Get to SOLD OUT!

How to Sell Out Your Outdoor Event, Stop Worrying About People Showing Up, & Deliver an Extraordinary Experience

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    • Cracking Creativity with Tommy Edison

      I'm going to take a slightly different tack on this one. It will focus a little more on personal development. So, bear with me.

      One of the world's most creative minds kept extensive handwritten notes. Over 3,500 notebooks were discovered after Thomas Edison's death in 1931. Those notebooks contained a litany of ideas, sketches, and observations. Edison used his notebooks continually to cross-pollinate ideas.

      Some of Edison's most significant accomplishments were a result of noting his own massive failures. In Edison's own words, "I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work."

      For most humans, forgetting is a regular occurrence (this guy included!). In today's digital overload world, our minds are bombarded with thousands of stimuli daily. To remember a quick idea can be a daunting task.

      If you aren't already, my suggestion to you is to become a voracious note taker! And don't worry, you won't need 3,500 notebooks. It's the process and strategy that's essential.

      Start by finding a pen and a small notepad. Make sure both are compact enough to carry along with you daily. For those that want to go digital, I recommend an Evernote Premium subscription.

      Moving forward, keep a pen and notepad (or your digital notebook) with you at all times. When you have an idea, please write it down. If you wake up in the middle of the night with an idea, write it down.

      Michael Michalko, who wrote Cracking Creativity, offers some Edisonian ideas for organizing written notes:

      Write your observations down from daily experiences. Observations can include ideas from meetings, information that you've gained through reading, and brainstorming.

      Organize your notes thematically into a set group of categories and subjects. This is where Evernote shines, because you can tag, search, and categorize notes.

      After you've established a series of notes, go back to glean additional insight into problems you may encounter.

      You might be able to solve your problems by modifying or reinterpreting something you previously experienced. Plus, when you have your ideas written down, you don't need to take the time to remember what you forgot.

      Source: Michalko, M. (2001). Cracking Creativity: The Secrets of Creative Genius (Revised ed.). Ten Speed Press. pp. 106-107.

      If you're disappointed in the above suggestion, I'd ask you to reconsider. The most extraordinary client successes have come as a result of taking notes and cross-pollinating ideas.

      If you can integrate the suggestions above into your daily routine, I promise you it will have a massive positive impact on your life and your pocketbook.

    • A Powerful Key to Great Event Survey Results

      Recently, clients have been doing a decent amount of surveying. Their survey types include everything from post-event surveys for 2021 to pre-event surveys for 2022.

      Here's something of interest. For all the surveys conducted in previous years, there has been a significant delta in survey completion rates. These rates vary anywhere between 26% to 78%.

      There are numerous factors influencing survey response rates. Including, everything from the quality of your list to the relationship an organization has with those being surveyed.

      And in case you're wondering, list size is one of the least important factors.

      It doesn't matter if your list is big or small. One would think that a small survey list would perform better. Nope! The worst performing client survey in 2020 had a total of 16 people on the list. How so? Nobody completed the survey.

      Thankfully, there is a single universal element of survey success. Your key to success with surveys is well thought out process. That means treating your surveys like a marketing campaign.

      Even the most straightforward marketing campaigns have clear objectives, a well thought out process, and measurement.

      When analyzing poor survey results from the past, the first place I start is getting an overview of the process being used.

      In every instance of lackluster results, the lack of a well-defined process was glaring.

      Before doing another survey, make sure you have a well thought out process in place.

      If you're not sure where to start, look at what others are doing and ethically borrow their ideas! There is no reason to reinvent the “wheel” if someone else has already figured it out.

      Want to get more event survey advice? Check out the articles below:

       

       

    • Does funny put money in your account?

      This evening (US Time), companies are investing 6.5 million USD for a 30-second Super Bowl commercial, per ESPN.com. Come Monday morning, you'll hear a bunch of people pontificate about the "best" or "funniest" Super Bowl commercials. Let us not forget all the "viewer's choice" awards.

      It's worth paying attention to all the noise! That said, I'm going to challenge you to dig a little deeper into Super Bowl commercials. At worst, it's an excellent edutainment (educational entertainment) opportunity.

      My challenge to you is to cut through all the noise about "best, funniest, viewer's choice, etc."

      I admit it, some of the commercials are hilarious and entertaining. But, if funny doesn't put money in your bank account, is it worth $6.5 million USD?

