around the time of the celebration.

Today is the day to Find or sponsor an avenue to collect leads. This can be done with an individual basis through providing relevant resources or providing a potential buyer who's interested in exchange of contact information or the permission to interact with the person on social media. Pay attention and show respect without being pushy or salesy. If you're able to assist somebody, inform them that you believe you could and ask for permission to contact them. Taking a second to write the outline of each person so that you can create an individual follow-up message will put the bar higher than the ones who make generic follow-up emails without personal information.

Track the event hashtag on social media during and after the event, and use it your personal hashtag. It's a great method to increase your visibility and help you be more visible to the people attending the event. This is also a great method to find potential customers or influencers throughout and following the conference.

If you've got a booth at a convention You'll have find a way to stand out. This isn't a guru's advice, but get on Pinterest and browse for inspiration to inspire your creativity. Get noticed. If your business is conducive to some entertaining and enjoyment, then you should play it up. A good way to achieve this is to set up the booth themed, and then have personnel or volunteers wear according to a specific fashion.

Another thing I've seen effectively is having staff wandering around asking people to be invited to an exclusive bar or restaurant for cocktails after the evening. After that, they must go to your booth, learn more about the services you offer and sign up (lead capture) for an invitation. If you're planning to do this, then you must ensure that you have an enjoyable audience in your booth that your patrons would enjoy a drink and enjoy time with. It is possible to rent a space or bar which is well-known in the town's restaurants and settle the tab at the end of the evening. Something like this generates some energy (no joke intended) during the event. This lets prospective customers experience a a positive experience of your company and acts as a lead-generator in person.

Follow-up The preparation and preparation for the event can be wasted if there isn't a make sure you follow up on your follow-up strategy. Be aware that lead capture during the event is crucial because otherwise, you'll not have plenty of people to follow-up with. Oops.

The day after the celebration, send them an individual email including the details that you made note of when you first met them (you already have this in mind, don't you?) And connect with them on the most well-known social media account for the double-edged punch. Do not put off the event for the duration of your event. It is essential to make the most of the hype surrounding events and momentum. If you wait longer than a week, you've missed the larger picture. Following the personal email initiate the automated drip sequence you wrote before the event. This will be done through your email service provider (you were granted permission to email themtoo, don't you?) After that, you can move the lead through your sales funnel similar way as a person who has visited your website. But, you've met that person in person, so your calls to action (CTAs) should have more importance (attend a value-packed webinar, start the trial, buy) rather than those who are working on setting up your drip system following the acquisition of the lead magnet your site.

If you're in a position to give out cards but not collect the names of people or details of contact numbers due to some reason, make your own landing pages and include an offer for leads exclusively for conference attendees. Make a specific set of business cards designed with your website's URL as well as brief descriptions of the amazing free resource created specifically to be used by them on. Then have your email capture forms there to ask for the download as well as initiate the automated nurture sequence that will adhere to.

There are a myriad of options to make use of this but the main takeaway is that you require an before, throughout, and after the event method that is quantifiable.

Webinars

Webinars can be 45-90 minutes of high-value online seminars which can be broadcast live before viewers via the internet or recorded and watched anytime. Webinars work well as a an opportunity to increase the efficiency of your funnel and as tools for building email lists. They can also be used to complete the process of a sales funnel to request sales.

Webinars are produced by yourself as a one-time event or as a series of events called an event. You can do it with or without guests, or as a guest at another's. They are a great way to display your expertise and establish authority and credibility within the particular field you work in. They can be used one time or produce evergreen webinars - the contents of that should apply to in the coming 12-24 months.

If you run in an open-model membership (meaning you only open the site to new members just a handful of times in the year) one-on-one conferences or webinar could be a great way to close the deal. I would suggest hosting the webinar live in addition to mentioning an exclusive limited-time offer on your marketing materials that is only available only to attendees who attended the live event after the event, not for those who watch the replay. The replay should still be sent to anyone who missed the live, but you can enhance your attendance during the live event and closing percentage in case people know it will be a special event in the closing.

Hosting a summit is one of the best moves you can make to become an authority/influencer. It's essential to maintain an extensive list of email addresses to get expert guests from other industries, but if you can succeed, your efforts will be well-rewarded. This is a lot of labor. I wouldn't recommend this method unless you're ready to put in the time needed for your tech as well as the summit's speaker, content planning agenda, follow-ups, and many more issues sorted.

As a guest who hosts a webinar and inviting their viewers to join can be a fantastic chance to get you feet wet and to get at ease in front of the camera, without having to put into the work to host your own. If you're working alongside partners on cross-promotions or already implemented an effective strategy for influencers that you've implemented, you'll likely appear on the list of guests for webinars hosted by the hosts and summits.

