Episode 93: 15 Benefits of Running an Event

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Hey everyone, this is Julie. Hope you are doing awesome today. I kind of want to talk a little bit about behind the scenes of the Marketer's Heart event. How many of you guys went to the Marketer's Heart event? Curious. And you know, it's funny, the whole idea of events and what is, what is the value of the event? So today I just kind of want to go through some unexpected benefits from running an event, even if it's virtual. You know, events can feel like a lot of time and money and energy and they sometimes aren't profitable. In fact, we were laughing because this was a virtual event, so you would think it would be profitable. But then we're like, I don't think we made any money on this. So here's just a few things to note. Number one, we decided from the get go to hire a professional production company to do the virtual event so that it didn't feel like just a regular zoom meeting. So we had a team of four, we had three camera people, we had a studio. We also made all the speakers come and speak live from their remote locations. It was actually technically quite complicated. So that was our biggest expense, was hiring that team to come in and make that event. But it really did feel like an event. And we had 500 people register for the event and we had more than 50% of people attend the entire three days. So we think that a lot of that had to do with the fact that we had this sort of dynamic studio and multiple camera angles and things that just kept it interesting. So it didn't feel like you were just in another zoom meeting. So what were some benefits that we saw from the Marketer's Heart event? Now these, the first two I'm going to mention, probably you would already think events build brand identity and loyalty more than anything else. If you are trying to grow a community, you're trying to help people feel like they are a part of your brand, not just consuming it. Events will Create brand loyalty and identity, whether it's through friendships, whether it's through swag, whether it's through just a more intimate connection with the people that are front facing in the company. There is nothing that works better than events. And virtual events, when done well, can have the same impact. Obviously in person events does it even more, but virtual events, we still saw a ton of brand loyalty and identity come out of our virtual marketers heart event. Okay. Another unexpected benefit. Obviously people know you can sell higher ticket offers or you can sell things that might be a little bit more expensive to sell, but you have all this momentum. You have people there, they're listening. So we sold for the first time. Actually, that's not true. We sold Launch Gorgeous last year at the New York event. But it was a very sort of quick sell towards the end. We didn't really, you know, do much to, to promote it. Whereas this time we did a full webinar and we sold the launch Gorgeous on demand off of the back of the event. We did it as the last presentation of the two days. It worked very well. We were able to answer questions and then we went right into an open cart launch the week after. Logistically, it was very taxing on our team, but we had our biggest launch ever off of this event. Another thing that is a great benefit is to test material. So if you have future material or material that you may want to put in a book or put on a podcast or in a course, you can test this material on a live audience. And we did that with some of our presentations. We tested it out just to get that initial instantaneous feedback for how it's resonating. So if you have any plans to put out some new content, put it in an event first. Another benefit is that you can give attendees upcoming sneak peeks. And this is part of that brand identity and brand loyalty is that when they feel like they get to see behind the scenes of what's going going on, they get more sort of inside look. You can build that loyalty and identity, but you can also help your community understand, like, here's your mission, here's your vision, here's where you're going. It's almost kind of like the way stockholders in a company will get like, you know, sort of a State of the union address. You can do that at an event in a different way than just sending out an email. Okay. Another thing, networking relationships with speakers. So if there's anybody in your sphere that you want to get to know, inviting them to speak on stage is a Great way to start developing that relationship. So if you have some people in a dream 100 and you can afford to get them on your stage, it's an excellent way to build that rapport. Obviously, it goes without saying that another benefit is you get replays that can be reused for bonuses, courses, workshops, summits, things like that. So that is another benefit, assuming that you, of course, pay for audio visual team production company. Another thing is that it will sell more of your existing stuff. We had some of our highest days ever in our business on those three days of the event because people were buying things that we weren't even talking about. But there was a sense of like, oh, I'm here, you know, it's funnel gorgeous. And, you know, maybe people were mentioning things in the comments. And so it will sell more of your existing offers even if you're not actively talking about them from this stage. Another thing that it can do is build incredible social proof and buzz on your social media profile. So whether people are in your group talking about the event or whether they're tagging you on Instagram, it's going to generate buzz and give you lots of material to screenshot and use for later. Okay, so for later offers, later launches, later events, another benefit is that you're going to actually bond with your team more. I think we, as a team, really, I mean, it was a stressful event, but we had some great bonding time. We were able to fly in one of our employees as an mc, Kathy came to my house in Connecticut. So there's just a chance to bond with your team in a different way when you're putting on an event because you're all working towards this one particular goal. Another thing that it can do is it can help you get awesome B roll for social. So B roll and photos. We had a photographer come and take pictures with us. Then we had, of course, the event fully photographed and video recorded. And so this provides a lot of material as you're moving forward in Instagram and TikTok. So you might as well, if you are on those platforms. The event provides a way for you to do all of these things and get some of that sort of byproduct as well. Another unexpected benefit that it didn't even dawn on me until I did it was that it allowed me to connect with AV people. And I know that seems kind of random, but for any kind of like small workshop or event, or even if you want to have a local production company in your area that you can develop a relationship with so that you have someone who's local that you don't have to fly in. That was also a benefit as well. And lastly, it allows you to sell tickets to a future event. You can actually sell another event off your existing one. So if you do a virtual event or you do an event and it's, you know, not as expensive and you want to sell tickets to a more expensive event later, an event is a great place to do it. A lot of people who have a great experience want to repeat that experience. So those are some benefits. I hope that's helpful for you guys. If you are on the fence about doing an event, start with a virtual event because it's a little simpler and then move to an in person. But we had an incredible time at the Marketer's Heart and we really wanted to connect with our community and our customers and we got all these extra side benefits as a result. So appreciate you all. Talk to you soon. Bye.

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