Lots of people are saying that event registrations are dropping off a cliff. Are people bored of virtual? Are people bored of events? I’m gonna say; “Hell no! People are not bored of virtual events, people are just overwhelmed.” So if your message is not packing a punch, if you’re not really singing to your target audience, then you’re not going to get ticket sales. You’re not going to get bums on seats, you’re not going to get people turning up on the day, because you know what? Their attention span is limited and precious and if you’re not showing up in that space, they won’t even know you exist, never mind that your event is happening, even though what you have to tell them is absolute gold.
And I know it is because I’ve been on so many events now where the speaker is utterly epic, you all have an incredible amount to give. So how do you make sure that you fill up your events? How do you make sure that you sell out?
In practically just 10 minutes you could review the way you’re marketing events at the and take a look at this list to help you make sure that you’re filling up events. But first, a bit of homework before you start…
Who is the event for?
Make sure that you have your client avatar really clear in your mind.
- Who is this event for?
- What are they trying to get out of it?
- What do they want to get done at the end of it?
Have these things really clear in your brain, even if it means taking a minute grabbing a pen and writing down everything you know about this person. This person that has to be at your event because they must hear what you have to say, write it down.
Give them a name. What do they do for a job? How much do they earn? What does their family look like? What do they do in their free time? What car do they drive? Do they drive a car? Consider everything about their social and economic standpoint, you need to be able to picture it.
So when you’re writing your event sales copy, when you’re selecting images to market your event to this potential audience, you will be speaking directly to your client avatar. That’s your homework for today!
How to sell out your next event
Inject some life into your marketing and get some bums on seats. So here are 10 things that you can do:
- Event FOMO (fear of missing out)
The first step is you’ve got to create some FOMO. You’ve got to build some hype around your event, ask yourself; what does that look like? You’ve got to put on your event, with limited spaces, and already five places have sold out! Within the first five minutes, five tickets have sold out and keep sharing the update every time someone buys a ticket to your event. Update your socials that six tickets have gone, only four to go, or that three tickets have gone, only six remaining and so on. Create that FOMO and then add on top of that; six tickets remaining and these people are going to find out the key to eternal wealth, whatever it is that your event is about, give them a really punchy insight that they’re going to get from their event (or not if they don’t attend), create some FOMO and keep going with it.
It’s not bragging, it’s marketing, encourage people who might be sitting on the fence to take action.
2. Event FOMO will help you sell more event places
Create real and genuine scarcity, it has to be genuine. You can’t say “I’ve only got 10 tickets”, and then when people turn up there’s 20 people in the room. If that doesn’t work, it goes against everything and all the integrity that you and your company stand for.
You might sell 50 tickets, but you might only have 20 at the early bird price and when that early bird offer ends, and the price goes up on Friday, it has to go up. Whether you fill those early bird seats or not, the price has to go up as that’s the only way scarcity becomes genuine.
You might well find that you have three points of pricing and I’ve seen this work really well in the last couple of weeks. The super early bird pricing for only the first 48 hours. After 48 hours of intense marketing, the price goes up for the next five days, and after that, the price will go up again, when people genuinely see that your super early bird offer has ended and your price has gone up.
Event attendees usually buy at the second stage because they don’t want it to go up again and they don’t want to miss out, so you can tie scarcity and FOMO together really nicely in an intensive marketing campaign.
3. Authority will help to fill your event
Next up you need to create some authority. People will be scrolling through their Facebook feed, scrolling through their LinkedIn updates, and though you might skim past a picture and think who is this person? This is the chance to create some more authority, tell people about what you do, what your achievements are in the post.
For example: “I have helped 400 people and I am an expert in X, Y and Z”. Maybe you could create a video and give people some advice, some initial insights, a little nugget of information that will make them say; “Wow, this person really knows what they’re talking about!” By creating that authority, you set yourself apart from all the other scammers that are out there and by doing it on video, you start to build the ‘know, like and trust’.
You could also release something along the lines of; Here’s a quick bite of something to get you going; Here’s the top five ways to plan your social media marketing for the next five months. People will have a look at it and say; “This person knows what they’re talking about and, I need to know more tips,” A great way to start to build that authority.
4. How to use proof to fill your event
The next step is proof. People really like to know that you’ve got proof and it ties into your authority (step three) quite nicely too. If you’ve got testimonials, if you’ve got ratings; and I always advise you to get feedback and ratings from people and share those everywhere.
You should be putting out those glowing testimonials and what people are saying about you constantly, even if it’s a text message you receive, For example; “Hey, that was really helpful. I really feel like I know where I’m going with my life now.” You reply: “Great. Would you mind if I use that as an anonymous testimonial?” Clent: “Yep, go for it.”
When you finish work with a client, make sure that you’re getting video testimonials that you can use across your social media. Ask people to vouch for you on LinkedIn, get reviews on Google My Business, get reviews on Facebook. Don’t be afraid to ask for testimonials and feedback from people that you can use to build your proof. When you’re marketing your event, you can actually tie some authority together with some proof in the same Facebook post.
“Hi, my name is Lorna Reeves. I’ve helped 1000s of clients improve their events worldwide.” Susan from Ohio says; “We wouldn’t run another event without you, you 100% increased our revenue and made us a profitable business for the first time.”
Sharing this type of content packs a punch. If I follow it up with:
“We have 5 five star reviews from the last three months,” people start to sit up and listen and think to themselves; this person knows what they’re talking about.
5. Build rapport to sell out your event
The next step is to start to build some rapport, start a conversation. Would you necessarily go for a drink with someone you just met on the bus? No, probably not. If you travel on the bus and talk to the person sitting next to you for an hour on your journey while it’s been stuck in traffic, you now know a bit about them. You know what they do, you know a bit about who they are, they’ve shown you some authority, they’ve shown you a bit of proof.
