I get asked all the time how and why I began to put on my own events. I thought for my first blog post, I would share the kinds of seminars we put on and in subsequent posts, I’ll share more of the details.
So, why put on our own seminars? Great question!
Speaking on stages is considered to be one of the best ways to establish yourself within your industry as an expert and to create an incredible sales funnel.
But when we’re beginners, sometimes we have a hard time getting onto other people’s stages. So, how do we get that valuable practice time?
Put on your OWN event!
When you put on your own events, you get to choose the theme, and you’ll have complete control all the details. Of course, you are IN CHARGE of all the details, and making sure that they all come together well (delegate, delegate, delegate!).
There are several ways to put on events. Today, let’s talk about seminars from the point-of-view of length.
We run 3 different types of events: Short, medium and multi-day.
Short Events
The short events are 90 minutes long. We call them “Monthly Marketing Mornings.” We run them in connection with business organizations, usually a Chamber of Commerce, though recently we did one for a United Way branch that puts on events for other non-profits as a way of developing community. These events are always free to the attendees, with one exception. We run several MEETUP groups (MeetUp.com) which we tie in to the Monthly Marketing Mornings and we charge a nominal $5 to attend. This money goes to the sponsoring organization (this fee pays for coffee and cookies).
Medium-Length Events
The second kind of events we run are half-day long. These are free or very inexpensive in cost and for these, we partner with other organizations, as well.
Both short and half-day events give us valuable third-party validation as the experts in the group. When there’s not a sponsoring organization, we have a minimal charge to cover costs.
The purpose of the first two types of events are to sign people up for a different event — our own multi-day events.
Multi-Day Events
We run 1- to 3-day events which are inexpensive to moderately expensive as an introduction to our services. These are our own events – sponsored by our company. The sole purpose of these events is to sell our products.
Many people use the longer events to sell LOTS of other people’s products, as well. But that’s not what we do. We prefer to offer a product of superior value, and not make it a 3-day sales pitch. Our philosophy is that when we’re on stage for upwards of 20 hours — providing excellent and actionable content — it makes the eventual sale easier.
So far, that has proven to be true.
If you’d like help putting together your own events, get in touch with me and we’ll answer your questions!
Hank Yuloff is a Targeted Marketing Tactician with 30+ years experience helping Small Businesses Get Bigger. He is the author of three best-selling marketing books and is a top tier producer in the promotional product industry.
When developing marketing plans for entrepreneurs, Hank uses creative ways to promote their brand and improve client retention while increasing sales and profitability. He can be reached at (800) 705-4265 or via his website at the link below.
