Business-to-Business Internet Marketing, Fourth Edition - Lifecycle ...

Using Internet Events for Marketing 153
4. Cross-promote the seminar with advertising and public relations
activities.
Now see what happens when you enhance your promotion by using
the Internet as a registration facilitator. You execute the same four steps,
but you add a special seminar registration URL to the mail piece and
promote it prominently. You urge the prospect to visit the URL to receive
further seminar details and to register online. When the prospect
arrives at the Web response area, you offer
A more detailed agenda and description of the seminar, along
with speaker photographs and biographies if appropriate,
Directions, including printable maps, for each seminar location,
Information about other events of potential interest to the prospect,
including a list of Internet-based events for those prospects
who are not in the ten-city area or cannot attend the live seminars
but want more information about your company’s product, and
An interactive registration form—perhaps with a special offer just
for online registrants—so that prospects can register online and
receive an instant acknowledgment. (Collect an e-mail address
here and you can use it to remind the registrant of the seminar
several times before the event. Use a Web-based database tool
and you can capture the marketing information you obtain from
the prospect one time instead of rekeying the information. Use it
for future promotions and to track the prospect’s activity.)
This relatively easy enhancement could have a significant impact on your
seminar program—and your marketing ROI. Here are the six reasons why:
1. You may be able to reduce the cost of your direct mail seminar invitation
by making it less elaborate and driving response to the Web—
where prospects get full seminar details. Typical direct mail seminar
invitations include a full agenda, speaker biographies, and location
information. That takes considerable space to accomplish in a mailing
piece. With the Web as your electronic information center, perhaps
even an oversized postcard invitation would suffice.