by Yoon Cannon | Marketing and Sales Blog Posts
Fill Your Seminars with These 12 Tips
Holding seminars is one of the most effective ways to attract high end clients to your business. Letting your audience spend spend several hours with you in a face-to-face, in person, teaching capacity is the fastest way to build the know-like-trust factor.
The problem is, most business owners and firms just don’t know how to fill live seminars and so, end up missing out on the opportunity to get in front of your most engaged type of prospect.
When I started out as a business coach live seminars was the core method I used to fill my practice with high end clients. In this blog I share tips from myself along with 11 other seminar marketing experts to help you plan a successful live seminar event.
Fill Your Live Seminars Tip #1. Filling Your Workshop Room Starts With A Great Event Name
[bctt tweet=”@BousquetCMP Filling Your Workshop Room Starts With A Great Event Name. Fill your #seminars” username=”yooncannon”]
Daphne Bousquet says “Your title should contain the promise of a BIG BENEFIT. If your event name is “blah”, your audience will assume that your content is “blah” too. Nobody wants to go to a boring event. Make sure you spice up your event name with a big benefit.”
Fill Your Live Seminars Tip #2. Promote A Seminar Series
[bctt tweet=”Promote a Seminar Series. Fill your #seminars” username=”yooncannon”]
When I started seminar marketing I found out a lot of people wanted to come to my event, but couldn’t make the date, so then I decided to promote a seminar series.
I didn’t offer the same seminar on 3 dates. Instead, I offered a different piece of the same theme. By doing that I was able to get traction from people who registered for all 3 events up front.
Many ended up bringing friends and colleagues to the second and third leg of the seminar series. Plus, having 3 different seminar titles made it much easier for me to have a good reason to keep inviting the same people to a different seminar title, but same core topic.
Fill Your Live Seminars Tip #3. Create a Great Agenda
[bctt tweet=”@businesstravel It is important to create a program that is worth attending. Fill your #seminars” username=”yooncannon”]
Rob Hard from Business Travel advises that once hosts understand that people enjoy attending events, it is important to create a program that is worth attending. The agenda should be focused on a single theme as to not overwhelm attendees, but should have enough variety to maintain attendees’ interest.
For example, the following sample half day seminar schedule considers the meeting attendees’ needs from food to breaks to presentations:
8:00 a.m. Arrivals and Breakfast
8:45 a.m. Welcome Message
9:00 a.m. Keynote Speaker
10:00 a.m. Break
10:15 a.m. Panel Discussion
11:30 a.m. Closing Remarks
Fill Your Live Seminars Tip #4. Choose Your Target Group
[bctt tweet=”@SuperOfficeAS Invite the right customers. Fill your #seminars” username=”yooncannon”]
Camilla Heidenreich Bommen advises to make sure you invite the right customers when it comes to geography, type, size etc.
Camilla says, “We are privileged as we have a good CRM solution in place, making it easy for ourselves to create dynamic selections that’s always up to date. In short; we define the criteria once, and can reuse or change at will.”
In our CRM solution we can target all the people on our list whose role is in Sales and Marketing and invite just those people to our sales and marketing seminars.
Fill Your Live Seminars Tip #5. Set a Registration Goal
[bctt tweet=”@lkolow having a goal will inspire you to hit it, and help you measure success. Fll your #seminars” username=”yooncannon”]
Lindsay Kolowich said having a goal will inspire you to hit it, and help you measure success. In order for us to break the Guinness World Record for webinar attendees, for example, we knew we had to hit almost 50,000 registrants.
You should track performance on at least a weekly basis to see whether your marketing efforts are moving the needle. That way, if you need to dial up your promotion due to low initial registration numbers, you’ll know what to do to fix it.
Fill Your Live Seminars Tip #6. Offer Incentives for Early Registrations or Arrivals
[bctt tweet=”@planpod early-bird discounts are a must for priming early registrations” Fill your #seminars username=”yooncannon”]
Early-bird discounts are a must for priming early registrations for many business-related events says Jeff Kear.