Similar to fully exploiting any conference or industry event making a pre-webinar strategy for marketing and a plan for following-up. As webinars and summits offer extremely informative to your target audience (not forgetting the enormous amount of effort for you) be sure to take the lessons you gained from the conference to create blog posts, an ebook podcast or video series on YouTube or as a lead magnet and so on.

     The primary thing you need to remember whether you're hosting or guesting is to provide an inordinate quantity of value for the attendees of your webcast. This is not the right time to hide your secret sauce. This is your chance to demonstrate that you've got the right recipe and there are plenty of additional benefits to find it in the paywall of your membership.

Meetings held in person or meeting

Events and meetups that are held in person can include any of the following: hosting a happy hour, in-person courses/lessons, workshops or sponsorship of local events where a critical mass of your members live, or any other event in which it's possible to gather people in real life. Events can be cost-free or cost-based, educational in nature, or simply fun to participate in for building community.

A majority of the membership sites we deal with have an online community element within the membership. In the end, community is one of the most important differences between a membership and an individual class. If you can gather the group at a local location and create an event your members (and future members) enjoy and then review it on the web, it can increase your sales, cLTV, convert rates as well as the overall quality of your member.

Events like these are a great place for membersof the current as well as future to socialize and have some fun. Allow your members to do the "selling" for you to potential members via casual chat. If you've got a few of your current members value their membership in such a way that they appear physically, talking about your membership can be a simple topic for conversation.

Similar to trade fairs, you need to prepare in advance, ensure that your event is in the spirit of anticipation, and then have a follow up strategy. What you do to plan and execute follow-up will depend on the kind of conference you're hosting.

If it's a workshop, you're likely charging people to attend, and will need to prepare marketing materials, and then the workshop details themselves (workbooks, handouts, a slide deck, your presentation, guest speakers/instructors). Following-up materials should include surveys for the attendees, bonuses material, and possibly of discounts for additional products. If you've met an individual in person and gained their trust, leverage this trust into profitable potential upsells.

If you're planning to host an evening of happy hour, a little planning is necessary. Be sure to select the right venue, offering beverages and snacks, and getting people there for the celebration. After you've arrived at the venue, it is important to interact with the people in attendance, and ensure that no one who is left in the crowd. The idea of inviting members already there to take a friend who is similar with them is an effective method to increase your participation as well.

While a party is not the best place to be salesy, if you're inviting prospective members, ensure that you are using a well-planned strategy to make sure you keep in touch with the people who you invite. Lead capture might mean participating in competition to have chances to win membership for free, items, etc. There could also be something more subtle like handing people cards that have a special promotional code on them.

Regardless of the type of occasion, make sure there's a method for collect leads and then follow up for those attending. As your marketing for membership material should align to what members who pay receive behind the paywall your event's marketing must be consistent with the services you're capable of delivering on the spot otherwise you'll be criticized on the internet. Get raving reviews of your event, and avoid people who aren't convinced that you're able to host events in the future successfully. This is the ideal time to harness the underpromise promise, deliver principle.

Speaking engagements

Perhaps this is even scarier than direct sales for certain of us , however it's highly efficient when it's done correctly, documented, and fully leveraged. If you're not accustomed to public speaking, don't worry about it. Things like guest blogging hosting, guest podcasting or appearing as a guest speaker for webinars, or making video as well as. All of these are fantastic ways to practice for public speaking.

There's no need to aim for the stars as you're starting out. Contact a local association for business and prepare a talk immediately or run the workshop on your own with a small number of people. You can also visit a city where you're not able to meet who to present if you really want to ease the burden. Begin small and, as your comfort and skills improve, you can up your level and take on a larger job.

Participate in breakout sessions at conferences, organize an informal breakout session prior to or following another's occasion (in a non-shady way in the natural way). Once you've done those things successfully, start to harness your organic influencer, guest blogging/podcasting/webinar hosting strategies to move further up the speaking ladder. If you're in a position to gain access pertinent speaking opportunities because you have a strong network and have put in the effort to establish an online profile within the group it's more likely to be selected as a potential speaker, even if you'ren't particularly popular yet.

Speakers who are more prominent can be as effective in publishing your own book or hosting a conference or perhaps even a conference with others in the industry, both with respect to impact and reach. However big the event it is important that you maximize your presentation through the reuse of it in other media. Make sure that you're capable of capturing a high-quality footage of your presentation or speech. Then post your video to your site behind and in front of the paywall. Upload the video to YouTube and make use of the video to create a blog series, or podcast, or use it to spark discussions in your paid and free groups. You can embed the video on the "About" and "Resources" page of your website.

     Not to mention, use the video recording to apply to other speaking opportunities. After you've proved yourself to be a credible speaker and promote yourself appropriately, you can do so by recording videos of your speech together with Social evidence (positive feedback from your crowd) Speaking publically experience is going to be much easier.

This post was first seen on here