Small Business

March
24 2015

The Secret to Successful Social Media Marketing

The Secret to Successful Social Media MarketingMost business owners, coaches and consultants know that social media marketing has become an important part of a company’s marketing mix.  However, it can be difficult to successfully market your business on social media with all the noise and clutter on the various social media networks, so how can you successfully market your business on social media?

In this blog post, I will reveal the secret to successful social media marketing for business owners, coaches and consultants.

The secret to successfully marketing your business on social media is…….. to know your audience and to have a social media marketing plan.

You have to think of social media as a tool that you can use to help serve your target audience by publishing amazing content that resonates with your audience, and less about promoting your business on the platform.

The first step to any successful social media marketing effort is to create a social media marketing plan.  Your plan should include the following key elements:

Once you have created your social media marketing plan, then the secret is to consistently publish content that resonates with your target audience.  The rule of thumb is to make sure that your content is 80% Entertaining/Conversational/Educational, and only 20% Promotional.

Entertaining post can be humorous posts that your audience can relate to. A great website for humorous posts is somecards.com.  On this website you can find humorous cards that may resonate with your target audience and post it on social media.  For example, now that spring has officially started, a humorous post would be something like the one listed below:

someecards
Humorous posts like this can spark engagement from your audience.

Conversational posts are a really great way to connect with your audience.  Asking questions that your audience would be interested in answering can spark conversation and engagement for your post.

Filling in the blank statements are also a great was to initiate conversation with your audience.  If the filling in the blank is interesting enough for your audience, they would be interested in filling in the sentence.

As a business owner, coach of consultant, you are very knowledgeable about your field so having Educational posts not only helps to educate your audience on your topic, but also helps to showcase your expertise.  Publishing posts of your blog, and relevant articles, tips, tools and techniques on social media works really well.  Statistics and Infographics that provide good useful information to your audience also work really well.

However, one of the reasons for being on social media is to get business, so you don’t want to neglect posting some promotional items on social media.

These items can include special deals and promotions you may have going on, but one of the best things you can do on social media is to promote joining your email list.

Although social media is a great tool to build relationships and make connections, it is important to have your social media work hand in hand with your email marketing so encouraging your social media followers to join your email list should be an important part of your social media marketing strategy.

Have you found success on social media?  If so, what do you feel has been the secret to your success on social media?

Need help with your social media marketing?  Be sure to get your copy of the Top 21 Social Media Marketing Tips

 

 

 

 

 

Posted by Nadine Mullings  |  Comments Off on The Secret to Successful Social Media Marketing  |  in Marketing, Marketing for Coaches, Marketing for Consultants, Small Business, Social Media, Uncategorized
March
09 2015

What’s The Best Social Media Platform For Your Business?

Social Media Marketing

When it comes to Social Media Marketing, as a small business owner, coach or consultant, it can be confusing as to what social media platform you should be on.  In this post, I will cover the two main things you need to consider when deciding on a social media platform for your business.

1.  Your Target Market

The first and one of the most important things you need to consider is your target market.  In order to decide the appropriate social media platform that you should be on, you need to decide what social media platform your target market is on in large quantities.

Each platform attracts a different type of demographic and can also attract a different pyscographic, so it is important for you to truly know your target market including their demographics and pyschographics before selecting the right platform for your business.

A great resource to use to find out the demographics of the most popular social media platforms is the Demographics of Key Social Networking Platforms by Pew Research Center. This article explains in detail the demographics and usage of key social networking platforms.

The following chart from the article shows the percentage of online adults who use Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Instagram, and Twitter, from 2012-2014.

Social Media Graph
Although Facebook has the highest percentage of use by online adults, it may not be the best social network to be on to reach your specific target market.

For example, if you are targeting women between the ages of 40-50 who make over $50,000.  Your chances of connecting to that target market is stronger on Pinterest than Facebook, so you may want to consider Pinterest as a part of your overall Social Media Marketing Plan.

However, there is something else that you must consider when deciding on the right social media platform for your business.