But also consider giving away books, discount coupons or other value-adds to people who sign up early. And extend your early-bird registration at the last minute to give bargain-hunters a second chance.
Fill Your Live Seminars Tip #7. Call Prospects and Current Clients
[bctt tweet=”The Wellness Business Hub Real connection will improve the chances of show up. Fill your #seminars” username=”yooncannon”]
Yes, pick up the phone and call prospects and current clients to let them know what you have coming up. Creating a real connection will improve the chances that they actually show up says The Wellness Business Hub.
Emails are great but being able to chat with someone and concisely explain the reason WHY they should attend is a sure fire way to get them to commit. Talking on the phone also opens up the lines of communication and quickly builds trust.
Fill Your Live Seminars Tip #8. Marketing Partners
[bctt tweet=”@mike_schultz @JohnEDoerr Marketing partners are an overlooked source to fill your #seminars” username=”yooncannon”]
Marketing partners are an often overlooked source for boosting event attendance says Mike Schultz and John Doerr. You can, for example, partner with two other firms and pool your resources and mailing lists to increase response and then deliver together. Besides having extra names to market to, your event will have a multi-faceted presenter list which can often increase attendance in and of itself.
You can also co-market the event with a trade association, get the event notice listed in your partner’s e-newsletters, work with a college or university to sponsor the event, or any number of other partner strategies. For example, a network security service firm we know partnered with the FBI to run their seminar on the new security issues facing firms. The event pulled better than anything they had ever done before.
Fill Your Live Seminars Tip #9. Presenter Bios
[bctt tweet=”@DonCooper Biographical information establishes the credibility of the speakers to fill your #seminars” username=”yooncannon”]
Don Cooper of The Sales Heretic says biographical information establishes the credibility of the speakers. Potential attendees don’t really care about a speaker’s bio, but ironically, if it’s not included, they’ll wonder who the heck this person is.
Fill Your Live Seminars Tip #10. Promise to Solve a Problem for Them.
[bctt tweet=”@justinroffmarsh Promise to solve a problem for your audience to fill your #seminars” username=”yooncannon”]
According to Justin Roff-Marsh, Founder of Ballistix, when it comes to structuring your content, you can’t go too far wrong with the old maxim: tell ’em what you’re going to tell ’em; tell ’em; then tell ’em what you’ve told ’em!
Unless you’re a natural comic, I suggest you skip the ubiquitous joke and begin with a promise. Fact is, the best way to get your audience’s attention is to promise to solve a problem for them. (i.e. tell ’em what you’re going to tell ’em.)
Once you’ve made this commitment, it’s simply a matter of showing them how they can solve this problem — preferably using the model we discussed earlier. (i.e. tell ’em.) Once you’ve fulfilled your obligation (and exceeded your audience’s expectations) simply summarize your key points and conclude by reminding them that the problem they came with no longer exists! (i.e. tell ’em what you told ’em.)
Fill Your Live Seminars Tip #11. Harness the Power of Visuals
[bctt tweet=”@SaysPlum harness the power of visuals to fill your #seminars” username=”yooncannon”]
Plum Direct Marketing says continuing with the effectiveness of videos to showcase speakers, videos can also be used to market other aspects of your seminar. Videos are easily shareable and rank highly in Inthttps://blog.plumdirectmarketing.com/7-ways-to-boost-seminar-attendance-with-social-mediaernet searches. They are a cost-efficient way to grow anticipation and buzz leading up to an event.
A highlight reel from prior seminars is https://blog.plumdirectmarketing.com/7-ways-to-boost-seminar-attendance-with-social-mediasimple and easy to put together. Seminar registration will surely increase when a video that is pleasing to both the eyes and ears is released to your seminar Facebook and Twitter pages. It creates a rare opportunity to communicate the energy of a live seminar.
Fill Your Live Seminars Tip #12. Follow up, Follow up, Follow up
[bctt tweet=”@BousquetCMP the money is in the follow up. Fill your #seminars” username=”yooncannon”]
The money is in the follow up says Daphne Bousquet in her article Improve Your Seminar Attendance With These 6 Simple Tips. Seriously.
