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Seminar marketing is an exceptional way to deliver your message to multiple qualified prospects. By attending your event and taking time out of their day, your delegates are sending you a strong message that they are interested in what you have to say. The universal challenge with seminar marketing is in ensuring that the right number of delegates attend and getting enough bottoms on seat to justify the expense and effort of creating a seminar.

This guide runs through the steps we take when marketing a seminar for ourselves or on behalf of our clients. We may tweak the process slightly depending on the market sector we’re targeting, in the main though our thought process will be much the same.

Whilst this guide focuses on seminars, it can be extended to other events. In fact, as a general marketing guide it can be used for any new “go to market strategy”.

Considerations for your Seminar

1. Consider the objectives of your seminar. It sounds simple but is very important. Write them down and agree what will make a successful seminar. How many delegates do you want? What profile of delegate do you want? Is it a business development seminar or an educational event?

2. Think about what you have to say or offer. In our opinion the more focused an event the better chance of it being successful. Think about the challenges that are happening right now in your customer base. Work out how to demonstrate your expertise in a way that will benefit your delegates.

3. Visit and evaluate a number of potential locations for your event. Consider whether it is large enough for your requirements Are the staff friendly and helpful? Is it easy to find and does it have enough car parking? It is important that your event has a separate registration area and a place for tea and coffee.

4. Once you have chosen a potential location, decide upon the format of your event. Consider whether you need to provide refreshments (advisable) or lunch if your event is longer. These are the times for you network with your delegates and for your delegates to network with each other.

5. There are many different styles of events you could consider. Speed networking is quite popular at the moment, which is a spin off from the more well known speed dating format, this is proven to work in the right circumstances, although we use this method with caution. We prefer a more traditional approach because we know that it works, if it helps you to differentiate your event from others it might be worth it to consider other styles.

6. Once you have decided to do an event and have chosen your location, the next important step is the agenda. We are not always in the fortunate position that our brand or profile alone is enough to attract delegates, so the agenda becomes critical. This is your chance to say to your target market “Come to our event or miss out on this very important news”.

7. The agenda is critical in the sense that it needs to be attractive and of value but also it needs to be presented in this way as well. It is no good having a great day plenned full of fantastic presentations, only for your agenda to be stale and unimaginative. This is your opportunity to use the headlines to your advantage. Tell you audience what they will get out of attending your event. If you’re showing your delegates a new release of your product that does something they have been crying out for, mention it!

8. It is easy to fall into the trap of creating an agenda that is basically a list of sales presentations, this will disappoint your delegates. To really attract delegates, you must provide them with some value. Help them to solve a challenge they’re having, provide them with something useful that will make them look good. Whatever it is, you will have already identified this at the early stages of identifying the objectives for your seminar.

9. Now that we have seminar objectives, key success factors, a location, a target audience and an agenda; we need to start telling people about the event. This largely depends on your budget, however you will want to take elements of these suggestions and work them into your own seminar marketing.

10. Consider the impact of your speakers, are they industry experts? Are they credible and are they able to deliver the message in line with your objectives. Sometimes it is viable to work with other companies to increase the value of your agenda. It is also worth considering a guest speaker or someone that you know who is well know or has a very interesting story.