Your Marketing Magnet

Summer is finally here!  And with Canada Day and July 4th upon us, there’s no better way to showcase your business, strengthen and build lasting relationships with new customers, as well as reward and thank old ones for their loyalty and patronage than by entertaining them with special events.  Whether you host a BBQ, golf tournament, beach party, street festival, concert, sidewalk sale, poolside fashion show, picnic or moonlight cruise, when you invite preferred customers to sample and preview your products, you’re also creating a unique opportunity in which to generate awareness of what you have to offer – simply by employing this cost-effective, strategic marketing and public relations tool to market your business.

When people attend your event (i.e. visit your booth or store for the free hot dogs and ice cream), they also browse your merchandise.  More importantly, many members of the media like and also tend to frequent local special events and even broadcast them on air or print notices of their occurrences in their newspapers.  So special events can also get you tons of free press coverage!  This is especially true if your event is linked to a charitable or noteworthy cause or features free food, entertainment, pony rides, amusements, gifts, draws and other giveaways.

Assuming your event is also based on a clever angle or gimmick, you may also have a shot at getting broader publicity – both as a preview and post-event story.  Thus you have two great potential pay offs – promoting yourself to your target markets (or those you want to attend your event) as well as the added publicity that helps you extend yourself to thousands of additional prospects who may not otherwise have been there.  Either way, you win!

But if entertaining your clients has become a chore and your events are a snore, here are some of my top event-planning tips on how ot draw big crowds, attract the media’s attention and make your event more exciting and profitable than you ever imagined:

√     Link your event to current events or topical news. For example, when SAARS affected Toronto, the Rolling Stone’s chipped in and put on a concert to increase Toronto’s tourism and boost the hotel and entertainment industries’ suffering economies as well as raise funds for health care and other workers.  You could link your special event into something similar.
√     Tie your event to a holiday, birthday, anniversary or other commemorative occasion.  Toronto industry legend and prime promoter, the late Ed Mirvish of Honest Ed’s held his annual birthday bash. On top of the food and entertainment, he provided his customers with special discounts and incentives on various items in his store, plus a ton of additional savings.  Such an event can be tailored to meet your own objectives.
√     Involve local celebrities. Invite your local MP, mayor, police, fire chief, newscaster or popular DJ from one of the local radio stations to serve as master of ceremonies and sign autographs.  Local rising sport stars, bands and singing sensations are another way to go. Celebrities do more than endorse your products and services – they attract people and the press.  
√     Make your own news.  For example, if your event has a specific message or purpose, put on a video or CD as an introduction or greeting card and send it to the appropriate contacts at all the local stations.
√     Make your event extraordinary, rather than ordinary.  You can achieve this by incorporating a unique theme, distinctive or captivating twist or aspect to it.  Or by highlighting an unusual component or event within the event.  For example, if you own a pizza parlour, you may consider trucking in your ingredients and attempting to get print by having everyone at your event build you the world’s largest pizza.  This idea could be carried out as a contest with prizes awarded for the most creative toppings or combinations.

Other important factors to consider…

1. Once you assume the host or hostess role, don’t forget to amuse your guests – Similar to the role of performers who entertain their audiences, you as host or hostess of the event are obliged to amuse your guests. Since you are directly responsible for their enjoyment, you must appear calm, cool and collected.  You should be well-rested and ready to project a fun, positive, upbeat image.  The ultimate toastmaster, it is up to you to create a warm and friendly environment.  You must also make yourself available to your guests, particularly for introductions and be extra courteous and highly attentive to their needs – ensuring that each is well fed, entertained, informed and involved in the conversation, rather than ignored.  The success of your special event greatly depends upon your ability to effectively network and mingle with your invitees.  You cannot risk loosing sight of your event objectives by preoccupying yourself with last minute preparations or slipping back into a chair with drink in hand and expect your guests to amuse themselves. Or your event is sure to fail.

