There are many ways an organization can benefit from conducting a corporate event. Not only can it boost morale and increase productivity, a well organized corporate event can also engender a sense of belonging and loyalty among the rank and file.
Whether you’re going to organize the business convention or other event, or hire an outside vendor to plan it for you, there are many details which need to be considered. The following contains useful information on how to make the most of your event. Read the full article here.
Before you decide to conduct a corporate event, you need to decide upon a few things.
• List out your goals. You should have a clear idea of what you want
to achieve by conducting the event. You have to decide whether you want
to enhance skills like team building, problem solving, leadership
qualities or if you just want your team to have some fun and unwind
from the daily crunch.
If you do decide to manage the event internally, it is important to have clearly defined goals. It can be very easy to lose sight of them in the planning process. It would also be a good idea to have a facilitator to ensure that your corporate events run smoothly.
How do you use email marketing for event promotion? Don’t make the mistake of thinking that email marketing is ineffective. Using email to reach potential event attendees is still one of the most effective ways to reach your audience.
Why?
Even though new technologies come out all the time, and Social Media and Social Marketing are all the rage, the fact remains that these are NEW technologies compared to the relatively ancient form of communication known as email. And it is still effective, if you do it right.
So, how do you do it right? You need to use an ESP (Email Service Provider) to get your email delivered, because these companies have special ‘white list’ approval by the ISPs (Internet Service Providers) like AOL, MSN, Yahoo, etc.
Without this ‘white listing’, a lot of email doesn’t get delivered or gets flagged as SPAM, so sending email from your own domain instead of using an ESP is going to reduce the percentage of email that gets into your recipients’ inbox.
Which ESP should you use? There are different tiers of providers, from very cheap to very expensive, and which one you choose depends on what you are trying to accomplish.
If you have an in-house email list of customers or people that have already ‘opted-in’ to receive email from you, then you can choose a low-priced provider. In my experience, Aweber is the best of the best on the low end. Even though you are emailing to your ‘in-house’ list, you still need to use an ESP because of the white listing issue. SPAM filters still work no matter where you got the email address from.
On the other hand, if you are renting a list to prospect from, you need to use an ESP that specializes in that. Alternatively, a lot of companies that rent out lists will email for you, but they are list providers, not ESPs, so you will still have a lot of undeliverable email unless they are experienced at getting email delivered like and ESP is.
I am not going to even mention sending email to unsolicited email accounts. This is SPAM, pure and simple, and should NEVER be done. Those offers you get for 100 million email addresses should be ignored. Either you use an in-house list, or you pay to rent a list (or pay to advertise to someone else’s list).
You now need to craft a message, whether plain text or HTML, and get it sent. You should have a process in place that sends a click on the link in your email message to a specific page to register for the event or to a sales page to convince the prospect they SHOULD register for the event.
If you are renting a list, you probably won’t be able to send your email message more than once unless you pay again, so you want to drive these people to a page on your site where they can opt-in to your own inhouse list for you to be able to contact them again without paying more than once.
Which method you choose depends on which type of list you are emailing to - existing ‘customers’ on your in-house list should be an easier ’sale’ than cold prospects from a rented list.
And it doesn’t stop with only one message. ESPs can deliver an automated sequence of emails, 1 per day, or any schedule you choose. This autoresponder sequence should be loaded up in advance so a series of emails goes out to promote your event.
Now, what your email contents should be, or what your marketing message should be is a whole other subject. But the central points are:
1) Use an ESP to get your email delivered
2) Don’t just send one email - load up an autoresponder sequence of messages (if possible). If you are renting a list, this may mean you only get one shot at sending an email, but you can have these people go to a page where they opt-in to your own internal ‘in-house’ list so you can reach them again on your own without needing to rent the name again.
3) Have a hyperlink in the email that goes to a page to sell the event or for people to register for the event.
For a low-cost, full-featured ESP that allows for unlimited email lists, unlimited email blasts, unlimited autoresponders, as well as great reports and advanced feature like Split-Testing, etc., you can’t go wrong with Aweber.
On the high end are companies like Silverpop. Most people won’t need to take things to this level unless you are trying to sell out an arena or other huge venue.
Of course there is much more to email marketing for event promotion than the above, but the above should get you started.
Trade Shows are expensive and many feel not worth the time and effort. Although results from Trade Shows depend on many factors, like which industry and who is attending, etc. the following Trade Show Promotion tips will help you maximize the effectiveness of your next Trade Show:
Near the bottom of the list you will find 2 important strategies that probably should be at the top of the list: Trade Show Giveaways (promotional products) and lead Follow Up. It is crucial that any leads generated at your next Trade Show get followed-up promptly and get put on a list for future correspondence, etc. such as email newsletters and other promotions.
If you are planning an event, you need FOOD, don’t you? Well, how much food and where it comes from are line items on your Event Planning Checklist, so the following Event Catering Directory sites should come in handy in locating a local event caterer:
You can estimate you will need about 1-1.5 pounds of food per person, but this depends on a lot of factors, like the type of event you are holding, what time of day the event takes place, etc.
