Top 10 12 Marketing Engagement Ideas

For Education & Training Programs

Pat Lee Public Relations Director

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Bonu

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Controlling the Elements

Marketing Mix Review

Message Market Media Moment

If the mix isn’t right, results will be unsatisfactory.

Marketing Mix Review

MESSAGE◦ Must convey outstanding and undeniable

benefits to your prospects.

Big 3 of all benefits◦ Make more money◦ Save money◦ Life will be easier or better

Benefits are about the prospect, not about your organization.

Marketing Mix Review

MARKET Potential audience must actually need

what you are offering. Target market is NOT everyone who

belongs to our association or everyone who works in the . . . industry

Marketing Mix Review

How FMA picks marketing targets

Circ Universe

7 pubs,Many job

titles

TPJ Readers

Engineers & Ops Mgrs

20-150empl

Pop Quiz: Define the wrong target market for this ad

Marketing Mix Review Perfect Message and Market still need the

right Media to succeed Test and use multiple media:

◦Mail◦Phone◦Email◦Fax◦Publications◦Social Media◦Others??

TIMING IS EVERYTHING!Message, Market and Media can all be right, but deliver no response if Moment is wrong.

Our subconscious brain includes a Reticular Activating System (RAS) that helps us to focus on what’s important at that moment in time and keeps us from paying attention to what we can’t use or don’t need.

Marketing Mix Review

Marketing Mix Summary Message, Market, Media and Moment all

must be right when delivered to cause a favorable buying decision.

Even when the first three are right, if the target is in the wrong Moment, we will not get a favorable response. It’s not about our organization, the program, the speakers or the price.

Share examples of great use of Message, Market, Media and

Moment from your experience

Encouraging registration and participation

Top 8 List

Tools to Generate Interest &

Engagement

Discounts can generate registration, but you need a REALLY GOOD REASON or all you’ve done is devalue your program.

#8 Discounts

“If by the end of day 2 of the Leadership

Conference you haven’t learned at least three cost-saving or efficiency-boosting ideas you can apply in your business, simply speak to any FMA staff member onsite and we will refund your registration fee instantly. Guaranteed.”

#7 Money Back Guarantee

Bonuses beat discounts because they don’t devalue what you are selling. Correctly applied they make the recipient feel both smart and special.

Examples:◦ White paper or book on relevant topic for early

registration (from a conference speaker?)

◦ Relevant tool or guide from a sponsor

◦ Special purchase offer from sponsor to be exercised following the event.

#6 Offer Bonuses

Promotion Theme was: Recipe for Business Success

Register online or call 888-394-4362. BONUS! Those who sign up before Jan. 1, 2010 will receive a complimentary "recipe book", the Metal Fabricators Pocket Bible. 

EARLY REGISTRATION BONUS! Sign up by 11:59 a.m. on Dec. 24, 2010 and get the Thursday Reception at Epcot® for F·R·E·E* a $75 value! Enter promo code "epcot" when registering online or call 888-394-4362.

*Not applicable with any other discounts or promotional offers.

This program had a $795 member registration fee

#5 Market in an unusual way Lumpy Mail

◦ There’s no surer way to get a piece of mail opened and your message read than to deliver it in an unusual package. Curiosity is a powerful motivator.

◦ Concept demands a small, specially targeted audience.

Lumpy Mail examples

Deliver marketing message to someone other than the intended target; they must be an influencer.◦ Assistant◦ Colleague◦ Spouse◦ Other

The message delivery must now include what’s in it for them (the influencer) if they get the intended target to register.

#5 Market in an unusual way

#4 Get Presenters Involved in Marketing Process

Prime marketing targets will generally select a program because the content and qualifications of presenters appeal to them. When the presenters are involved in the marketing it can help to push an undecided into the yes category.

How?◦ Presenters issue the marketing appeal.◦ Presenters offer a teaser taste of program via

personal message, brief podcast, video, etc.◦ Presenters “solicit” case study subjects from

registrants by a certain advance registration date and provide “free” consulting to solve a problem that will be used in the program.

◦ Presenters offer a post-program consulting call with one or two participants whose names are drawn during the event.

◦ Presenters offer a free or discounted follow-up for all attendees (for example an e-newsletter).

#4 Get Presenters Involved

Give sponsors marketing materials you create just for them so they can invite their best customers to participate (at a sponsor discount).

Encourage sponsors to register their staff as participants to “get inside the heads” of customers. Use sponsor discount rate to do it.

Note: It’s not enough that sponsors send someone to sit at a tabletop exhibit. They need people to mix and mingle with the group and participate in learning sessions to find out how their potential customers think.

3. Get Sponsors involved in the marketing process

Educational programs are often uninspired: ◦ Meet in a hotel or educational conference facility. ◦ Long days/hours in the dark watching slides,

sitting in uncomfortable chairs. ◦ Get CREATIVE - Find a way to deliver the program

– or even part of it - in an unexpected venue or offer an unexpected way of illustrating or demonstrating the subject matter. Then market the heck out of the unexpected. People’s work lives are, more often than not, BORING. Offer a chance to escape the boredom AND be able to prove they learned something.

2. Offer the Unexpected

Happy, satisfied past participants are your best marketing spokes people. If you’ve got enthusiastic, repeat attendees – flaunt them! And reward them.

Record video comments at an event for future marketing purposes.

1. Testimonials

Attendee Testimonial Examples

Speaker Testimonial Example

What have you gained from participation in the Leadership Summit?

"It is invaluable to talk to a variety of metal fabricators from around the country who do what we do and are willing to share their experiences and ideas. We face similar challenges and it is great to get different perspectives from people who understand our industry in a very practical way. I return to work re-energized after these thought-provoking days in a relaxing setting."

John Peterson, Co-President, Atlas Manufacturing, Minneapolis, Minn. 

Attendee Testimonial examples

Make it easy for attendees to post comments to the event’s Facebook page or to tweet about the experience during the event.

Review your program evaluation forms, they should always have questions that lead to testimonial statements. Take comments from post session evaluation forms and turn them into testimonial statements ASAP. Get approval to use them and do it on your web site, in email promotions, in brochures.

Testimonials

8 Ways to Engage thru Marketing

1. Testimonials2. Offer the Unexpected3. Get Sponsors Involved in Marketing4. Get Presenters Involved in Marketing5. Market in an Unusual Way6. Offer Bonuses7. Offer Money-Back Guarantee8. Discounts

Getting Repeat Attendees

Repeat customers cost less to serve than acquiring new customers

Top 4

Make promises and keep them. Remind participants of those promises and how you delivered.

Think of 3 ways you can demonstrate how you delivered on promises.

#4 Build Credibility and Reputation

Help attendees have fun and engage with each other

#3 Make It Fun

Engage enthusiastic attendees as planning volunteers, hosts, registration assistants, greeters, sponsors, presenters.

#2 Turn attendees into leaders.

Give them one amazing thing to remember. ◦ Just one amazing prize can WOW the whole

audience and make them remember the experience for months.

Example: At an event breakfast, place a number at every place setting and then at some time during breakfast announce that a winner is about to be selected using those numbers. The prize? That person comes to the podium and is handed a check for the amount of their registration fee or their hotel or their airfare. (This could be sponsored!)

#1 One Amazing Thing

Wrap Up TimeBased on this session, share one new thing you want to try in marketing education events for your association.

Pat Lee, Public Relations DirectorFabricators & Manufacturers Assn. (FMA)PatL@fmanet.org

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