Plan Better Events Archives - Monetization Magic

Put Your Wallet Away: 3 No Cost Ways to Promote Your Business

When you start your business, you’re excited about it and you’ve told all the people close to you about your business. Maybe you’ve had a few sales and some interesting conversations about what you do and how you can help others. There comes a day usually within the first month or two of launching your business that you will realize that your business has encountered a lull and you’ve used up your warm market. You now need to begin to promote yourself and your value and speak to strangers about your new business.

There are many ways that you can promote your business. As you look around in your day to day life, you will see businesses promoted by billboards, TV commercials, radio commercials, direct mail pieces that you receive in your mailbox and internet advertising.

Why did you launch your business? You want to serve others and yet at the end of the day, you realize that you need to make a profit because everyday items need to be purchased in order to sustain the business. You may not have created a large surplus in which to pay for advertising and yet you still need to promote your business.

Rest easy, my friend, because my clients and I, myself, have created amazing amounts of money from my business while utilizing no cost ways of promoting business. Using no cost means of promoting your business frees up your funds to provide for you obviously more profits but also the ability to help others and from the tiny amount of value that you put out into the world, the ripples of your influence will radiate out from you and return to you in the form of people recognizing your value and needing your assistance.

All of the ways I will be introducing to you involve speaking to others. Speaking to another person is a great way to promote your business without incurring a cost. While you’re speaking with the other person about the value you have to offer you can also determine if you wish to invest your time in this person’s business to create value for them and move them to the next level in their awareness. This type of a conversation is often called a discovery session because you get to discover the person in front of you, either physically or virtually, and they get to discover you and what you have to offer. It is best to have no less than two of these meetings each week. This gives you the opportunity to start out in a low risk arena. We’ve all had one on one conversations and that’s all this is. No cost with the potential of great return. The medium you can use to have these conversations would be your own telephone or perhaps using Skype so that you don’t have to pay international telephone charges.

Once you have had the opportunity to have some one-on-one conversations, you may realize that you are now working more hours than you would prefer so the rest of the ways of speaking will move you from one-on-one conversations to one-to-many conversations. You can begin to hold your own teleseminar on the topics that will bring value to your ideal customers. While you’re bringing value, many who are attending your teleseminar will want to continue their studies with you and you would be doing a disservice to them if you didn’t give them an opportunity to continue their studies with you. You can also be interviewed by others and give their audience value. Generally, the host will allow you to provide their audience a way to connect with you further in the form of a gift that you would provide for them. A great no cost medium for teleseminars is FreeConferenceCall.com and it will provide you with your own teleseminar platform that can and should be recorded.

If you have content that lends itself to being presented in a visual manner, a third way is to create your own webinar. You can use Powerpoint slides or once you feel comfortable enough you can simply video record yourself for your webinar. You will still be providing value and an opportunity for your attendees to connect further with you just as you would with the teleseminar. The no cost platform that you can use for your webinars is called AnyMeeting.com and this platform will provide for 200 seats in your webinar. As you would with the teleseminar, you will want to record your webinar for reuse at a later date.

Once you begin to speak about your business outside your friends and family, you will receive great rewards in the form of feedback and clients. You don’t have to have it perfect when you begin! Just get out there and do it! Money is no longer an obstacle! Just as a baby learns to walk by trial and error, I would encourage you to call three people today and let them know when your first teleseminar will be held and ask them to attend. Whether or not they attend, hold the teleseminar anyway and record it. Once you’ve decided when you’re going to hold your teleseminar, I would love to receive an invitation. Really! Just reply to this ezine to let me know when you’ll be holding your first teleseminar. I love to hear about when a member of my tribe is taking action!

To find out 7 more no cost ways to promote your business, register for the upcoming no cost teleseminar to be held February 15th at 10 a.m. Mountain Time.

10 Ways to Expand Your Brick and Mortar Business – Part 2 of 2

By SoftwareGirl

This post is a continuation of 10 Ways to Expand Your Brick and Mortar Business – Part 1

Meaningful content on the website. Due to the Google search engine, it is imperative that meaningful content be placed regularly on your website. That is why most static websites do not rank well with the search engines. The search engines and your potential customers are interested in what is new and exciting. If you just have a billboard website that states your name, address and phone number, and your competitor has a website that talks about weekly events, what’s new in the industry, new inventory, new employees and is constantly updating their website, they will naturally outrank you in the search engines. Ranking is what the industry is all about because let’s face it, if you’re not on the first page or two of search results, most folks will never see your website. The object is to engage your customer so they see you as a friend even before they pick up the phone or park in front of your business. People buy from people they know, like and trust. They want to see people and people in motion on your website rather than just having pretty pictures and text to read.

