Irresistible Event Registrations: How To Overcome Objections About Relevancy

Many event organizers face a variety of objections from attendees when it comes time to turn on the registration engine. You might think that objections are all about the event price, but there can be other factors such as content relevancy or logistics. To help you understand some of these concerns and figure out how to overcome them, here are five questions we loved receiving from attendees.

"I Picked A Date That's Hard To Get With For A Lot Of Reasons!"

"If someone doesn't go to an event that they were excited to go to, it can be heartbreaking" When we ask the question, "Do you typically attend events?" , a lot of folks will try and relate that back to how they feel about a specific event, but it often doesn't work. Too often event participants make assumptions about events and are surprised when they arrive at the event site.

Instead, we invite attendees to focus on the value that you produce for them. The way they see it is that they are hiring you to help them solve a problem or make progress on an important area in their lives. The various pieces of your event—the venue, the speakers, the topics, the social activities and so on—are all parts of a whole that improve their lives.

"If I Can't See Them Live Then I Wouldn't Feel Like It Was Worth It!"

In today's world many content creators make their living by making videos and live streams available to people who can't attend in person. This can be a great way to not only provide excellent content through new platforms, but also amplify your live events. The most memorable moments and sharing opportunities come when there are live reactions to a speaker's words, rather than a conference room discussion.

"I Don't Want To Go To A Conference That I Haven't Seen Before!"

The speaker you're inviting is not a stranger, and they've already been vetted across the industry. Conferences can be high value events with some very interesting content, but remember that speakers are just part of the experience. When we have time to plan out our events we spend time looking for speakers who will add real value to the audience. It's best to ask attendees if they have attended similar events in the past with positive experiences.

"I Don't Like To Be Out Of Touch With People I Care About While I'm At Events!"

Every year we spend $5,000 to $10,000 on cell phones, texting and internet access. We even hire on-site VA's to keep an eye on our business while we're at events. Rather than give you a lecture about how other people have been successful with these items at their events, it's better to ask attendees if they've had issues with being out of touch with their family while they're at similar events in the past. If your event isn't that type of event then there is no reason for you to worry about getting instant feedback from users.

"I Don't Want To Spend The Day With A Bunch Of Sales People That Are Going To Try And Sell Me Something!"

When you're creating registration pages know that the person who clicks the "Register" button is taking on a bit of risk, not just for themselves, but also for you. The more work we can do to make them feel like they're getting access to value, the less risk they'll feel in making that commitment. Plan out what your speakers will be covering and see if there is overlap between topics. This way your attendees don't have to worry about missing out on something essential.

"I Never Attend Events! Online, Mobile, Offline – I Just Go To Things That Produce A Lot of Content!"

While the time you spend working on something online can be very efficient, it's not the same as an in person experience. When people are in front of you they have a unique opportunity to engage with you and other attendees to form relationships. A great speaker has a unique ability to share stories and experiences that can make for an interesting session. Forcing new events on your users means that they're only getting what's already available through other methods.

Nothing can replace the live event experience but there are some great tools available that can help online attendees take full advantage.

"What If I Can't Find The Time To Attend? What Do I Do?"

It usually isn't a problem of time. You, as the content creator, must be intentional about the schedule you have in place for each type of event that you run. If there are videos to make or live streams to put together, think about how long it will take to put them all together. Have meetings with your team so everyone knows what to expect and what needs to be completed by when. Add in on-site chats with VIPs if it's practical to do so.

"What If My Event Fails?"

Before you spend money on advertising or promoting your event, you need to know what it takes to make the event "burn hot". This is a term I hear a lot in Hollywood. It means that when the promotion lights go on, there is so much buzz that people are talking about your content and can't wait to see it. When you get the word out at scale, the results will tell you how many people will actually attend your event.

If you're worried about looking bad because of an unpopular topic or getting a low turnout then do a dry run first as an online webinar with a small audience before doing it for real at an in person event.

"What If I Get Too Many People To Attend?"

If you're worried about selling more tickets to your event then that's a sign that it's time to create more value. Don't focus on "getting the word out" because you already have that taken care of. Instead, focus on adding more value to the experience. When your content is so interesting and valuable that people are talking about it even before it happens, then you'll start getting dozens or hundreds of people signing up for your events at a time.

What About You?

These questions were just a small sample of the issues we encounter with event planning. Have any of these questions come up for you? I'd love to hear more of your experiences and how you overcame the challenges of event planning.

How have you used social media and online tools to help plan your events? What worked best for you?

If you are interested in learning the science behind some of these challenges, check out this report on active engagement at events: http://stamper-training.com/aet-reports/active-engagement-attendee/

Posted by Brett Kelly at 3:00 PM No comments:

The Old School Moment… I was sitting around my office one day, watching my daughter play with her little friends in the same room as our computers back in 2007.

Conclusion: By now, you should have a good understanding of how to create a content strategy to help you reach your goals.

The only way to know if a content strategy is working for your business is by tracking the results You should be able to see trends in views and readership based on the topics that you cover.

This also has applications to bloggers and website owners that are looking to grow their businesses online. Content marketing can give businesses a way to drive traffic cheaply and easily.

If you take anything away from this report, I hope that it's this: Don't try to do everything at once (unless you are an expert). Start with one or two moves from the above descriptions and track results before moving on.