Event Marketing Boosts Business During Challenging Times

Author: jill lazar

The economic crisis is taking its toll on nearly every industry, and many companies are slashing their marketing budgets to save on expenses. But if we all turn into penny pinchers and scale back on relationship building, our customers are likely to, well, forget about us. Tough times give companies a great opportunity to step out and get noticed; those who keep building relationships are the ones that can fly ahead of the competition.

Research shows that recessions rarely have an adverse impact on spending overall. In fact, studies in every recession since 1940 show that income — and possibly expenditures — rarely declined more than two percent. People are still spending money and event marketing can get your company in front of clients so they remember you, connect with you, and most importantly, turn to you first with their dollars.

If your marketing budget is still fairly small, a strategy that typically generates a high return on investment is planning an event. There are plenty of ways to work around even the tightest marketing budget, and creating meaningful events is essential to your success. Whether you’re sponsoring an event or hosting your own, a special event generates immediate interest from potential clients and positions you as a leader in your industry. The result? Brand awareness and maintaining a ‘top of mind’ status.

Staging an event also offers networking benefits; your company can work with local vendors and develop some co-marketing or co-branding initiatives in the future. One of the biggest benefits of event marketing is the word-of-mouth effect that ensues; when clients are excited about a sensational event or interesting activity, they are more than likely tell friends, family members and business associates about it — and are promoting your business as a result. Simply put, hosting an event can be a powerful marketing strategy.

As an event and marketing professional, I understand the importance of building relationships with vendors and collaborative marketing efforts to get in front of the clients by planning vendor meet and greets, client socials and industry expos. By developing one-of-a-kind experiences for your clients, you’ll naturally increase your ROI and can measure the success of the event with surveys or tracking purchases. Event technology can easily log client activity to determine if purchases were made after the event, and tally survey results within seconds.

I encourage businesses to get in front of your clients by planning events during these turbulent economic times. Here are some helpful tips to get you started on your event:

1. Plan it out. Set attainable goals and expectations for your event and give yourself plenty of time to plan out what you want to achieve by having the event, putting together a budget, and being creative to wow your guests.

2. Collaborate your efforts. This sets the stage for sponsorships and co-marketing ideas by teaming up with vendors. This is a great way to cut costs, build a relationship and rely on each other for referrals as you both grow your business.

3. Hire an event planner or dedicated team member. The last thing you want to do is execute a bad event; you want people raving about the experience, not complaining! If you’re on a very tight budget, consider hiring an event planner only for the day of your event to make sure everything runs smoothly.

4. Promote your business before the event. Plan ahead to create marketing materials and get the publicity you need to promote the event long enough to generate strong interest. Call campaigning is a great strategy to personalize the

invites by calling attendees to confirm attendance and provides them with the ‘ultimate’ experience from beginning to end.

5. Be resourceful and fun. Consider hosting an event at a restaurant instead of a hotel to save on room fees; most restaurants don’t charge a room fee for private rooms. Having your event at sites that provide entertainment such as a private charter, upscale venue or cooking school can also help provide a unique experience for your guests.

6. Host a late-afternoon soiree. If you can’t afford to host a luncheon or dinner banquet, consider hosting the event from 2:00 — 4:30 so you can serve lights snacks and non-alcoholic beverages instead.

As John F. Kennedy once said, “When written in Chinese, the word “crisis” is composed of two characters-one represents danger, and the other represents opportunity.”
By building lasting relationships with vendors and clients through event marketing, we can truly see the value in keeping our marketing budgets and seeking opportunity during challenging times.

Jill Lazar is the Marketing Associate /Event Planner for Atrion Networking Corporation in Warwick Rhode Island. She is also the co-owner of Everything Events and has over five years experience planning both corporate and social events. Jill holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Event Management from Johnson & Wales University and a Certificate in Event Planning from US Event Guide; she is currently completing an MBA in Marketing from Johnson & Wales University.

About the Author:

Jill Lazar
Jill is an industry professional with more than five years experience planning both corporate and social events. She holds a bachelors degree in Event Management from Johnson & Wales University. Currently she is completing an MBA in Marketing from Johnson & Wales University and a Certificate in Event Planning from US Event Guide. Jill is a member of the International Special Events Society (ISES). She is also a member of Sigma Delta Tau Sorority and is the local advisor for the University of Rhode Island. She prides herself on building relationships with local vendors and providing the ultimate event experiences to her clients. Jill enjoys traveling, out-of-the-box ideas, and never likes to say the word "no".