      After all the "votes" have been tallied, keep an eye on those companies in the news. A great place to do this is by using the Google Search box, run a search on "Super Bowl commercials", and then select the "News" tab. This allows you to sort all the recent news stories.

      In the coming days and weeks, keep an eye on the news stories regarding companies that advertised during the Super Bowl.

      The question you need to ask, "did a given Super Bowl commercial drive revenue (or a measurable result) with their advertisement?"

      Is the funniest or most entertaining commercial the most profitable?

      Did those companies who advertised during the Super Bowl make their money back?

      Google News can often provide you with the answers.

      If history is any indicator, the most entertaining commercials are rarely the most profitable. Not to say that never happens.

      You should keep an eye on what happens. Anyone can be a savvy marketer, by merely asking smart questions. More importantly, a little digging can give you a good indication of what might work in your advertising in the future.

      Want to get more advertising and marketing advice for your event? Check out the articles below:

    • Ted Lasso’s curiosity advice for events

      After a presentation last week, I was given the feedback of "Eugene gave yet another over-the-top example of success. That seems like what he always does."

      Both of the previous sentiments are accurate. With that said, here's a slightly different take.

      Instead of touting my accomplishments, I prefer to frame success in the form of client accomplishments. It's a team effort that often involves overcoming numerous challenges.

      So yes, I'm proud of what's been accomplished with all parties involved. But, ultimately, the goal is to inspire others and get them to realize similar outcomes, regardless of their current circumstance. Hence, presenting before and after case studies.

      For context, the over-the-top example referenced above was an event that increased their first-day ticket sales by over three hundred thousand percent. As they say, "results not typical!" And it only took six years and a lot of "kicking and screaming" to realize that increase.

      Regardless of event niche, judgment and jealousy seem to be the default frames of a significant number of people.

      And for all the success stories and presentations, a minuscule number of people have ever asked, "can you please tell me how was that accomplished?"

      So instead of focusing on the negative, let's try something positive …

      If you're looking for a great television series, may I suggest Ted Lasso. The series is about an American football coach who travels "across the pond" to coach a Premier League team. A great quote is referenced during an episode in season one.

      During the episode, Ted is in the middle of a competitive game with a seemingly superior opponent.

      As Ted says, "Be curious, not judgmental." And "if they (people) were curious, they would have asked questions." It's simple and sage advice.

      Some of the most significant client accomplishments have come from curiosity. Specifically, digging into other events and businesses to determine, "how did they do that?" or "how does that work?"

      Fortunately, in almost every instance where I personally reached out, event organizers and business owners were more than generous in sharing their challenges and discoveries. Moreover, many shared findings form the foundational elements for highly successful client campaigns.

      If you and your team aren't actively out there looking for new insights and challenging current assumptions, never forget to "Be curious, not judgemental." Ask a lot of questions because the dividends are extraordinary!

      Want to get more info on event surveys? Check out the articles below:

    • To wrangle event trolls or not?

      Last weekend, I attended a series of online presentations with outdoor event organizers from the Northeastern United States. The topics discussed ranged from ticket pricing to profitable event models during the pandemic.

      At one point, I glommed on to a brief point about online trolls made by KW.

      If you're unfamiliar with the term troll, specifically "Internet troll," here's a definition from urbandictionary.com:

      "An Internet troll, or simply troll in Internet slang, is someone who posts controversial, inflammatory, irrelevant or off-topic messages in an online community, such as an online discussion forum or chat room, with the primary intent of provoking other users into an emotional response or to generally disrupt normal on-topic discussion."

      Short version, trolls are people who stir up trouble online without good reason or facts. And trolls regularly infest social media because of their near-instantaneous ability to respond.

      During his presentation, KW had mentioned a series of approximately 50 Internet Trolls disparaging his team and their event. Smartly, KW noted every troll and searched the event's customer records.

      Of the 50 "loudest" trolls in question, one purchased a ticket to KW's event. One!

      The above example is an essential reminder of "check-em!" when they balk. The biggest reason to look up trolls quickly is so don't want to waste your time, energy, or effort with people who don't support (and will never support) your event.

      Don't give trolls the energy they don't

      Looking for more event feedback advice? Check out the articles below:

    • The Dull Essentialness of List Clean-up

      Today's question of the day is, "Do you clean up your marketing/customer lists?"

