How do I sell tickets without being annoying?

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How do you as a leader of a growing community, Truly make a

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conference or event that has impact, a gathering with purpose and an attendee

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experience that knocks their socks off.

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An event that leaves your audience in awe and wondering where

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you've been their whole life.

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Make it Kickass is the podcast that explores these questions by uncovering

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the strategies, tactics and tools that we use every day to bring

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our clients' conferences to life.

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I'm Isaac Watson, executive producer of Kickass Conferences, and we are

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here to help you make it kick ass.

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We are back with another episode of Make it Kickass.

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I am your co-host Isaac Watson, executive producer of Kickass

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Conferences, and joining me from the way far away location in which she is

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the illustrious iridescent, Nessa Jimenez as our operations manager.

Isaac Watson: 00:01:09

Hello, Nessa

Nessa Jimenez: 00:01:10

Hi, Isaac.

Nessa Jimenez: 00:01:11

Hey everybody.

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I can't help myself.

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It just, it's how it goes.

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This is, we're doing it live.

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That's what that's how we roll here.

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So we've been spending this season of our podcast focusing on those questions

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that people ask us all the time.

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And honestly, like we love answering them, which is why we're answering them here

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because they are good questions to ask.

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But usually what happens is that as you start to.

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Dig around the question and you go a little bit deeper.

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You can identify some underlying, like What are they

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really asking, kind of thing.

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And then we can get into the actual problem that's causing

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this question to come up.

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And from there we can start to uncover some solutions that can help people

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who want to organize conferences and host events for their communities

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do so more effectively, more intentionally, and with more impact.

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Without further ado, today's episode is focused on the question

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that we get asked quite often.

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How do I sell conference tickets without being annoying?

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And I get it as a person who doesn't like selling.

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Things generally.

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I also don't wanna be annoying.

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I don't think anybody wants to be annoying when they're selling.

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So let's dig into this a little bit more.

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So first, let's talk a little bit about what are they really asking

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when they ask us this question, Nessa.

Nessa Jimenez: 00:02:42

Absolutely, and you already alluded to it, but number one

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is do I have to do marketing, mind marketing with a capital M and big

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quotes around it because when they say marketing they're talking about that

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icky, like stereotypical marketing definition in everybody's mind.

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They also tend to be asking what do I do?

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Or what if some people don't like me marketing this event?

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Or what if people get mad at me?

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What if people start unsubscribing from my list?

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What do I do if they start unfollowing me?

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And finally is there a way that I can host and market this event

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without actually being in front of it?

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And I'll say that one specifically in our case, because we work with so many

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leaders of communities and they're not used to being the face because

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that's not really what they want to do.

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Their whole thing is about working for and with communities.

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So this idea of them now needing to lead the charge and being in front

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of the pack and getting out there and putting their face out there.

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It's pretty scary.

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And these are all valid questions.

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I think that it's, like I said it's worth exploring these, It's not bad

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to ask these kinds of questions.

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I the same is true of any of the other questions we've

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covered in our episodes so far.

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But it's important to dig, begin into why we're asking them in the first place and

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what's the real cause behind all of this.

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I think that one of the reasons that these questions come up is, maybe an

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organizer isn't actually confident or feeling like they've created an offer

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through their conference or event that actually fulfills their audience needs.

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We've talked about confidence a bit already this season, and I

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think that as a community leader, that's something that comes up a lot.

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There's imposter syndrome, there's making sure that you're fulfilling goals, that

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you are serving your audience, that you are leading them in a, in an effective

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manner, and it's really easy to get bogged down in this kind of confidence

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issue where you're just not quite sure that you have something that they want

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or that would be helpful for them.

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So that's, I think that's probably the first thing that comes to mind is

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just not feeling confident that you've created something that will

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actually suit your audience's needs.

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And re and related to that, cuz I, I have a comment that kind

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of ties in the first and the second.

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So the second one is people's definition of marketing is like, 'This

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is what marketing should look like'.

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And 99.9% of the time, it's the nasty, annoying marketing that nobody likes.

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But that kind of nasty marketing happens when people are trying to

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sell something that nobody asks for.

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Nobody needs.

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Nobody wants, this kind of infomercial type of marketing where you're trying

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to convince people that they need this thing and nobody actually needs it.

