Eventing for more fun and profit!
Thirty Seven years ago I started a concept that I still use to this day that I coined Eventing.
Baby face me sold real estate. And I was told by the gurus to make your open house an event.
Eventing is pouring on the shiny objects so your event is a non-stop injection of dopamine all meant to sell the bigger overall event.
A recent example was an open house that I went to locally in Palos Verdes. The view was spectacular as was the promotion by the Realtor Boyd the Broker.
It is encouraging for me to witness the great use of video that the industry creatives are using.
Boyd has a podcast. And of late he has been doing them at his open house.
The podcast is a big shiny object that points everyone to the house which is the main reason. But he also had drones inside and out.
Photographers.
Influencer young women interviewing and posing.
All are shiny objects to draw attention to the home as if it needed help.
I just told this story to a Med Spa client earlier today as he asked me to critique an email blast that he was doing.
I asked him if he thought that his results would multiply if he sent postcards right after the email arrived. Or the other way around.
In today’s digital world I often hear these multiple touches as omni channel advertising.
I like the original label called “The Rule of 7”. Seven exposures to your message. So if they were advertising Star Wars.
You might see it on a TV Commercial
or a Sunday Newspaper
and a Bill Board
and a direct mailer
and a bus bench
and a friend or two who just got back from the theater.
The “Mad Men” of yesterday knew if you like movies and you actually experience the messages. They had you!
By the way you can still do the offline stuff today. It still works!
Ad the offline with digital though can cause next level explosions of high intent traffic.
I told my client about a post card that I received recently that had a qr code on it, and it said “look what happened to you neighbors house.”
I followed the code and was met with the old “we sold their home for $x amount and we can do the same for you”. I like the card, but they fell short on the webpage though.
How Would I help Out That Realtor in order to Convert More Leads?
Since Google went all AI and mild but growing competition from llm’s like Chat GPT, Perplexity, Grok and Claude. The cost of a visit and lead are going way up.
That means that we can no longer count on just build it and they will come mentality.
And to make things worse, the average visitor to a webpage suffers from large attention deficits, especially if originating from a mobile phone. The swipe culture is worse than the click fatigue.
What is Click Fatigue?
Another term that I coined whereby a person only has so many clicks in them when looking to solve their problems. And distractions from duties like a hungry kid or dog, or a office chore that they must fullfill. In a perfect world we would like to be part of that entire path.
However, with phones we are up against a chronic habit of quick swipes. So we would like to if possible capture the visitor before they leave, and or after they leave. It is so bad that Microsoft says that the average netazin has the attention span of a goldfish!
How is that possible?
Sign ups and calls or texts for more information or a valuable offer. Then when they leave
- Retarget- which is showing them ads over and over through an ad net like Google or Facebook
- Retarget in non-primary ad networks.
- Exit Traffic – With certain tools we are able to identify visitors to your site with rich data such as name, address, email and even text.
Your goal should be to keep shaking that funnel until there is nothing left to shake.
More tools:
- press releases
- repurpose everything. Cut them up into snippets and post text and videos everywhere to “sell the event backwards”.
- Post in event opportunities like Facebook, Google Business, and other online event opportunities.
…and Events that Promote Your Cause
- Your Church
- Your Organization
- Youth Groups
- Charity
- And Your Business! and more!
Use Boyd’s podcast idea and plant it right in the middle of my youth league or high school clinic. Livestream it! Offer to help them to promote themselves and for that cost you get to be their shiny object that produces residual video, pictures and documents that promote them like the podcast video above.
What Is the Process?
I convinced the authorities of the need for this event. Have the ability to persuade.
I enlisted others for my agenda. In this case my Varsity Head Coach turned me onto the school’s administrators. And his wife who is an insider in the district and ran point for me. Helping us get through not just the school. But the district.
All large organizations will create resistance to your cool idea. If you have a game changer idea. Be prepared for resistance. And build your coalition to get it through.
Most large organizations are used to getting a million good ideas, and have been burnt by those they believed in as a good idea.
Know that risk going in. Know the great persuasion and persistence required of your great idea.
Why an Event?
Because an event is a reason to promote multiple causes and serves as catalysts that is at the beckon call of multiple masters. It can be if done right. The gift that keeps on giving.
The Promotion Process
- Permission and scheduling
- Promotion/Pre-Suasion
- The Event
- Post Sale
The Details
Promotion-
Social Media-alignable and nextdoor.com events. Very targeted to our small geo location. I also posted multiple references through my own personal social spaces.
Sites.Google.com-I built a website representing the event. With flyer, map, and pre-registration.
Piggy Back Other Related Event– We had a get to know us event for incoming Frosh on the Wednesday prior to the event. I framed it as it all starts Saturday. We picked up their emails and cell #s.
Email reminder prior to event-We received many pre -registrations and emailed them and the ones from the Incoming Frosh list.
Missed opportunities:
- Local Sports Cable Channel
- Local Newspapers and Rags
- More emails
- Social Ads
The Event
I told the players that this is like a Realtor staging an open house.
We are on our best behavior.
We are having lots of fun.
We are positive.
We staged the field with all the logo pads on the field goal uprights.
We had all the accouterments like yard markers.
The Post Sale
One of the best parts of this exercise. Is that it gets everyone talking.
From administrators to students.
Hey, buddy I tried texting you Saturday afternoon. Where were you?
Being part of the conversation is the first step towards winning your agenda.
What is Your Event Play?
I have to assume you do more than what you advertise. You most likely are involved in other activities that are charities, volunteer work or even hobbies.
Stop Hiding Your Philanthropic Activities!
You and I are naturally pushed into commodity.
We need to do our best to distance ourself from the rest by demonstrating our skill stack.
I go through this with my upcoming podcast sharing the ultimate in 4D Digital. Developing you persona!
You can go straight business promotional with your events. My clients do it all the time.
Sometimes we suffer from being too close to our food. And we forget how brilliant it is, what we do. Sell that!
Contact me if you want a more specific game plan for your needs. Or if you just want to see a layout of what we did for the clinic.
~Tim 310 533 9145
Note: this last section was produced in 2019 after our high school event. I added in the video from the youth promotion and some small edits.