2.  Your Business

Some platforms showcase certain types of businesses better than others.  For example, Pinterest and Instagram are visual platforms, therefore they lend themselves well to companies that have very visual products.

Companies in the home decor, wedding, fashion, beauty, or food industries can do well on Pinterest because than can visually inspire their followers with the pins they create for their products.

On the other hand, companies who are more service oriented and their products are less visual have to be more creative on Pinterest to attract their target audience because their products are less visual, so creating visuals such as picture quotes or infographics would be an option for service-based businesses on Pinterest.

If your business is very content and news driven, then a great platform would be Twitter.  As a micro-blogging site, Twitter is really great for companies that have a lot of content, articles, blog posts, etc.  It can help drive traffic back to that content on your website or blog.

Of course Twitter is also great for starting conversations with people in your industry or your clients and customers, so if content and conversations are good for your business, Twitter is a platform you should consider in your Social Media Marketing plan.

So when deciding the best social media platform for your business, be sure to pick a social media platform that your target audience is on in large quantities, and one that will help you to do a good job of showcasing your business.

What social media platforms are you?  How did you decide what social media platforms are right for your business?  Be sure to leave a comment below and let us know.

Also, be sure to download our checklist 21 Things You MUST Do in Order to Get Amazing Results from Your Social Media Marketing!

 

Posted by Nadine Mullings  |  Comments Off on What’s The Best Social Media Platform For Your Business?  |  in Marketing, Marketing for Coaches, Marketing for Consultants, Small Business, Social Media, Uncategorized
February
23 2015

How to use automated emails to grow your business

How to use automated emails to grow your businessAs a small business owner, coach or consultant, email marketing can be a key way to grow your business, but are you using various types of email marketing to grow your business?

Most people think of e-newsletters or e-zines when they think of email marketing, but one of the best ways to grow your business is by strategically using automated emails. Two key types of automated emails are autoresponders and drip campaigns.

Autoresponders

Let’s start with autoresponders.  We’ve probably all seen this type of email in action. Whenever you opt-in to receive a product, service, ebook, white paper, checklist etc.  from a company, we immediately get a response email from the company after the action has taken place.  This is an autoresponder in action.  The email could simply be a “Thank You for Your Business” email or it could even be the delivery of the actual digital product or service via email.  Whatever the case may be, the automatic email that you receive after taking action with that company is an autoresponder.

Autoresponders are great because you can set it in advance and it runs on autopilot.  So if you client signed up for your coaching program or scheduled a consultation you don’t have to manually respond to that client, your autoresponder will take care of the communication for you.  It’s like having a personal assistant who handles your initial communication.  This is not only time saving, but it also makes you more efficient knowing that this part of your business is always taken care of.

Drip Campaigns

In addition to Autoresponders, you may want to automatically send out a series of emails to your clients and/or prospects over a period of time.  Drip campaigns make the process of creating and sending these emails super easy.  You create the emails one time and then when a client is added to the list the emails go out to the client or prospect over a period of time.

All of this happens behind the scenes, so the drip campaigns automatically keep your audience informed without the need for you to actively do the work.   It is super important for you to plan out what drip campaigns you would like to send out.  Make sure that the emails are informative, value-packed, and beneficial to your audience.

For example, many companies like to send out a drip campaign to new customers.  A series of emails welcoming the client and informing them of the various services that you offer and giving valuable and helpful information can really help to start the relationship off in a good way.

Tips:

The key to successful autoresponders and drip campaigns is to keep it relevant and timely. 

By keeping it relevant you are ensuring that the information that you are sending is what your client or prospect needs and can help them in some way.  And by making sure it is timely you want to make sure that you are sending emails at a frequency that is not annoying to the recipient.  Spreading it out over the course of several days is good.  Most people don’t like to receive back to back emails from a company (unless they have signed up for a daily email in which they know they will be receiving frequent emails from the company)

So if you have not done so already, be sure to setup an autoresponder and think about various drip campaigns that you can send out to your clients and prospects.

