If you want to know where most associations get their money that isn’t from member dues, look no further than the annual meeting. Remember that a large number of interested, qualified buyers is what most vendors regard as the key to a successful trade show. Therefore, it is in your organization’s most significant financial interest to ensure that as many delegates as possible attend your event. Once the other “Four Ps” (product, pricing, and location) have been optimized, it is a promotion that will bring in more people to your meeting.
Ask yourself these questions before you begin developing the marketing strategy for your next meeting:
How confident are you that your educational program is the best one available to your target demographic? Do you regularly poll your members and audience to find out what they feel is most important for their professional and personal growth? Are you meeting their requirements? Do you seek funding sources such as grants, collaborations, and sponsorships to ensure your delegates can access the most excellent possible experiences?
Are the cities you’re considering accessible and within your price range? Do you think the room rates are fair? Do your registration costs justify the value you provide to potential customers?
Are seasonal and weekly patterns convincing to your target demographic? (Teachers have more flexibility during the summer, whereas business owners of all stripes may find taking time off during the week challenging.)
Is your event organized so it won’t clash with other public or private industry events or other area events hosted by your organization?
o Do you have the most up-to-date and complete marketing database possible? Has the US Postal Service validated, fixed, and verified it? Have you collected the names of everyone interested in attending via online forms, product purchases, membership forms, exhibitor surveys, and marketing partnerships with similar groups?
How often and when do you send out conference mailings? Is there enough time for people to save money, receive permission to attend, and take advantage of the early-bird registration deadline and the hotel’s deadline? Is your program printed early enough to qualify for the much lower but more time-consuming nonprofit or bulk mail rates?
Is your event not getting enough publicity? E-mail signatures, broadcast fax cover sheets, letterhead, ads and articles in every newsletter and magazine you produce, inserts in dues renewal letters and all other outbound correspondence, announcements to the trade press, and splashy unveilings at the previous year’s convention and all mid-term events are all commonplace but often overlooked opportunities. Do you offer complete kits for your regional chapters and exhibitors to help promote the national gathering?
It’s important to remember that potential attendees have many options for spending their time and money besides attending your conference. Meeting planners now have to develop a more sophisticated, quantitative strategy for marketing to compete with the ever-increasing number of local, regional, and online educational possibilities.
Marketing and promotion cost an average of $11.10 per event, according to the Professional Convention Management Association’s 9th Annual Meetings Market Survey. Consider how much you spend on advertising your event compared to this. Have you budgeted adequately? That much? Do the math, please.
Assume your registration price is $500; you expect 1,500 attendees (5 percent more than last year). If you succeed, your gross revenue will amount to $750,000. Assuming a standard marketing budget of 11 percent, your out-of-pocket marketing costs would total $82,500, or $55 per registered participant.
If you want a return on your direct mail investment of no less than 3 percent, you must send out at least 50,000 pieces before you can expect to attract 1,500 people. If you have an advertising budget of $82,500, the cost per mailer, including shipping, will be $1.65. If individuals see your mailer three times before responding, your per-mailer cost drops to 55 cents, according to the research. To save money on mailing without sacrificing exposure, consider incorporating this item in your monthly email or as a polybagged insert with your journal. The key is to plan.
An annual marketing strategy and schedule can be used as a meeting planning tool to simplify pre-event preparations. A timeline is invaluable if your organization relies mainly on volunteer committees and board members. It includes due dates so that employees and volunteers can plan accordingly. As a volunteer recruiting tool, it gives potential volunteers a chance to decide whether or not they can dedicate the necessary time to the cause. In addition, it allows all participants to be on the same page simultaneously, including volunteers, staff members, and possible speakers.
Make sure to account for development, layout, printing, and distribution time in your timeline, as well as any applicable rush fees, by working backward from the event date. Some essential components of a timetable are shown below.
