Plan Events that Convert to Customers

So you decided that having an event is the best way to gain more clients, so you pick a day, you secure a venue, you used meetup and Eventbrite to advertise, you even blasted out on your social media and your entire email list.

We have an okay turnout or even a pretty good one, but to no avail. You just can't seem to convert those attendees like you wanted.

Hi, I'm Melissa with rodgerandmelissa.com and I wanna share with you what it takes to plan an event that converts to customers. Let's get started.

So it all starts with a basic understanding of the stages that prospective buyers need to go through in order to buy your product or your service. Now, simply put, it's four stages, awareness, interest, decision, and action.

When you plan to use an event as a primary marketing strategy, you still need to incorporate these four stages and make sure that the customer journey doesn't skip one. If one or more of those stages are skipped, the prospect is unlikely to convert at the event or even later.

So now, stick around to the end and we'll give you our top tips for getting people to RSVP and actually show up for your event.

There are three main components to converting a high percentage of attendees at your next event. You need the right audience, the right message with the right delivery, and you have to have the right offer, and the next steps be clearly stated.

Let's look at these one at a time. First, let's look at the right audience. Now, before you begin to even pick a date for your event, you need to spend a good bit of time researching and pinpointing exactly who you want in the audience. 

I know you hear that all the time, find your client avatar. You know what, it's true. If you have a room full of people, but none of them really need your product or your service, well, obviously that's not a good thing.

You need to know what are their pain points, what motivates them to buy. You can fill the room with friends and family and people of like mind to you but are these really the people that wanna buy from you, that are gonna make those purchases?

Let me give you an example, say you are a stress reduction expert, you don't just want your yoga instructor friends and your wellness buddies in the room, no. You want those high stressed business owners and professionals, those executives that need the stress reduction techniques.

Now, once you know who you want in the room, you also need to make them aware of you and your event, and why they should want to attend. This is the first stage of a decision making process, the awareness, and in order to do this, you need to meet them where they are, what events do they attend already that you can go to, what groups on Facebook or LinkedIn do they frequent, what venues, would they feel most comfortable coming to?

Chances are, you might not get a CEO to join you at a yoga retreat center on his first encounter with you. Once the right audience member is aware of you and your event, you need to prime them for what is to come.

This is the interest step in the customer journey with you. This is where you can begin to build that trust, that authority that rapport. So even prior to the event, have an RSVP strategy. This can include email congratulating them that they've made a decision to come, or welcoming them to the event and giving them details.

It can even be filling out some kind of a form with details about what they're doing or it could be a schedule of the speakers that are gonna be there or the content, maybe a download or a video that they could watch prior to attending.

Just make sure that it has a personal touch to it. Make them feel welcome and excited to attend. Ask them what they are hoping to gain from the event, then make sure you deliver. Now, that can actually happen with your sales language throughout the event because they've already told you what they want.

And then number two is while they're there, you need to have the right message with the right delivery. They're at the event, so you have their interest, you've begun the process of that trust and authority so don't blow it. Nothing ever good comes from an unprepared presentation.

So, everyone, even if you think you don't need to needs to have a well-crafted message with seamless transitions and a seamless tie into your offer.

See there's an art and a science to being an effective influential and impactful speaker. Many speakers try to provide just an immense amount of information, kind of proving their authority. They oftentimes just overwhelm their audience into paralysis, making them unable to make a decision. Therefore, they don't buy, or sometimes, speakers don't provide enough value and the audience has expected to hear more.

So then the offer falls on deaf ears, and sometimes, the speaker does an excellent job of conveying the value they wanted to provide, but then they turn into this uncomfortable kind of pushy pitchy salesman at the end, and who likes that?

So it takes finesse, good persuasion, not manipulation, it takes those techniques and an understanding of how to shape the dialogue and influence the audience into action to enter that next stage which, of course, is a decision.

You see, throughout the event, the audience should be making micro-decisions along the way. So when it comes time to act, the next logical step is right there for them.

This brings us to the last stage, the action. This is why you're having the event to begin with, is to have conversion, so this requires the right offer. You see your offer needs to be clear, concise, compelling, irresistible. This is actually where you should start the planning and then reverse engineer all the other aspects of the event from there.

If you know what the audience needs to have a transition, what they want, that transition that they want, you'll be able to craft an offer that they will desire and the event can be built around that. Now once it's crafted, you can show the compelling reasons that they should act now at the event.

So you wanna create a sense of scarcity, a kind of a time sensitive urgency to going ahead and buying. Have an exclusive offer for just attendees, create a sense of urgency and fear of missing out, those always result in more conversions at the event.

Three other really quick tips. Number one, the number one reason people don't buy is usually based on price or so that's what they say. So make sure that your price matches your promise. Make sure that you're getting enough value that the price is worth it to them.

Number two, consider having current or past clients there as a testimony to the results that people can expect.

And then of course number three, you need a solid follow-up strategy. 79% of attendees who don't convert at the event will not buy after the event if they're not properly nourished with valuable content and a personalized touch. So you need to have a plan before you even begin.

Have it in place, give free tips, show that you care, even though they didn't buy at the event, and be sure to help them connect in other ways to stay in touch with you and with everything that you can give them, all the content that you provide through social media, newsletters, websites, be helpful, and make it easy for them to take that next step when they are ready.

Now, as promised, since you're still here, let me share with you just a few ideas to get more people to actually show up to the event 'cause RSVP is not what it used to be. People will RSVP and not show up.

So these first three should help you get more targeted RSVPs. Start with personalized invitations, reach out via snail mail, pick up the phone, even a personalized email.

Number two, have a sponsor, tap into their list and follow their, get their following as well. Those collaborations and strategic business partners are very vital.

Number three, have a guest speaker. Again, taps into their network and authority.

Number four, have a meal.

Number five, have door prizes and an incentive and gifts.

Number six, have a solid RSVP customer experience strategy to remind them of the event and get them excited about attending.

Number seven, have a VIP experience before or after the event and personally invite attendees.

See, events can completely change the landscape of your business. So if you plan to use them as a marketing strategy, plan, prepare, and execute with confidence. If you want more support or to get more connected with us, just simply subscribe to the channel, check out our other videos, you can always contact us at rodgerandmelissa.com 'cause we are always here to help you.

We'll talk to you soon.