Frugal Marketing
(featured column)

Organize Your Own Seminar: Part 1
by Shel Horowitz

Last year, I devoted two tip-sheets to becoming a paid speaker. But there's another option that sometimes takes less work to arrange, and that you can do before you have any kind of reputation. In fact, this idea will actually build your reputation and make you much more desirable as a speaker -- because you'll gain experience in front of a live audience.

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It's really not that hard. You design the event, arrange for a room, do the publicity, and put on the show. Speaking out of your own expertise, you reach prime prospects for your goods and services. You can either charge for the seminar and make the event itself into a revenue stream, or do it for free and reach a wider audience of potential customers.

And to prove I'm taking my own advice, please see the second article.

If you're an experienced speaker, you can shortcut all the work of dealing with event planners and selling yourself, which is far more work than the actual speech. And if you're not ready for the speaking circuit, then you can gain valuable experience.

I'd recommend starting with free seminars, at least at first. That way, you're much more likely to qualify for a free room and free publicity--and you can also hone your presentation skills on audiences that are not going to be as fussy.

Brainstorm a list of topics by thinking about the questions your customers and prospects ask. Identify something that will provide useful information and motivate your audience to buy either goods or services from you afterward. You should be able to come up with five or six topics without much trouble.

As for a venue...

* If you have your own store or professional office, have it right there.

* Consider partnering with an organization that already has an audience, such as a library, historical society, or bookstore.

* Take advantage of free meeting space offered to nonprofits in government buildings, schools, hospitals, libraries, or even shopping malls.

There are hundreds of ways you can publicize a free event; here are a few idea starters:

* Notify your own customer/prospect list and subscribers to your e-newsletter.

* Send announcements to the calendar and subject area pages of local newspapers and specialty publications (for instance, the local business monthly, appropriate ethnic press, college papers) and to the calendar slots of radio, cable, and broadcast TV stations.

* Post messages to bulletin boards on all the community-oriented websites in your town.

* For a free event, you can often get storeowners to put a poster in their windows. And there are bulletin boards, of course.

Read Part 2: Now Get Paid For Your Seminars

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Get Shel's Great Marketing Books, Available at Amazon!

Principled Profit

Grassroots Marketing

Copyright © 2003 by Shel Horowitz

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