How You Can Make Free Events Valuable?

Declining enrollment, over 50% no-show’s, and an audience full of tire-kickers.

Sound familiar?  When an audience is invited to an event requiring zero commitment on their part, they treat it as easy-come, easy-go. 
You can tilt the field by making your free events valuable.  It doesn't require that you lay down any more money, it simply requires a willingness to implement a proven strategy.  Making free events valuable requires some dedication on your part but like all good things, a bit of effort will result in a huge pay-off.

If you want to create value from a free event, all you have to do is implement the principles of attraction, conversion, and consumption.

The Principle of Attraction

If you know something that other people do not, teach them, and build a relationship that will have customers coming back repeatedly. You are offering your customers something only you have:  your knowledge! 

For customers to invest their valuable time to attend your event, you must be top of mind as a credible expert.  This credibility is not created when you carpet bomb lists or bug customers with another me-too event invitation.  You have to be strategic in your approach as a marketer.

Build Your Opt-In List by Sharing Your Knowledge

It starts with building a golden list of people that have an active interest in your knowledge.  This is best done with a consistent opt-in list strategy.

Despite rampant misuse by most organizations, the best way to increase the size of your opt-in list is with a valuable email newsletter.  Your newsletter should not be the usual promotional rubbish, rather it should offer up all of your great insider knowledge in concise, easy to read segments.  It is going to be freely distributed and extremely valuable, but in order to receive it regularly, your customers must fill in an opt-in
form that puts them on your email distribution list.

In addition to your newsletter, send the people on this list all kinds of free useful articles and insider tips that they will find valuable.  Share your intelligence and your insight.  This will start building your relationship so that you are top of mind as the expert in your respective field.  The people on your list will look forward to your communication and will be the most likely to attend your events (and buy from you).

The Principle of Conversion

The idea here is to entice the audience with a promise of value. 

Your events must deliver more than just a product or service knowledge dump.  It has to give the audience something they can only receive by attending.  You need to productize your knowledge, put a tangible price tag on it and articulate this in your demand generation strategy.

Sample of Productized Knowledge

"Attend this event and receive our proven 360degrees roadmap that will put you on the path to success.  This valuable roadmap is only available to event attendees. (Value of $750)."

"In addition, after the event, all attendee's will have 48 hours to download our free assessment guide.  This guide is used to directly calculate ROI and has saved our customers thousands of dollars."

Create Scarcity & Urgency

Limiting access is a great way to build a sense of anticipation towards your event.  It is about supply and demand and you can create an artificial scarcity by limiting the number of seats available at your event.  You can also supplement this scarcity by adding in a bonus that is limited to the first 15 people that register. 
Scarcity and urgency must be used consistently otherwise they have no value.  You cannot create scarcity when you extend an offer.  You have to back up your scarcity and make it non-negotiable.  If you are closing the doors at 20 people then the doors must truly be closed.

The Principle of Consumption

With the right audience in attendance, you are in a great position to deliver on your promise of value.  This involves more than just your great presentation skills, you have to give away information that is rich in detail.  Your audience should walk away thinking how lucky they were to have attended.

The rule here is, make sure that you don't give away crap!  Provide people with stand-out information packaged in an appealing way and then put a price tag on this value.  You can offer slide decks, audio transcripts, e-books, planning guides and other items that have a tangible price. 

Create a Valued Attendee Kit (with a price tag).

Every customer that attends your event should receive a binder or package that includes all of the information that you are presenting.  It should be something visually unique that you can picture being placed on your customer’s bookshelf.  A simple binder with well designed inserts on the spine and cover can be quite effective. Obviously the sky is the limit when it comes to building your company’s own take home kit.  The important thing is this kit will be a takeaway that serves the customer as a constant reminder of your expertise and why they should purchase from you.

Post Event Downloads

The day after your event, send e-mails to follow-up your campaign. Send one e-mail to thank attendee's and provide a link to download the presentation and valuable bonus material. 

For those who did not attend, send an e-mail with a “sorry we missed you” message that communicates that in order to receive any of the valuable information presented at the event they will need to fill out an accompanying form choosing one of two options…

1. “Although I was unable to attend, I would still very much like to receive a copy of the information presented.  I would also like to be included in any future event or campaign communication that your firm is planning.”

2. “Although I was unable to attend, I would like to speak with your firm about our company’s specific needs and schedule a meeting to discuss.”

This post event communications must use a mail campaign manager that provides visibility into click-thru, e-mail open rates, and it should also track clickable links.  Such information is incredibly valuable for your sales team to conduct a thorough follow-up with these golden leads.

Don't worry about giving away too much “free beer” because it is a known fact that customers will buy when they are ready to buy, not when you are ready to sell.  You need to put yourself in the position of being the only logical choice. Think of this future purchase as your customers repaying you for all of the free knowledge that you have made available to them.

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How to Prospect at Small Events.

Quite often our clients spend huge dollars on trade shows and large conference events. In our opinion, the greatest sales opportunity comes from small and intimate sales events. Here, marketers can interact directly with their customers, qualify potential leads, and listen to issues and concerns.

