Running a workshop or seminar is one of the best strategies for a small business owner to attract more clients.
But how do you fill a room? A lot of our clients often ask us how to get people to come to their events so we thought we’d share some strategies with you.

Some of the key strategies we share in this video tip include:
– Having a database helps
– Everyone loves referrals
– Social media can be your best friend
– Webinars in your pajamas
– Pay per click advertising
– Being a speaker can be very effective
– Gift vouchers are appreciated

How do YOU fill your room? Please share your tips and tricks below.

Christo: Come on in, come on in.

Franziska: Oh, thank you. Thank you.

Christo: Yeah, I’m busy trying to fill our room.

Franziska: That’s great. We actually get asked that question a lot. The people often ask us, when I put on an event or a workshop, how can I fill the room?

Franziska: And that’s a very valuable question because it’s not that easy to fill a room. It takes a lot of effort, it takes a lot of work.

Christo: Yes, exactly right. Again, if you know some strategies it can definitely get easier. And once you’ve kind of got the ball rolling, and you’ve worked out what works and what doesn’t work for your niche, it can be a lot easier.

Franziska: So let’s show some strategies right now. So, one of them is if you have a database; that’s the easiest one. If you have a database of people, all you need to do is send them a really engaging e-mail about your event or your workshop or your seminar just saying, “Hey, I’m organizing a new seminar or event. I would love you to come along. Here are the details.” You can even have a link in your e-mail that goes to a website or just a page where they can enter their details to register for your event, it’s quite easy.

Christo: Very good, I like it.

Franziska: What else?

Christo: You can do referrals, that’s a tip. If you’ve already got, say you’re already running your workshops, referrals really work well too. If you’re running a similar workshop over and over and you’re providing a lot of value in those workshops then people know what they’re getting each time. And you’ll get people to come along and say, “Hey, this workshop’s awesome. I really need to send my husband or my wife or my friends; I need two people that need to come to this.” And so, if you give them like, referral cards where they can offer it to a friend or if you’re client base asked for referrals.

Franziska: Yeah, cool. Something else you can do is use social media, obviously. We love social media, you can use any of the social media tools; Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, even YouTube. You can use those tools to invite people to workshop, so pretty much just put the link there, to that website that you have about your event or your workshop and say, “Hey, I’m organizing an event. Go check it out.” And adding some images always helps through.

Christo: Very good. And you can also use other people’s database, I’m sure that’s another strategy.

Franziska: Yeah, that’s a good one.

Christo: So you can offer a special offer to clients of a certain business and the same offer to that certain business, they can send it out to their database, you offer them a special discount or a special offer for being a client of, you know, XY & Z business and they can blast it out to their database.

Franziska: You know what else you can do?

Christo: What else?

Franziska: You can run webinars.

Christo: Ah, yes.

Franziska: Do you know what a webinar is? It’s an online class, so it’s pretty much a class that you can run online. You can invite people from anywhere to join on your webinar; we love it because we have an international audience. So people anywhere in America, Canada, Europe, anywhere, it doesn’t matter where they live, they can join. So, a webinar is a great way to get people onboard and then just say, “Hey, I’ve got a couple of workshops running in different cities or different countries, so come along.”

Christo: Very good. And you know what else you can do? You know what else you can do? You can use Google AD words. So Google AD words, you can pay.

Franziska: What is Google AD words?

Christo: Google Ad Words, it’s a good question. Google Ad words is when people searching Google, you can pay to have your advertisement come up, you know, number 1, 2 or there at the side of the page. And basically, when people click on your ad, you pay every time. So you do have to be careful and you have to think about how much you want them in the room. But if you’re happy to pay a little bit, you need to test and measure, but I know, we’ve done it and we’ve done it with clients. It can be great if you do it carefully and test and measure pre-paid so that you are within budget.

Franziska: Good point, good point. You know what else you can do?

Christo: What else can you do?

Franziska: You can speak at events. So you can get invited to events, maybe networking events. Depending on your industry and target market, you can get invited to speak at an industry event. And in that event, when you speak, you can invite people to come to your workshop. Pretty clever, I actually love that one. If you like speaking, if you don’t like speaking, then that’s not for you.

Christo: Yeah, that’s good. That’s a good point. You know what else?

Franziska: What? Do you have more?

Christo: Oh yeah, I guess, well, final one. Now, there’s vouchers, you can purchase a voucher, but create it like a gift voucher. That people can hand out, this is a very basic tip. But, if you’re gift voucher does give you the value, so even if it’s a free workshop to promote your product or service or your business, you can create a gift voucher that says, “Gift voucher valued at.” And you do, because you put a value on the workshop, obviously, you know how much it’s worth. And make it like a voucher, not just a free flyer. So if it’s a voucher, it’s not quite as valuable as money but a voucher’s kind of, more valuable than just a bit of paper to a free workshop.

Franziska: You know what I think?

Christo: What do you think?

Franziska: I think our listeners and viewers should really share their strategies with us as well. What do you do? What’s the tip that you can share that you use to fill a room? What do you do? Please share any tips you have with our listeners and with us and we’d love you for that. Thank you.

Christo: Thank you.

Franziska: If you like this video, please share it on your social media networks. You can share it on Facebook, on Twitter, on Google Plus. You can even like the video below. And also, please leave us a comment below just so you help us spread the love. And share it with your friends and family. Thank you so much.

Christo: Yes, and if you would like more marketing tips and tricks for small business, go to BasicBananas.com and leave your name and e-mail address and we will definitely send you some cool stuff.