      From first-hand experience, list clean-up can be a tedious and time-consuming process. It can also be essential in maximizing the results of your marketing campaigns.

      How so?

      Take a great ad and send it to a lousy marketing list; your results are going to be poor. Juxtapose the previous variables against a high-quality list with mediocre marketing. Your high-quality list with sub-par marketing will outperform almost every time.

      Here's an email list cleaning example from a recent project involving a large outdoor event in the United States.

      In total, the event has a high-quality contact database for over 60,000 people. During a recent email marketing analysis, the following came to light.

      Over the last two years:

      7,000 contacts did NOT open any marketing emails, and approximately 40,000 contacts OPENED at least one marketing email.

      If you haven't already, add up the numbers above and take note. Specifically, the 40,000 people who opened an email and 7,000 that did not open an email. Those numbers total up to 47,000 contacts on a list of over 60,000. Unfortunately, it also leaves us with a gap of over 13,000 marketing contacts.

      How is that gap possible?

      It's essential to remember that even if your email service provider indicates an open, it doesn't mean that's technically accurate. With people using pop-up blockers and privacy tools, tracking open rates is becoming more challenging. The same word of caution also needs to be applied to those contacts who didn't open your emails.

      Here's where a lot of the tedious list clean-up work could come back to haunt us …

      On the surface, one could easily justify deleting the contact information for the 13,000 "did not opens" in the example above.

      That is until you find out that almost 10% of the people on the "did not open" list are also customers with an average transaction value of $140 USD.

      Put in other words, $140 x 1000 = $140,000 USD of customer data that could be easily deleted.

      Remember, just because you can quickly delete something doesn't mean you should. You must have a series of checks and balances to guide the cleaning of your marketing lists. Always be willing to dig deeper!

      Want to get more advice using a list to promote your event? Check out the links below:

    • Engaged in “Random Acts of Event Marketing”

      As you might be aware, most client projects start with a series of discovery questions. Here's one of the questions that always gets asked:

      "Do you use a marketing system to promote your event?"

      Of all the times the question has been asked of event organizers, not one time has someone answered with an affirmative "yes!" That's important because all that have responded with "no" have events that are either struggling or severely under-performing.

      And, for those who initially answer "yes" on the question above, their answer becomes a reluctant "no" after asking this follow up question:

      "Can you please show me the measurable results from the system you're using?"

      As my friend Roman Yako is fond of saying, most companies are engaged in "random acts of marketing." They advertise a certain way because that's what they've always done. With rare exceptions, marketing and advertising actions are never tied to tangible results.

      Truth be told, I wasn't always an able marketer for my clients. Before discovering the ways of "the Force," I focused on delivering a superior service. That was when I focused on providing web usability services. One client said to me, "every business in this town should be using your service!" Ironically enough, I often found myself broke!

      Fortunately, in the mid-2000s, I discovered Dan Kennedy and Eben Pagan. Both strongly advocated for leveraging marketing systems built upon direct response marketing.

      To date, every single client success story has involved implementing a marketing system based on the tenets of Kennedy and Pagan. The results have been nothing short of spectacular. Including a better customer experience with more loyal customers—and consistently turning advertising dollars into a bankable investment.

      If you're at a loss of where to start with a marketing system, be sure to pick up a copy of Dan Kennedy's "The Ultimate Marketing Plan: Target Your Audience! Get Out Your Message! Build Your Brand!" You can also get Kennedy's book in Kindle format for speedier access.

      Want to get more info on how to track your event promotion and marketing? Check out the articles below:

    • Methodology

      Below are links that provide a high-level overview of the methodology highly successful clients use to promote and sell out their events. Be sure to take a few minutes to read through all the links. Then, if you read through the links and feel some synergy, don’t hesitate to contact me.

       

    • Influencer the world with the socials

      A quick request, before we get to today's topic…

      Please let me know if you have a personal story to share on the topic below.

      Why do I ask?

      Because people often ask me, "why are you opposed to X,Y, or Z?" Insert your marketing/advertising topic of choice for X, Y, or just Z.

      My response is, "I'm not opposed to anything that works for you." The challenging part gets down to the word or definition of "works." Specifically, showing data or even anecdotal evidence that "X, Y, or Z" produces a measurable result. Thus far, no takers. Hence my request.

