Get the word out about your event planning business
You’re an expert event planner. You know how to plan fabulous events and have exceptional customer service skills. You’re all set for a great career but there is one thing missing…
Like any type of business, a talented business owner with a great idea won’t make much money if people don’t know about your event planning expertise and services. A business is only as successful as its marketing efforts.
The key to successful marketing is spreading the word to as many people as possible that are likely to have a need for the services you provide. Conversely, if you only get the word out to a few people that are likely to be interested in your offerings you won’t make much money. You should look for quality + quantity.
5 Best Marketing Practices for Event Planners
The best marketing practices are those that are cost-efficient and directed towards the right audience. For example, if you are a corporate events planner, the right audience may be key employees at different corporations such as an executive of a Fortune 500 company or various business through your local Chamber of Commerce.
There are many ways to effectively market your event planning business – and many ineffective ways. Let’s go over the 5 best marketing practices for event planners: Networking, networking, networking
Every successful event planner is also successful at networking. Join networking groups in your area and be active in the group. Join to meet people and prospect. Networking should include your local Chamber of Commerce, event planning organizations in your town, and specific groups based on your niche market.
Establish relationships with large event planning businesses
Don’t think of the big companies as “competition”. Think of them as a lead generation source. Many of these companies have overflow work. If you do a good job taking care of their clients, you just might get business sent to you frequently.
Make cold calls
Telemarketing may not be top of mind, but it can be highly effective. Have fun with it! Be friendly, cheerful and get straight to the point about what makes your services valuable to the person you’re calling. Create a list of 50 people, businesses or organizations that you’d like to work with so you have a plan before you start calling.
Get active on social media
Social media is a (mostly) free way of marketing, and it’s highly effective. Event planners can reach out to a wide audience with minimal effort. I recommend creating business pages on Facebook, Twitter, and my favorite – YouTube. Creating a bunch of informational videos and posting them on your YouTube channel will do wonders for your business and allows your clients to get to know you better.
Provide exceptional customer service
Often times, business owners put so much effort into finding customers that they forget to put effort into actually servicing those clients. The best marketing tool is providing exceptional customer service. Not only will this bring about repeat business but it often leads to referrals!
There are some other great ways to market your event planning business such as participating in trade shows, creating a killer website, newspaper ads, passing out business cards, handing out flyers, word of mouth, etc.
Before you get started and try all these techniques, create a marketing plan and test one or two options to find out what works best for you and your event planning business.
Note: this is taken from an article I wrote for About.com, check it out here.
