Ahhh, the joy of being Steve Jobs. You mention that you’ll be launching your latest ithing at an upcoming event and there isn’t a seat left in the house (or a dry eye). No worries here about delegate numbers or drop out rates. But what about the rest of us in B2B marketing, organising our own events selling the latest middleware or systems integration services? Recent research shows that IT decision makers only attend about 5 events per year (download the research paper here for free). How are you going to convince them to come to yours?

But I love a good event. Events are great galvanisers of marketing action. Where direct campaigns can slip and lose traction, there’s nothing like a deadline at which people have to stand up in public to ensure the marketing gets out there. And they generate great leads and relationships.

I’ll cover two things this week. Today some thoughts on stopping the “there’s two weeks left to go and we’ve got 6 people signed up” from happening in the first place. Tomorrow, what to do if this is happening to you right now. If you’re thinking about organising an event, try this simple event countdown tool. (Event Countdown Tool)

Getting events right first time, every time

If you believe that your proposition alone won’t cut the mustard to get the right people along, something else needs to do it. Don’t think about marketing the event in terms of drilling home what your latest widget can do, think about what will make it a truly compelling and interesting event for the audience and go from there. Put on a show.

If version 6.3.1.7 of your product isn’t going to materially change their world (or more importantly, if it’s impossible to genuinely convince them it’s going to via direct marketing) don’t make it the focus of your event.

B2B events: tip sheet 1. Right first time

1. People first, not product
   Think about the audience. What kind of people are they? Do they like networking or not? Do they want to play with the latest technology or learn about global business themes? What’s preoccupying them? What’s their biggest challenge? What do they want to learn? Who do they want to meet? What’s been written in their market recently that they want to understand more about? Find up-and-coming authors or bloggers in your field, they can cost a lot less in speakers’ fees than you think.
2. Think Amex Black card
   Everyone wants and is intrigued by the “invitation only” Amex Black card. Can you really buy a Rolls Royce Phantom on it? Do they even exist? People want to come to events that feel more exclusive, which are hard to get into, or at which something is being given away that feels scarce. For example, Stephen Worchel’s pyschological experiment into the desirability of scarce things found that when there were only a few cookies in the jar they were rated as more desirable than cookies with plenty in the jar. Cialdini who writes on the psychology of persuasion says, “The joy is not in experiencing a scarce commodity but in possessing it. What can you do to make the event feel exclusive? What can they get if they come to the event (and only from the event)?
3. Stage an experience, not a powerpoint endurance challenge
   Can the event itself be an event? Innocent Smoothies knows that people won’t get out of bed purely to drink a smoothie at an event, so they create an annual Innocent Village Fete. It’s a mini open-air concert, and they get to own, sponsor and tailor the whole experience. I’ve seen great business events themed as the “summer of love”, or a 1920s speakeasy. Can you give your event a compelling theme? We use an S&M theme in our quarterly Sales & Marketing forum events, and theme the invites with rubber boots and ropes, book a sleek and sexy hotel and have even invented our own S&M Cocktail (Here’s the recipe: S&M Cocktail.doc). You can take inspiration from web 2.0 and get the audience suggesting what they want to hear on the day: get them emailing in.
4. Nine out of ten audience members who expressed a preference said they preferred content
   You are asking people to take a significant chunk out of their working day. They don’t want to be pitched at. You’re reading this because you want to learn something (you lovely foolish individual) not because you want to buy something from me. Of course you’ll buy in time (oh yes you will), but first you want to check out whether it’s worth your while. Your audience will be no different. Look back at step one and craft great content delivered by speakers in authority. What will your audience learn on the day that will help them do their job better? Reinforce this on the invite. Look at best-selling “how to” books and copy the style on the back cover in your invitation material. i.e at this event, you will learn how to do X, Y Z
5. Leave plenty of time
   Pity the senior executive and their time-poor diaries. Their endless round of conference calls and meetings means that you need to leave at least 12 weeks from invitations going out to the day of the event (also allows for the corrective actions in part two of this post if things go wrong.) Mix up your comms channels as you go, some email, some by hand from the sales team, some via the post, altering the messaging on each and measuring the inbound response. PS. It is almost impossible to convince someone on the phone to attend an event if they’ve already decided not to. And you shouldn’t be trying it, you’ll damage your reputation. So don’t bash the phones in an attempt to get more delegates. You should go for a teleservice approach instead. A lot of people set the invite to one side before deciding whether to attend and it gets buried. So on the phone just say I’m calling to check you received the invite OK and to find out whether you’re planning on coming or not? If you’re not planning on attending, is there someone else in your organisation I should send an invite to?”
6. Don’t overlook networking opportunities
   At one of our recent events networking was rated as one of the major reasons delegates attended. Build networking opportunities into your events where at all possible. Perhaps a few beers in buckets at the end of the event, speed-business dating or a full scale cocktail party. Leave time for it. Consider how you might be able to facilitate it online through your own website, or if the events are regular, or user-group based, how you can use social networking tools liked LinkedIn or Facebook.
7. Sweep up the nos and the no-shows
   If someone can’t come or doesn’t turn up on the day that shouldn’t preclude them from your marketing efforts. Before the event, if they say no during the follow up, offer them an opportunity for someone to come to their office and share some of the best content with them. After the event, offer the nos and the no shows an audio CD of the best presentations for their car, or a document outlining the major new points discussed. Put edited excerpts on YouTube and provide a link from your site and send emails directing them to it.