Events, live or virtual, are an excellent way to cultivate and educate prospects for Sage solutions. Before you decide to hold an event, keep these four basic principles in mind.
- Most partner events are held free-of-charge so the level of commitment by prospects is highly variable and easily influenced by schedule changes both from the work and home perspective. For most events, only 50% to 60% of prospects that register for a free event will actually attend. If your goal is 20 attendees, you should plan to register at least 40 prospects.
- Event marketing should combine phone contact, email, and/or direct mail and promotional efforts should begin at least 4 to 6 weeks prior to the event.
- In Winn’s experience, we register one prospect for every 3 to 6 hours of calling on average. But keep in mind that each event is unique depending upon the vertical focus, company size, the event venue, the date selected, weather conditions, and potentially conflicting events.
- The biggest mistake Partners make in planning an event is to assume that your offer is so compelling that everyone you contact will want to attend. In most instances that is not the case. People are very busy and choose how to spend their time carefully. Your event must offer real educational value.
If you are hosting an event and need help getting attendees, look to Winn to provide event promotional services including:
- Complete program setup
- Call guide and messaging development and testing
- Outbound calling
- Dedicated program management
- Inbound response management
- 24/7 Real-time reporting
- E-marketing
- Confirmation calling
- Registration landing page development and maintenance (Requires an additional $250 on the package price.)