It’s important to follow up. According to McGraw Hill, 80% of the sales are made on the 5th to 12th contact, yet only 10% of the people make 3 contacts or more.
You have to keep getting your workshop out in front of your prospective attendee. Did you tell your potential audience about your event more than 5 times? More than 10? That doesn’t mean to barrage them with spammy emails. Mix it up.
In closing, I’d love to hear what you thought of these twelve tips on filling your live seminar. Do you have a great strategy to share that helped you fill your seminars? Share your questions and comments below.
by Yoon Cannon | Business Growth Tips Blog, Marketing and Sales Blog Posts
Every business has competition — both directly and indirectly. So, how should you deal with competition in your industry?
This is a hot discussion in many social media groups. Recently, I noticed a thread on Alignable on this very question that garnered over 1,100 comments. Many people joined the bandwagon that you shouldn’t worry about competition and just focus on making your customer happy.
I agree and disagree.
I’ll also throw in some pushback because I don’t believe that’s enough.
In my opinion there are several ways you can and should deal with your competition. As a business owner you need to know how you’re different than your competitors in order for you to communicate that effectively.
Otherwise, your would be customers won’t know what the difference is between picking you or 20 other competitive businesses like yours. And, when that happens, people often make their decisions based on superficial reasons.
So, my advice is:
#1. Learn from your competitors.
Look for new business opportunities as you study your competitors. You can learn a lot about buying trends and buyer behavior by looking at the offerings, pricing, messaging and marketing tactics your competitors are doing.
What can you improve or add to up level your business?
Think about Blockbusters. They apparently did not take this approach to their competition to notice that buying behavior did indeed change. Consumers now preferred having instant access to viewing movies the way that Netflix offered.
If Blockbusters added that to their service offerings they could have still been in the game with Netflix as well as new players on the market like Amazon, YouTube Red and others.
So, what if you’re competing with the big box stores? How can you compete with the “big boys?” This is a big topic, but one tip for this is…
#2. Don’t believe you can’t compete with the big box stores.
You may not do the same volume of business they are able to do nationally, but you can carve out a loyal niche market and still grow a thriving local business.
Find a key area that you can differentiate from the big box stores. There’s more I can say on how you can stand out and differentiate here.
#3. Consider which competitors could actually make great potential joint venture / affiliate partners.
Perhaps your business really excels at one or two lines of service and some other services you offer might be the cause 80% of your headaches. Why not team up with another business you can cross promote as strategic referral partners. That way, you can focus on your low maintenance services and eliminate a lot of unnecessary headaches along the way.
#4. Use your competitors as an asset, not as a liability.
If you find yourself feeling discouraged and defeated by your competition, then they become a liability. But, if you learn how to use your competitors to help you define your WOW factor, then they become an asset to your business.
You want to nail down your one core message that communicates your overall WOW factor, but you can have multiple selling points when it comes to communicating the differences between a specific product or service that you and your competitors offer.
Often the best way to study your competitive options is to become one of their customers. It’s difficult to develop your unique value proposition without knowing exactly what it’s like to do business with some of your competitors, so do your due diligence on studying your competitors from a buyer’s perspective.
Whenever I have done this I often find critical details you just don’t discover simply from reading your competitors’ web pages and marketing materials.
I’ll give you an example of how I applied these same tips in defining the WOW factor for one of my own specific service offerings called Power Biz Academy.
Power Biz Academy is an affordable solution for busy entrepreneurs who wants to focus on attracting more clients, but may not be ready yet for 1-on-1 coaching.
Members receive weekly group coaching with me, (not with a junior associate), plus weekly video training and lots of downloadable templates and cheat sheets to help you implement the key actions that will move the needle in growing your business.
The core WOW factor that I could use to stand out when choosing an online marketing coaching program is this:
Experience Matters. Members receive the added unfair advantage of deeper insights I’m able to offer from my unique background and experience having started, turn keyed and sold 3 other businesses since 1992. It’s hard to get that from facilitator/coach who simply went through a “coach training” program.
