Ladies and Gentlemen… The Main Event!

The Super Bowl.

The opening day of a blockbuster movie.

Your town’s annual July 4th fireworks show.

Election Day.

What do all of these have in common?

They are all events.

And therefore, people give them a lot of attention and think about them sometimes months in advance – or longer. Events capture people’s attention and get them excited. They get attention from the media. We even rearrange our entire schedules because of events.

But almost no small business advertising or marketing causes any of that kind of reaction.

Unfortunately, most small business owners produce nothing more than boring, mundane, thoroughly uninteresting marketing, or they just bury their heads in the sand and do nothing, drawing the frustrating – but totally incorrect – conclusion that “there’s nothing I can do to overcome this tough economy.”

So what can you do?

You should be putting on your own local seminars to attract new prospects and clients.
That’s one of the quickest and surest ways to establish yourself as the “go-to expert” in your area and sell a ton of your products and/or services.

I’ve hosted over 100 of my own events, and I’ve helped my clients host hundreds more.

As a small business marketing consultant and leader of a group of nearly 200 other Chicago-area small business owners, entrepreneurs and sales professionals, I host monthly workshops, seminars and networking events where I teach innovative out-of-the-box small business marketing strategies and tactics that work to overcome this challenging economy. I’ve brought some of the world’s top small business-building experts right here to Chicago for my events.

I know what you may be thinking: “I’m not a consultant, so this doesn’t apply to me. I can’t host seminars!”

If that is what you’re thinking, I challenge you to open your mind…

EVERY small business owner is a “consultant.” There is definitely a group of people (your prospects) who would like your help finding a solution to a problem they have.

• A retail store owner can hold a seminar teaching the right features to look for when shopping for the products they sell
• A restaurant owner can hold cooking classes or “kitchen tours”
• A lawyer can teach the basics of the area of law they concentrate in
• And REALLY sharp small business owners will team up with each other to co-host events. I’ve helped many clients implement this strategy, with tremendous results.

For example:

An insurance agent, alarm company rep and financial advisor team up to hold a “Family Protection Seminar.” They cross-promote the event to each other’s prospect and client lists, so that each has an opportunity to attract new clients they otherwise may never have been able to get in front of, and they have the implied (if not outright) endorsement of their co-hosts. After splitting all the organization and marketing costs for the seminar, they each get to lead a session where they give the audience valuable information about their specialty. As a result, they are instantly perceived as experts, making it infinitely easier for them to attract new clients – and obtain higher fees – than if they had decided to remain “just another _______.”

I could go on and on, giving more examples and more ideas (and I do at my seminars), but I think you get the point: Whether you host your own events or co-host them with other small business owners, this is a winning strategy for you to establish yourself as an expert and grow your business.

Planning, marketing, coordinating and hosting events takes a lot of work, however, so the vast majority of small business owners will never do it.

Which is even better news for you if you decide to be one of the sharp few who does.

Do you use “event-based” marketing? Do you plan to? Let me know with a comment below.

And come join us sometime if you want to me to help you take your business to the next level.