Justin Taylor

Archive for the ‘Social Media’ Category

There are those out there that say over and over again. “Where’s the proof that Social Marketing really works?” I believe that people do want more hard numbers to back up the fact that social media marketing really does work… so they can at least feel that the investment turns a tidy ROI.

But I think there is another important part of social media that may often be overlooked and can’t as easily be measured.

Social media sites are places where people can vent about good or bad experiences. If a business is not involved in the social media circuits and they aren’t tracking what is going on there, then they can easily lose referrals, lose ‘prestige’ as a business and flat out lose customers all together. If only, because you aren’t there to defend yourself or at least build a relationship. Social Media has a huge impact on your PR… which is a big part of Social Media Marketing.

The era we have recently entered is really the newest version of ‘Relationship’ marketing. 40 or 50 plus years ago, companies were founded on exceptional customer service. It was expected. You went to the gas station and you had full service; check the oil, check the tire pressure, wash the windows, etc. You went to a store or any place else and the customer was king. The phrase, “The customer is always right” was coined during that era.

But that was lost over time and the face of corporations became automated telephones, machine operated service centers, lower wages, high inflation and the need for just making a living. Technology came along to make our lives easier and instead depersonalized most of it. Instead of improving everything, it made it worse; maybe because of greed or the quest for lower costs vs. quality or perhaps a number of other reasons. We someone forgot about the customers.

All of that is changing now though, people want that relationship, they want to feel listened to and respected. They want quality customer service. They are also very impatient and want instant gratification.

So we have an entirely new area of marketing, Relationship marketing and Social Marketing is only one piece of that puzzle. The next time someone says, where’s the proof, just remember that information about what people are saying or thinking about you or your business can truly make or break you and also don’t forget that as time goes on, ‘Relationship Marketing’ will become more and more important.

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As a matter of fact, people do enjoy attending events. This is because they want to get informed; to come in contact with the leaders in their field; for networking; for being acknowledged for taking their time to attend; out of curiosity; for entertainment; for gossiping; or just for the free food offered, always in a warm and friendly environment for all participants.

Poor attendance at meetings and events is always your worst nightmare as hosts. You may use an online survey to determine why potential customers do not enroll. You may ask customer service representatives about the most frequent objections. You may even initiate a promotional phone call to find out about the objections with your own ears. However, no matter what you do, the event will be a disaster if you don’t come up with ways to overcome these objections.

Designing a successful event aims at increasing your profitability and the potential of your attendees. In your effort to discover the needs and wants of your attendees it is advisable to ask attendee-focused questions that require attendee-centric answers. For instance, questions like ‘what would drive greater success in my business?’, ‘what my customers need?’, ‘how could I satisfy my customer needs?’ may help you design an event that will create interest in your attendees.

Promoting your event requires primarily creativity and persistence. High attendance is important for the success of your event and your business. Emphasizing on your attendees will allow you to generate more awareness for your cause and, ultimately, more success for your event.

Here are some guidelines you may follow to increase attendance when hosting business meetings or events:

> Target the right audience

One common factor that makes people restraining from an event is because they are not really interested. In other words, they do not belong in the right target group. If you host the event for the first time, it will take some time for finding the right target audience so as to achieve high attendance. In contrast, if you are already hosting the event for many years, you may experience a decline in attendance rates as a result of inviting the same people without expanding your guest list. You need to keep an updated attendee database and make sure that you target the right audience. This can happen by asking existing attendees to refer you to potential new attendees so that you increase your attendance rates for next year.

> Invite your audience well ahead the event

Once you start inviting people, you should continue at a constant rate. Inviting people well ahead the event is important because it gives you time to remind them about the event even if they have confirmed attendance. The point is to generate excitement and to make them enthusiastic until the date of the event is hosted. You can mention the event to your guests before sending them invitations and then send an electronic or paper initiation including agenda highlights. After one or two weeks, you may call guests and give them a personal formal invite to the event.

> Build credibility and interest in your event

To participate in your event, people need to be convinced that is worth their time and money. To achieve that, you need to choose major sponsors to advertise your happening, esteemed guest speakers to attract the audience and nicely organized promotional material to communicate the benefits of attending at your event. In doing so, you will able to build credibility into your event, convincing people that is exceptional and worth attending.

> Choose the right location to host your event

Choosing the right location may skyrocket your attendance rates. Don’t forget that people enjoy attending events. So, simply offer them an opportunity to detour from their routines and enjoy your happening. When choosing the location for hosting your event, consider a venue that can be conveniently reached because people are busy and do not have too much time. Also, it makes sense to use a venue that has been previously used for other events and people are familiar with. Offer discounts for early enrollment and offer also mail enrollment for people that do not have home computers.