As far as the comparing other online business coaching programs, we all offer similar deliverables like:
- Access to on demand video training on sales and marketing strategies
- Making content accessible from mobile and laptop
- Providing downloadable cheat sheets, templates and action plan checklists
- Offering weekly group coaching calls for members to ask questions and get coached.
However, only by studying other competitive solutions from a buyer’s perspective I was able to discover the #1 differentiating selling point that proved to be the key missing ingredient in helping my members achieve their desired transformation.
Want to know what that is?
(drum roll please …..)
When you join a lot of the other competitive options, the group coaching might sound like the same feature, but you’re often on the call with 50, 100, 200+ other people. (Yikes!) … which by the way, I’ve also never read a competitors’ sales page point out this important detail when presenting their online coaching solutions.
Being on a group coaching call with 50+ other people means you’ll be hard pressed to get your turn and attention. You could have a burning question or desperately want to get coached on something, but end up having to wait weeks or months to get your turn. When you’re having a problem in your business however, timeliness matters.
So, when I explain that I limit enrollment in my program to small groups of 6-12 members, people immediately see the value and the massive difference this level of personal attention would make on their business. So now, their decision isn’t based on silly, superficial things like the colors on my website.
Instead, they’re making smart decisions between whether they want a coach who was only “trained” in business vs a coach with 25 yrs of entrepreneur background?
Do they want individualized attention on weekly group coaching calls or do they want to risk never getting coached or their questions answered?
#5. Don’t stress or obsess over your competition.
Although we did talk a lot about how to deal with competition in your industry, you want to do the suggested tactics above without stressing or obsessing over your competition.
Don’t forget you have existing and past customers who already love you and your company. Focus on how you can make your customers even happier.
QUESTION: What’s your opinion on this subject? Share your comments below.
by Yoon Cannon | Marketing and Sales Blog Posts
One of my new clients made a breakthrough discovery during our business coaching call recently that I thought would help you shortcut attracting more clients to your own business and troubleshoot your marketing.
Dr. Nancy (not her real name) offers therapy and coaching services, but she was struggling to scale her business, especially since she doesn’t accept insurance.
For the past 7 years Nancy had spent a total of $54,000 trying to learn everything from how to use social media to video marketing to PPC and more.
By the time she got to me, she was pretty frustrated and confused why her marketing wasn’t getting the results she was expecting.
I gave her a 7 question Marketing Assessment that I developed which took her all of 7 minutes to take.
Immediately, the results of the assessment revealed the one thing that was getting in the way of more clients saying YES to working with her.
Dr. Nancy was so excited to finally see the answers right in front of her!
- Because now she knew exactly what she needed to do to fix it.
- She could see why this ONE thing was completely derailing her marketing strategies from working effectively.
The only regret Nancy shared was she wished someone shared these 7 magic questions (as she referred to it) with her 7 years ago.
So, that’s my gift to you today. This works whether you’re a B2B or a B2C business because after all, we’re all H2H (human to human 🙂
If you want to attract more clients take my Marketing Assessment right now. It’s a free.
It will help you get clarity on what is your ONE thing that has been blocking your marketing success.
CLICK HERE to take the assessment.
Talk soon,
Yoon ~
by Yoon Cannon | General, Lead generation, Marketing and Sales Blog Posts
Getting new customer leads is exciting, but that enthusiasm can quickly wither when you don’t know how to best convert leads into new clients.
When this becomes the trend for your small business, you immediately ask, “why?” before seeking out solutions to combat your lack of sales from leads, you should be aware of some important sales conversion facts:
Online leads do not automatically translate into sales.
- Per Marketo, only 25% of leads ready to buy from you.
- 79% will never convert if they aren’t nurtured after the fact.
- 1/4 of leads are qualified, meaning approximately 75% aren’t your ideal customer.
Now, don’t let these numbers frighten you. In addition to this, you must understand the psychology behind the lack of leads turning into sales.