2. Evaluate your event’s strengths & weaknesses – Evaluating the strengths and weaknesses of your event to determine where there is a need for improvement can also make it more exciting and prosperous.   Utilizing decor & props, trying different venues & locations (such as: hotels, tents, museums and historic houses instead of restaurants), diversifying menus & buffets, blending entertainers, musicians, interactive  games & amusements with D. J.’ s  and educational components are all effective methods of alluring attendees.

3. Pre-determine each expense – Before you send out your invitations and publicize your event via phone, email, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, text, flyer and so forth, you have to plan it.  This means figuring out the cost of all related expenses, setting a budget, shaping its theme or concept and administrating all logistics.

Demonstrating a key message should always be the purpose and main objective of any promotional activity.  Special events are no exception. So remember to look at your products and services and identify the most important message you want to communicate about them.  Now get creative and come up with a way to clearly convey those messages, as doing so will determine the scope, size, and creative approach to your event, as well as the best place to start with your budget.

To avoid wasting precious time and resources, you must frame your event around your budget.  Realize that events cost time, effort, energy and money.  So it is best to be realistic about your expectations and set specific goals about what your event can entail in relation to your budget.  If you have $30,000 plus to spend, you can afford to do a travel promotion featuring an appearance by a pitcher from a baseball team who just won the World Series. With a smaller budget, you may have to stick to hot air balloons, balloon draws, a clown, face painting and serving hot dogs in the parking lot.

Budgeting, exploring your available resources & options, conducting research and acquiring different quotes are all contributors in creating triumphant gatherings.

4. Hire a Pro – Often the task of planning an event can be overwhelming, time consuming and expensive. So hiring or working with an experienced marketing/PR/special event professional, coach or consultant can be of extreme benefit and is yet another means of bettering your functions. Knowledgeable and qualified in all areas of event-management, marketing/PR/special event professionals provide their expertise, industry contacts, on-hand resources, creative concepts, time-management, negotiation and organizational skills.  These skills dramatically reduce the time in organizing your event and also decreases your labour costs. Marketing/PR/special event professionals also reduce the margin for error that can otherwise be quite costly – since they spend less time administering events.

Other advantages to using a marketing/PR/special event professional include their professionalism, enthusiasm, attitude and reliability, as well as their adherence to safety codes & standards, licenses, environmental concerns and protocols.  These considerations are usually overlooked and while they may appear to be meaningless to the average person, they actually can make or break your event!  Furthermore, experienced marketing/PR/special event organizers maximize your budget dollars, ensure that your event reaches its objectives and produces the highest rate of Return on Your Investment.

Offering a one-stop event-planning service, marketing/PR/special event experts take care of all your event needs, arranging and overseeing it from start to finish.  They eliminate all of the stress, aggravation, fuss and mess that you would otherwise have to deal with and make it possible for you and your staff to be treated like guests at your own affair!  Throughout the planning process, they save you time (one of our most valuable and expensive assets you have) and money (up to 30% of your total event budget!).

If you are running out of new ideas, constantly repeating themes, re-using the same venues, noticing a decline in attendees, experiencing burn-out, feeling resentful about both having to plan and attend events after-hours, wanting less responsibility & more time for your personal life, implementing even a few of my event-planning suggestions will undoubtedly put you on the road to organizing amazing special events and obtaining your objectives.

To your success,

Feel free to leave me a comment and let me know how my advice is working for you!

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Founding Publicist, Prime Time PR and former editor PRtalk (Canada’s only online PR magazine), Janette Burke is a marketing/PR coach, consultant, columnist, trainer, speaker, TV Personality and creator of “The Magnetic Marketing/PR Process TM” (TMMPP) – her customized, cost-effective, step-by-step, guaranteed to get-results-now marketing/PR coaching, consulting and training program.  To discuss how she can help take your business to the next level, call: (905) 882-6893; E-mail: janette@yourmarketingmagnet.com or visit: www.yourmarketingmagnet.com.