Last Friday, I described three types of meetings and suggested marketing meetings is the most challenging aspect of organising meetings. This is particularly true for one-off public meetings; other meetings are not so desperate for the public to attend, although what I say here can apply to them.
A Simple Model
A public meeting or event is successful to the extent it attracts people to attend.
Imagine three concentric circles. The innermost circle represents the event itself. This might be a speech, an agenda, guiding people to plan something, a film, a play – just about anything people might attend and take part in. This is equivalent to a product or service.
The second circle represents packaging for the event. How will you describe the event to its market? How will you describe it on a website or in a handout? How successful is the packaging at making conversions? The packaging is equivalent to conversion on a website.
The outermost circle represents the marketing of the event. How are you actually going to get the packaging into peoples’ hands? This activity is equivalent to generating traffic to a website.
Being a Producer
When you organise an event you are a producer, someone who creates something that was not in the public domain before. It is worth remembering this because it is like being a ringmaster, someone who creates a show, builds the excitement and makes it into something many people are reluctant to miss.
This means if you are serious about your event, you cannot afford to be complacent. You need to take every possible step to draw peoples’ attention to the event, package the event so that on closer scrutiny it is irresistible and design the event itself so that it exceeds expectations.
Preparing the meeting
Usually, though we get it wrong and need to upend our expectations.
Allocating time to the 3 activities
Your priority is getting people to the meeting and so you need to devote most of your time to marketing. Your offer needs to be irresistible and so your packaging needs a great deal of time devoted to it. Least crucial is the meeting itself.
It is tempting to devote a lot of time to the meeting at the expense of the marketing. This is not to say the meeting should be substandard but it is to say, if you devote most of your time to preparing the meeting and no-one shows up, you have wasted your time!
Prepare your marketing first!
This may seem bizarre but most people go about organising meetings the wrong way round. Don’t start with the meeting content. It is often the easiest and most fun to prepare and so tempting to do it first. Don’t.
Instead, start with the packaging. What are you planning to deliver at this event? What are the benefits for those who attend? This may be in effect a plan for the meeting.
Now make a start on the marketing. If people are not interested, you have saved a lot of time preparing for a meeting that isn’t going to happen. If your marketing does cause people to respond, then you have a great incentive to complete meeting preparation.
Social Media campaigns
Finally, you need to use social media and smartphones. This may go against the grain for oldies like myself. However, many people cannot be reached effectively by any other route. But note I’m not saying don’t use other routes, just make sure you use social media.
Not so long ago we communicated events through leaflets and posters, perhaps supported by occasional radio or TV interviews. Now people mostly hear about things through emails, websites and social media. Use these media because otherwise you will go unheard.
Have you any tips for meeting promotion in the social media age?