Ken Wong.

It’s tough to be a small-budget marketer

(SBM) in a world where sales volumes and marketing spending tend to go hand-in-hand. But the challenge goes beyond generating sales: as small media buyers, SBMs have less access to prime advertising rates and space. Small wonder, then, that in challenging economic times, these firms are often tempted to drop marketing.

But smaller-budget firms should not give up. Nor should they start looking to do “marketing on the cheap.” Often, the very practices they turn to in order to “save” money do just the opposite.

Here are some of the more common mistakes that SBMs make in trying to stretch their dollars.

> Avoid Token Marketing
The first rule for all marketers is to never spend without a specific purpose in mind. Too often, firms run generic ads or engage in other promotional activity (including buying corporate swag) just because they think it’s standard practice. These firms would be just as well served by doing nothing at all.

You advertise to increase sales. But no one buys anything indiscriminately and no one pays attention to ads unless they know they will soon be making a purchase. Knowing your customer’s buying cycle is essential in order to give your marketing the opportunity to be noticed.

But it is not enough to be noticed. It also needs to be acted upon. That’s why you should only advertise if you have something important for a customer to hear. You’ll know it’s important if it provides customers with a compelling reason to act. Since products are bought to solve “problems,” focus your ad around that problem, so the buyer doesn’t have to think too hard to make the link as to why they should contact you.

Finally, make it easy for the potential customer to act as soon as possible. Customers won’t commit your message to memory, so the longer they wait to contact you, the more likely your marketing will be forgotten. Forget phrases like “look for us at the conference” or “ask your dealer”; drive buyers to a source of further information or personal contact.

> Be Careful of False Bargains
Your ad can’t work if no one sees it. So you always want to be in the publications most-read, the radio time slots most-heard, the social networks with the most members, and so on. You will pay more to be in these locations, but less expensive media that cannot deliver audience are not a bargain, no matter how inexpensive. You can never pay too much to reach the right audience.

> Know Your Media’s Audience Profile
Notwithstanding the above, there is no value in reaching someone who isn’t likely to buy from you. SBMs often have a niche product that appeals to a very specific customer segment. Media charge on the basis of the size of their audience, but if the audience is diverse, you may find yourself paying to reach people outside your target segment.

> Don’t Run Promotions, Manage Campaigns
If you only run an ad one time, then you are trusting that everyone who should see it, will see it. Running the ad in multiple publications will increase the likelihood that the ad is seen. Moreover, repeated exposure to the ad will help ensure your ad is understood and remembered.

> Watch for Special Theme Publications

These editions can be one of your most important advertising vehicles if you can forge a meaningful link between your product or service and that theme. Plus, your competitors will be there, too.

As you can see from the above, there’s no magic bullet to marketing with a small budget. Nor is it rocket science. It is more a matter of taking some time to apply some critical thinking to your marketing expenditures.

The biggest mistake an SBM can make is to allocate thinking time that is proportional to their budget. You need to have a systematic approach when your budget is small; otherwise, your small budget will produce small results.

Ken Wong is vice-president of Toronto-based Level 5 Consulting and is a professor in the faculty at Queen’s University School of Business. E-mail: kwong@business.queensu.ca

Kevin Durkee.

When it comes to social media marketing, even a bite-sized budget can yield super-sized results, with a bit of research and an understanding of your customers’ tastes. Written by Kevin Durkee

When planning an event or conference, simply feeding and watering your guests can push your budget to its breaking point. Often, there is not a lot of money available for promotion or marketing. This means that you’ll have to dedicate some time to promoting your event yourself. Luckily, social media (for the most part) offers a number of low-cost communication channels that, if well established, can reap instant and affordable benefits.

In my columns in M&IT magazine and presentations at IncentiveWorks, I have said that using social media and the inherent technology that comes along with it is a cost-effective way to spread your news, activity and information. With a few well-fuelled social-media channels, a small budget can go a long way.

SUCCINCT MESSAGE
But where should you spend the money? Spend it on your message and your brand. If budgets are tight, a succinct message is your best investment. Spend the time and some dollars on a ‘style guide’ of strong messages, collateral materials and graphics, but make sure they are flexible. With your arsenal of event images, copy points and online materials, you can spend just a few hours and populate Facebook pages, Twitter feeds and Flickr groups with your content [EM] and you’ll know that it’s all on-message.