Are you using automated emails in your business?  If so, are autoresponders and drip campaigns a part of your automatic email mix?  Be sure to share your thoughts below.

 

 

Posted by Nadine Mullings  |  Comments Off on How to use automated emails to grow your business  |  in Business, Email Marketing, Email Results, Marketing, Marketing for Coaches, Marketing for Consultants, Small Business, Uncategorized
February
10 2015

Does List Size Really Matter?

E-mail marketing flat illustrationWhen it comes to your email list, does the size of your list really matter? As a business owner, coach or consultant, you probably already know about the importance of having and growing an email list, but did you know that it’s not the size of your email list that is most important, but the quality of the people on your list? As the saying goes, it is better to have an email list of 100 interested prospects, than 1,000 uninterested people.

However, you still want to work on increasing the size of your list because you want to make sure your message is reaching a wider audience each month. Your goal should be to grow your email list with individuals who are interested in what you have to say, and what you have to offer. So the big question is how can you effectively and efficiently grow your email list?

Here are 6 tips to grow your email list:

Offline:

  1. Events– whenever you conduct an event (workshop, seminar, etc.), or if you are presenting at an event, be sure to collect the email addresses of the attendees (or participants who expressed an interest in learning more) . Be sure to disclosure that by signing your list or providing their information they are agreeing to receiving emails from you.
  2. Text Messages– Consider adding a text to join your email list option. Now-a-days people don’t leave home without their smart phones, so making it easy for them to join your email list by simply texting a word to a number and then providing their email address makes it easy to join your email list.
  3. QR Codes- Consider adding QR Codes to your marketing material (business cards, brochures, flyers, etc.) It’s another way to make it easy for people to join your email list. However, I personally don’t really use QR Codes and haven’t gotten a lot of people through this method, but it is still something you could consider.

Online:

  1. Webinars– a great list building strategy is webinars. When you conduct webinars, people have to give their information to sign up for the webinar. Just add a disclosure that signing up for this webinar also gives you permission to add them to your email list.
  2. Lead Pages– Another great online list building strategy is to create a lead magnet (eBook, White Paper, Case Study, Checklist, etc.), and have people enter their information on a specially designed lead page that talks about how great your lead magnet is, and why they need to give you their contact information so they can receive your awesome lead magnet. This technique works really well because you know that you are getting people who are interested in the content that you have to offer
  3. Social Media– Encourage people who follow you on social media to sign-up for your email list so that they can get additional and maybe even exclusive information that you provide only through email. This technique works really well, because if you already have a following on social media, it just makes sense that the next logically step for them is to receive your emails. This also allows the relationship to get stronger when they are not only connected to you via social media, but also receiving your emails.

For more tips, download this Guide Building Your List Can Be a Thing of Beauty by Constant Contact

Posted by Nadine Mullings  |  2 Comments  |  in Business, Business Development, Email Marketing, Email Results, Marketing, Marketing for Coaches, Marketing for Consultants, Small Business, Uncategorized
January
27 2015

The Truth About Blogging for Business

The Truth About BloggingThere are many advantages to starting a business blog.  In fact, I talked about one of the major benefits of a business blog in my blog post, How to Use Blogging to Build the Know, Like, and Trust Factor  for Your Business,  but what most people don’t necessarily talk about is the “truth” about blogging.  So in this blog post I will uncover some of the truths about blogging for your business:

