| re.0:
> I was involved in the Seminar program last year. We put a lot of work
> into the demo and the presentation but we ended up with embarrassingly
> few customers.
What was the objective of the seminars? Who was your target audience? How
did you go about identifying and reaching that audience? What messages did
you use to attract them to the seminar? How much notice did you give them?
Was the seminar easy to get to? Did you make it clear who the seminar was
for and to what level the topics would be delivered?
> Has anyone manged to have a seminar recently and really pulled in the
> crowd. What worked and what didn't
Yes.
There's quite a a lot of work to do upfront. Here's a brief description but
I recommend you get experienced help. Marketing run seminars all year
round, so do DECUS.
You need to decide what problem you are trying to solve for the customer.
What value can you add? This will tell you who is likely to be interested
(target audience), what messages you should use to attract them, and what
the content of the seminar should be. You then need to source a mailing list
for the audience that meets your target audience critera. Typical
considerations might be technical/non-technical, level in the company, size
of company, turnover of company, product purchase history, industry etc...
You need to estimate your likely response rate and size the list
accordingly. You need to take into account where your audience is and where
you run the seminar. Is it easy for them to get to? Timing is important,
is the audience likely to be interested at this time?
You need to design your mailer to include the messages which will sell the
benefits to the customer, tell them who you are aiming the seminar at, and
give them some idea of whether it's for beginners or experts, and what the
content is, how long it will take. Don't forget logistics (time, place,
food etc..). You can use a response card or fax back to encourage
responses. To maximise the response use telesales follow-up about five days
after the mailshot. If you are trying to get execs along give plenty of
notice, techies will typically come at much shorter notice. Make sure your
venue suits the audience. They won't come unless they feel comfortable.
Your speakers should look credible to the audience. If they are not well
known or have appropriately impressive job titles then include a short bio.
Send an ackowledgement to the responses in the form of a personal letter.
You can use this reinforce your message, make them feel welcome, as well as
remind them to put it in their diary.
Dave.
|
| Is this a local event? Our Organization puts on a one day seminar in
19 cities US (52 World-wide) and we've had positive attendance for over
4 years. I believe that our attendance in the US per quarter was
around 1500 Business Partners.
If you're interested in targeting the Business Partners then you might
be able to advertise this to our audience. I suggest that you send
mail to dups::info and get the DUPS Information package which list the
location for Q3 FY96
Are you part of the Sofware Business Unit? If so, I suggest that you
contact me off-line as the Software Business Unit will have a one hour
break-out session. To get the total audience we could advertize this
in the TCOB (taking care of business) at the opening of the daily
seminar.
Regards,
|