To cut further communication waste and make your money go further, follow your competitors. Within any industry, it’s critical to keep an eye on the competition. And it’s especially easy with social media. Event planners and professionals should follow and/or audit their competitors or industry-minded events, properties and conferences to understand what’s important, what’s being reviewed and what’s being consumed.

There’s no sense spending important dollars from a small budget on things that are going to be ignored or unused. Check out what is working on competitive sites. Are photo galleries being reviewed and commented on? Did a video draw you in? Were you sent a link that asked you to sign up for more info? Look at your competitors’ social-media elements that are working and invest in them. There’s no point in building an expensive app on your Facebook page if your audience doesn’t have an appetite for it.

DRIVE ENGAGEMENT
Don’t forget to use what you have. Small budgets can be stretched if you can take your current activity and drive more engagement from it. Consider executing a mini-focus-group the next time you run an event. Contact 20 to 30 attendees through Facebook or Twitter and ask them to join you for a special ‘secret’ session to offer feedback on you, the event and their experience. It will likely only cost you a round of drinks or coffee to glean invaluable content and feedback on which you can act. Plus, by using social media, your invitees will feel special and ‘in the know,’ and in return, they’ll share their, and your, success stories with their friends and colleagues.

Finally, when managing your social media elements on a small budget, remember the golden rule: You get what you pay for. When trying to maximize your operating dollars, it’s easy to get swept up in the buzz and designate ‘junior staff’ to manage your social networks, because they ‘get it.’ But are these staff the best brand stewards for your business? Can they handle customer-service concerns? How are they in a crisis?

Resist the temptation to make your social media an afterthought or just an add-on. Decide what you want say, how you want to act with your customers/attendees, and stay the course. Put resources in place to bring your vision to life. A team member may see the increased responsibility as a promotion of sorts, hire an agency and keep them on a social-media-communications calendar to manage costs.

Social media is a cost-effective option, but beware. Cutting too many corners may prove costly in the long run.

How are you saving money using social media? E-mail me and I might feature your success in a future article.

Kevin Durkee is strategic consultant with Diamond Integrated Marketing. E-mail: kevin@experiencediamond.com

Seth Mattison.

Please put your cell phones away!

These are the famous words that almost always precede my introduction to the stage. As a speaker, I appreciate planners who do all they can to ensure the audience is fully engaged before a speech. However, you have to wonder if forcing attendees to put away the most collaborative tool ever created is the best way to capture their attention, especially that of the newest generation of attendees?

The Millennial generation (born 1982-2000) basically emerged from the womb with a cell phone in hand, and while they may be comfortable listening to a speaker with technology open, the older generations may be more comfortable to sit back and listen, while taking notes on a piece of paper. Now, it’s not that either group is right or wrong; it’s that they’re different. And that’s the point. Today, we have four different generations showing up at events and planners are tasked with creating meetings and experiences that will communicate successfully to these vastly different age groups, without alienating any of them.

For those who are up to the challenge, here are a few tips to help you engage every generation.

WEBSITE

Bring your events to life. Before you can create opportunities for the generations to collaborate, we need to make sure they actually show up. Time to put “butts in seats.” To Millennials, your website is who you are. Use this opportunity to showcase the look, feel and content of the event. Use pictures and videos from last year’s event and post testimonials from prior participants. By creating an interactive webpage with multimedia, you’ll give potential participants the opportunity to see and experience the vibrancy of the event.

In addition, social media can be an excellent promotional tool, if you keep it conversational and provide attendees with useful information about what they can expect and what they will learn. Remember that this isn’t just an excellent place to reach the Millennials and Gen Xers (born 1965-1981)—Facebook is the number-three most-visited site for Traditionalists (born prior to 1946), according to a 2011 Nielsen survey.

Communicate what’s in it for them. The things that motivate one generation to attend your event can be very different from what motivates another. Long-term veterans who have already established a first-rate network might be coming to stay on the cutting edge of the latest trends. On the flipside, Millennials might be more motivated by opportunities to build their network and connect with other leaders in the industry. Once you’ve identified the key drivers for each generation, it’s critical you communicate them through your website and social-media platforms.

