Event Promotion Mistakes - Top 5 Ways to Sabotage your Event Promotion Efforts

Event Promotion Mistake #1 - Not using the right keywords.

A critical component of any online marketing is keyword research. The purpose of keyword research is to find the keywords people who are interested in your event are likely to type in major search engines (Google, Bing, etc.). Once you've identified 2-3 keyword phrases, make sure to use those keywords in the title, as well as the description of your event.

Event Promotion Mistake #2 - Not Having a Web Page for your Event.

The biggest mistake I see people making is promoting their events by attaching pdfs or jpgs to their email messages. There are at least 3 problems with this approach.

1. In the majority of cases, these files are quite large and clog up their recipients email boxes.
2. Many corporations block email attachments unless they come from a trusted source, so your event announcement may not get through.
3. If the only notice of your event is an email attachment, you are crippling your efforts to promote the event via social media.

Fortunately, with services such as eventbrite.com, you can quickly create a web page for your event.

Event Promotion Mistake #3 - Starting Too Late.

In general, you want to begin your event promotion 6-8 weeks in advance. The higher the cost of the event, the earlier you should start.

Event Promotion Mistake #4 - Posting your Event Once.

If you think you can list the event once and never mention it again, you are wrong. Marketing research shows that it takes over 7 reminders to get people who are interested in your product or service to buy. Therefore, you must post your event multiple times, on multiple sites. My database of places to promote events, for example, has over 30 websites.

Event Promotion Mistake #5 - Not Leveraging Social Media

Social media presents a huge opportunity to get the word out about your event. Simply posting it to Twitter or Facebook once, however, is not where near enough. Can you think of at least 6 reasons people should attend your event? Create 6 short benefit statements and post them on Twitter, Facebook, etc. periodically to reach the largest audience possible.

Maximize your Event Registration

The next time you have an event to promote, maximize your chances of getting people to your event by avoiding these mistakes. I have used the steps outlined in this article to help clients attract 75-90% of the attendees at their events. If you need help promoting your event, ask us about our online event promotion services.

Access 2007/ 2010 Forms Tip - Creating Default Text Boxes, etc.

Access 2007/2010 Tip

Changing the formatting of text boxes and other controls on a form can be a time-consuming process. There is a way, however, to set up a default control so that any controls you enter on a form will have consistent formatting. This can be a huge timesaver.

Setting Default Controls.

To set default controls (text boxes, combo boxes, etc.)

• Create a New Form.
  
  
• Draw the control (text box, combo box, etc.) on the form.
  
  
• With the control selected, open the properties group (ALT ENTER) to make changes to the items. You can change the font, font color, background color, borders, and many other options.
  
  
• Once you've changed the properties, click the Design tab, expand the Controls group and click Set Control Defaults. (Make sure you have the control selected).
  
  
• The defaults you've set up only apply to the existing form.

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1 Key Technical Skill for Building Relationships Through Twitter

In a previous blog post, I wrote about tweets that build your business. In this one, I would like to share 1 key technical skill for building relationships through twitter.

The skill is:

The ability to segment your twitter stream.

What does this mean? Twitter moves fast, and the more people you follow, the faster it moves. That amount of information can be overwhelming. In order to deepen your relationships on twitter, you have to be able to segment the people you follow, and/or those that follow you.

Here are 3 ideas for segmenting your twitter stream:

• Mentions.
  
  It is absolutely essential that you have a way to quickly see who mentions you on twitter, so that you can respond. Not acknowledging when someone retweets your tweet or mentions you on twitter is the equivalent of turning your back on someone who is speaking to you (and I know you do not want to do that!). I have my hootsuite application set up so that as soon as I login, the first thing I see are any mentions of twitter ids (mine or my clients').
  
  
  

• Prospects.
  
  Using hootsuite or any other social media management app, you can enter keyword searches for people who might be in the market for your services. "Cluttered office," for example, might be a keyword search to use if you are a productivity expert. Set up the search for everyone on twitter, not just your followers. Once you've set up such a search, all of the people tweeting the term will show up in one column. You can then build relationships with these people by answering their questions on twitter, or connecting off-line.
  
  
  

• Interactions.
  
  To strengthen your social media connections, consider setting up a separate segment of people you've interacted with in one way or another.
  
  This segment could include:
  • Your LinkedIn connections.
  • People you've had conversations with on twitter.
  • Your clients.
  • Your friends.

Like you, I do not have a lot of time to spend on social media, so when I check twitter through my hootsuite app, I check this column to keep up with the people I know.

How to create a stream in Hootsuite.

Creating a stream in Hootsuite is very simple.

• Click the Add Stream button.
  
  
  
• A box pops up allowing you to set up a particular stream, by mentions, keyword searches, lists, etc.
  
  
• Make your choices.
  
  
• Click Create Stream to save your stream.
  
  

Do you have any other ideas for segmenting twitter? Feel free to comment below.