An initial communication, perhaps a postcard, should prime recipients to take some action. They should be encouraged to save the date, set aside money for travel, keep an eye on the organization’s website for any last-minute updates, and get ready to be wowed by the spectacular event. You can use this space to promote your destination and share any findings from your annual review that led to additional educational components. Send the first mailing when it’s time to allocate funds for your sector’s budget, usually six to nine months in advance.
The mailer is meant to stimulate early registration. Include final information on keynote speakers, seminar themes, and presenters, as well as registration and housing forms, and mail them out four weeks before the early-bird cutoff date (or eight to ten weeks before the hotel cutoff date).
The final mailing should be sent out no later than three weeks before the hotel’s cutoff date, and its goal should be to close the sale. All the details that will persuade people to attend should be included in this document, including the final agenda, the list of exhibitors to date, the names and images of all speakers, discounts on airfare and car rentals, tours that are optional, registration and housing forms, and any other information that would be useful.
The date by which you typically have half of your attendees registered should help you decide whether or not to increase your marketing efforts. Add another mailer, broadcast e-mail, or fax to the mix if the numbers are still low after that.
Include a final copy approval date, final layout approval date, blueline or press proof approval date, and mailing date for each schedule component. A realistic, firm schedule should be communicated to all parties as early as feasible in the marketing cycle. Increased attendance and happy delegates and exhibitors are the natural results of a well-oiled marketing machine promoting every event aspect, from venue selection to program development to exhibit sales.
Choose an advertising and graphic design company. Get the meeting’s introduction, logo, and theme ready for reveal at this year’s gathering. Build a preliminary prospectus for potential exhibitors. Get the speaker list ready. (Note: All updates to the website and vendor newsletters should happen at the same time. There is an analogous timeline in public relations.)
Introduce this year’s meeting’s theme and logo at this year’s conference. Give some background about your potential travel destination. The event’s host committee and CVB should set up an exhibit. Edit press room connections as necessary. Post a call for speakers on the website and distribute it to the returning speakers. The program committee reviews the speakers for the current year. Exhibitor pre-prospectus can be used to renew booth space on-site.
Send meeting dates to the media and related organizations so that they can include them in their editorial calendars. Promote the event to potential exhibitors and keep looking for more speakers. Evaluations from this year’s exhibitors and attendees will be analyzed in depth, and the program will be adjusted accordingly.
Initiate contact with members and potential attendees by sending a mailer (or broadcast fax and email) and encouraging them to set aside time and money for the event. Keynote speakers and special guests should be announced if possible. Advertise tourist spots. Make housing applications and registrations and have them approved. Build your site’s forms in PDF and interactivity. Get the fax cover sheet, envelopes, and letterhead ready for confirmation.
Through the website and mailings, the education committee informs members and exhibitors of the latest information regarding keynote speakers and registered vendors. Get the mailer for early signups ready. Get marketing materials, media lists, and free passes prepared to be included in exhibitor service kits. Please have the event’s logo sent to the general service contractor for kit covers. Advertise the event in periodicals published by related organizations.
Email the early birds. Forms for participants and exhibitors to register and reserve lodging should be included. Make an initial plan for the program. It’s time for a website update.
Send out an early program detailing the trip’s speakers, workshops, and location, including housing and registration applications. Place online registration and housing applications. Construct the last program mailing. Include exhibitors in the pre-event marketing by sending them a list of registered attendees.
Final program mailing, please. Plan the local publicity and promotion of the venue. Get some ads ready and put them in the paper. In the event of failure, a final broadcast fax or email should be sent. Prepare for the closing ceremony with a promotional splash for next year’s event. Get everything together for your table during the convention.
Artwork for posters, sponsor banners, agendas with room assignments, other attendee instructions, message boards, emergency contact information, and other bag stuffers may need to be created in addition to the directory and proceedings.
In Twinsburg, Ohio, Marian Calvin oversees Conferon Global Services, Inc.’s marketing department. For help with organizing your next meeting, check out.
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