6 Ways to Increase Seminar Attendance
You have spent a huge amount of time planning your speech, making a presentation, creating activities and you are about to enter your seminar room. But what if no-one has turned up? What if you are greeted with silence? How do you avoid the nightmare of conducting a seminar to a room of empty chairs?
To avoid the embarrassment of an unfilled room, you have to tell people about your event. Not only will this help improve attendance, but it will also increase your viewing figures and boost subscribers. Here are 6 top tips to help you find attendees and organise a successful seminar.
Reminders, reminders and more reminders
People do not intend to forget about your seminar. It just slips their minds. So it’s essential to keep reminding registrants about your meet-up. Maybe they clicked “I’d like to attend” weeks ago, and have now forgotten about it. A reminder one day before the seminar isn’t enough to ensure attendance. Send consistent reminders which include the date and time of your event. Once the seminar is over, let them know a replay date if you’re providing one. Keep in mind that these emails should provide value too. A few quick tips or a short blog post should do the trick. This will not only help the potential attendee remember you, but also give the impression that you are knowledgeable, making it more likely that they will attend.
Offer a Promotion
Ensure an audience, and get people sharing the date and time of the seminar by offering a promotion to attendees. For example, you could provide 25% off your products or services, and give attendees the discount code at the end of the meet-up.
Run Your Seminar at the Best Time
The best days of the week to hold a seminar are Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. Mondays are generally best avoided because people might have to travel on Sunday, which no one wants to do. Fridays are also problematic, as at the end of the week people will lose focus and begin thinking about their weekend. They might even leave early.
Send a Thank You Email with Add to Calendar Reminder
Sending registrants an email to thank them for signing up to the seminar is polite but also a great way to grab the space in their week. Include an “Add to Calendar” link so that they can quickly save the seminar into their desktop or mobile calendar on the date and time it’s being held.
Talk About It
If you have a blog, talk about your seminar in a post. Advertise on social media, and if you’ve got the budget, don’t be afraid to use paid advertising to promote it.
Follow Up By Phone
Make sure that you give your potential attendees a quick call, just to make sure that they are coming, and another to thank them after the seminar. While you have them on the phone you could also ask if they would like some more information concerning your products or services. Make sure to grab any opportunity to book a face to face meeting, and you might even create a returning customer!
These 6 tips will help to make your seminar a success, and hopefully allow you to plan many future events too.
If you’re still unsure on how to rake in that audience, or if you want extra marketing help and advice, get in touch with Virtual Sales Ltd today. We have over 50 years of experience helping companies find seminar attendees.
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Andy Dickens
Andy Dickens is a veteran of IT Sales, used to leading by example. He is the CEO of Virtual Sales Limited (VSL) who offer telesales, telemarketing, lead generation and appointment setting services to B2b businesses. He previously was Sales Director EMEA for Red Hat and before that ran sales at Visio before it was acquired by Microsoft.