Guest post by Erika Kalmar
Building a big responsive list is key to selling your programs and products.
But the question is – how do you build a big responsive list?
If this is also your challenge – don’t worry, you’re not alone! In fact, the majority of coaches and other service-based entrepreneurs experience this as their #1 obstacle.
Let me share with you my secret tool to massively growing my community – I used this tool to add over 2,000 people the first time and 3,000 the second time I’ve used it. All this, in 14 days each!
Not bad, is it?
The magic tool I’ve used is – organizing giveaway events.
There are many reasons why I think you should add giveaway events to your marketing strategy, no matter where you stand with your business right now:
- It’s free
- You can add a massive number of targeted people to your list in just 14 days or less
- You gain HUGE visibility as the event host
- It’s fun (there are so many fun components you can add!)
- It doesn’t require speaking skills (unlike a telesummit where you’re interviewing your partners)
- You don’t have to be present live – there’s no stress about handling technical glitches live, everything is set upfront
- It’s easier to inspire your partners to join your unique giveaway event than another telesummit or a simple speaking opportunity
- And best of all – you can do this even if you have no list, no budget and no name on the market
Curious?
Let me give you 7 key points you need to know about organizing a giveaway event with success:
#1: Spend time with developing your big event concept. This is critical to the success of your event! Define your target audience, topic and unique marketing angle that makes you stand out. Remember that it has to appeal to a wide audience – plus your partners and their audience too!
#2: Select your partners with care. There are certainly giveaway events out there offering 50+, 100+ or even 1,000+ gifts. But the more partners are joining the event, the more you lose control over the quality of your event (honestly, do you know hundred or thousand partners really well enough so that you vouch for their offers?). My tip here: rather have a small circle of partners (5-20) who you feel confident promoting.
#3: Make it turnkey for your partners. Especially if you’re targeting big names on the market, you can expect them to have lots of speaking requests. This means you have to make them really easy to join your event, submit everything that is requested and promote the giveaway. Send out regular reminders, step-by-step instructions, handy promo packs with sample emails.
#4: Plan your promotion strategy well in advance. This is essential. Your event will be up only for 14 days so you won’t have the time then to plan your promotion. Do all this upfront and all that will be left for you during the event is to implement it.
#5: Create a big buzz. Best is to start before your event – plant the seed. Another great idea is to get all your partners send out a promo mail on the opening day. Just imagine, your ideal clients will receive an email from several experts about your event on the same day – how will this impact your credibility? If you want to make your event really big, find additional promoting partners (people who would spread the word on your event in exchange for placing their business link on your event page) and use social media.
#6: Motivate your community and partners to spread the word. Just because your partners agreed to join, it doesn’t automatically mean that they will be eager to promote your event. Therefore it’s your task to keep up their motivation. Also, why not build on word-of-mouth referrals from members of your community? Think of what you could offer them so that they are even more enthused to spread the word on your giveaway (a tip: how about a contest?).
#7: Make it fun. Yes, setting up a giveaway event requires planning and organization. But you also want to have fun. So reflect on this – how can you introduce a fun factor so that you will see all this work lighter? (I personally introduced a social media contest for my Giveaway For Coaches event, where participants were even uploading video testimonials to YouTube – how great it is to watch these testimonials?).
Ready to set up your own giveaway event?.
Erika is the Founder of Get Ready To Coach and host of the Giveaway For Coaches.
She’s the creator of several programs, including her new Giveaway Event Secrets program where she’s pulling back the curtain on her successful giveaway launches and showing you exactly how you too can add thousands of prospects to your list, raise your credibility, claim your expertise and reach more people while increasing your revenue.
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