Article Source: ArticlesBase.com - Event Marketing Boosts Business During Challenging Times

Today, more than ever, sponsors of sporting events face a barrage of “suitors” clamoring for their sponsorship dollars. To be the lucky one who wins the “date,” you must not only stand out in this crowded field, but prove to the sponsor that the event you’re organizing is the best solution to meet his or her needs and objectives. To do this, it is crucial that you understand the criteria by which your proposal will be judged. What is your sponsor looking for in a sporting event?

Learn these six Critical Criteria inside out and backwards and you will turbo-charge your chances of winning an enthusiastic “Yes! When can we sign?”

Communications Objectives are usually a prime motivation for sponsors. Businesses are almost always trying to say something to an audience through their sponsorship. This can be as simple as getting their name and image out into the community or something as complex as trying to change public perception (e.g., a beer company sponsoring a fitness event). Whatever their general business desire may be, there is usually a specific message your event can communicate. Your job is to tease it out. What do they want to say and how will your event help them say it? Answer those questions and you are well on your way to a positive response.

The next consideration is the Target Market the sponsor is trying to reach. How does its desired customer base match your audience? Face it, the AARP is not likely to sponsor a snowboarding event! So know your demographics. Ask yourself: Why does Rolex sponsor yacht races? Why does Mercedes Benz sponsor golf tournaments? Why does Red Bull sponsor extreme sports? And why does Nike sponsor everything? All of these companies want access to the demographics that attend and compete in specific events. Find out what audience your sponsor is trying to reach and then demonstrate how your event will attract that very same demographic.

Risk to the sponsor is a third criterion and one that too few event organizers consider. Think about it. There can be a great deal of risk for sophisticated sponsors who associate themselves with the wrong event or with an event in which many unknowns are in play. What if a contestant or spectator were badly injured? How would the bad publicity affect their organization? What if the event competitors or hosts were to speak or behave in a way that opposed their brand values? How happy, for instance, do you suppose Michael Phelps’ sponsors were when that photo of him on the business end of a pot pipe hit the papers? Letting sponsors know that you have thought about the risks and have safeguards in place to minimize them can go a long way to putting a sponsor at ease and making your proposal jump out of the pile.

Sometimes a sponsor will sign for your event purely for the Promotional Opportunities it offers. The sponsor wants to promote its products or services directly. Does your event offer ample opportunities for this? Think creatively about ways to sell directly to your audience. This might be as simple as setting up at table at registration or providing a vendor area at the venue. Or it might be more imaginative - letting sponsors host a happy hour or a kids’ event where they can show off their products. Think outside the proverbial box. Are there places at your venue to hang signs and banners? Sponsors often count the number of times their logo appears in print and television. What can you do to increase this count? Where will the cameras and your audience’s eyes be focused most of the time? Some creative thinking in this area will elevate your proposal high above the competition’s.

Past Record, of course, is another way that a potential sponsor will evaluate your offering. You’ve probably heard those commercials where the stockbroker says, “Past performance does not guarantee future results.” Well, that may be true in stocks, but it’s not the way sponsors think. Put yourself in their place. You are asking them to provide you with something of tangible value. In exchange, you are telling them to trust that you will provide the results you promised. Your reputation and past record are all they have to go on. Your past record is critically important. You must leverage it wisely. Statements such as, “95% of our sponsors are returning next season,” can be very powerful. Provided they’re true. Also, remember that fulfilling your promises and keeping existing sponsors happy is much easer than generating new ones. The most important past record is the past record you have with this particular sponsor.

Finally, at some point in the decision process, all potential sponsors are going to evaluate the Cost vs. Return for your event. This can occur in the form of a formal Return On Investment (ROI) calculation or an informal gut feeling. In either case, you need to be crystal clear on how you provide value and benefits. You need to know your market and event. And you need to offer concrete data to back up your claims. You also need to create sponsorship packages that are financially appropriate. Don’t ask for a $20,000 title sponsorship for a horseshoe-throwing contest behind Al’s Hardware Store.

Your job, when you’re pitching sponsors, is to know what is important to each sponsor and then adapt your offerings to their needs. This need not be complicated. Sometimes it’s as simple as asking. You just meet with the prospect and ask her, “What are your objectives?” She will usually be happy to tell you. But if, for any reason, you can’t get the answer directly, do a little research, turn over a few rocks.

If you can satisfy these six Critical Criteria, you will be head and shoulders above all the other “suitors” who are eager to walk down the aisle with this sponsor.

Here are some tips I learned in the promotion of sporting events, but they should give you some ideas for keeping all kinds of donors and sponsors happy:

* Generally, the rule for event promoters is to only allow one sponsor from each category: One print media sponsor, one supermarket, etc. All donors for nonprofit causes are welcome, however.

