Although relatively few business people do these, I still think that seminars are one of the greatest marketing tools ever invented...

I mean, let's face it, where else are you going to get a chance to talk to 30, 40, 50 or 60 people or more at one time? How else can you explain what you do to a bunch of people, have an opportunity for them to listen to what you do and become curious or interested in it? 

And how else can you to do this, in many instances, at low or no cost? There are several types of seminars that you can use. The whole concept of seminars is nothing new. All kinds of people use seminars for all types of businesses to attract large groups of prospects at one time.

For example, weight loss companies use seminars to attract potential customers. Some industries use seminars to attract potential employees.

I know a plumber and a heating and air contractor that do seminars to teach people how to do their own plumbing and HVAC repairs. Most of the people who show up are widows or single elderly women. These people generally have an interest in making repairs because they don't have a husband to do the work.

However, after listening to the each one speak, most don't really want to be bothered with doing the repairs themselves, so guess what they do?

That's right, you guessed it. They hire the plumber or HVAC tech that gave the seminar. These guys told me at least half of the women that show up at his seminars (which they give for free) end up hiring them to do their plumbing repairs.

Seminars are Efficient!

It should be pretty obvious to see that talking to a large group of people at one time is a very efficient use of your time.

Think about it for a minute. Which would you rather do? Spending time with one person telling them how wonderful your business is and how they should do business with you? Or doing a seminar in front of dozens of people where you can tell your story, Which is an obviously better use of your time?

The Seminar of Course!

I still think that doing seminars is one of the most cost- efficient, high-success types of marketing there is, yet hardly anybody does it.

Why? I'm not sure.

First of all, some people are just totally scared to death of getting up and speaking in front of a group. Now, if you're totally scared to death of speaking, there are any number of things you can do to help alleviate this. Join a group where you live and interact. There are all kinds of books and tapes available about speaking in front of groups. In order to make a lot of money, you really should become good at this skill.

You'll also find that after you do a couple or three of them, it's not that big a deal to speak in front of large groups.

Some people I know speak to groups as large as 400 or 500 people and not been any more nervous than if they were speaking to a group of 10 people. Also, if you're not good at doing seminars or you just won't get up in front of the room, there's no law that says you can't have somebody else do the seminar with you, or for you.

For example, you can team up with an associate who isn't afraid of getting up in front of the room, or you can work with outside professionals and do joint seminars.

Other professionals will probably be more than glad to get in front of a group of people that you put together and speak about how their particular product/service complements yours.

So don't dismiss this idea of seminars so quickly just because you might not have the inclination or interest in getting up in front of the room yourself. Having the right people attracting the right audience, success will unfold every time.

Marketing Using Seminars

Any seminar has to be properly planned. That's why an event planner is needed to handle all the little chores like promotion, schedules etc...

First, to be able to fund a seminar, it is higly recommended to set up a campaign to promote this online and offline. The campaign offline can be done with conventional means and methods by sending out mass flyers, ads, clippings etc...

The campaign online is a different story and where you make most your money. Why? Well, the first thing you'll want to do is to get a seperate domain name just for this seminar. You'll want to register a domain and start building a site just for this. Throw everything, tell everything and show everything about this seminar and what it will and can do for the visitors.

Second, is to charge the required fee for the seminar right on the website. Have this setup with your merchant for people to pay ahead of time. Remembering to tell them all they will receive by attending this seminar.

Now, by setting up this new website and by doing your offline promotions, you are going to be funding the seminar before it happens. The event will completely paid for. Have where people can pay and attend all the way up to the last 12 hours. Then yank the promotions down and WHAM! have your seminar.

Now, this is where you'll make even more money. Have your seminar audio and video recorded. You can pay for this by the funds you have already collected.

Take this seminar recordings and sell them both online and offline. Again, you already know where, when, how to sell offline. Online, have the new websites' pages changed to reflect on these new recordings and sell them into packages with all the trimmings. Of course making a 100% money back guarantee.

Doing this online this way, you are doubling the value of this product and many your ROI work ten fold for you.

Event Planner- Two months or even three, start building this site and your campaign. This way you will have the funds to pay for an event planner. Trust me, you'll want this because this can become a pain in the neck to work with doing it by yourself or with someone else that doesn't know all the ends to make this work.

The Seminars' Material- regardless of the topic of this seminar, it will be higly recommended to pay for someone to record all this and put all this into booklets for the attendees. The material is the goldmine here and this will be the discovery of your seminar's success. Plus, the material can now be ready to sell to the public as well to give to those who attended the seminar.

Local Carriage Promotions- This will be the lifeblood to the advertising of your seminar. Have your event planner, call, talk, or go by each and every newspaper, free newspaper, radio station or TV station, and tell them about the upcoming seminar. Now, here's where you negotiate. Tell them that you will give them a classic ad spot somewhere in your seminar in exchange for an advertisement about the seminar in their paper, on radio to the local area. This way you won't have to pay for advertising locally and even do a press release.

Seminar Price- Well this has to be something that you have to deem as valuable as anything. You don't want to over charge and you don't want to under charge either. To set a price for the seminar, take the total expected value of the material that's going to be covered and add 15% to the total. This will cover any setbacks or chargebacks by customers and making sure you have everything covered by the planners' scheduling. Nothing missed in other words.

Bonuses- This is always a plus by adding bonuses to the seminar. This will get peoples attention and give them something of value. They will probably already view the price as high, but when you add important bonuses to the packages you now have their attention. The other rule of thumb is to NEVER offer any back-end sale items to a seminar. Let this focus strictly on the value of the presentation.

Presentation- the presenters is what makes a seminar successful. Whoever the presenters are, have them meet prior to the event and go over the schedule, material, and most importantly the message. Make dam sure they understand to keep their attention and focus on the audience at all times and keep them awake. Make the slide shows (if any) work properly, add humor to the presentation, anything to keep their attention. There's nothing no worse than attending an event that's boring and useless.

The Audience- Whatever the seminar is based on, keeping the audience glued to the message and on topic is a must. One important thing to do, is break down the audience into little work tables and give them little assignments to keep their attention while teaching them what the message or topic is on. This will add value not only to the seminar, but to the recordings when their published. This way everyone can learn from what you teach, not just the audience.

Finally, the concept here is to take the seminar and make it a learning tool for all while making a profit. Returning the profit back into another seminar will make it even more profitable. This means you don't want to stop here. plan another one somewhere else making this a "tour" so to speak. This will give much credibility to the presenters and add value to the seminars' message. Believe me, once the word gets out about a seminar, people want to know when it will come into their neck of the woods.

 © Ren-A-List.com (All Rights Reserved)

Featured Links

Advertising Channels

Free Account