Results Revolution » Smart Strategy

Leveraging the Boom: How to Turn Events into Sales

Andy Chapman — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 16:05:55 +0000

By design, you’ve got customers and lots of them – because they are attending an event that you are hosting or sponsoring. They are a captive audience. Now what?

How do you hold on, keep the edge, make the big event pay off? It’s all about “Leveraging the Boom.”

When you have a dense customer population in your small business – a.k.a. a boom – you MUST make the most out of the event attendees literally while it’s happening in order to grow your business for the long-term. This is the only way to truly get the most return on investment from your event.

To make the most of the bump, you must make smart use of marketing tools to do two things:

Capture new customers.
Educate them about the benefits of using your company.

There are a lot of ways to accomplish these things, but here are three easy ways to connect that are extremely easy and efficient to accomplish – and fast – ways to turn a short-term boom into long-term sales and business growth for your small business:

1. E-mail. Get that e-mail address! It might not be a hard fact, but it seems like at LEAST 50% of folks have an e-mail enabled smart phone. For example, here’s a fun way to gather a bunch of e-mail addresses at a large event venue: Ask attendees to send an e-mail to you during the event. Then, announce the winner of an immediate prize: move to the front row, get a chair at the chef’s table, win a free dessert, receive an upgrade to the super-duper best package. “Just e-mail us, and we’ll pick a winner… right now.” Taking the 3-5 minutes at an event venue may net you 15 to 100 email addresses – easy.

2. Facebook + TEXT (SMS). While there is a lot you can do with text messaging, here is one free way to gain a connection to your new prospects and customers so that you can sell them more stuff over and over again for a long time.

Start by looking at the number of Facebook “Likes” or Twitter followers you have before the event begins. During the event, post signage and also just ask folks to text “LIKE YOURPAGENAME” to FBOOK (36556). For us we’d say “text LIKE RESULTSREV” to FBOOK on your phone right now. Guess what — you just got a new like! Live events can produce huge bumps in the like numbers for a Facebook Page.

3. Twitter + TEXT (SMS). The same thing holds true on Twitter. Have attendees text FOLLOW RESULTSREV to Twitter (40404). Yep, that’s all it takes to start tweeting. They’ll get your tweets on their phone – even if they’ve NEVER signed up for Twitter before.

But at the end of the day, did that ring you more sales? Probably not today – but it did make sure that you made contact with the people who attended your event. Now, tomorrow, you can stay in touch with them and get to know them better and expose them to new elements of your business – and yes, increase your sales accordingly. It will blow your mind. I promise.

What about you? What is your best method to turn an event into long-term customer relationships (and sales)?

Photo Credit: mastermaq

Dear Agency: Don’t Forget the Web Site Address

Marianna Hayes Chapman — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 14:00:26 +0000

Dear Traditional Advertising Agency:

Reference: See my previous post about the three key elements of a brand.

Leaving your client’s web site URL off of their print advertising does the following harm to your client and it wastes all of their money:

1. This mistake gives you nor your client any way to measure the value of the print advertising by tracking incoming traffic to the web site.

2. This mistake leaves the reader (and potential business prospect) with no real actionable place to go to learn more without making a phone call. (In 2010, we just need a URL. Period.)

3. Worst of all, this mistake leaves the impression that your client is behind the times and isn’t worth considering for important business.

Instead of allowing this sort of image torture to happen for your client, I would recommend that if you insist on pushing print advertising into your client’s budget that you at least implement the following strategies to give the ad spending the best shot at giving a return on investment:

1. Build a vanity URL (www.clientname.com/magazinename).

2. On this specific web page (within your main web site), put valuable, advertisement specific copy, images and links to a wealth of business information, testimonials, and include another call to action to the prospect into your sales funnel deeper. (How about asking them some information about them or providing them with a valuable tool for free to grow their loyalty towards your client’s business?)

3. Put a call to action in the print ad that answers the “What’s in it for me?” question for the prospect and lures them to the vanity URL you created earlier.

4. Collect the data about who visits the page including geography, what else they look at on the site, what information is working and not working and conversion to next step or other actions within your sales funnel.

5. Help your client make adjustments in their process based on this new business intelligence.

Sound simple? Well, it really is pretty simple. No matter how complex the business model, a simple strategy like this followed through to the end (with measurement and continuous improvement) will show your value to your customer as an advertising professional.