  1. Blogging for business has become very popular in the last five years or so, which has created a crowded blogging world and with so many things grabbing people’s attention, it takes time to get results from your business blog (it can even take years),  so if you think blogging for your business will bring you a ton of clients quickly, think again.
  2. Creating content for your blog takes time.  You have to think about the content you want to post, then you have to create the content, and then you have to promote the content, this can take a lot of your time and effort.  For example, on average it can take up to two hours to create the blog post, it may take an additional 10-20 minutes to promote the posts on your various social networks, so one blog post can take almost three hours, so depending on how many blog posts you produce per month, this can be very time consuming
  3. A large percentage of business owners, coaches and consultants manage all aspects of their blog themselves.  According to coSchedule, 58% of business bloggers are solo bloggers.  That means they are the content manager, the copywriter, the graphic designer, the promoter, and everything else for the blog, which can become overwhelming because of the different elements of running a business blog as well as keeping up with running a business!
  4. Many blog posts go largely unnoticed.  You put all the time and effort into creating content for your blog, and then nobody reads it.  That is why promoting your blog post is an important part of blogging for your business.  You can promote your blog posts to your email list, on social media, etc.
  5. A large percentage of business blogs die after a few months because many business owners, coaches and consultants can’t find the time to keep up with the blog.  In fact, according to a recent survey by coschedule, 22% of respondents said their biggest challenge when it comes to blogging is finding time, which makes it easy to see why so many business blogs end up in the blog grave yard.
  6. Most people will not comment on your blog.  One of the great things about blogs is the ability to create conversations, because people are able to comment on your blog posts, but the statistics show that the majority of people who may read your blog, will not comment on your blog post, which can make it hard to gauge if you are engaging your audience.

So, if you decide to start a business blog, keep these truths in mind and check out my blog post The 5 C’s of a Successful Business Blog.

Do you have a business blog?  Are you thinking about starting a business blog this year?

 

Posted by Nadine Mullings  |  Comments Off on The Truth About Blogging for Business  |  in Blog, Business, Marketing, Marketing for Coaches, Marketing for Consultants, Small Business, Uncategorized
January
12 2015

The 5 C’s of a Successful Business Blog

The 5 C's of a Successful Business BlogAs a business owner, coach or consultant, blogging can play a key role in your marketing strategy.  As mentioned in my prior post, How to Use Blogging to Build the Know, Like and Trust Factor For Your Business, blogging allows you to build those key factors that can allow you to have an advantage in the marketplace.

In order for your blog to be successful, you need to follow the 5 C’s of Blogging:

  1.  Content
    The first and most important part of your blog is your content.  You should decide on the main topic for your blog (i.e. business, gardening, etc.) and then decide up to three sub-categories for your topic (i.e. business- marketing, leadership, productivity; gardening-  fruits, vegetable, flowers; etc.).Once the topic and sub-categories have been decided, then the next thing is deciding whether you are going to come up with original content or content that you curate.    In order to show your expertise in your particular area, having original content is very important.  That is how you showcase what you know and show your knowledge in your area.  However, coming up with original content consistently can be a difficult task, so sometimes it helps to curate other people’s content.  Use what they have posted about your area or expertise and write a response or a differing opinion to the original article, or just reposting what they have written also works too.  As long as the content is relevant and will resonate with your audience then using other people’s content is fine.  The biggest thing when it comes to curating content is giving credit to the original source of content, your goal is not and nor should it ever be to take their content as your own, so always give credit where credit is due.  This is especially important when it comes to copyright infringement, you do not want to plagiarize, so be sure to site where your content is coming from.
  2. Community
    Your blog posts should be targeting a specific community.  Your goal in blogging is not just to add value by informing your readers, but to also create followers who become your community.  Having a community of people who are like-minded and enjoy your content can do wonders for your business.  When you create a community, you create loyal followers who can become loyal customers, so knowing that you are creating a community for your blog is also helpful.
  3. Conversations
    You want your blog posts to create conversations.  The great thing about blogs compared to regular online articles is the fact that blogs allow people to converse about the particular topic that you have posted.  You want to create conversations around your topic, so it is not a one-way street, but a two-way conversation with the writer of the blog and the audience.  The ability to have a conversation, adds another level of connection with you and your audience, so make sure that your blog posts create a level of conversation around your industry or topic.
  4.  Consistency
    I believe there is a Blog grave yard,  so many people have good intentions to start a blog, but couldn’t or didn’t keep up with blogging consistently, so their blog died!  When you make the decision to start a blog for  your business, you have to be consistent with posting on the blog.  You have to decide what makes sense for your business.  If you are able to blog weekly that’s great, if you can only blog bi-weekly that’s fine too, the least amount of commitment would be blogging once a month.  Of course there are benefits to blogging more frequently especially when it comes to Search Engine Optimization (SEO), and people finding your content online, but you want to take on a frequency that will be able to fit into your business.  Blogging on a daily basis is not viable for the average business so you have to figure out what frequency works best for your business.
  5. Convert
    As a small business owner, one of your blogging goals should be to convert your followers to customers.  By sharing your content with your readers people start to view you as knowledgable or an expert in your field.  Once they have that level of trust in your knowledge and your blog talks about solutions, if they are in the market for what your company offers, they will naturally see you as a solution and become a customer, which ultimately is what you want.  Having strong call-to-actions (i.e. click here, sign-up now, learn more, etc.)  on your blog helps with converting people to your website pages, or sales pages for your product or service.

