How to Drive More Event Registrations | Event Marketing Ideas — Transcript

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1. 0:00Today, we're gonna cover what everyone has been asking for me to talk about
2. 0:04which is, how do I get attendees to actually show up to our events. Alright,
3. 0:09let's get started.
4. 0:15I'd get this email nearly every week and it says, "Ben, I'm freaking out. How do I
5. 0:23drive more RSVP's?" Or, "Ben can you help me, I need more ticket sales." Or, oh geez,
6. 0:29you know, "We just haven't gotten enough people to RSVP, I'm just, I'm nervous
7. 0:33about not filling the room." Have you been there? I definitely have, I know how
8. 0:38this feels, it's terrifying, right? You can spend all this time planning and
9. 0:43thinking about how to create the perfect event and you just aren't able to
10. 0:47actually get people to RSVP or to attend. Now, this might be a lot of reasons for
11. 0:54this and it could be something like, your distribution mechanisms, it could be the
12. 0:58timing of the event, it could be that the people just aren't interested. But,
13. 1:03what I found more often than not, that when I look at people's messaging, I look
14. 1:07at their promotional material, they've usually missed a couple things. They
15. 1:11usually haven't really gotten people to understand the value of their event and
16. 1:17so, what I've done is, I've created a checklist. A checklist that I use for my
17. 1:22events and I often communicate and convey to the people who are asking
18. 1:26me how they fill their events, a checklist that helps them understand how
19. 1:30to communicate and message the value of their event. And so, what I want to do is,
20. 1:35I want to walk you through this checklist and I think what you'll find
21. 1:38is that if you go through this checklist step by step and make sure to include
22. 1:42each of these points in each of your communications around your event, you're
23. 1:48gonna see a huge uptick in actual attendance. So, let's walk through it
24. 1:53together. I call this checklist G-I-V-E, give. And
25. 1:58the reason I call it that is, because you're looking to give people a reason
26. 2:01to actually show up. Okay, so let's start off with G. G stands for guests. This is
27. 2:07actually the most important thing you can focus on. Who else is going to be
28. 2:12there? In a lot of emails that I write I'll say something like, "Hey, I hope
29. 2:16you'll show up to this event, we're gonna have a great crowd." And guests are one of
30. 2:21the prime things that we see driving clicks or conversions on pages. That's
31. 2:26why you'll often see people list their sponsors or their
32. 2:29speakers or the other guests that'll be attending an event. People want to meet
33. 2:35other people at events. We have a human drive to bond, so making sure people
34. 2:39understand who else is going to be there is a really big deal in your promotion.
35. 2:42The next one is I, inspiration. Inspiration is what they're going to
36. 2:47learn or what is going to inspire them to change. How will they transform into a
37. 2:52future version of themselves by attending your event? Now, this can
38. 2:57often be communicated with who's going to be speaking with them, what the
39. 2:59content at the event will be, what they're going to learn or understand by
40. 3:04going to your event, or how inspiring the music or the artwork at the event will
41. 3:08be. I have to find that people spend time on things, because of who they will
42. 3:13become as a result of it. So, if you can communicate that, very very
43. 3:16powerful. The next one is really powerful, this is V for validation. Now, especially
44. 3:23in today's day and age people define themselves not necessarily about what
45. 3:27they have, but instead by what they do. It's quite existential, right? And so, you
46. 3:33know, I often find that by telling people that this event is going to validate
47. 3:38their identity or show them that, you can really drive attendance and action. Let's
48. 3:43give some quick examples just to make sure you understand this one. It's pretty
49. 3:47easy when you see a band, like, Phish. People who identify as Phish-heads, they
50. 3:52validate that identity by making sure to go to every single Phish show. And
51. 3:57similarly, if you were to throw an event for real estate agents, something you
52. 4:00could do is say, "This is a gathering for the top real estate agents in the world,"
53. 4:04and you better believe that someone who considers themselves to be a top or
54. 4:08great real estate agent, they're gonna be there so they validate that identity.
55. 4:13It's a pretty powerful concept, it really kind of almost plays with FOMO.
56. 4:16Speaking of FOMO, E is the last one, he's a really interesting one, it's the
57. 4:21experience, right? What are you giving them? What is the memory that they're
58. 4:25probably going to walk away with? And this could be an experience of taste, or
59. 4:30of sight, or of smell! Something they might hear, right? Experience often has a lot to
60. 4:35do with senses, so, communicating how this is going to be a really interesting
61. 4:39experience for them, something that might walk away with a great pass along
62. 4:43story from. That's something that you're really gonna want to communicate early
63. 4:47and often in your event communication. By the way, if you're interested in hearing
64. 4:51more about pass along stories, make sure to check out that video, I walk through
65. 4:54how to build a pass along story from scratch. Okay, so that's what it is, G-I-
66. 4:59-V-E. You want to make sure to layer in each of those different value
67. 5:05propositions into each of your event communications. And if you're doing that,
68. 5:09if you're actually making sure to hit each one of those, the next step is to
69. 5:14layer in frequency and urgency. Those are two really powerful drivers for getting
70. 5:19people to attend your events. Frequency, you're usually looking to notify
71. 5:24people weekly, leading up to the event and you'd be surprised, people don't mind
72. 5:28hearing from you as long as it's something useful and as long as
73. 5:32something relevant to them. And of course, if someone unsubscribes make sure to
74. 5:36unsubscribe them, right? So, frequency is a great way to make sure to get people to
75. 5:40remember your event and urgency. Urgency is one of the most powerful techniques
76. 5:44that I've seen in terms of driving ticket sales. And you can use urgency in
77. 5:48things like, "Early bird sales end soon." Or you can say something like, "We're almost
78. 5:54full." Or, "This is going to be a really important event for you to attend," right?
79. 6:00Drive that point home with frequency and urgency and make sure in all your
80. 6:05communications to go through that checklist, G-I-V-E. And if you have any
81. 6:10ideas or things that you found to be effective, please leave comments in the
82. 6:14section below. We love to hear ideas, it's been a real kick to see how people have
83. 6:18responded to these videos. And make sure to check out our next Run of Show. I'll
84. 6:22see you next time.
85. 6:28If you felt like this episode made you much smarter than when you started
86. 6:33watching it, make sure to check out other episodes of Run of Show Weekly and don't
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