      That said, here we go!

      In early 2019, a Polish event organizer asked me about leveraging social media influencers for a marketing campaign. Unfortunately, I didn't have any case studies to share at the time.

      However, the case study perspective changed later that year. That's when a client decided to hire a local agency specializing in social media influencers.

      Initially, the client didn't tell me they had hired another marketing firm. Then, when asked about the hire, the client's response was, "we have a Board member that has a personal relationship with the business owner." As with all things, it's the client's event; thus, who they hire is at their discretion.

      My only request regarding the social media influencers was that all their posts be tracked with simple UTMs / bit.ly links. The client agreed.

      Long story short, the client spent a significant amount of money to generate … ready for it … a total of 33 website visitors. All tracked through Bit.ly and Google Analytics with zero leads and no purchases.

      To be clear, I'm not here to bash social media influencers. However, my marketing and advertising philosophy is agnostic. My expectation of all, including myself, is to quantify what works.

      Here's another cautionary tale regarding the power of social media influencers, especially when it comes to your event!
      (Credit to Ben Settle for bringing the following story to my attention.)

      "Influencer Arii, who has 2.6 million followers, couldn't sell 36 T-Shirts"

      Source: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-7083559/Influencer-Arii-2-6-million-followers-sell-36-T-shirts.html

      As I advised the Polish event organizer from above if you're going to use an influencer(s) to promote your event, make sure you track their results! That means having tracking and result expectations set in all your marketing and advertising contracts.

      If a social media influencer is unwilling to have their work measured, don't hire them. This isn't mean; it's smart business. And when you're business is on the line, you have to be smart!

      You Must Play the Game Differently
      If you want to take advantage of social media, you have to play the game differently. What follows are the most common social media marketing mistakes to avoid and simple corrections you can use. The suggestions apply to any social media platform. Click below and dive on in to the 5-Part Social Media Series:

      1. Putting Your Social Media Mindset Ahead of Theirs
      2. Focusing Too Much on Likes & Followers
      3. Trying to Engage on Too Many Social Media Platforms
      4. Avoiding Paid Social Media Advertising
      5. Not Measuring the Results of Your Hard Work

      Here are some additional social media resources you can use to market your event:

    • “Read Aloud” for better ads & marketing

      Previously, we've explored the technique of reading your advertising and marketing pieces out loud. It's something I torture clients with regularly. Yes, I actually call clients and have them read their advertising and marketing copy out loud.

      Why read your ads & marketing pieces out loud?

      Because it helps you identify potential readability issues. And when people find something challenging to read, they rarely complain and just stop reading. Hence, your advertising dollars could be going to waste.

      If you don't want to read your marketing pieces out loud, here's an automated and easy to use alternative.

      What follows has helped me improve my atrocious writing to occasionally readable. More often than not, it's also identified additional grammar and spelling errors that computer proofing tools did not detect.

      A few places to use the "Read Out Loud" include your Facebook ads/posts, sales letters, ticket sales pages, marketing emails, info on your event website. Basically, anywhere where you need people to read text.

      The following suggestion is for those with Microsoft Word. Other programs or online services offer the same feature if you don't have Word. Search the phrase "read text out loud" on your search engine of choice, and you should find plenty of options.

      For those with Microsoft word, please do the following.

      Select the "Review" tab after you load up your document or text in Word. You might need to copy & paste your advertising copy to review (text only) in to Word.

      Within the review tab, look for the "Read Aloud" | Speech tab. If you don't see the "Read Aloud" option, check the "Quick Access Toolbar" options. Then, highlight the text you want to read and click "Read Aloud."

      One tweak that I suggest is adjusting the reading speed under the "Read Aloud" settings. It should be a small speaker with a cog. My recommendation is to set a slightly faster reading speed (just past the midpoint.) This helps the computer sound a little more human with better pacing.

      Finally, consider using the "Read Aloud" technique with headphones or earbuds. Doing so allows you to use this technique almost anywhere. Another positive of using headphones is it helps eliminate distractions and allows you to really focus on your words.

      Give the above recommendation a whirl and let me know what you think. Reading out loud is one of the quickest ways to improve your writing and make your event advertising and marketing even more effective.

      Want to get more advice on advertising and marketing your event? Check out the articles below:You Need to Consider the Other 97%