* If your sponsors are businesses, they want new business leads from their association with your event or cause(they're not just donating for the "warm fuzzies" in most cases). Make sure you deliver exposure proportionate to their contribution. If possible, introduce them to potential customers in some way.

* The easiest way to leverage your sponsors' pleasure as well as the size of your turnout is to go after media

sponsors. The secret to this is to produce an event or fundraiser that they will be proud to be associated with.

* Media sponsorship usually comes in the form of discounted rates for ad spending. To get the biggest bang for your buck, don't be shy--get your best spokesperson(probably you) to be interviewed by your media sponsor. This can help build your brand better than anything. Your event then becomes perceived as a news item instead of another pesky advertisement. Use radio talk shows and TV news for this. Newspapers, too. Podcasts, anyone?

* Give your major sponsors credit. If appropriate, mention your major sponsors or contributors on the air and in print when you get the chance.

* Make it clear up front what recognition each level of sponsorship will receive, in writing, so that no-one will feel slighted by the size of their logo in print ads or online. Make sure you deliver what you promised.

* Always follow up with a thank-you letter to sponsors/donors after the event or fundraising campaign. Let them know how it went and specifically, what exposure they got for their sponsorship. How big was the crowd, if it was an event?

* Send press clippings, audio clips, etc., especially ones that mention THEM

* Try to generate specifics for sponsors: How many people saw their logos at the event and in ads? How many people did you send to their business, if you know. What comments did you hear about their participation?

* If possible, structure your event in a way that will put potential customers in contact with your donors and sponsors. Find creative ways to get them together in a social setting or in their place of business.

* Always send sponsors/donors a nice letter--or better yet, pay them a visit to thank them and go over areas of benefit for their business. Show them a good return for their money in the form of new customers, "free" advertising, and association with a well-run and worthy cause.

If you help your sponsors prosper, they will help your event or cause prosper--It's as simple as that!

When you have done your job well, enlisting sponsors' support in the future will be a piece of cake.

Paul H. Kemp is a lifelong entrepreneur and marketer. He has also served as an Economic Development Consultant for the U.S. Department of Commerce and local Chambers of Commerce, specializing in rural business opportunities for Oregon communities affected by changes in federal timber policies.

He currently is fascinated by the opportunity to help individuals take control over their own health in this global economic shake-up.

More information can be found at his Web site: http://www.HealthyPlanetDiet.com/

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Paul_H_Kemp http://EzineArticles.com/?Successful-Fundraising---The-Care-and-Feeding-of-Sponsors-and-Donors&id=2825353

Event Planning: A How-to Checklist

Author: J Mikula

Are you looking to host an event, party, conference or workshop? If you have done so before, you know event planning can be a headache. And, if you haven’t, you’re probably already overwhelmed! Continue reading to discover a checklist that will help you ensure you’re prepared for your upcoming event.

Nail down the basic information. Be able to answer these questions:
1. What is the purpose of your event? (Informational, fundraiser, social, etc.)
2. What is the name of your event? This should be catchy but relate to the purpose of your activity.
3. When will your event take place? (Date and time)
4. What is the draw – a performer, speaker, fundraising activity? If a person or group needs to be booked, are they available?

Determine what the physical needs for your event are. What about:
1. Physical space – Will your event take place at a banquet, conference room, dance hall?
2. Tables and chairs? If you’re having a meeting, presentation, or a dinner, how do you want the tables arranged? Consider this when evaluating venues.
3. Food and drink – will a meal be served? Snacks at breaks? Beverages? Sometimes this is bundled with your location, depending on location; otherwise, you may need to book a caterer. This is a good thing to keep in mind when booking a venue.
4. Equipment – will you need any audiovisual equipment for the event? Possible equipment includes televisions, public address systems, computer projector and screen, overhead projector, and so on. Will your venue supply such equipment, is it available elsewhere, or do you need to rent it?
5. Security – is your event large? Do you need a safety and security staff to ensure the well-being of your guests?
6. Lodging – is your event a multi-day affair, will guests be traveling long distances, or could guests be too tired or intoxicated to make it home? Consider reserving a block of rooms at a nearby hotel to make available to your guests. At a minimum, include information on nearby lodging in the materials you send to guests.
7. Transportation – How will your guests get to and from your event? Will they drive themselves, and, if so, is parking available? Is public transportation available? You may wish to use a coach hire service to provide transportation for your guests. This is especially advisable if alcohol is to be served at your event.