NETWORKING

Start connections early. In a recent survey conducted by Pathable, people cited networking as the number-one reason to attend an event. However, meeting new people can be scary and stressful. You can remove some of the fear by creating opportunities for the generations to connect before they even show up on the trade-show floor. Through invitations on Facebook, LinkedIn and Pathable, potential attendees can find out who is already attending and reach out and introduce themselves before the conference even begins.

Create mentoring relationships. One of the best ways to foster collaboration between the generations is through mentoring relationships. The good news is, Millennials are eager for mentors, and knowledge transfer is a key ingredient in the success of companies. Talk about a win-win. Creating an environment where mentoring relationships can naturally occur is critical. Two of my favourite techniques for bringing the generations together are through theworldcafe.com and openspaceworld.org. I highly recommend you visit these sites and see for yourself.

Use these tips to create meaningful meetings and events that can resonate with every generation. When Millennials, Gen Xers, Baby Boomers and Traditionalists constructively collaborate, the end result is an impressive combination of expertise, innovation and success.

Guest columnist Seth Mattison is a generation expert and speaker with BridgeWorks, LLC. He’s the voice of the Millennials in The M-Factor: How the Millennial Generation Is Rocking the Workplace, and he spoke at this year’s IncentiveWorks show. E-mail: mattison@generations.com

It’s tough to be a small-budget marketer

(SBM) in a world where sales volumes and marketing spending tend to go hand-in-hand. But the challenge goes beyond generating sales: as small media buyers, SBMs have less access to prime advertising rates and space. Small wonder, then, that in challenging economic times, these firms are often tempted to drop marketing.

But smaller-budget firms should not give up. Nor should they start looking to do “marketing on the cheap.” Often, the very practices they turn to in order to “save” money do just the opposite.

Here are some of the more common mistakes that SBMs make in trying to stretch their dollars.

> Avoid Token Marketing

The first rule for all marketers is to never spend without a specific purpose in mind. Too often, firms run generic ads or engage in other promotional activity (including buying corporate swag) just because they think it’s standard practice. These firms would be just as well served by doing nothing at all.

You advertise to increase sales. But no one buys anything indiscriminately and no one pays attention to ads unless they know they will soon be making a purchase. Knowing your customer’s buying cycle is essential in order to give your marketing the opportunity to be noticed.

But it is not enough to be noticed. It also needs to be acted upon. That’s why you should only advertise if you have something important for a customer to hear. You’ll know it’s important if it provides customers with a compelling reason to act. Since products are bought to solve “problems,” focus your ad around that problem, so the buyer doesn’t have to think too hard to make the link as to why they should contact you.

Finally, make it easy for the potential customer to act as soon as possible. Customers won’t commit your message to memory, so the longer they wait to contact you, the more likely your marketing will be forgotten. Forget phrases like “look for us at the conference” or “ask your dealer”; drive buyers to a source of further information or personal contact.

> Be Careful of False Bargains

Your ad can’t work if no one sees it. So you always want to be in the publications most-read, the radio time slots most-heard, the social networks with the most members, and so on. You will pay more to be in these locations, but less expensive media that cannot deliver audience are not a bargain, no matter how inexpensive. You can never pay too much to reach the right audience.

> Know Your Media’s Audience Profile

Notwithstanding the above, there is no value in reaching someone who isn’t likely to buy from you. SBMs often have a niche product that appeals to a very specific customer segment. Media charge on the basis of the size of their audience, but if the audience is diverse, you may find yourself paying to reach people outside your target segment.

> Don’t Run Promotions, Manage Campaigns.

If you only run an ad one time, then you are trusting that everyone who should see it, will see it. Running the ad in multiple publications will increase the likelihood that the ad is seen. Moreover, repeated exposure to the ad will help ensure your ad is understood and remembered.

> Watch for Special Theme Publications

These editions can be one of your most important advertising vehicles if you can forge a meaningful link between your product or service and that theme. Plus, your competitors will be there, too.

As you can see from the above, there’s no magic bullet to marketing with a small budget. Nor is it rocket science. It is more a matter of taking some time to apply some critical thinking to your marketing expenditures.

The biggest mistake an SBM can make is to allocate thinking time that is proportional to their budget. You need to have a systematic approach when your budget is small; otherwise, your small budget will produce small results.

