Marketing Best Practices

Now is the Time for Your  Business Seminar

By  Dale W. Hutchings

There are certain marketing practices that are far more effective than others when it comes to creating awareness, building credibility and ultimately increasing your company’s bottom line. One initiative in particular that stands out - since this marketing strategy is usually just as effective in recessionary times as these as when our economy is more robust - is presenting seminars.

Why?  There are a number of reasons:

• It is a proven technique for positioning yourself or your business in the marketplace

• It is a vehicle that always increases awareness, no matter the size of your audience.

• It is an exceptional way to demonstrate your knowledge and experience.

• It greatly helps to establish you as a spokesperson/expert/professional in your field.

• It is an initiative that really doesn’t cost you a whole lot of money. In fact, if you are really good at public speaking you can even charge fees for your talks.

Types of Seminars To Consider

There are various kinds of seminars to consider to promote your business.  You may want to use perhaps one or two of these, or maybe a combination of all four, depending on which ones you feel will work best for you.

1. A seminar that is strictly self-promotion, whereby people attend to learn about your product or service

2. A seminar that is a “consumer-education-type” workshop to help people better understand a topic about which you have the knowledge and expertise to speak

3. A seminar put on by others, such as a professional organization, which has asked you, or has agreed to allow you, to speak to its members or constituents on a topic in keeping with your expertise

4. A seminar put on by you and other business people to jointly self-promote yourselves or to provide consumer information to benefit those attending.

Presenting seminars can be an enjoyable, rewarding experience, from a self-development standpoint, as well as an asset in building your business.  However, before you take the plunge and give that first presentation, be certain you are ready. That means be sure:

• You know how to organize a talk with an introduction, body and close that will be interesting and in keeping with the time allocated.

• The topic fits your audience and is structured such that it leaves those you are speaking to with a particular message you want to convey.

• Your message is upbeat and, if possible, so meaningful that it is likely to stay with them after they have left your presentation.

Suggestions on topics that business people especially want to learn about these days that might enhance your attendance, as well, would include:

• Anything that addresses ways to save in operating a business – As examples: informing your audience about gas/energy conservation methods and mechanisms, how to save on business insurance, low-cost ways to promote their business, how to cut taxes in operating their business, etc.

• How new technology can enhance their business – This includes everything from the growing phenomenon of social business networking sites to electronic bookkeeping to how to get the most out of a website to enhance the bottom line.

• How to have better relationships, feel better about themselves, move forward or be successful in these challenging times

Of course, there are many other “hot” topics to speak about, depending on your business.  Some methods you may not have thought of, but can be very effective in generating good speaking topic ideas:

• Visit your local library and ask someone in circulation what types of nonfiction books people are checking out; or go to reference and ask what types of research topics are the most popular that patrons ask for help in searching.

• Browse bookstores or online bookstore websites to study what types of current and/or best-selling non-fiction books they are featuring.

• Talk to friends, business colleagues and peers for their suggestions on topics you could address.

What also makes doing seminars a great marketing tool is that there are endless opportunities for business people to speak in the community.  Many clubs, organizations and professional business associations are always looking for speakers. Under most circumstances, such groups as these won’t be paying you for your wisdom.  But if what you care about is getting your name out there so people know about your company, then doing seminars can be a wonderful tool for you to use in marketing your business today, tomorrow…always.

Dale W. Hutchings, APR (Accredited Public Relations Professional) specializes in “out-of-the-box” marketing and has more than 30 years of PR, Marketing and Advertising experience. Since 2001 he has had his own practice with a heavy focus on marketing consultation and copywriting for a wide variety of advertising mediums. For more information on his services contact him via e-mail at: hutch7@verizon.net.