You have to capture their interest in the midst of other pressing issues on their plate.  And that, of course, doesn’t take into account the other vendors who are also pitching to them.

And even if you are able to rise through the noise and get heard – their time is limited.  How do you pare your pitch down so that it’s meaningful and you are remembered the next time that they need an event planner.

So how does an event planner do it?

I’ll share three strategies that have helped me reach the higher ups and those with power to hire your company

1. Be prepared – Part of the challenge is being prepared.  This way when the opportunity arises, you are ready to rock and roll.  My recommendation is to stay atop of the industry trends.  And not just the event planning industry.  You need to know what pains/aches and triumphs are happening in your client’s industry.  So stay abreast of local and national news.  Read industry trade publications.  Find trade associations that they join and join them or attend events.

And this is definitely a plug for picking one niche area to focus.  I can’t imagine following industry trends for 10 areas!!

2. Look the part – all the time – From day one, you need to set the tone that you are to be taken seriously.  So ensure that you look the part at all times and don’t be afraid to develop a signature style.  Laurel Touby, the founder of Mediabistro.com was known for her wild parties and feather boa. It’s a good thing to have a signature style of your own.

Dress professionally, carry business cards and marketing materials that command attention and ensure everything about your personal appearance is sharp and demonstrates you are to be taken seriously.

And I can’t speak enough about dressing the part all the time.  I have met future clients while on the elevator, on line in the post office, or taking a casual stroll on a Sun afternoon.  You never know where you’ll meet people.  And while I might not have on heels on all of those occasions, you can best believe I have business cards stashed in several bags, coat pockets or in the glove compartment of my car.

3. Maintain a brand of excellence – do what you say, when you say and be someone that people can depend on.

I will tell you that your name and company reputation often reach others before you do. So ensure that with every client you work with you do your absolute best job – and treat them as IF they were a senior client.  You don’t know who they know and if they might refer you to other bigger clients.

I’ve found that a casual email I share with a friend providing advice or a news clipping has reached the hands of higher ups through various email chains.  You don’t know who might be interested – so do your best to promote excellence in everything you do!!

Photo by Uggboy

Well, they have done it again – Facebook is making upgrades/changes to their site and all of us brand page owners are left to make the most of the new layouts. In case you haven’t heard, Facebook is now switching brands over to the new timeline format. This means some big changes to all that hard work you’ve put into designing your page. Here’s what you need to know:

1. Add a Cover Photo
You now have the chance to add a cover photo to your Facebook page. This is a great way to catch attention when your fans come to your page for the first time. A few tips – keep it clean and not too text heavy. Be creative. The photo needs to be 851x315px and follow the following Facebook guidelines:

Your cover photo cannot include:

A. Price or purchase information, such as “40% off” or “Download it at our website”.
B. Contact information such as a website address, email, mailing address, or information that should go in your Page’s “About” section.
C. References to Facebook features or actions, such as “Like” or “Share” or an arrow pointing from the cover photo to any of these features.
D. Calls to action, such as “Get it now” or “Tell your friends”.

Covers must not be false, deceptive or misleading, and must not infringe on third parties’ intellectual property. (Source)

2. Rearrange Your Tabs
What used to be tabs on the left side of your profile will now be boxes at the top of the page. This means that those welcome pages you created will not work and you need to be careful about how many tabs you have and what they are for. 4 boxes fit at the top of your page so make sure you think carefully about what they are. The chance someone will scroll to see more boxes is not very likely.

3. Control What People Can See on Your Wall
I’m not thrilled with the options, but select whether you want people to see highlights from your page, only your posts, posts by fans or friend activity. I think highlights is the best way to share a mix of your posts as well as your fans, but be prepared for things to be all out of date order!

4. Use Features
To highlight something on your timeline, click the little star next to the post. That will expand it from one small post to one larger one – catching attention. You can also pin posts to the top of your page to get some extra attention for up to seven days and change post dates to help things rise to the top.

5. Make the Most of the Changes
One of the best things about Facebook’s timeline is that it’s very image driven – which is great for event businesses. Leverage this to show images from your events and wow people with your work. Start adopting a visual mindset – and you will find that your timeline will give you some awesome ways to share your experience.
 

Don’t you feel special?