Ken Wong is vice-president of Toronto-based Level 5 Consulting and is a professor in the faculty at Queen’s University School of Business. E-mail:

kwong@business.queensu.ca

Naomi Wagschal.

Naomi Wagschal, CEM, CMP, of the College of Family Physicians of Canada, each year, plans one of the largest medical meetings in the country.

FOOD Work closely with the head chef to develop menus specifically designed to meet the dietary preferences of your delegates. Our delegates are family physicians and we can’t get away with serving the high-carb diet (muffins and sandwiches) usually associated with large conferences. We budget a specific per-person amount per day and then work out how to deliver nutritious fare at breakfast, breaks and lunches without exceeding that budget.

HOUSING Push for the lowest attrition rate possible, calculated on the hotel cost rate for the room, rather than the block rate. Sign conservative contracts with a few host hotels and sign open-block, no-attrition contracts with a large group of overflow properties. Audit your block after the conference and insist that the hotels count people who booked outside the block towards your total actualization. Have the hotel agree not to undersell your rates over your contracted dates and check these regularly.

DEALING WITH STAFF Begin working with event staff early, communicate often, familiarize them with your organization and the history of your event and the type of delegate expectations they may encounter. The more they understand your event, and you understand the facility practices, the easier it will be to have appropriate expectations. Mutual respect goes a long way towards resolving the inevitable, unforeseen issues that occur.

HEALTH & SAFETY Do a risk assessment and develop a risk-management plan. Consult the Canadian Association of Exposition Management Health and Safety Best Practices guidelines, which break down the roles and responsibilities of each party.

Don Douloff, M+IT managing editor.

In our May/June, 2011, issue we highlighted Bogota, capital of Colombia, a country that, like one of this issue’s featured destinations, Belfast, has put its troubles behind it and is also working hard to communicate that to our industry.

But is anyone listening? No question, destination misperception—eliminating a city, or even country, from a list of options for incentives, meetings and events, because of the perceptions surrounding it—does happen.

I was reminded of this by a session I saw on this topic at MPI’s 2010 World Education Congress, in Vancouver. Led by Eli Gorin, CMP, vice-president of global client relations at ABTS Convention Services—a housing and corporate travel provider specializing in supporting and increasing medical associations’ international attendees—the session resonates.

Gorin floated this telling statistic: 82 per cent of planners surveyed reported that they base their destination perceptions on word-of-mouth.

Yet the facts on a destination often tell a radically different story. And indeed, education was key to Gorin’s suggestions as to how destination misperception can be overcome, since, as he noted, planners are sometimes fed incorrect information that prevents them from making educated decisions. Gorin says planners must be open-minded and reach out to destinations they may have written off, by going on site inspections or FAMs, since websites can only tell so much of the tale, and seeing a destination first-hand can change perceptions instantly.

Augment those site visits with thorough research. (Did you know, for instance, that the State of Florida—which has had its own perception challenges, thanks to perennial hurricane threats and last year’s Gulf of Mexico oil spill—offers up to $200,000 in hurricane insurance… free, to planners and their groups?) And minimize word-of-mouth.

Once planners educate themselves on a destination, they must, in turn, educate stakeholders, the C-suite, attendees. Bottom line: If they’re willing to look at the facts, planners widen their destination—and therefore programme—options. Their groups deserve as much.

New event technology allows planners to streamline the registration and check-in process, while ’socializing’ their events through quick-scan networking and sharing. written by Kevin Durkee

As event planners and marketers, the challenge of merging our live events with the social and digital world is constant. Sure, we can set up Facebook pages, Twitter accounts, listen and maintain conversations between our properties or clients and our attendees, but that isn’t inherently social. It doesn’t capture conversations that happen between individuals or empower our attendees to become broadcasters on our behalf.

Recently, I encountered a piece of technology, built for events, that allows planners to “socialize” their events, while streamlining the registration and check-in process. The software, called SLISH (slish.me), is built to sit “on top” of all social-media networks and seamlessly integrates into the event website, social media properties and the mobile web. A powerful tool that adds instant value and “talk value” to your events.

SLISH supports the four biggest pillars of our business: registration, check-in, engagement and networking.

