To expand your event business, first expand your thinking. To grow your company, grow your value.

Social Failures

The typical social event professional (from wedding planners to caterers and photographers to DJ’s) struggles to find new clients because they never leverage the power of relationships.

They assume that their customers are not likely to become repeat clients – and after the party’s over they fail to keep in touch.

The unsuccessful event pro says, “Why should I waste my time following up with a bride after the wedding is over? It’s not like she’s going to hire me again any time soon.”

It’s this type of faulty thinking that causes many event people to fail.

The successful event business owner says, “Of course I keep in touch with my brides! They’re not going to get married again soon – but they’ve got sisters, brothers, cousins, friends and co-workers. When I get referrals I don’t have to sell hard and I don’t have to deal with price shoppers.”

And this applies to corporate event pros even more so!

Referrals are your easiest sales and your best customers. They trust you and they’re willing to listen to your advice. They don’t want to waste time shopping for price. So, are you getting enough referrals?

Here’s a few ways to get more referrals – or should I say “earn more referrals” from your clients.

1. Amaze Your Clients. If you want to be successful don’t give them a good deal for the price, give them a remarkable deal. And then give them the very best personal service in your industry. Being good enough isn’t good enough.
2. Know Your Clients. Where did they grow up? When is there birthday? What college did they attend? What’s their biggest passion in life? What’s their favorite restaurant? Hobby? Teams? If they’re a social event client – what do they do for a living and how can you help them? If they’re a business client – what do they do for fun? If you don’t ask it shows you don’t really care.
3. Connect. Use social media tools like LinkedIn with every B2B customer. Friend them on Facebook and follow them on Twitter. Get their email addresses. Always.
4. Find Ways to Serve Them. Don’t use Facebook to sell and tell – use it to listen and help. When an old client posts “I have the flu” on Facebook – pick up the phone or send a get well card. They’ll be amazed… just don’t stalk. That’s creepy.
5. Let Them Know You’d Appreciate New Business. If you always seem overworked – nobody will want to burden you with new clients. Think about it! Let your clients know you want to help there friends.
6. Don’t offer commissions to everyone. Yes- sometimes it helps to offer a percentage – but many times it can insult your client. If they feel you are bribing them – or exploiting their friends they won’t want to refer clients to you. Use commissions with other event vendors only.
7. Tell Them What Kinds of Clients You Want. Don’t assume your wedding photography client knows you also do family portraits. Educate your clients about your business.
8. Expand You Definitions. Are you only an A/V company or are you an event production solution? Or are you a partner in your client’s success… above and beyond the event?
9. Love. That’s right. Love and serve your clients to the best of your ability. It will come back to you in a big way.

Growing your event business isn’t that hard when you do an amazing job and love your clients. Make sure you’re marketing your business in the most effective way. There are many free internet tools that make attracting more event clients easier than ever before.

If you want to grow your event or catering business fast without spending money you’ll want to download my free report, “More Clients Now.” It’s written for the event professional who wants to book more gigs and events by using 10 powerful breakthrough tools. Please feel free to grab your copy here.

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Are you Sabotaging your own Event Business?

Wedding Planner Battles DIY Brides with DIY Marketing and is DOA.

The other day I spoke to a wedding planner who had a great deal of contempt for do-it-yourself (DIY) brides.

She said, “They honestly think they can do as good of a job as me! They can’t.  I can’t stand them. They pick my brain for idea and then try to do it themselves. They’re either really cheap or really naive.  Most of the brides around here are idiots.”

This planner was in big trouble – she needed to attract new clients – her attitude and her marketing sucked.

Her website was amateurish.  It looked pretty, but it didn’t attract clients.  Full of puffery and ego , it didn’t present a real benefit or compelling reason to hire the planner.

“Who did this site?” I asked.

“I did. I don’t have the money to hire a designer.”

“Who did your logo?”

“I did. I like it.”

“Who did the photos on your website?”

“I did.”

“Who wrote your sales copy? ” …. you guessed it.

She did it all herself – because she was trying to save money. She didn’t understand that a professional photographer could help her business look more professional and friendly. She thought snap shots would do the trick.

A penny saved and thousands in bookings lost.

She didn’t understand that an attractive logo can communicate her value faster than words.

She didn’t understand that the headlines, sub-headlines and copy were powerful tools for capturing attention, building interests and motivating visitors to pick up the phone now – and not hit the back button.

Before you snicker at how stupid the DIY customer is – how silly they are not to recognize your genius – take a good look at your own purchasing decisions.

It may help you understand what is missing in the story you tell your market.

Download Brian McGovern's Free Report Here

Nine Signs That Your Event Business Blog Sucks!

If I see one more crap event planner blog I’ll scream – blogging without a strategy is a huge waste of time. Stop wasting time!

Random blogging will not get you more clients! Traffic that doesn’t advance your strategy is useless.

I recently tweeted that over at @BrianMcGovern after sifting through the crappy blogs people submitted to the BizBash post over at LinkedIn. Over 90% of the blogs listed there are crap – just a handful of blogs on that list are doing it right.