There are a million ways to kick that idea up another notch, but for now, let’s start with getting that URL onto the advertisement in the first place and having a web site that’s ready to accept traffic. That’s the first step to building credibility and brand legitimacy in 2010.

Thanks for listening.

Sincerely,
Marianna

What does “good enough” photography mean to your bottom line?

Marianna Hayes Chapman — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 14:00:48 +0000

Editor’s Note: Thanks to Tom Beck, owner and commercial photographer extraordinaire, at Beck Photographic for sharing his thoughts with us… Tom is the best in the business, check out his web site or connect with him on Twitter to get to know him better.

Why would you want your brand (advertising) photography to not look professional? What purpose does it serve, except to make your business look unprofessional.

A good portrait photographer is not necessarily a good commercial photographer, and vice versa. Photographers tend to have specialties, and just because one shoots great portraits doesn’t mean they can shoot products, or food. Research who you’re hiring, and notice what photos of theirs stand out.

What does a “good enough” photo mean to your business and your ad? If it looks blah, then it’ll get lost and forgotten in all the other ads out there. And even if you do see results, how much better would the results be if you actually had a GREAT photo in your advertising?

When you hire a pro photographer, you’re insuring that you’re going to get great results. Does the person you hired for $100 off of Craigslist have pro equipment? Backup equipment? A certificate of insurance in case they break your merchandise? Are they going to behave professionally on the shoot? Do they know the technical specs of what you need delivered, and will they deliver in a timely manner? These aren’t (usually) a concern when you hire a true professional.

If you (or your graphic designer) is purchasing microstock photography (iStockphoto, Shutterstock, etc.), then your competition can too. How embarrassing will it be to see the image you’re using being used by your competitor (and yes, it HAS happened, more times than you know)? Also, is that image “good enough”, or does it stand out? If the image is just “OK”, even if you didn’t pay much for it, how much is it costing you in business you COULD have had? In other words, are you getting the biggest bang for your buck?

What say you? What is your experience with good enough vs. great photography?

Samples: Another Cheap or Free Marketing Idea for Small Business

Marianna Hayes Chapman — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 15:30:49 +0000

Here at the Results Revolution, we’ve had numerous guests on our show talk about the concept of “giving to get.” Basically what this means is using your own currency to market your business – instead of using someone else’s currency (usually cash). This helps moderate cash flow while keeping your business’ marketing healthy. And we like that.

Remember, the object of sampling is just that – to offer folks a sample of your business with no strings attached. You won’t win over 100% of those who sample, but for some who never have broken the invisible plane to enter your business, they will now feel comfortable having experienced this sample – and their lifetime value as a customer is worth far more than the sample.

Here is a link to a ResultsRevTV archive where a photography studio owner in Michigan shared extensively her strategy and plan for using sampling and service donations to non-profits as a primary marketing tactic. It’s a 30+ minute show, but an entertaining guest full of valuable ideas for your small business.

Here are two other ideas for using the concept of “sampling” as a marketing tool that other business owners shared with us.

BAG STUFFERS

Debra Yergen, owner of DY&Co, offers a detailed strategy for using bag stuffers for goodie bags at non-profit events to gain exposure for your business. Here’s her advice:

“If you do have a product business, such as a restaurant, give a free drink or food item, and DO NOT REQUIRE an additional purchase. If you require an additional purchase, many people will save it for later and later may never come. It it’s completely free, most people will buy something else, maybe a whole lot of something else, while they’re there.”

GIFT BAG WITH PURCHASE

Kathy Dalton, of The Kadis Group and co-founder of Little Stinker skin care line, loves sampling because “it gets results. People love to talk, especially about their favorite products or services, and they’re also more likely to trust a product recommendation from a friend over a commercial or other traditional marketing method.”

Kathy suggests using mini-samples or a gift bag with purchase sample. When distributing the sample, she says to include stickers or business cards. But, she insists, don’t just hand out ONE flyer or business card; hand out three so your potential clients can share with friends! There’s that word of mouth marketing being encouraged while offering a sample… sounds like a magic formula to us!

What say you? Have you used sampling to market your business? How did you do it, and did it work for you? What results have you seen?
Photo Credit: Mr. T in DC (bubble tea sample)

Results Revolution » Smart Strategy

Leveraging the Boom: How to Turn Events into Sales

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Dear Agency: Don’t Forget the Web Site Address

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