Seamless and Social Registration
The SLISH technology integrates into your existing event reservation process (or alternatively, you can create a separate but linkable registration URL). SLISH will capture relevant information from event attendees, link to their social profiles on Twitter, Facebook and LinedIn and generate a real-time database that can be accessed from any Android or iPhone.

Once the registration process is complete, SLISH will automatically post to the invitee’s Facebook wall that they are attending your event, as well as all the event details you provide, including a picture and your website or Facebook page. This social post means you are getting awareness and buzz on your event faster, sooner, and cheaper—all wrapped up in a “personal endorsement”—and fellow attendees start to see who else is coming.

SLISH goes further by automatically generating a unique QR code for the attendee, who is asked via e-mail to take the QR code to the event (either printed or on their mobile phone).

Checking In: “I’m here, are you?”
Staff will now be able to check-in all registered attendees from their Android or iPhone by either scanning the attendee’s QR code or simply searching by first or last name.

Once a check-in is confirmed, SLISH will give you the option to keep the QR code on the attendee’s phone active, or to activate a generic QR code on an attendee’s lanyard or credentials. This personal code/tag holds all their info, ideal for networking, trade shows and large conferences.

Engagement
Once inside the event, SLISH provides you the opportunity to broadcast from your event to your attendees’ social network by creating two key opportunites:
1. Pictures/Video: Using any Android/iPhone device, SLISH allows you to:
-Take pictures or video on-site
-Preview and approve them
-Scan all the attendees’ QR codes who are involved in the picture or video
-Put the picture or video in a custom frame or stamp it with a watermark
-Instantaneously upload it to all the attendees’ social media profiles

2. Engagement: Any time an attendee engages with a station within your event, SLISH allows you to scan their QR code and instantly share their engagement with that station.

The Real Power for Planners
If two attendees meet at your event and wish to share their own social information, using any mobile phone scanner, an attendee can scan another attendee’s credentials and automatically be linked to that attendee’s social profiles for further connection.

Leveraging the power of tools like SLISH provides you with a seamless, cost-effective way to not only link your event with social media, but engrain your event into the social graph of your attendees. This provides you increased marketing, awareness and opportunities to turn your attendees into social advocates of your events.

Kevin Durkee is strategic consultant with Diamond Integrated Marketing. E-mail: kevin@experiencediamond.com

So what is co-opetition?

Wikipedia defines it this way: Coopetition or co-opetition (sometimes spelled ‘coopertition’ or ‘co-opertition’) is a neologism coined to describe “cooperative competition.”

Co-opetition occurs when companies work together for parts of their business where they do not believe they have competitive advantage and where they believe they can share common costs.

For instance, the arrangement between PSA Peugeot and Toyota to share components for a new city car – simultaneously sold as the Peugeot 107, the Toyota Aygo and the Citroen C1 – qualifies as co-opetition.

In this case, companies save money on shared costs, while remaining fiercely competitive in other areas.

I’m sure we can all think of examples in our own business.

The best one that comes to mind is CanSPEP (Canadian Society of Professional Event Planners). While all of CanSPEP’s member planners are competitors, we often work together on projects – why not more of us get a piece of the pie and still keep our own niche?

Think of trying to get a piece of business to your city – if everyone goes after it separately, the potential client is going to get fed up with getting call after call (well, I know I would!).

So why not go after the client as a city team?

Once the client comes to the city, then each venue, DMC, AV company, etc., can go after the business. If the client doesn’t come to the city, then no one gets the business! Tourism offices are perfect examples of this.

Honestly, I believe our business is an excellent example of co-opetition. Perhaps other industries could learn something from us and make the world a nicer place, instead of cutthroat all the time.

Healthy competition is good; co-opetition is healthier for all. It’s about win-win for competitors, clients and suppliers. (Call me naïve, but I think the world would be better off without so much cutthroat business).

Want to learn more?  Check out the book, “Co-opetition”; Brandenburger & Nalebuff;Crown Publishing; ISBN 0-385-47950-6.

Before delving into the world of apps, let’s ensure we have a basic understanding of the core fundamentals.

NATIVE APP VS. WEB APP
When creating a mobile app, there are two approaches to development. Developers can create a native app or a web app. A native app is one that is developed to run directly on your device. If you needed to download your app from the App Store or App Market, then your mobile app is a native app.