We all love Hors d’oeuvres, but these are the hardest items to estimate so find an event caterer that seems to have this calculation down pat.
The key to successful event planning is being resourceful and avoiding uncertainties. The more you research your available resources, the simpler it is to overcome any obstacles to your objectives and pull off the perfect social function.
When putting together any social function, business party, special event, or mini festival, you can’t begin advertising or producing promotional material until you have chosen and contracted a fitting location. Likewise, it would be putting the cart before the horse, to sign up a speaker or book your entertainment before your event visions have been brought clearly into view.
As the Mainstream Media denies Iran poses any threat to the free world while they test-fire missiles in defiance of said same free world that can reach Israel and its neighbors, it occurred to me that Iran is likely to now get a bad rap, even from the Mainstream Media, because even the most ignorant and/or liberal American can figure out that Iran possessing long-range missiles while refusing to give up its nuclear program cannot be a good thing.
So, I thought it would be a good idea to point out why Iran should NOT get a bad rap, especially when it comes to choosing a venue for your next event.
The following are the Top 10 reasons you should consider the country (or if you aren’t into the whole brevity thing: “Terrorist Sponsor Nation”) of Iran as your next event venue par excellence:
1 - No need for fireworks or pyrotechnic specialists - pyrotechnics in the form of missile tests are ongoing
2 - Comic entertainment provided by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad free of charge
3 - Plenty of parking
4 - Plenty of cheap fuel, including Nuclear
5 - Your Promotional Items can be inscribed with “I survived an Event in the Axis of Evil”
6 - No Jews to ruin your day
7 - No Dissidents to ruin your day
8 - Catering includes all-you-can-eat Hummous
9 - No chance of war according to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
If you are attending a trade show soon, you will need a trade show display. The following list of vendors, in no particular order, can provide either a custom designed booth or sell you a pre-configured one from their inventory. Either way, you will want to draw attention to your trade show booth, and one of these companies will be able to provide a design that will have impact:
http://www.applerock.com
http://www.tradeshowdirect.com
http://www.godfreygroup.com
http://www.moddisplays.com
http://www.nomadicdisplay.com
http://www.exhibe.com
http://www.displays2go.com
http://www.abex.com
http://www.exhibitdeal.com
http://www.everythingdisplays.com
Sure, there are more trade show display vendor websites than just those listed above - go ahead and search online yourself if you can’t find what you need from any of the above companies.
More Trade Show Resources:
Making the Most of a Bad Situation - Trade Shows - If you know me you know that I think trade shows are usually a monumental waste of money. They are one of the most common marketing investment mistakes that I see software companies continue to make year after year. …
Trade Show Accountability - B2B Marketing and Sales Tip #117 - For these people I’d like to I’d propose a few things that can be done as part of your trade show production to ratchet things up accountability-wise. The goal is to go beyond counting how many business cards are in your fishbowl, …
Leverage Exclusive Events to Increase Trade Show Traffic - Some trade shows enable marketers to produce cards or flyers that are placed on the seats at the Keynote presentation. It’s more targeted than a hotel drop and instantly actionable. If the trade show does not offering a keynote drop, …
Essential Trade Show Planning Tips - (Be sure you give them all the details, such as your booth number.) If you have one, be sure to advertise your coming trade show attendance on your Web site as well. 7. Develop an overall marketing message or marketing theme. …
Smart Trade Show Exhibiting Part I - Yes, there are many reasons that trade show marketing is highly effective, but let’s not exhibit at a trade show just to ‘make a presence’ or ’show up and be seen’. Let’s do the research and planning necessary to make money from these …
Rising Exhibiting Costs Places New Premium on Efficiency - There is good news in the world of tradeshow research: according to a recent study by Exhibit Surveys, an industry research group, a considerable number of new attendees are coming to tradeshows. At the same time, 39 percent of …
Quality—Not Volume—of Booth Traffic Spells Tradeshow Success (Part I) - Hook the big fish before the show starts. The tradeshow itself is just one phase of a marketing continuum that starts weeks or months in advance and—with perseverance and a little luck—culminates in sales afterward. …
A simple idea, but one that makes event notifications easy if the people you want to inform about your event details are following you on Twitter. A Twitter Mashup called Twitzu allows for inputting your Event information, such as date, time and location, title and description (not necessarily in that order) and blasts it out to your Twitter followers.
Obviously a work in progress (the links on the pages to the ‘About Us’, ‘Contact Us’, etc. pages don’t work), this simple web-app. claims to allow for your followers to RSVP if they will be attending your event.
Since you have to enter your Twitter username and password in order to use this service, proceed with caution, especially since the site seems to be half-finished.
Nye Ohrberg has posted Part II of his Advertising in Tough Economic Times article where he discusses direct mail and other forms of advertising, trumpeting promotional items as the all-time best way to:
Keep Current Customers Happy and Loyal
Get more customers
Get employees to do more with less
He spells out exactly why promotional products work so well and why they provide the most bang for the buck, especially when the economy is tough. Read the full article at the above link for the full scoop.
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