The Real Reason Why People Won’t Buy from You
There are four primary reasons why small businesses fail to convert leads online. These sales barriers are as follows:
- Trust: People don’t trust themselves, so how do you expect them to trust you immediately upon connecting with your business for the first time? Traffic to your website may not always translate into sales if your leads are reluctant to buy from you. The absence of trust can stem from a lack of proof showing you do what you claim, lack of contact information, a poorly designed website, or non-targeted content.
- Authority: If you don’t establish yourself as the authority in your field, through quality content, you will find it quite hard to gain customers, because they may see you as untrustworthy.
- Money: If your price doesn’t match the perceived value of your products or services, you are likely to miss out on sales.
- Time: If the customers feel that the time is not right, they are likely not to purchase.
Turning Leads into Sales: 4 Key Strategies
There are four solutions for converting online leads, which when used together, can increase your sales conversion rates:
- Social Proof
- Content Marketing
- Sales Qualification Process
- Email Marketing Solutions
#1. Develop Trust with Social Proof (Testimonials and Reviews)
Building a reliable brand will ultimately make it easier for you to market your product or services.
One of the best and easiest ways to build trust is through social proof, specifically reviews, and testimonials from your current or previous clients. Social proof will not only confirm that you’re talking the talk, but that you’re walking the walk.
When someone encounters your brand for the first time through your website, you need to:
1) show that you’re an authority, and
2) provide social proof.
Let your current customers sing your praises by encouraging them to write a review or testimonial through email, on Yelp, Facebook, or any other relevant review site. For those “special” reviews, showcase them on your website. Do not worry about getting one or two negative reviews.
This might work to your advantage, in that, they persuade leads to believe that your reviews are reputable. If people see that others are buying your products and enjoying them, they can be persuaded to follow suit.
#2. Help Your Prospects Before the Sale
Helping your prospects means providing answers to their problems through content. This content marketing strategy revolves around blog posts as well as free offers.
Invest your time in writing well-researched and helpful blog content and eBooks. If your leads find that you are knowledgeable in your industry and in the various products that you’re selling, then they will believe in your ability to provide quality products.
You can hire marketing agencies to write blog posts for you. Or, you can learn simple shortcuts and time saving templates to train you and/or your marketing assistant to turn your knowledge into written blog articles for your business website.
#3. Utilize a Sales Qualification Process
One of the most crucial strategies for converting leads into sales is to have a qualification process. Lead qualification is the evaluation of the ability of a lead to purchase from you.
The qualification process involves gathering the necessary information about your leads to move them through the sales process. There are three types of leads: Information Qualified Leads (IQL), Marketing Qualified Lead (MQL), Sales Qualified Lead (SQL). How each is determined varies from business to business. Once your qualification metrics are defined, only then will you be able to take appropriate action that will convert your leads into sales.
Using a sales qualification process prevents you from coming on too strong and putting off potential clients. It also helps your sales team save valuable time and instead focus it on customers who are ready to buy.
For those leads who have not been identified as “ready to buy” or an SQL, you can nurture them through your sales funnel using email marketing solutions.
#4. Leverage Email Nurturing Solutions
Email nurturing is one of the greatest tools that you can use to convert leads into sales.
It’s all about leveraging marketing automation to follow up and remain in contact with any leads that come through your sales funnel. If you follow up with leads within 5 minutes, you are 9 times more likely to get a sale.
Strategically sending your clients or customer regular emails will drill information about your business and your services or products into their minds. The more they hear from you, the more they are likely to buy. You want to send targeted emails, to targeted email lists, based on where they are in your sales funnel and how they interact with your emails.
These emails can be anything from newsletters to content offers. The purpose of this strategy is to guarantee the right lead is receiving the right email at the right time.
The Bottom Line
Today, even though most marketing efforts are online, customers still need to feel that personal touch. By incorporating these few lead conversion ideas into your business strategy will help to ensure that you not only have thousands of people stopping by your website, but you will have them laying down their money!
QUESTION: What is your favorite strategy that’s been working for you in your business when it comes to converting leads into sales? Share your comments and questions below.