Are you currently blogging for your business?  If so, what other C’s do you think are an important part of blogging?

Posted by Nadine Mullings  |  2 Comments  |  in Blog, Business, Business Development, Marketing, Marketing for Coaches, Marketing for Consultants, Small Business, Uncategorized
December
10 2014

How to Use Blogging to Build the Know, Like, and Trust Factor for Your Business

About ME Contact/Connect ME How to Use Blogging to Build the Know, Like, and Trust Factor for Your BusinessAs an entrepreneur or small business owner, standing out from your competition is really important.  Creating a unique statement that tells why you’re different is good, but as we know, people really like to buy from people they know, like, and trust, and a simple statement as to why you are good, may not be enough.

A great way to establish the know, like and trust factor is by blogging.  Blogging is a great marketing strategy because if you consistently blog and promote your blog posts you will build an audience who will begin to know, like and trust you based on the content that you publish.

So let’s break down the way you can use a blog in order to establish the know, like, and trust factor and grow your business:

KNOW

Your blogging goal as an entrepreneur or small business owner is to become known as an expert in your field.  People like to buy from people who are knowledgeable, helpful, and show that they care.  Through your blog you can become known for providing valuable tips, tools, and techniques in your industry. If you consistently put out good content on your blog and that content is shared, this will help you to grow your “Know” factor.

LIKE

Another blogging goal is for people to get to like you.  Your tone, writing style, and the content you provide on your blog should help with the like factor.  Keep in mind your goal is not to be liked by everyone, but to be liked by your ideal target audience.  When you know who you are talking to, and what their needs are, then you will be better able to create content that resonate with your target audience.  Therefore, they will end up liking your content, and therefore, liking you.

TRUST

And lastly,  your blogging goal is to build trust with your audience.  This is a big one because people may buy from people that they don’t know that well, and may even buy from people they don’t always like, but they have to have a level of trust in you, your company, or your service in order to buy from you, so building the trust factor is really important.  You can build trust with your audience by practicing what you preach, by doing what you say you are going to do, by being professional, by being reliable and consistent.  When you show up on your blog consistently and provide good information, you are helping to build the “Trust” factor with your audience.

There are many factors why you should consider blogging in your marketing strategy and growing the know, like, and trust factor is just one reason why entrepreneurs and small business owners should be considering blogging.   Are you currently blogging for your business?  If so, do you feel blogging helps to build the know, like, and trust factor for your business?  Share your opinion in the comments below.

Posted by Nadine Mullings  |  Comments Off on How to Use Blogging to Build the Know, Like, and Trust Factor for Your Business  |  in Blog, Business, Marketing, Small Business, Uncategorized
November
11 2014

Do You Have a Business M.A.P.?

Do you have a business MAP?Do you have a business M.A.P.?  Wondering what a business M.A.P. is, and why you would need one?

It’s a Marketing Action Plan (M.A.P.), and you need one in order to take your business from one place to the next.

When you need to go somewhere, and you are not sure how to get there, you need directions.  You can use a map to get the directions, now a days that map is within your GPS either in your smartphone or in your car.  Well just like the map in your GPS, you need a M.A.P. for your business that is designed to take your business from point A to point B.  The destination may be different for each business, but the need to have a plan and take action is always necessary to get your business from point A to point B.