Advertising
1. Do you need to advertise your event? This may depend on the goal of the event and the intended audience.
2. If so, create an advertising budget and goals. Is the event public or private?
3. Identify advertising methods – email and the web? Radio? TV? Newspapers? The correct medium for you will depend on the type of guests you’re trying to recruit.
4. Design and distribute your ads, emails, letters or so on with adequate time to receive responses.

Last minute details
1. Confirm details with the venue, caterer, transportation service, etc.
2. Confirm any talent (band, speaker, performer, etc.)
3. Confirm equipment needs are met and all equipment is working properly
4. Review and confirm the guest list
5. Get a good night’s sleep!

About the Author:

J. Mikula is a business professional and consultant.

Article Source: ArticlesBase.com - Event Planning: A How-to Checklist

As a producer of sporting events, dealing with sponsors is a crucial aspect of your professional life. If you want to win at the game of accumulating great sponsors – and who doesn’t – it helps to understand the process. Landing and working with a sponsor for your event is a process that goes through several stages, much like life. That is, it starts at the beginning, matures and grows, and then ends.

If you do your job right, you’ll create - to be Disney-esque about it - a veritable circle of life. Renewing itself over and over again, well into the future.

It all begins by understanding the steps. The process of sponsorship entails several “life stages”: Identify; Recruit; Evaluate; and Fulfill. Each phase is quite distinct in what it demands of you.

The first step is Identify. You can think of this as the infancy of the process. Everything is fresh and new. This is the stage in which you look at your options and identify potential sponsors. In this step you decide not only whom you are going to approach but what value you bring to them. How does your event advance their particular message or mission? How does it reinforce their image or brand? What angles for marketing can you offer them? Are you really a good match for each other? Do your ideals, styles and demographics mesh?

You also need to Identify your own needs during this phase. Your time is valuable. You can’t afford to waste it. You must choose sponsors that offer you clear value and with whom you can “close the deal.” Those are the ones for whom your “product” meets their needs and offers a benefit worth the cost.

The next step is Recruit. This is the “growing up” phase of the life cycle – your seeds of an idea now grow from a vague impulse into a full-fledged proposal. You’ve chosen the sponsor you want to approach; now you must focus on pitching and selling them. Actually, the word recruit is preferable to “sell” or “pitch,” because it emphasizes the two-way nature of the relationship. Again, you want to pursue sponsors for whom the arrangement will be mutually beneficial.

Toward that end, you need to understand your candidate’s mindset, needs, values, brand and decision-making process. A few simple pointers will go a long way to ensuring a successful recruitment phase.

• Under-promise and over-deliver. No one will ever fault you for giving more value than you promised, but the opposite is certainly not true.
• Know what is important to your sponsor. Signing a prospect that is not a good fit with you is a bad deal for everyone.
• Be honest. Don’t “play” your prospect. If you don’t know the answer to a question, don’t make something up. Tell them you will find out the answer and get back to them.
• Be professional. Return phone calls and emails promptly. Keep and send out meeting notes. Make sure your printed material is polished and professional. Check in regularly with the sponsor and make sure you are meeting their needs.
• Follow through. If you say you are going to do something, then, as Nike would say, “just do it.” Remember, you are only as good as the last promise you kept.

The third stage of the life cycle, Evaluate, may be the hardest step. This stage is rather like watching your adolescent leave home. The “child” takes on a life of its own. The proposal – and the control - moves out of your hands. Your prospective sponsors will be doing the evaluating, not you. They will be weighing your proposal on its merits. You have to let go, sit back and see how they react.

One way to help ease the anxiety is to actually provide the decision criteria they can use in evaluating your proposal. Most of the decision-makers may not be used to weighing proposals, so offer them an evaluation framework for judging yours. It’s sort of like setting the rules to favor the home team.

Before letting your proposal “leave home,” ask yourself a few questions. Have you considered the dynamics of the decision makers? Have you addressed everyone involved in the decision process? Did you provide all the information requested? Double-check and make sure you have followed through on all your commitments.

Finally comes the “senior” phase of the life cycle. Your proposal has matured into a real business deal. Fulfillment is the most important step in the process and the key to your future success. This is the stage where you actually organize and produce the event. This is where, like a grownup, you deliver what you promised. Here are a few guidelines for a successful fulfillment stage:

Keep your promises and follow through. If something is not going as you hoped, talk to the sponsor. Be open. Solicit their input and make them part of the solution.

Keep in contact with the sponsor throughout the event cycle: planning, promoting, registration, event day and post-event. Simple relationship management will go a long way toward ensuring a positive result.

After the event, have a post mortem with the sponsor. Discuss the results and ask for feedback. What could have been done better? Where did we drop the ball? What aspects did you like best? How can we improve the process next time around?