What Is The Right Way To Blog?

If you want to post your thoughts about reality TV programs and pictures of your cat because it makes you feel good – more power to you.  If you like sharing your thoughts and opinions with a handful of people via a blog – knock yourself out.

But if you’re blogging to promote your local event services business you need to think and act strategically. Blogging can generate free leads – it can help your website rank higher – it can build relationships – it can boost your credibility – all for free … except for the hours and hours it takes.

If you’re blog sucks it is sucking your time. If you’re an independent event professional you can’t afford to waste time on anything that is not producing revenue.

Blog smart or stop doing it – stop kidding yourself that you’re promoting your business. Stop using your crap blog a way to “feel productive” and as an excuse not to pick up the phone and make some sales calls or go out and network.

I see too many self-employed people who are so scared of marketing and sales that they hide … tweaking their websites … tweeting on Twitter … acting busy and getting nowhere.

Here are the top signs that your event blog sucks …

Last updated 3 months ago. You don’t need to post things to your blog everyday but not posting things at least once a month tells readers and search engines to ignore you.

No analytics. Is anyone reading your blog? How many visitors did you get? What posts are most popular? How many visitors came from the city or region you serve? How did they find you? There is no excuse not to install analytics.

No Keyword Strategy. What words do your potential buyers search with? If you’re a Brooklyn Kosher Caterer – don’t you think the words Brooklyn Kosher Catering and relevant variations should appear in some form in almost every post? So why do you insist on posting Key Lime Pie Recipes and Event Planning Trends?

Is the Kentucky bride to be searching for a wedding photographer by typing “flower girl” into Google? No! She’s typing “Louisville wedding photographer.”

And when she clicks on a link – does she want to read the deep thoughts or does she want to discover a fantastic portfolio and an easy way to connect?

Check out this amazing blog by a very gifted Louisville wedding photographer, Todd Pellowe. Take notes!

Your Tags Suck or Are Missing. If you want to get attract local buyers you need to put your keywords in your tags.

Your Headlines Suck. Clever titles don’t attract local buyers – keyword rich and titles that promise a relevant benefit do.

Headline examples: If you’re a disc jockey on Long Island ..

Sucks: “Sweet Ideas for Sweet 16”

Better: “Long Island Sweet 16”

Best: “Long Island Sweet 16 Party DJ”

Self Serving Fluff. Please don’t describe yourself as gifted, inspirational, preeminent or world-class.  People aren’t that stupid.
Crap Ads. Are you trying to attract clients or sell advertising? Ads are a waste of time unless you have a massive amount of traffic. Otherwise they just distract  attention.

Crap Design. Are you still using the default black background on Blogger? Really?

Hidden Contact Forms. How do I contact you? Don’t make me look hard because my finger ready to back click. You have seconds to get and direct attention.

Bad Alt Image Tags. Describe your images with smart keywords. Don’t call that photograph of a bouquet, “roses.” Call it “Miami Wedding Bouquet” if you’re a floral designer there.

If you’re a wedding planner, caterer, corporate event planner, wedding photographer, DJ, entertainer, floral designer or any other event professional who wants to get more clients without spending a lot of money – smart blogging works.

Smart blogs attract local buyers – not random readers from across the globe who can’t hire you.  Crap blogs don’t generate leads and what is worse – they waste your valuable time.

In my soon to be announced workshop I’m going to show you how to use blogging to generate a massive amount of leads, goodwill, referrals and repeat business.

To be notified when the workshop is open, be sure to jump on my list and get a free copy of  “More Clients Now.”

Is it more effective to scrap the whole idea of an exciting offsite meeting destination or a first-class awards dinner and instead give the constituents the cash you would have spent on them?

This guy came up to me in a bar and said, “Hey Cupcake, can I buy you a drink?” I said, “No, but I’ll take the three bucks.” — Margaret Smith

Which is a more powerful way to motivate employees, cash bonuses or incentive travel?

If we believe humans are purely rational actors, the cash value of a special event experience should have the same utility as the experience itself. Wouldn’t an employer get happier employees by giving cash awards – so the employees can buy more stuff?

Turns out, stuff doesn’t make us happy for very long, but experiences do. Experiences increase our feeling of well being long after the event is over, but “stuff” sits there, wears out and breaks. Experiences on the other hand, get better with time. That’s because experiences provide “memory capital.” Empowering memories don’t bore us – but “stuff” goes out of style and obsolete.

I read about a study that shows that buying experiences, like dinners or shows, makes us feel better than buying stuff because experiences satisfy higher order needs, like the need for connecting with others and a feeling of being alive.

When our work satisfies high-order needs, we’re happier, more productive and less likely to quit. An employer that offers meaningful rewards is an employer with a loyal staff.

San Francisco State University. “Buying Experiences, Not Possessions, Leads To Greater Happiness.” ScienceDaily 17 February 2009. 8 March 2009 <http://www.sciencedaily.com­ /releases/2009/02/090207150518.htm