Here's one request a marketing coach hears quite often: "Part of my plan in organizing and marketing a conference entails doing a big mail-out. I'm running out of time so I only have one shot at reaching prospective registrants, many of whom have not heard about the conference yet. Will you please help me create a sales letter that will get people to open the email, read the contents, click on the link go to the website, and register for the conference?"
Open. Read. Click. Register. Wow, that's asking a lot from one email, especially if this is the first time the prospective registrant has heard about the event. But given that "time is running out" for this conference organizer, let's see what I can suggest that will help.
First things first: you can not have one email do all those tasks! It's just impossible. People rarely buy things "cold" from an email before they have had a chance to "warm up" to the person or product.
A better strategy would be to use the email to offer something that is free and too good to pass over. That might be a free report on a topic related to the conference, or a preview webinar with a really interesting speaker (maybe a panel of some of your conference speakers).
In your email, have a link where they click to get the free content. In order to get the freebie they need to give you their email address. Make this as easy as possible for them. Don't even ask for their name - the more pieces of information you ask for the more likely they will balk and leave the sign-up page.
Once they have signed up the next thing they should see is the thank you page. The thank you page is useful as the next step in the sales process. Here you can place the sales letter for the conference and give them some sort of special offer to get them to register for the conference. An excellent example might be a discount, or even a "two for one" registration offer.
Towards the end of the free special report or preview call is the best time to mention the conference and make the special offer to get them to register. You can also enable registrants to get the downloads of previous and upcoming preview calls. It is important to always give people a way to register. People normally need to see the sales promotion several times before deciding to buy.
Realizing that selling is a multi-step process is important. Taking a direct approach via email in selling the conference may not get the results you desire. Oftentimes, people need to be "warmed up" by learning more about you and what you are offering. One of the best ways to do that would be providing them with a "free taste" of what's to come. Hey, what works wonderfully for Baskin Robbins ice cream should also work for event registrations!
Open. Read. Click. Register. Wow, that's asking a lot from one email, especially if this is the first time the prospective registrant has heard about the event. But given that "time is running out" for this conference organizer, let's see what I can suggest that will help.
First things first: you can not have one email do all those tasks! It's just impossible. People rarely buy things "cold" from an email before they have had a chance to "warm up" to the person or product.
A better strategy would be to use the email to offer something that is free and too good to pass over. That might be a free report on a topic related to the conference, or a preview webinar with a really interesting speaker (maybe a panel of some of your conference speakers).
In your email, have a link where they click to get the free content. In order to get the freebie they need to give you their email address. Make this as easy as possible for them. Don't even ask for their name - the more pieces of information you ask for the more likely they will balk and leave the sign-up page.
Once they have signed up the next thing they should see is the thank you page. The thank you page is useful as the next step in the sales process. Here you can place the sales letter for the conference and give them some sort of special offer to get them to register for the conference. An excellent example might be a discount, or even a "two for one" registration offer.
Towards the end of the free special report or preview call is the best time to mention the conference and make the special offer to get them to register. You can also enable registrants to get the downloads of previous and upcoming preview calls. It is important to always give people a way to register. People normally need to see the sales promotion several times before deciding to buy.
Realizing that selling is a multi-step process is important. Taking a direct approach via email in selling the conference may not get the results you desire. Oftentimes, people need to be "warmed up" by learning more about you and what you are offering. One of the best ways to do that would be providing them with a "free taste" of what's to come. Hey, what works wonderfully for Baskin Robbins ice cream should also work for event registrations!
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