Smaller events deliver high ROI because they allow marketers to spend more time interacting with customers and pre-qualifying their leads for future sales. Companies that have a complex sales cycle require a defined approach to placing leads into their sales pipeline.

Intimate events allow marketers to focus their efforts where the proverbial rubber hits the road at the point of sale. With the right approach going into the event, you can determine if a customer has the motive, means, and vision to purchase.

Uncovering Motive

Within the interactive environment of smaller events such as breakfast seminars or lunch & learns, you will have a chance to circulate and converse with your guests. The content of the event will allow your customers to connect with your thoughts and ideas and you are given a forum for tactfully exploring and qualifying the relationship. Some of the questions you will want to ask include:

What is the business imperative for your company?
Where are you in the buying cycle?
Do you have a vision for purchasing?
Who is involved in the decision-making process?
How would you quantify the benefits?
The questions you actually ask may not be quite so direct, but you get the point.

Do They Have the Money?

If a lead has a vision to purchase but no means to purchase, it is easy to waste your time and resources chasing them down. Within a small event, your team can ask questions that determine whether there is budget in place. This could be as simple as asking if budget has already been allocated or as direct as asking how much is identified for this project.

The content of the event itself should also help the customer understand the financial commitment required by substantiating the value of your offer.

Demonstrate ROI

Use real world models to help the customer see how your solution can help them make money, save money, and save time. Beyond the typical ROI analysis, include time in your presentation to outline creative ways that customers can manage expected investment, capital outlays, and expenses.

Do they have a Vision?

Consider this; “You will lose more deals to indecision than to competition. If your prospect lacks vision, they are very likely to not make a decision at all.”

Therefore it is critical to quickly determine whether the prospect in fact has a clearly defined buying vision before investing too much time trying to sell them.

Have prospects describe to you what changes they are looking to make within their company, how those changes will impact the way the company conducts business and especially what value these changes represent financially.

Once your prospect has established that they do in fact have a very clear vision for purchasing, it is up to you to begin building the credibility and trust needed to get to the top of their vendor list.

Establish Credibility

With means and motive in place, the final step is to cast your credibility in stone. You need to clearly demonstrate that your offer is the right one for the audience. Shape this vision by articulating the following elements in your presentation:

• Customer References - nothing builds credibility and reassurance better than a satisfied customer. Deliver strong references that will accept phone calls from prospects.
• Offer Validation -case studies, industry magazines, and white papers can play a key role in validating the performance/value of your offer.
• Time Sensitivity- you can provide customers the opportunity to participate in a proof of concept or needs analysis within a set time frame after the event. For example, at the end of your presentation you can offer a free needs analysis session to customers responding within two weeks. This could be 1/2 day or full day session were essentially you sell them your brains. The idea is that by uncovering their needs, it is far more likely they will convert to a purchaser.

Utilize strategic events as an opportunity to uncover whether your customers have the motive, means and vision to buy from you. For customers to spend their hard-earned dollars with your business, you must be top of mind as the credible expert. When it is comes down to purchase time, they will be in position to buy from you because you have already invested in them by offering up your knowledge and expertise.

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Getting Buy-In on Your Event Strategy.

Securing management buy-in for your B2B event strategy is critical. Otherwise, events end up with limited support in your organization and this in turn results in a less cohesive strategy that will fail to deliver on expectations.

Here are some ideas for gaining management support for your event strategy:

Do Your Homework. Before unveiling your event strategy to your company's executive management team, make sure you're completely clear about the following:

• the specific sales targets that you wish to achieve
• exactly how events will drive new sales
• how your competitors are utilizing events within the same market space.

Know your Internal Audience. Gaining top management buy-in for your event strategy begins by understanding the history of your organization and its marketing initiatives, because that is what defines existing attitudes. If you can articulate the value proposition of your B2B event strategy with this context, it will make getting buy-in much easier. Walk management through the process used to craft your event strategy and encourage them to ask questions. Show them charts and research that demonstrate the most effective way to deploy events that will drive sales. By the end of the session, everyone in the meeting should be on the same page, supporting your strategy.

Involve Stakeholders. When formulating your event strategy, articulate a process that allows you to include input and support from members of the executive team as well as from other areas of your organization. At the end of that process, your final strategy must include this feedback which must then be articulated to the management team.

Consistency matters. Before seeking management buy-in to your event strategy, be sure to tell them why it's important they do sell. Make clear to everyone involved in the budgeting process the value and ROI potential of a consistent and effective event marketing strategy. For organizations with a complex sales process, B2B events are proven to be the most effective sales tool.

Outline Measurement. Post-event analytics are essential for adjusting strategy and determining the focus of future investment. Your strategy needs to provide a centralized approach to managing leads. It must outline a process for qualifying customers and follow any leads through the sales cycle. By showcasing the ability to connect the dollars invested in your events to tangible sales results, you are setting the stage for success.

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