Some professionals host events for marketing purposes—a party, picnic, seminar, fundraiser, golf tournament, and so on. They invite their clients and prospects and encourage them to bring their friends.
It’s a form of “member get a member,” an old-school marketing strategy that still works today.
But suppose you don’t have the funds to do this, or the time to organize it? Or you don’t know how to put it all together?
You can start small and host a “get acquainted” event in your conference room. Serve some food, pass out some information, and go from there.
Or you can piggyback on someone else’s event.
One way to do that is to find a professional a business that targets your market and is holding an event and talk to them about joining forces. You might pay for half of their convention booth, for example, or pay a fee to have them pass out your free report to passersby. You might offer to speak about tax issues at their investment seminar. Tell them that in return, you’ll promote their event to your clients.
Or you can do it informally.
Perhaps a Tony Robbins event is coming to town and you plan to attend. Announce to your list that you’re going and invite them to join you. Encourage them to invite their friends or clients who might also want to attend.
The more the merrier.
There may be 3000 people at the event but your group of 20 can get together at the breaks, go to dinner together, meet and compare notes. You get to meet some new prospective clients or referral sources, without doing anything more than promoting someone else’s event that you were already planning to attend.
You could do the same thing with a golf tournament: “a bunch of us are going to play. . . come join us and invite your clients and prospects. . .” You might spice things up by offering your own prizes–whoever has the most people join them, the lowest scoring foursome, or a random drawing for your group, for example. Or give everyone who comes some kind of freebie or special offer.
Every summer, our city has a “concert in the park” series with music and food. If there’s something like this in your area, you could promote it. “Join me, it’s going to be fun! I’ll be near the hot dog stand and I’d love to see you. Bring your neighbors and come say hello.”
Keep your eyes open for events someone else is doing and think about how you can piggyback on those events. If nothing else, it gives you an opportunity to contact your clients and prospects (to tell them about the event) and keep your name in front of them.
Marketing is easier when you know the formula
