Seminars – a.k.a. workshops, conferences, and lunch-and-learns – provide one-on-one customer contact like no other strategic marketing tool. By presenting educational or technical information, you can reinforce your brand, build credibility, and position you and your colleagues as knowledgeable experts.

Hosting a seminar uniquely builds relationships with customers who appreciate information that can enhance their lives or improve their businesses.

Seminars also attract prospects and generate leads. They allow companies to efficiently and cost-effectively showcase their products, services, or expertise.

Above all, seminars can increase sales. To do so, however, they must be properly planned, well presented, and targeted to the right audiences. Here are some basic tips for delivering a successful seminar.

• Identify a topic with audience benefits in mind. Choose a timely issue that will intrigue and benefit your audience. Aim to provide useful expertise tailored to the audience’s needs or that solves a problem, and avoid a “hard sell” presentation.
  
  
• Partner with other experts. Finding an overall theme and enlisting complementary speakers to present related topics is a great way to reach larger audiences. By sponsoring useful information from several noted experts, your customers will see you as providing value-added services, further reinforcing their loyalties.
  
  
• Promote persistently. Targeted direct mail or personal invitations combined with telephone follow-up is the tried-and-true technique for generating interest. But you can also integrate other tactics as appropriate, such as statement stuffers, press releases, and advertising. Encourage each customer to bring a guest and to make reservations. And always make reminder calls a day or two beforehand. 
  
  
• Invest in quality. Take steps to ensure an efficient and professional registration process. Polish your presentation and give attendees professionally created seminar workbooks containing valuable, concise information. Have a backup plan for audio/visual malfunctions. Keep slides mistake-free and to a minimum, using them only to prompt your remarks and to visually engage your audience. Focus instead on the substance of your spoken communication. 
  
  
• Motivate attendees to take action. Distribute feedback forms before the seminar that include requests for appointments. Offer something of value that creates intrigue and provides justification for a future appointment, like a free service profile or product checkup. Remind attendees that you welcome the chance to meet later at their convenience.
  
  
• Reach out with webinars. If your customers are spread across every geographic corner of the atlas, reach them by taking your presentation online. A Web seminar lets participants link in from wherever they are. Not only does this eliminate travel for everyone, it’s also a smart solution for connecting with busy, time-crunched customers.
  
  
• Promptly follow up. The impact of your seminar fades with each passing day, so begin follow-up calls the day after your event. Start with those who’ve expressed interest in receiving additional information from you. Make sure your contact management system is updated to further support timely follow-up.

Wipfli can help you find more ways to grow your business – and your bottom line. To learn how, contact your nearest Wipfli office location.