Google places. Google places is a free ad for businesses so that their basic information can be found out on the internet. Optimally, your place on Google places will also have a link to your highly interactive website along with your business hours and a map so that your business can be located.

Host events. Your business needs to be a hub of activity and the way to make it a hub of activity is to host events. Invite people into your business. Host a Chamber of Commerce after hours event, ol’ Cal would often film the commercials at his lot so there was always a new animal to view. You can also invite people in for free maintenance or checkups to ensure they will not need expensive service later. For a car dealership, offer to have heater and air conditioning check ups, tire rotation, brake inspection, belt and hose inspection and other easy value added services. The events you host are done to add value to the customer experience. When you add enough value, your prospective customer will come to see you as a trusted resource.

Incredible Offer. You want to give prospective customers an incredible offer. For the car lot, it could be a coupon book for discount services or free detailing on their current vehicle. When you give the incredible offer it is always something they would definitely want and it is in exchange for their name and email. You will continue to use their name and email to notify them of future events and other items of interest.

Complimentary Products. Once your customers purchase an item or service from you, they usually will purchase complimentary products to make their initial purchase last longer or to decorate their initial purchase. In the example of the used cars, complimentary products would include extended warranties, car insurance, supplemental car insurance (like AAA), car washes, car audio, specialty rims, car security, tinted windows, windshield replacement and repair, mobile oil change services, after market part suppliers and apparel.

Digital Products. Digital products are great because you can make them once and sell them over and over again. Digital products for a car dealership might include a video of what to check when buying a used car, it could be an affiliate link to a supplier that carries something that is commonly ordered that you choose not to stock, digital products could be tickets to a concert for a celebrity that happens to be coming to town next week that sponsors your vehicles, or sound file of what your cool mufflers actually sound like when installed on your car. You’re probably laughing about that last one but that is an actual product…and my friend paid $29 for that sound file….still laughing?

Newsletter. The newsletter is published at least twice a month telling your customers about upcoming new events and information having to do with your business. You can also tell them funny stories or invite to future events. For the car business, a newsletter could be used to notify customers of recalls and give them ways to quickly and easily take care of needed maintenance. Let them know about your shuttle service.

Social Media. Social media is where you create a community around your business. You’re still being of service and it helps to create a buzz around your business. For the car dealer, you might want to list videos of the latest sliding cars due to the ice storm last week, or pictures of the most modified cars. You could have poll on the upcoming changes in the new car models. You could have a poll on whether girls or guys like a particular model better than the other. You would want to take pictures of your live events and post those up on social media for others to see.

If you like what you read in this article and would like to see how you can expand YOUR business, apply for a complimentary Action Strategy Session so that you can have a clear roadmap to take your busines to the next level! The Action Strategy Session is valued at $297.00 and will give you concrete ways that you can move forward in your business.

10 Ways to Expand Your Brick and Mortar Business – Part 1 of 2

By SoftwareGirl

httpv://youtu.be/QOsLdT4slsk

When I was a little girl, my family moved to New Mexico from New Jersey. In New Mexico, we only had 3 TV stations and they would only broadcast during certain hours of each day. The information broadcast on that TV station was selective and even back in those days, what they broadcast was determined by what would get the TV station the highest ratings. Everyday, I would see a commercial for a used car dealer who was in California and has some of the goofiest commercials I had ever seen. His commercials often featured his “dog”, Spot. His dog was often not a dog but would be an elephant or a tiger or some other wild animal. Sometimes I wondered if people would watch him just to see the day when dear ol’ Cal actually got eaten by his “dog”, Spot!

I tell you this to make this point…Cal Worthington was all the way in California and I was a little girl all the way in the desert of New Mexico…but I knew who he was. Cal Worthington sold a lot of cars when he ran those commercials. Eventually Cal passed away. Many years later, I had an opportunity to visit the great state of California. When I got there, what did I remember about California? You guessed it! I remembered ol’ Cal Worthington and his wild dog, Spot. I actually passed by the car lot and it was an event to me because I was able to remember all his commercials and the friends I was with at the time remembered him too.

