by Annette Naif

soldoutAs most of you know, selling event tickets is no easy task. One thing you must keep in mind while selling is the entire marketing and sales funnel. Doing this effectively should create a happy customer base that will be much easier to sell to the next time.

Stage 1: Prospects

Okay, so you’ve got your event scheduled and are working through all the details. Now you need to target all your perspective event attendees. The #1 thing you can do to help with this is get your event website up & running. Even if you don’t have all the details or agenda set, you should have that site live and make it very obvious WHY someone should attend your event. Make is very easy to register! Nothing will turn someone off than having a difficult registration process.

Once your site is looking good, now is the time to concentrate on initial marketing efforts to get the word out. The key here is to use a variety of methods. Different attendees will respond to different types of marketing. Be sure you have a strong social media campaign and make it especially easy to share your posts with others who will help promote your event. Other options to consider include print advertising, pay per click ads, PR and don’t forget good old-fashioned networking. Be sure you’re telling everyone you know about this event! Where do your attendees network? Be sure you’re attending those events.

Stage 2: Leads

Hopefully your initial marketing efforts have begun to bring in leads. Be sure you’re sending these leads to a landing page with a strong call to action. Again be sure it’s obvious to them why to attend this event. Appeal to their emotions as people tend to respond to that. If you’re gathering information from leads be sure you get enough so you (or your sales team) can follow up directly with them and give them personal reasons to attend

Stage 3: Marketing

Now is time to continue merging your marketing and sales efforts together. Start updating your marketing efforts to emphasizing the agenda & speakers while continuing to explain why someone should attend the event. Examine your pricing structure as well. Have you limited your discounted tickets to a specific timeframe or number of tickets? Use this as a way to create some buzz around your event. Be wary of always discounting your ticket price to right before your event; this might encourage repeat attendees to wait until the last minute each year.

Stage 4: Attendees

As the event approaches it’s time to focus on the actual attendees. Be sure you have a great customer service plan where attendees are getting their questions answered quickly. Take the time to listen to what they want and what will create the best experience for them. Focus on your repeat attendees and give them a reason to come back next time. Be sure you’re offering them some sort of incentive to register (and register early) for next your next event. Can they pre-register for the next event at your current event?

Be sure you’re working on both sales and marketing during all stages of your sales funnel. Create a relationship with your attendees and always give them reasons to come back again and again.

WE’D LOVE FOR YOU TO SHARE THIS IN YOUR NEWSLETTER OR WEBSITE BUT PLEASE INCLUDE THE FOLLOWING COMPLETE INFORMATION: Event Planning Expert, Entrepreneur, and Coach, Annette Naif, Owner & Creative Director of Forté Events NYC and publisher of the E-Zine, “Forté Today.”

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