If you’re looking for a way to differentiate yourself from your competition, one way to stand out is to highlight your expertise. There are many ways to do so, but a great way to promote yourself while showcasing your value is to host an event or a webinar. Key benefits include building stronger relationships with your existing clients for repeat business, and getting in front of new prospects.
A successful event or webinar builds your brand, establishes you as an expert, delivers value to your clients and prospects, and inspires them to take action. If your event or webinar addresses your audience’s needs and encourages prospects to sign up with you, it can be a recurring revenue driver for your firm. You can use the included email templates you can use to promote your product or service.
Think about what you do best or what issues you understand better than your competitors. Are you an expert in a certain industry? Do you help your clients solve a particular problem better than anyone else? Is there a pain point of theirs that you’ve developed a solution for? What are some questions clients regularly ask?
Also consider what it is that you want to be best known for.
Ideally, there is an overlap between what you do really well, and how you want to be positioned in the market.
In-person events are great for networking and allow for more casual conversations. Because people have to show up onsite, you’ll need to schedule accessible locations that offer ample parking and public transportation. If you host an event at a public site, make sure you follow any capacity rules.
Virtual events are ideal if you’re reaching out to people who are geographically separated, or prefer not to travel. Often it’s easier, more convenient and cheaper to run an online webinar.
Finally, decide how you want the event to be structured. You can give a presentation, have other speakers contribute on a panel, interview an expert or a customer, or share research or findings that will be of use to the attendee. Often it’s best to involve other speakers, not only to vary the delivery, but they will most likely want to promote the event to their database as well to increase numbers.
You need to get people interested in your webinar. To do so, make sure you:
Once you’ve set up your event and decided when, how and where you’ll host it, you need to promote it to your audience. Online marketing tools are an efficient and inexpensive way to promote your events and create buzz.
Here are some methods you can use to promote your events and webinars.
Each of the social media channels offers a unique opportunity to market your events. You could:
If you’re using social media to directly invite people to your event, be sure to only invite people who are connected with you or following your pages. They are most likely to be interested in your event and they may then share the information with people in their network, creating even further promotional reach for your event.
You can also send out invitations to people you know, both online and offline. Online, you can use a free online invitation service such as Evite to create a visually appealing email invitation you send to your contacts list. When you send the invitation, include a way for them to either register for your event or RSVP whether or not they’re coming.
If you send invitations to current clients, encourage them to share the invitation with someone in their network, or to bring someone with them.
You can also create an event page online where people can learn about and register for the event. Write a short email to send to your contacts list directing them to the page, and post about the event on social media with a link to the event page.
Offline, you can print a card to give out at other networking events and in your office to encourage people to take part in your event. Make sure the card includes clear instructions for registering or RSVP-ing to your event.
There are things you can do on your website to promote your event or webinar.
If you have a blog, write a post about the event. Keep it short and simple. Use the blog post to speak to your audience’s pain points, how your event will help them and what problems it will solve. Show how the event is beneficial to them. If you have online registration, link to it in your blog post. Share the post through your social media.
Add a banner to your website home page, advertising the event. The banner should be visually appealing and contain only the vital information, including the date, time, location, cost and contact information. Make it easy for attendees to sign-up by including a link to the registration page.
Get to know other industry leaders and work as a team to promote each other’s events. Find other service providers your clients work with and develop a relationship with them. Show that you’re interested in helping them by promoting their events as well. If your areas of expertise mesh well with each other’s, consider co-hosting events and building off the other’s network.
Events and seminars are powerful marketing tools for accountants. They provide a great way to enhance your thought leadership, demonstrate your expertise and engage your ideal clients while adding value for existing clients. They can also be fun. Follow our steps to effectively host and promote your next event or webinar.