Cal Worthington used TV to advertise his car lot and he attracted customers from the next town, the next county, the next state away. There are a lot of people in the great state of California and he advertised so well that a little girl all the way in New Mexico (954 miles away) and 30 years later remembered his car lot. Think about it, he was just another used car dealer and he found away to make his name known to a much broader audience. Within 10 years of beginning in the business, his dealership was #1 in the nation! He attracted so much attention that Johnny Carson even had him on the Tonight Show which had a national reach!

You are blessed because business owners now do not have to purchase TV air time to get our message out! We are able to rely on the technology that we have at our figure tips and our own ingenuity to promote our message.

To illustrate how this works, I’ll be using ol’ Cal Worthington’s business to show you how we could expand his business using today’s technology:

Website. Your website is the virtual hub of your business. The website could be used to show people the new car models, book appointments with customers to come in a look at a car, apply for car financing so that they could have the convenience of knowing that they were already approved for a vehicle before they arrived and they could just come in a pick out their new vehicle. They could schedule their normal service appointments, talk to a mechanic live via the website chat feature, order new accessory items for their new car or get a trade in value for their vehicle.

Keywords on the Website. Using keywords helps the search engines to direct customers to your website. Cal Worthington’s keywords might have been “Ford”, “dog Spot”, used cars, new cars, Long Beach, CA, and so on. Today, Cal Worthington dealership still exists and the keywords they use are as follows:

long beach ford, ford long beach, long beach ford parts, long beach ford service, used ford long beach, new ford long beach

How to Use a Blog in Event Planning (Part 4 of 4 )

By SoftwareGirl

The Rest of the Year (continued)

Video is another important feature. You may have a video portion of your website for conference videos, but a once a week update or feature with a few with links to your other pages are an easy way to keep traffic flowing and people interested.

During conference use

Special download area can be used to allow conference attendees to obtain a copy of the speaker’s slides along with any special conference material that is included with the price of the conference ticket. Once the conference sells out, you can offer a backstage pass to those not attending to still generate interest.

Your show daily should be in electronic form and be emailed to conference attendees (you do this don’t you?), it should also be in the blog every day of the show. Even if it is posted elsewhere on your website, you can do a preview with a link to that page where the daily resides. This is called spreading the wealth. The more places something lives, the better the chance it is going to be found and read.

Take a few videos during the show in the form of interviews, highlights of speakers, backstage photo opportunities,etc. post them to YouTube or Vimeo and then embed them in the blog. Make them interesting and (intentionally with purpose) raw, that gives the impression that it is breaking stuff. This also gives non attendees and “aw shucks” moment that maybe they should have been there.

How to Use a Blog in Event Planning (Part 3 of 4)

By SoftwareGirl

Preconference use (continued)

Information about the host city. This is a great way to get the community behind you. In the weeks prior to the conference, feature local restaurants, shops and hotels and let the venues know that you will be doing this, ask them to contribute an article. They will love the exposure. You may ask these local vendors to offer a discount and you can put the code in your blog.

Video from past conferences. This is a great place to highlight snips from past events and talk about them. If someone did a crazy crowd sourced jig and someone posted it to YouTube, embed it in your blog. This builds excitement and makes people want to attend.

Post conference use

Surveys for venue, speaker feedback could be hosted on the blog. Calendaring for the next event could be hosted. Attendees could tell their friends about the value they created at the event to entice others to attend the next event.

Write recap articles, post video (or highlights with links to your video pages) and thank your sponsors and attendees. Spread this out over a few weeks, you can get a lot of mileage out of this tactic.

The Rest of the Year

Feature sponsor press releases throughout the year, if XYZ company has a new product and they have a press release, post it (and then send the link to the sponsor). They will love this because not very many events care about them beyond their sponsor dollars. This is a great way to show that you value them.

The same can be said for speakers. Let the world know what they are up too since they presented at your conference. If a speaker went on to become President or a Nobel Prize winner, this gives your conference or event added credibility. Ask speakers to provide articles on the industry.