Assuming you and your sponsor have agreed on some measures of success, discuss how the event measured up. Did the event participants offer any feedback? Did they purchase additional products and services, if such were offered? Did they sign up for future events?

The key to success is to understand the life cycle from start to finish. Each stage is different, but they’re all focused on the same goal: signing and re-signing great sponsors for your event. As Stephen Covey says in The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, “Begin with the end in mind.” If you implement this process skillfully it will create an ever-renewing “circle of life” from event to event and sponsors will be approaching you.

People to People Networking: Why Web 2.0 tools Work for Fund Raising

Author: Anthony Kirrane

There is a new wave of communication tools, and they are immensely powerful. People are gradually beginning to see the value of Web 2.0 tools in a variety of sectors, and this value is advocate engagement.

Whether these advocates are customers, partners, referrers, sponsors, supporters or fundraisers, the common denominator is awareness-raising through people to people networking.

The United Nations, a customer of The Community Host, is using the Community Server platform to engage the youth of today and provide an online meeting place where the next generation of budding world leaders can share their thoughts quickly, efficiently and interactively with their peers.

I wonder what scenario prevailed before the advent of Web 2.0? I can imagine what it would have been like for anyone involved with charitable causes. Organisations with high ideals and worthy goals would be frustrated in trying to raise awareness or funds through traditional and expensive media channels or by knocking on doors. These channels would be limited to big budget organisations and the smaller charities or companies, despite their equally worthy causes, would struggle to claim wide support because they would only be able to supply anecdotal evidence as to the sincerity of their objectives. How would they prove that there was rising support, and proof of the success of the funds already raised?

Web 2 changes all of this – dramatically - by introducing the conversation factor, getting people talking to people about the causes they are supporting, whatever their size, whether local, regional, national or international. Dialogue matters and over time a conversational wiki builds up online, thus showing potential funders – including those all-important celebrity and commercial funders - that there is a wide interest in this cause.hanks to Web 2.0 tools, smaller charities who traditionally found it difficult to raise funds will benefit greatly. Through viral marketing campaigns via forums, blogs, share buttons and wikis, supporters will do more than just make a donation; they will get people talking to people about the cause, and will inject a buzz into it.

About the Author:

Anthony Kirrane is the Director of The Community Host, a proactive SaaS provider offering enterprise class community hosting options. With exceptional expertise in running sites with traffic expectations in excess of a million hits per month, preferred Telligent Systems partner The Community Host is dedicated to serving any organisation seeking a high performance, scalable and customisable online community solution courtesy of award winning, world-leading community networking systems such as Community Server and Evolution. For more information call 01277 365530 or visit http://thecommunityhost.co.uk

Article Source: ArticlesBase.com - People to People Networking: Why Web 2.0 tools Work for Fund Raising

Translations for Non-Profits: How to Manage the Cost of Reaching Out to Non-English Speakers

Author: Janine Libbey

Non-profits that are seeing an increased demand for their services from non-English speakers know that juggling the community’s needs and a tight budget is challenging. One thing is clear: English-only is usually not an option if they want to meet their missions. There are ways organizations can manage translation costs so that they can communicate with clients in their native languages.

Ask if the translations company has a non-profit rate. When P & L Translations (http://www.pandltranslations.com) work with a non-profit in their community for the first time, the first 250 words of a translation into Spanish are free.

Plan ahead. Include translations as a line item in the next grant you write so that you have the funds available when you need a document translated.

Call a board member. Don’t sacrifice your mission because you don’t have money in the budget for translations.Most board members will be happy to write a check.

Be direct – Make sure the original text is clearly written so that the translation will also be true to your message.

Edit, edit, edit – The number of words or characters may increase by 20%-60% when they are translated into other languages from English. Can you make the text shorter?

Make sure that the document you submit for translation is the final version. If you make changes to the original after you have submitted it, you will be paying for extra, unnecessary work.

Check the grammar and spelling before you submit documents for translation.If the document says “weed” where you meant to write “seed”, the same mistake will probably be in the translation.

Translation pricing is based on the number of words in the original document. That’s the industry standard.

Compile all the documents you want translated. We need to see them to get an accurate count of how many words need to be translated, if special formatting is needed, and to gauge how technical (or simple) the text is.

About the Author:

Janine Libbey is a founding partner at P & L Translations in Nashville, TN. P & L Translations provides translation, voiceover and subtitling services for non-profits, government agencies, and businesses in most European and Asian languages. For more information, visit http://www.pandltranslations.com or call 615.460.9119.

Article Source: ArticlesBase.com - Translations for Non-Profits: How to Manage the Cost of Reaching Out to Non-English Speakers