Similar to when you are following the directions in your GPS, you may at times need to make a u-turn or change routes, but the overall map in the GPS is there to guide you and get you to your final destination.  In fact, after we have made several miss steps or u-turns we love when we hear the words, “you have reached your destination“.  With a business MAP, you may not hear a GPS system say, “you have reached your destination”, but you know you have reached your destination when you achieve the business goal that you set out to achieve.

For example, if your business goal is to increase your sales by 20%, you need to create a M.A.P. on how to get there.  Instead of turns on highways and streets, the M.A.P. includes turns you can make in your marketing activity that can help you to reach your destination, so in the case of increasing sales, a M.A.P. could look something like this:

Point A-  Sales are 50 units a month

Step 1-  Increase leads by doing the following actions:

a.  Attending more networking events

b.  Placing ads on Social Media

c.  Creating an email campaign

d.  Creating an AdWord campaign

Step 2-  Increase referrals by doing the following actions:

a.  Joining a referral networking group

b.  Looking for referral partners

c.  Creating a referral partner program

d.  Having a referral incentive

Step 3-  Increase sales conversations by doing the following actions:

a.  Having monthly webinars

b.  Having monthly teleseminars

c.  Having monthly in-person events

d.  Having more one-on-one meetings with prospects

Step 4-  Increase your conversion rate by doing the following actions:

a.  Creating sales pages with good  content and strong calls to actions

b.  Creating emails with good content and strong call to actions

c.  Creating  videos with good content and strong call to actions

d.  Adding testimonials to your website and sales pages

Point B-  Measure the increase in sales

So as you can see the action that you take in your marketing action plan will determine the outcome of the destination of your business.  You can create a plan for each business goal that you have and make adjustments to the actions when necessary.

Have you created your business M.A.P.?  If so, what marketing activities do you include in order to reach your goals?

Posted by Nadine Mullings  |  Comments Off on Do You Have a Business M.A.P.?  |  in Business, Business Planning, Marketing, Small Business
October
27 2014

5 Virtual Events to Grow Your Business

5 Virtual Events to Grow Your Business
I’ve mentioned in several of my blog posts that having consistent events for your business is a great marketing strategy.  Events give people an opportunity to learn more about you, more about the business, and more about your product or service.  Over the last decade or so, Virtual Events have become very popular.  I define virtual events as any type of event that does not take place in person.

Here are some examples of types of virtual events you can have to market your business:

  1. Tele-Seminars–  Tele-Seminars have become very popular because they are easy to execute.  All you need is a telephone and a conference line, and you will be able to conduct an event over the phone.  Many companies are using this strategy to introduce prospects to their business, product, service, program, etc.  Although teleseminars are a great strategy, the down side is the lack of visuals.  A company has to rely solely on audio and many people need to see visuals.  That is why most tele-seminars encourage listeners to go to a website to get more information and to sign-up.
  2. Webinars-  Similar to tele-seminars, webinars have become super popular with the increased popularity of the use of the Internet.  Webinars are seminars conducted via the web and participants are able to both hear the speakers and see the visuals.  Webinars are also very easy to put together, all you need to do is use a webinar software that either has VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) or you can also use a conference line for people to be able to hear the webinar.  Including a consistent webinar in your marketing strategy can be helpful to growing your business.
  3. Videos–  Videos are a great way to conduct virtual events.  Whether it’s a demo video, interview video, etc. videos allow you to create events and post them online to create a virtual event.  You can pre-record the video or stream it live.
  4. Livecasts–  Livecasts have also become popular because you are able to actually conduct a live training or seminar which includes a live audience and then stream it over the Internet so that it can be viewed by others online.  This strategy is not totally virtual seeing that you may or may not have a live audience when taping the livecast.
  5. Livestreams–  Similar to Livecasts, Livestreams are not totally virtual because a live stream usually occurs during an actual in-person event like a conference or seminar.  The added ability to record it live and have people view the event via the Internet makes the Livestream a virtual event.