Would you potentially go for a couple with them? Yes, because you’ve started to build rapport. You’ve started to get a sense of who this person is. Now we all know the old adage about Richard Branson having more followers than Virgin because it’s the person people connect with rather than the company. So step forward, into the limelight and out of the shadow of your company and put a face to your business.
When you get in front of the camera and record a video, you’re starting to build rapport and connection, it doesn’t have to be much, it can be a quick Facebook Live. It can be some videos released on Facebook or Instagram, it can be some LinkedIn lives, anything that helps people get to know you as a person, then you can build in some authority, and throw in proof. Your audience is thinking ‘I quite liked this person and they know what they’re talking about, I need their event. Hold on, five people have booked already and there’s only 10 slots I need to get cracking!’ Do you see how it starts to link together?
6. What to call your event?
My next top tip is making sure that the title of your event stands out.
It needs to be punchy, head over to Buzzsumo or Answer the public. Buzzsumo will give you viral headlines which you can use to create headlines for your event. Answer the public will give you insight into what people are searching for online. So, if your event is on how to get your baby to sleep through the night, type that into answer the public and you’ll get the top questions that people are asking if people are typing inconsistently. If people are asking in Google search: ‘How do I get my baby to sleep through the night at three months?’ Your event title should be; ‘How to get your baby to sleep through the night at three months’. So when people search, Google throws up your event as the immediate answer. It’s not rocket science but people try to over complicate it.
Make it super obvious what your event is about and what you’re trying to show them. Make your title punchy and obvious, and stand out from the crowd.
7 and 8. Next up is solutions and pain.
These are two separate ones. But they kind of go together in the title of your event and your copy. You need to tell people what is the solution that you’re offering with your event, what will they take away after attending?
What will they be able to do? If you were attending ‘How to get your baby to sleep through the night at three months old,’ all you want to be able to do at the end of that webinar is know how to get your baby to sleep through the night. You could then weave in some pain points which is the next stage in your copy.
Are you having sleepless nights?
Are you getting things wrong at work?
Are you losing patience in your relationship?
Are you struggling with your baby in those first few months?
Do you want to find out how to get your baby to sleep through the night?
If the answer is yes, here’s the event for you.
You have to be obvious with your solution, so people will walk alone, scroll along and think there’s an event, what am I going to get out of it at the end? And if you can tell them in the title or the summary, what the solution is, then you can connect with them on some pain points.
This messaging will really resonate; that’s a pain point for me too, you’ve got an answer to my problem. Coupled with the fact that you’ve got a really punchy title so they’re going to find you out of the weeds and masses of 100s and 1000s of other events means that you’re really going to connect from the get go.
So that’s;
✔ FOMO
✔ Scarcity
✔ Authority
✔ Proof
✔ Rapport
✔ Titles
✔ Solutions
✔ Pain.
That’s eight out of 10. The last two are really straightforward and easy.
9. Sell your event tickets online
Make sure that however you’re marketing your event that you’re making it mobile friendly. All too often people will say click here to sign up and it goes through to a website landing page that’s not mobile enabled. If it’s not really clear and really obvious on mobile devices (which is how most people connect to these types of events) people will click away and not buy a ticket. So make sure that it’s mobile enabled.
Make sure whatever platform you’re using for your event is also mobile enabled. You’ve got more chance of people showing up if they can rock up on their tablet or mobile phone. Really simple, really simple fix that one for getting people to your event and to stay at your event.
Make sure that that button to sign up is really easy to see on a mobile device.
10. Invite your network to your event
And last but not least is the easiest way to get people onto your event or programme is via referrals. You’ve got a massive network of people that you’ve already worked with, reach out to those people and say, “Hey, I’ve got this event coming up. And I’m just wondering if you have anyone in your network that you think it would be suitable for.”
How about? “By the way, here’s a referral code” – every person that comes to you, you’ll get a kickback or the person that gets the most referrals will get a prize, or just share it because you love me and you love my work and you know that your friends need me.
Don’t be afraid to ask for referrals, reach out to your existing group of contacts, because chances are they are your target customer and they know more of your target customer. And not forgetting, the cheapest way possible to get bums on seats is through referrals.
Event marketing tactics
So that’s it; 10 top tips that you can initiate right now, they shouldn’t take you very long at all. You can either review events that you’ve already got in marketing running for at the moment, or you can implement them for your next event.
Ultimately this is how to stand out in the sea of events, how to get people to really connect with your copy, and most importantly get people to click that button.
How to sell out your events
So to recap, that’s FOMO; so get people to think that they are missing out, genuine scarcity that they won’t get a place if they don’t act now, authority – build who you are, what your experience on the subject looks like and offer some hints and tips to help build that authority.
Don’t forget to show off your proof and testimonials, getting going on video, start to build rapport with your target audience early. Take stock and review your event titles, are they packing a punch. Are they doing what they say on the tin solutions? What are people going to walk away with? What is the solution that your event is going to give people? What pain points are going to make people say yep, that’s me, I need those solutions.
Make sure you’re mobile enabled for your ticket buying and the event itself and don’t be shy to ask for referrals. Top tip number 10; get those referrals in the bank.
Go and fill your event!
So that’s it from me and my top 10 tips and ways that you can get bums on seats at your events – super easy to implement. If any of the tips resonate with you and you’re having real trouble with any of them, please do reach out. You can find me at Lorna@myohmyevents.com or drop your questions in the comments.
For more tips like these, tune in to the MyOhMy Events podcast.
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