You can also do something that almost no show does and will truly set you apart from the crowd. Feature some of your attendees in the months between events. Pick some attendees from your list and call them and interview them. Ask them what they learned at your event, why they loved it and how this learning has impacted their daily lives. Ask them why they would return and use this as an extended testimonial. A WARNING – Make sure that the focus is on the attendee, not the event or conference. People love to get kudos and be mentioned, it helps them in their career and it helps them with the boss. Talk more about their accomplishments than the events. This is loyalty that money cannot buy…. Again, do not cut corners, you may be tempted to have a testimonial part of your website which is critical but if you do not do longer pieces in blog format, you are missing an amazing opportunity.

How to Use a Blog in Event Planning (Part 2 of 4)

By SoftwareGirl

Sales

A lot of times speakers will have published a book, are able to offer special offers on continuing training/coaching or have upcoming events of their own that attendees would be interested in. Assist them in extending those offers to the audience in return for a percentage of the total sales. Partner with a travel agent and negotiate a special rate for travel and hotel accommodations. Partner with the venue’s kitchen to arrange for a special deal on meals so that the conference attendees are not inconvenienced by having to go offsite for a meal and assist the venue in generating revenue. Allow them to purchase conference materials (coffee mugs, stationery, t-shirts, etc.) online and ship them before the event to generate interest.

Preconference use

A room and/or ride share area can be arranged for those needing assistance with room or ride accommodations. A forum can be put together to help future attendees to communicate and generate interest for the event. Information about the venue and amenities can be communicated to assist attendees in getting ready for the event. Pre-conference training calls can be coordinated via the blog along with pre-conference material lists or training materials or assignments can be posted via the blog. Encourage potential attendees to link to the blog post via Twitter or Facebook to generate interest for their personal tribes. Advise everyone when the Earlybird registration deadlines are approaching. Create a tweet session the night before the big event to elevate the excitement about the upcoming event.

Tell attendees about important happenings and press releases. If you are announcing that there will be a networking reception on the first night of the conference, this is one of the outlets you should use.

Inform attendees about a new speaker or go in depth on each speaker. This is especially useful, take one speaker per week (day) and feature them. Write an article about them, their accomplishments, their expertise and why attendees would want to attend their session. You could also have the speakers write a guest post which they like.

The same can be done for sponsors. Talk about event sponsors and what they bring to the table and why attendees should visit their booths. A WARNING – DO NOT make blog mentions or blog articles part of a sponsorship package, this will free you up to talk about lower level or new sponsors that may have an amazing product or service but may not have the funds for the larger sponsorship, it shows that you value them and that they are important as well.

Announce milestones, if the conference has reached an attendance record or the early bird is ending, make it a post in addition to the other places you will announce it.

How to Use a Blog in Event Planning(Part 1 of 4)

By SoftwareGirl

What is a blog?

Wikipedia defines a blog as (a blend of the term web log)^[1] is a type of website or part of a website. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in reverse-chronological order. Most blogs are interactive, allowing visitors to leave comments and even message each other via widgets on the blogs and it is this interactivity that distinguishes them from other static websites.^[2]

^{In case you were not aware, you are currently reading a blog.}

How long does the event occur?

Let attendees know in advance when the event will occur. Also advise them the hours of the event. Sometimes events are scheduled earlier than 9 a.m. and after 5 p.m. Typically your event will last 3-5 days. Typically people travel the day before and the date after.

What happens at the event?

Travel, sleeping accommodations, networking, sales, coaching, food consumption, gift consumption, entertainment, sightseeing, training, event testimonials, speaker feedback. These are all topics that can be covered in the blog and points that could be coordinated with reliable sources at the venue. Addressing these topics ahead of time will generate interest for the event and set the expectations of the event attendees.

What is needed at the event?

Tell attendees what to bring, what to leave a home, what the weather will be, remind them to bring business cards for networking. Will they need paper and pens for note taking or are you supplying those materials? Will recording and videoing be prohibited? Advise attendees of the expected attire (high heels or hiking boots, shorts or slacks, polo shirt or sport coat and tie). Will there be any formal events? Advise attendees of any special points that they would want to be aware of such as being prepared for a day at the beach or morning yoga or whatever you might have planned that they would like to be aware. Will you have special accommodations for disabled attendees?

Generating interest

Interest can be generated by giving prospective attendees a brief overview of the benefits that will be gained by attending the event. Will they also receive a DVD of the event? Will they receive valuable knowledge at the event? Do you have testimonials from past attendees? All that can be shared via e-mail. Invite them to bring a friend/business partner/team for free or at a deep discount.