A web app is one that is accessed through your smart phone’s web browser. If you open up Safari or any other browser on your phone to access the app, then it is a web app. Some app developers also refer to hybrid apps.

Hybrid apps are those that reside on your smart phone, but require a wireless connection to retrieve data.

For meeting planners, when choosing between a native app or web app for your events, trade shows or conferences, an important consideration is the availability and reliability of a wireless network inside a venue. If a smart phone has poor reception, then a web app will not work properly. Also, at larger events, the increased number of devices on a network will decrease the reliability of the network.

The greatest advantage of a web app is that data is accessed in real time. This is critical for meeting planners who need to keep their audience updated with the latest information.

PLATFORMS
Mobile platforms typically refer to the operating system of the smart phone. Some of the most popular mobile operating systems are Android, Blackberry, iOS (iPhone), Symbian and Windows Phone. To select the best platform, you need to know attendee and exhibitor demographics. Key to this is determining the devices they use in order to ensure that the app is compatible with their mobile platforms.

If you are unaware of what devices your attendees use, or if you want to ensure compatibility on multiple platforms, developing a web app or asking your developer to use a mobile framework may be the solution. Web apps will enable accessibility by more devices, but there may be usability issues.

APPLICATION STORES
Application stores are where most mobile apps are downloaded from, and are device-dependent. Apple’s App Store is the most popular and has the most apps. Google’s Android Market is also rapidly gaining in popularity. Other app stores include BlackBerry’s App World, Windows Marketplace for Mobile and Amazon’s Android Appstore. Apps for Android can be downloaded directly from developers’ websites. In addition, MeetingApps.com is a single portal for iPhone, BlackBerry and Android apps relevant to the meetings industry.

As a planner, meeting deadlines is critical for planning a successful event. Most app stores have a lengthy approval process. Updates to the app also require approval before they are released to the app store. To avoid any unexpected surprises, app development should always begin as early as possible.

Whether you require an app to improve job efficiency, enhance an attendee’s experience or save time or money, a fundamental understanding of apps will be your first step to making your life easier through mobile technologies.

History is littered with examples of companies who missed massive market opportunities by being too wedded to their past. For instance, did you know that Kodak, now su ering at the hands of a massive shift towards digital photography, not only invented the fi rst consumer-friendly digital camera (DC40), but the very technology that underpins digital photography today? How is it that Kodak could have been so far on the cutting edge and yet miss the massive opportunity that sprung from their innovation?

SAVVY AT&T
Compare that to AT&T in the late 1990s, when the company conducted a feasibility study with McKinsey & Co. that predicted the global market opportunity for cell phones at just 900,000 units. And yet, despite this gross underestimation, AT&T still aggressively pursued the market and has enjoyed strong market share ever since.

The answer lies, in part, in a company’s ability to execute. But perhaps more nuanced, the answer lies in the assumptions the company’s leaders make about the opportunities, which are right in front of them today, and the likely impact of those assumptions on the future.

What assumptions are you currently making about meetings and events? Do you see social media as a threat or an opportunity? Do you think the short, pithy style of speaker sessions popularized by the TED conferences will
stick, or do you think they diminish value? Do you think we will return to the glitz of corporate junkets before the global financial crisis (think AIG), or has the fabric and purpose of corporate events changed forever? And what of the ‘un-conference’?

No one knows the answer for sure. But we’ll push you at IncentiveWorks to question your conditioned beliefs and the industry orthodoxy about broader business trends as well. Your role as a leader is threefold:

1. Show up
2. Participate in the dialogue
3. Be prepared to question your intuitive answers to the ideas shared

IMPORTANT ELEMENTS
Three of the most important elements needed for leading the industry are:

1. “Non-sexy” innovation, to improve margins in the industry in the face of signifi cant client price pressure

2. Narrative-infused events, to ensure relevance as well as enhance and capitalize on the opportunity of the face-to-face meeting

3. Collaborative learning environments, to maximize our ability to respond to increasing complexity and rapidly changing market expectations; peer collaboration speeds up the learning process, spreads best practice and elevates entire industries.

This year at IncentiveWorks, we’ll explore these issues and unpack concrete strategies for you to take away. Bring your questions, bring your challenges, and be prepared to get ‘flipped.’