Are you including events in your marketing strategy?  If so, are you also using Virtual Events to grow your business?

Posted by Nadine Mullings  |  Comments Off on 5 Virtual Events to Grow Your Business  |  in Business, Business Development, Business Events, Event Marketing, Marketing, Small Business
October
14 2014

Three Steps to Successful Event Marketing

Three Steps to Successful Event MarketingHaving consistent events for your business is a great marketing strategy.  Events are a great way for people to get to know you, like you, and trust you, which we all know is the key to getting more business.   However, putting on events is not always an easy task.  The hardest thing about events is getting people to attend, so this article goes through the 3 steps to successfully market your next event.

Step 1-  Pre-Event

Pre-event is the planning phase which involves all the activities that go into planning an event up until the day that the event occurs.  The planning phase should include the following key elements:

  1. Audience–  who is the event intended for?  Just like all marketing strategies, the first step is to understand who you are trying to reach which includes the usual demographics and the even more important psychographics of your audience.  The demographics covers the age, gender, income level, etc. while the psychographics is going to cover lifestyle, beliefs, attitudes, etc.
  2. Purpose–  What is the goal of the event?  Is the event mainly to get your name and brand out there so you can create brand awareness,  is it to get sales,  is it to grow your prospect list, is it to show appreciate to your customers, is it to educate the market on your industry, etc.  There are so many reasons to have an event, and it is important that you are clear on the specific reason you are having the event.
  3. Promotion–  How are you going to get the word out about your event?  Are you going to use traditional advertising channels like radio, TV, newspaper, etc., or are you going to use new media like social media, blogs, email, etc., or a combination of both forms of media?  List all the ways you are going to promote the event and how often you are going promote it up until the day of the event.
  4. Budget–  It is important to establish a budget for the event.  How much are you willing to spend on the promotion of the event and the actual event itself?  No matter how big or small of an event you are planning, it is important for you to set an overall budget for the event.

Step 2-  During the Event

The marketing of the event does not end while the event is taking place, in fact, some of the best promotion can be done at the event.  Some ways that you can promote during the event include:

  1. Live Stream–  This has become popular for larger events.  With the technology available to be able to broadcast the event around the world, many people are offering free or paid live streams for people to be able to have access to the event virtually.  This helps to amplify your event goal, because not only will you be reaching the people who attend your event in person, but you can also reach people anywhere in the world.  It goes back to the purpose of your event.  If a live stream will help you reach your overall goal and it is in your event budget, then it may be something to consider.
  2. Social Media–  Social Media and Social Networks like Twitter and Instagram are great to promote not only before the event, but also during the event because it is a way for people who are at the event to connect, and also people who are not at the event to get some of the information presented, and to see some of the activity.  The best way to be effective on social networks is to create a specific hashtag (#) that can be used throughout the event.  This allows for easy grouping and visibility on the network when it comes to conversations and pictures about the event.  Again it is another way to amplify the event to other people who may not be in attendance.

Step 3-  Post-Event

The marketing of the event does not end after the event.  Depending on how often you will be having the event or having other events for your business, the end of the event is a great way to market the next event.

  1. Sign-ups–  Be sure to promote the next event, and whenever possible even encourage individuals to sign-up for the next event on the spot.  That helps you to secure your audience for your next event.
  2. Feedback–  Getting feedback after an event is not only great research on how you can improve your next event, but it also shows your attendees that you care about the events and their feedback is valuable.  Event surveys are a great way to get this type of feedback and the information that you receive from the attendees can help you with the creation and promotion of the next event
  3. Appreciation–  Showing your attendees that you appreciated their attendance is also a great post-event activity.  This could be in the form of an email or a thank you card.  Depending on the size and scope of your event, you would need to decide what is the most appropriate way for you to show your attendees appreciation.

Do you have consistent events to promote your business?  If so, what do you include in your pre-event, during event, and post event planning?

Posted by Nadine Mullings  |  Comments Off on Three Steps to Successful Event Marketing  |  in Business, Business Development, Business Events, Event Marketing, Marketing, Small Business