If you are conducting any kind of business, you are always looking to locate your market, find your audience, your clients – the pool of available resources that will fund your continued existence. The stakes are high! You may have a great product, but if you can’t connect it to the right people, you will not thrive or profit.

When we hold business events, we are marketing. We market to bring in our attendees, and when we follow up with our guests, we are continuing to market to them in order to maintain a connection around our business.

How we communicate to people during the different phases of marketing to them says a lot about us, our business and our organizations. Do we treat them with respect? Do we honor them as individuals with intelligence and taste? Do we recognize their powers of discernment?

It’s always important to make sure you provide a value exchange to your guests or attendees. Whether a business conference, a product launch or a gallery opening, people have taken the time, energy and expense to be willing participants in your undertaking. You must make sure they come away from that with some valuable experience or insight, particularly if you want to continue a relationship with them.

Contests, polls, giveaways – each must be undertaken in a manner that treats your guests as you would want to be treated. Always put yourself in the position of the person you are targeting. Will you feel entertained or will you feel slimed? Pay attention to your own response.

Here’s a great example of what not to do:
A colleague recently accepted a free offer from a dentist for an introductory exam. After receiving his complementary services, he began receiving regular follow up phone calls inviting him to schedule for paid services. The last straw was a call he received at home at 7:30 in the evening. When he explained that it wasn’t really a good time as he was just about to put his young son to bed, the office rep responded, can I call you back in an hour? (!!) The next day when the office called back, my colleague informed them that he no longer wished to hear from them, and that he would be returning to his old dentist, because he couldn’t take being called four times a day anymore.

Never make anyone feel like that. If you build a respectful relationship and have something of value to offer, your product or service will sell itself. If it doesn’t, then you need to revisit how you are communicating to your market. And while you’re at it, make sure that what you’re selling is actually worth buying!

Photo courtesy of rick

At this point most know the formula for starting your social presence, personal brand or business:

You really don’t even need a website anymore which is the best part of it. Wasn’t that the big obstacle for a lot of non-tech people back in the day? How do I buy my domain? HTML? CSS? “I need a designer!” Screw it all, because you can do it all yourself now with hosted blogs on WordPress or Tumblr. Link up your photos from Flickr, link your videos from YT, include widgets for fans to LIKE you on FB, tweet you on TW, share to and connect with you on LinkedIn, Stumble, Digg, Reddit etc.

To those that don’t feel like they need to embrace and leverage social, you’re missing a huge business asset, and business in general. Check out this surprising Social Media success story; the Equine Dentist,

‘In businesses driven by relationships, Geoff says that Facebook allows him to build new ones. “People do business with people who they’re friends with. Period,” he says. “And Facebook is a great way to get to know people. It allows people to see that I’m a person,“‘ read more… he’s not the only one that’s had great success!

So now that you’re all going to make sure you have a social presence(!,) I need to make sure I brief you on the latest amendment to the social success formula, Pinterest. Have you been ignoring that one too? Hoping you’ll assimilate sometime in the future when it all makes more sense for you? NO! Be the trendsetter, start pinning and don’t stop.

WHY? Well because Fast Company, among many other reviews, can’t be wrong about the kind of traction Pinterest is garnering very quickly, and here’s why:

“1. Pinterest rides (and defines) a new trend: social relevance.
2. Pinterest is visual storytelling.
3. Did anyone say “traffic?”

(yes that’s a jump from 2M to 6M unique visitors in 3 months)

Pinterest is truly embracing the spirit of the open web and finally bringing curation to life. It now empowers us to achieve two things that couldn’t easily be achieved simultaneously:

story telling and traffic building. But most of all, Pinterest is solving the challenge of social content relevance quite elegantly.” – @perezable

All I want you to do is close your eyes and think of your bulletin board in HS. What did you pin up there? Things you loved, aspiring and inspiring photos, reminders etc. Now pretend you could go back in time, organize yourself a bit more… and separate the things you were pinning into categories with multiple boards; that’s all Pinterest really is.

Create your boards and start showing your followers your style, your words to live by, humanize your social presence by sharing must-try recipes, or (event planners,) must-try easy center pieces!

And because it’s a social site after my own heart, you are also able to “repin” much like Tumblr (and now WordPress’) “reblog” and Twitters “retweet”.

