By Jenny Hamby, the Seminar Marketing Pro™
Certified Guerrilla Marketer and Direct-Response Copywriter
You’ve gathered your registrations, reserved a meeting room, maybe even sprung for coffee, tea and snacks … only to be disappointed when less than half of your seminar attendees show up for your event. And two questions race through your mind:
1. What went wrong?
2. More importantly, how do I get people to show up?
To gain some perspective on the first question, put yourself in your prospect’s shoes.
You’ve been putting out fires all day at the office. At 5 minutes to 5 p.m., the boss drops off a report that’s due by tomorrow afternoon. Then your spouse calls to see if you’ll make a quick stop at the grocery store, which reminds you that your anniversary is the next day.
By this point, you’ve either forgotten the seminar altogether … or the idea of skipping in favor of vegging on the sofa all evening grows mighty appealing.
No-shows tend to be the biggest problem with free seminars, simply because registrants have little invested beyond the few minutes it took to sign up. Here are 4 ways to boost your attendance:
1. Remind participants that they’ve signed up. Call them the day, or even a few hours, before your seminar.
2. Reinforce the benefits of attending. Reiterate what they’ll learn … and how this information will help them achieve their goals.
3. Bribe them. Offer a free gift upon arrival.
4. Charge a little. If people know that they’ll lose money by not attending, they’ll be less likely to skip. Instead of offering a free workshop, consider charging $10 to hold a seat and refunding the fee at the door.
Jenny Hamby is a Certified Guerrilla Marketer and direct-response copywriter who helps speakers, coaches and consultants fill seminar seats and make more money from their own seminars and workshops. Her on- and offline direct marketing campaigns have netted response rates as high as 84 percent … on budgets as small as $125. For seven of her most powerful seminar marketing secrets, click here.
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