Event Marketing: How to Successfully Promote Events, Festivals, Conventions, and Expositions

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■Cross-comparisons with related society and association mem-
bership directories
■Name/address/phone number “correction-alert” self-mailer
in the association’s annual membership directory
■“Broadcast fax” requests for updated information
■Instant-response feature on the association’s Web site, as well
as industry electronic bulletin boards
■Review of chapter membership directories
■Review of addresses on checks received
■Review of supplier records, ads, and press releases
■Review of your own address book

The list could go on ad infinitum. Often, mailing lists are up-
dated simply by one’s being alert to casual information passed
along about a stakeholder’s change in station, title, or direct tele-
phone number and e-mail address through a conversation with a
friend. Write it down at that moment and deliver it to those who
are responsible for updating the records and maintaining the lists.
List management also requires demographic/geographic seg-
mentation. Effectively categorized, the marketing executive can
maximize expense efficiency by minimizing wasted printing and
postage for unwanted target markets. Depending on the amount of
information gathered in the research for list management, com-
puterized lists can be coded to include or exclude any number of
variables, such as:
■By state(s)
■By title
■By professional discipline or trade sector
■By name
■By number of years of membership
■By elected leadership position(s)
■By number of events attended in the past, and years attended
■By ranking of advertising and sponsorship support
■By attendance at pre- and postevent tours and other ancillary
events
■By attendance at previous association seminars or workshops
■By current-member, dropped-member, or potential-member
status

(There is nothing more embarrassing than getting chewed out by
a veteran convention attendee who received a “Come Get to Know
Us” solicitation from the marketing department.)

106 Chapter 5 Marketing Association Meetings, Conferences, Events, and Expositions

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