> Provide incentives

Providing incentives raises additional interest. Offer additional discounts for the next year’s event that can be prepaid this year. Offer new activities, perhaps workshops, handouts, signed books for a famous guest speaker for the first ten people, who register; anything that can make your event unique, different than the previous years and worth attending.

As there is no magic stick that can increase attendance in your next event, you need to design your events around their needs. In that way, you will host an event that will be a memorable experience for your attendees, who consequently will drive higher attendance to your next meetings.

I work as a financial and investment advisor but my passion is writing, music and photography. Writing mostly about finance, business and music, being an amateur photographer and a professional dj, I am inspired from life.

Being a strong advocate of simplicity in life, I love my family, my partner and all the people that have stood by me with or without knowing. And I hope that someday, human nature will cease to be greedy and demanding realizing that the more we have the more we want and the more we satisfy our needs the more needs we create. And this is so needless after all.

Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/social-marketing-articles/ways-to-increase-attendance-at-business-meetings-and-events-1028741.html

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In the competitive market realities of today, event planners need to employ budgeting strategies in order to stay organized and better equipped to anticipate client inquiries. Constructing an event planning budget enables an organization to find the best deals and to meet its priorities by determining the feasibility of the event in terms of available resources, cost and return on investment. In that way, event planners are able to determine the actual cost of the event versus the actual investment and decide, in real time, on how to save money on event planning.

Typically, an event planning budget is constructed in an Excel Spreadsheet or with the use of event budget software. Technologically advanced organizations prefer the use of software because they can better monitor the collection and integration of business data, which leads to better management of corporate expense policies and cost-effective decision making.

With event planning budget, event planners can generate a variety of standard and customized reports that track expenses by category and sub-category, expenses by vendor, as well as projected, negotiated and actual expense reports.

In order to track expenses by category with accurate projections, event planners base their estimates on historical data. One of the most common methods is to calculate the average spending on food and beverage at the past ten events; or to calculate the percentage of beverage cost that was attributed to non-alcoholic choices. Such metrics are customizable and facilitate the budgeting process because they break down the budget in critical parts, offering room for further negotiations.

The customization of sub-categories offers the opportunity to obtain data intelligence. Typically, event planners run customized reports that track corporate travel expenses. One of the most common methods is to calculate the percentage of travel budget that is attributed to rental cars, to air fares, to hotel accommodation, to event facility and all related expenses. In addition, event planners sub-categorize transportation charges including any percentage of the budget that is used for event transfers, coaches, shuttles and any related expenses.

Similarly like in the category expenses, the projections of expenses by vendor are based on historical data. Event planners are able to determine the percentage of their spending with specific vendors over a period of time. In this part of the budget, event planners include expenses for décor such as floral, tents, centerpieces etc, catering expenses, and entertainment & equipment expenses such as audiovisual equipment. Typically, catering expenses account for the 30 percent of the budget.

Event planning budget includes also smaller categories that summarize expenses made for invitations, program booklets, banners, name badges, event signage, gifts for the guests, and separate activities such as spa, tennis, biking etc. Normally, the total cost of these expenses accounts for the 25 percent of the total budget, depending on the size and the complexity of the event.

When all amounts are included in the budget spreadsheet or software, event planners can summarize projected, negotiated and actual expenses. Projected expenses will be negotiated with the client in order to take the final decision. Actual expenses are invoiced after the event is held.

Constructing an event planning budget is a powerful tool. However, highly professional event planners track down event costs and collect business intelligence data in a comprehensive and innovative way that depicts their fundamental role in effective cost reduction. Their contribution to successful budgeting in not just effective tracking of expenses, but the utilization of event management tools incorporated into event planning budgeting. In that way, they possess potent capabilities in showing to their clients how their money is being spent and collected in relation to every component of the budget.

I work as a financial and investment advisor but my passion is writing, music and photography. Writing mostly about finance, business and music, being an amateur photographer and a professional dj, I am inspired from life.

Being a strong advocate of simplicity in life, I love my family, my partner and all the people that have stood by me with or without knowing. And I hope that someday, human nature will cease to be greedy and demanding realizing that the more we have the more we want and the more we satisfy our needs the more needs we create. And this is so needless after all.

Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/social-marketing-articles/how-to-create-a-basic-event-budget-1029279.html

Word Count: 718