My advice? Ease into it…check out these 21 pinners doing it right via @Mashable… go on, run along!

Help them understand the tie between events and their clients.
I’m surprised how many companies and organizations host events for the sake of having them. As the planner I think it is our role to get them to start thinking about how they could be using the events to cultivate relationships with their target market.

Having face-to-face events is a very critical component of any organization’s growth strategy so they must be organized to facilitate networking, one-on-one interaction, and a deeper connection to the organization brand. One of the first steps when coming into a new client relationship is to get the client to evaluate how they can leverage their events to increase business and create a more loyal tie to their brand.

Track everything
When you come in to an organization, you need to prove your value. As you’re making changes to the marketing plans and event strategies, track your success. Make sure you get as many metrics from your client as possible when you first come in and help them to see how the changes you are making really do impact the bottom line. Track your social media activity, your mailing list memberships, the engagement at your events, and anything else you can think of to help show how you are helping your clients improve their visibility and credibility.

Take it slow
A lot of times we come into a new situation and see many things that can be changed around to make the events more successful. That being said, it doesn’t make sense to rush around and change up everything in the organization. Sometimes, it is your role to decide what are the most important things to improve and to set out a timeline for your desired changes. People are not always open to change so give them a little bit of time and make sure that some of the most positive changes come up front. Something like changing a registration process is usually a good first step because it allows the experience of the attendee to be enhanced. This is something they’re usually very open to and they may respond to marketing strategies better once they see that the events are being run more professionally.

Photo by Creighton Miller

They forgot to talk to you about strategy.
As with any marketing campaign, a social media presence must be rooted in strategy. Companies find success by doing more than pushing out content. It really does matter what content you share, how you share it, when you share it and how all of that ties into your organizations goals and mission. If you aren’t having regular conversations about all of this, you are getting bamboozled!

You don’t know what they are really doing.
Getting you to understand social media is not really a priority of your social media consultant. Why? Probably because the more you know, the less likely they are to keep their job. If you aren’t receiving updates about their work and you aren’t seeing the leads flow in over time, step up and request this information. You need to know what they are doing, how long it takes them and what the results are.

They say that social media is not measurable.
Any one who tells you that there isn’t a way to tell if social media is working is a liar, or a cheat, or both. While the metrics are certainly different from a print ad campaign you can track things like engagement. You can also set goals. How? Ask them. If they don’t know, find a new company that does.

They outsource their work to kids.
Contrary to popular belief, not all college aged kids are the best social media marketers. Because, going back to point 1, just because you know how to do something does not mean you know why. That’s like saying that all older people are the experts on retirement. Just because they got old doesn’t mean they figured out how to do it well. You wouldn’t hire a homeless 90 year old to run your portfolio so why would you give the same treatment to your social media presence?

Photo by ejk

• What are the pros and cons of social networks in promoting events? Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn and more.
• What is your experience with event discounts? When to offer? How much?
• What other methods do you use to get people to sign up for your events? Or, even better, to sign up early?

Not sure how to join us? It’s pretty simple! Just go to tweetchat.com and sign in with your Twitter username and password. Then, enter the #eventprofs hashtag at the top. I’ll be the moderator so you can look out for my comments and questions. Then, all you have to do is respond! It’s that simple!

Twitter success requires total buy-in.
I don’t see Twitter as a marketing tool so you need to make sure that you are really interested and open to seeing what happens. If you’re getting on Twitter just because everyone else tells you too, you aren’t likely to be successful.

Twitter success requires time.
As with all social media tools, Twitter is all about relationships. And, as you know, quality relationships require a time investment. There are no quick fixes, no ways to cheat yourself to 10,000 followers. You must be consistent and engage with the people you follow and who follow you. You don’t need to post an update every five minutes, but you do need to commit to interacting on a regular basis.

Twitter success requires introspection.
There isn’t a guidebook for your interactions on Twitter and it’s really easy to get on and start talking about yourself. You need to continually think about your content and relationships and compare them with your goals. If you aren’t getting the results you hoped for, change things up and keep trying.

Twitter success requires a true interest in others.
Overt marketing is a thing of the past. No one wants to hear about you and what you’re good at. They want to EXPERIENCE it. Don’t even try to get on Twitter if your goal is self-promotion. You’ll find out the hard way that no one cares. You might get followers, but quality is more important than quantity. Ask a question to your audience and if no one responds, you may need to switch things up.