Author Bio: ShaDrena Simon is a digital strategist and inbound marketer for Yokel Local Internet Marketing Inc. You can reach her at: shadrena@yokellocalmarketing.com
by Yoon Cannon | General, Success Mindset
As a business owner it’s so important to always be seeking business growth advice from people who have already “been there- done that”.
I recently spent a week with the world’s top franchise owners at the International Franchising Association conference held in Las Vegas and wanted to share 2 value bombs with you for your business.
The agenda was jam packed with a massive amount of content and sage business growth advice featuring a panel of CEO’s from some of the world’s biggest franchise brands.
A common question the audience asked these superstar CEO’s in many of the sessions was if they could summarize one or two keys to success to help them grow their own businesses, what would it be?
The audience grew hush as they listened intently to hear the business growth advice from experts like …
- Steve Hockett, the President of Great Clips (4,090 locations)
- Gordon Logan, the CEO of Sports Clips (1,600 locations) and
- Steve White, President of Puroclean (235 locations)
What’s interesting is how many CEO’s responded with the same answers.
What’s surprising is how simple their advice was.
And yet, overflowing with pure wisdom. Here are two pieces of business growth advice that many of the top CEO’s shared in the Q&A sessions:
#1. Create SYSTEMS in your business.
I loved their answer because I too love systems! The word SYSTEMS stand for:
- Save
- Your
- Self
- Time
- Energy
- Money and
- Sanity!
A system is great because you don’t have to re-invent the wheel every month to create the next windfall of sales and profits. You simply rinse and repeat the same process within your system.
In order for a system to be a SYSTEM it has to first work … (no brainer there, right?)
Second, your system has to be easily repeatable and scalable. In my past businesses this was the magic test that allowed me to remove myself from the businesses I owned then, so I could cut back to working only 10-15 hours a week which allowed me to spend more time with my kids when they were little. All while my business doubled in sales four years in a row.
I mention that not to be self promotional, but to impress upon you that the concept of working less while earning more is achievable. That’s what creating SYSTEMS can do for your business and for your life.
Ok, so when these top CEO’s were asked to summarize one or two tips here was the second business growth advice that was repeated over and over again:
#2. Hire a business consultant / business coach.
Wow! This was the second most repeated business growth advice I heard throughout the conference. (But, of course, my reticular activating system is pretty engaged for that too 🙂
These CEO’s went on to share openly about the importance of hiring a business consultant / business coach and the powerful impact that can make on growing your business faster, easier and stronger.
They couldn’t have said it any clearer when they shared, “If you want to succeed faster, hire a business consultant / business coach.”
As the business owner, you’re just too close to your business to be able to see the forest through the trees. You need an outside perspective to give you the guidance, strategy, course correction and coaching.
As an entrepreneur you also don’t have a boss you have to answer to — which is a double edged sword. It’s great and liberating to be your own boss, but it can also be dangerous because it’s easy to let yourself get distracted, dis-focused and take detours that happen with the “shiny object syndrome”.
So, if you’re ready to follow the business growth advice from CEO’s of some of the world’s biggest franchise brands I invite you to a complimentary business coaching discovery call with me.
On the call you get to share your goals — where you’d like your business to be in 1 year and in 3 years.
We can take a look at what systems you have developed so far (if any).
We’ll identify the biggest challenges that are getting in the way of achieving your goal and what the process would look like that will help you hit your sales and business growth goals.
You can also take advantage of the call to ask me any question you want that’s been nagging at you.
By the end of our call we will both know whether you and I are the right fit.
You can sign up for a free 30-min time slot for a business coaching discovery call
I only work with people I know I can help, so when you click the link above it will ask you to fill out a few questions about you and your business. Once you answer a few question you click the orange button that takes you straight to my calendar.
Pretty easy, right?
Ok, so if you have any questions or comments I invite you to share them in the comment box below:
QUESTION: What advice do you need right now to accelerate your business growth? (include what kind of business you have) Please share your comments and questions below.
