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

■Target Selection.Identifying the markets most likely to buy

■Valuation.Matching the costs to perceived value

■Vehicles.Selecting the most effective channels of promotion

When marketing the educational benefits, emphasis should be

placed on the credibility of presenters, in particular, their bios,

academic and professional credentials and designations, and a

capsule of the content to be presented. “This is what you will

learn” is the benefit that must be carried in the message. Vague de-

scriptions and bland session titles will not drive adequate re-

sponse. Punch it up! Make it creative and compelling! A seminar

can be a “career-changing opportunity.” A symposium can be “an

exciting exchange of ideas and concepts.” A general session can

be “the place where our association comes together to view the fu-

ture.” And a leadership, board of directors, or committee meeting

can be “where we steer our association into the new millennium.”

This may require separate marketing vehicles aimed at sepa-

rate market segments. The issue of time-cost commitment to return

on investment requires research and measurement of attendance

results for each segment. Coding letters, brochures, coupons, and

other response/registration forms will identify the respondent cat-

egory and provide rich information on the effectiveness of the var-

ious marketing approaches used.

In the final analysis, the marketing investment should be de-

signed to have “legs,” in other words, to legitimately provide an

experience that will be memorable for participants regardless of

the market segments they represent. If their expectations are ful-

filled, they will value their investment enough to invest again,

bringing to one’s mind the old sales adage: “The easiest sale is the

repeat sale.”

Summary

Associations present unique challenges for the event marketer, pri-

marily because of the typical (and often conflicting) leadership

boards and committees, the voluntary nature of the stakeholders,

and the fact that the attendee market must be convinced of the

value of investing time and money in the event. Therefore, market

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