Photo by IvanPW

It’s one of the biggest challenges when you first start a business because often you want to spend time doing what you love.  For most event planners, I’m sure it’s the time you spend with the clients planning, designing and running the event.  Finding the clients may not rank high on your list of loves.

So how do you increase the number of clients you work with?

I’ll share three tips to start with:

Develop marketing materials and ensure everyone in your warm network knows you are in business.

One of the easiest places to land clients is with people who already know you. Have you told everyone in your friends and family circle that you are an event planner? Hmmm… think about EVERYONE on your list.  Are there some people that you haven’t spoken with in some time?  For example, someone on your holiday greeting card list that you only speak to once a year? I’m sure there is someone that you haven’t shared it with.

So start today and do a postcard mailing campaign and share the news with everyone you know. 

Important tip: Be sure not to go crazy and share your service materials too many times though within this group.  A one time mailing is a good start!

Be willing to share your materials with everyone you encounter

I found that carrying a postcard of my services was a great way to remind me to share my offerings with everyone I encountered.  Sure, you can probably remember this when you are attending a networking event.  But what about from day to day?  Do you encounter people in stores, visiting friends houses, or other events?  Of course you do!

Make sure you have information available to share with them.

Important tip: When you first meet someone you don’t want to be a hard salesperson.  So leave them with the materials and let them follow-up with you if they are interested.  You don’t want to harrass them too many times – did you read it yet?  Do you know anyone?  Any events you recommend?

It’s a numbers game

Yes, finding new clients and landing sales is a numbers game.  And the more people you speak with  – the better.  You will need to be willing to talk with a lot of people and be comfortable with the word “No”. 

But that’s fine!  That’s just putting you one step closer to your “yes”.

So be willing to talk with lots of people. If you remember the joy you have from event planning and think about all of the ways that you help your clients – it will seem less like sales and more like the start of a great relationship which is exactly how business development works best!

So get started with one or all of these tips today to find new clients.  Let me know what successes and challenges you have!

Photo by VectorPortal

One of the interesting things that the panelists talked about was the difference between PR and marketing. According to them, PR is really about creating a story and sharing news about a company in a way that allows people to emotionally connect to a brand. It’s all about using free tools to capture people’s emotions. Marketing, on the other hand, is much more about paid advertisements.

PR tends to involve a lot of social media. As a social media integrated event planner, this really intrigued me. I realized that over the past years, I’ve really been focusing on building my business through PR. All the while, I kept telling myself that I needed to learn about marketing and advertising. I wanted to learn about ads and marketing because I felt as though I couldn’t grow my business relying solely on social media. I’ve often given lectures and taught classes on social media and one of the biggest things that I tell my students is that social media is not marketing. While you may get business from it, it’s not meant to be a medium where you constantly share the things that you’re working on and the products you want your consumers to purchase. It’s about connecting with your target market, your industry, and your colleagues. This can bring in a good amount of business for anyone. Whether you are a small or large business, you can leverage the power of PR through social media to create lasting relationships with your client, your target market, and potential new relationships. 

Based on what I learned during the panel, here are a few tips for anyone interested in expanding their business through PR.

Speak coherently and with strategy
Your successful PR campaign is not just about sending marketing blurbs through social media. It’s really about creating a coherent strategy that will carry your message to your target population. There is a great deal of thought that goes into what message you’d like to share, how people will receive it, and the medium that can be best used to share that message.

Connect to the wide audience
When PR executives are hiring new recruits, one thing they look for is an active personal social network. Their philosophy is that if you can engage a small group of people, you getting do the same with the masses. Instead of focusing on numbers from the beginning, focus on engagement and the wider audience is sure to come your way.

Authenticity is king 
If you’re sucking up to someone or speaking about something that you don’t feel passionate about, people can tell. It’s really important that whatever you promote through PR is near and dear to your heart. For a small business owner, this is easier then for a larger corporations sometimes. We are so connected to what we do, it’s easier for us to relate emotionally to our audience. However, that being said, many business owners get so hung up on making the sale they completely forget about the relationship. This is not okay. As a business owner, you need to connect genuinely and authentically with every member of your target market.

Photo by The Silfwer