I know as an entrepreneur we often cringe at the word “FREE” when it comes to our business, but I’m going to share something that can be very powerful for your long term brand – give away your best stuff for FREE and watch how you can grow your brand as you position yourself as an expert.
Now let me clear up quickly what I mean by what you should give away for free. You are NOT giving away your services to manage an event for free.
- Discounted – yes.
- Offering to do more for the same fee – yes.
- Free – NO way!
Are you tired of “feast and famine” sales in your event planning business? I’ve got just the strategy for you to find ways to market your current events and land new clients – in the midst of keeping track of ALL of the details and operations!!
Start using Twitter to both follow AND meet industry professionals.
Running a successful event business is not easy. You are in the industry where you meet contacts all the time – the super hot leads that land into new customers/clients and the lukewarm contacts – the ones that you know you SHOULD follow up with but often forget after the first meeting. Not that I would be telling on myself! Lol. The luke warm contacts though are often very powerful in your long term strategy. Keep them engaged and connected and they could turn into powerful allies or clients down the road. The challenge is juggling the day to day demands of your business while balancing this long term relationship building.
If you are like many service providers, you gain your business from word of mouth. Create an amazing experience for one client and they refer you. Design a great experience for the referral and they ideally will tell someone else.
These days more and more business is done via virtually. Take advantage of this trend and do the opposite. Send out a piece of snail mail. Now, it’s your opportunity to be different and stand out among the crowd. So don’t send a generic postcard. There are too many inexpensive and easy design solutions that exist online or at your local stationary supply store.
This happened to me recently at a large scale networking event I attended. I met with several contacts, had a really great conversation about our businesses and we exchanged business cards. I even jotted down a few notes about the conversation on the back of the card. However, when I got home and went to follow up with them, I had nothing more to say than “Wow. It was great to meet you”. Which is not the best way to make a lasting impression that could lead into a long term business relationship or future client. But the truth was – I didn’t know what to say next. What do you do when you don’t have an immediate action to take?
Getting face time with senior level executives is a key part of building your business, but it’s not always easy.
When was the last time you handwrote a thank you card?
One of the first things I often want to know from my consulting clients is how they get business. In other words, how does your business go from nothing to a lead to the final sale?