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And that becomes a problem because if that is what your idea of

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marketing is, of course you're gonna struggle to market this event.

Nessa Jimenez: 00:05:57

Yeah.

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And let's be honest, like marketing's gotten a bad rap

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over the years between Glen Gary, Glen Ross, and Gary V and there's two

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Gary's in the bad marketing examples.

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That's weird.

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Don't learn marketing from people named Gary.

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Just like all of.

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Typical sales tactics.

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We think of sales, we think of door to door, we think of the fuller brush, man,

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We think of use car salesman like yes, of course we don't want to do that.

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But the thing is, marketing and sales, especially within a

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community like what most of our clients are leading and within.

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The context of event marketing looks very different than this perception

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that it's always go buy tickets, because yes, that's annoying.

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If that's all you have to say about your event is please go buy tickets,

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you're not gonna sell any tickets.

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I'm sorry.

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But that's not what marketing is.

Nessa Jimenez: 00:06:58

Yeah.

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And if, and especially if you're selling the tickets based on, again,

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like what you wanna shove people's down people's throats instead of

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what they actually need right then.

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Yeah, you're gonna have a bad time.

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And that leads us, So our third, I think one of the core problems when people

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are asking this question is they think.

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Event marketing is somehow this completely different beast from the marketing

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that they're already doing in their businesses and for their communities.

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And so they get in this mindset that, oh, now I have to do this whole other

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thing, this whole other type of marketing.

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It's completely different from everything else that I'm doing.

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And that can cause stress.

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And that's the truth, is that event marketing

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is not that different.

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A lot of people get confused thinking that hosting or organizing event is

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just part of an existing product or service offering or community offering.

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And that's one of the key kind of mindset shifts is thinking about

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it as a separate entity, as a separate product in some respects.

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But the marketing principles behind it are not that different from what

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you would typically be doing to grow your community and communicate with

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them and develop that relationship.

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If you already have an audience, you probably have already

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figured all that stuff out, right?

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Like how to speak to them how to communicate with them,

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either if it's email or social media or whatever you're doing.

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So if you already have an audience, we're not asking you to have to reinvent

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the wheel and start all over again.

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It really is just presenting a new product to the same

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audience and just do it.

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Been doing everything else up until now don't burn everything down , try

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to do like a whole different thing.

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That's not necessary.

Isaac Watson: 00:08:50

Yeah.

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Okay.

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So let's talk about some of the solutions that we can offer.

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Some of the ways that we work with our clients to work through these

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problems and answer these questions.

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And if you've been listening for a while, you've probably heard some of these

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things before because, We'll be honest.

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A lot of this comes down to the same principles.

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First and foremost, you need to understand what are you offering

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your audience by hosting this event.

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What value what worth do you have to offer by doing this?

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If you don't understand what that is, if you don't have a good.

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Concept of how you are delivering value, either through outcome or experience

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or education to your audience, then you're not gonna know how to

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adequately communicate that to them.

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And that hurt to your marketing

Nessa Jimenez: 00:09:40

and what you're offering should be as a response of what

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you already know about them, right?

Nessa Jimenez: 00:09:45

Yes.

Nessa Jimenez: 00:09:45

That relationship that you already have,

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The second thing that I think about is really this communication

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process, Knowing where your audience spends their time, knowing what channels

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they want to receive communications from you through, and how they want to do that.

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Is it one sided?

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Kind of announcement based stuff.

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Is it conversational?

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Is it content oriented?

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There are many different ways that you can communicate with a, with an audience.

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So if you understand how best you can communicate with them and

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how they want to be communicated with, then you can leverage that

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to your event marketing success.

Nessa Jimenez: 00:10:24

and marketing strategy, the big word strategy,

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we always come back to it.

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Marketing strategy is the key.

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Understanding who that audience is understanding where they're most

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communicating with you, where they're connecting with you and getting

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into consistency like they've come.

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Affect a certain amount of content from you each week.

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And keeping that consistency in that relationship.

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And if you don't, if you really just hate doing the marketing, then

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you gotta find a marketing expert.

Nessa Jimenez: 00:10:57

That's just how it is.

Nessa Jimenez: 00:10:58

You can't just not market that.

Nessa Jimenez: 00:11:00

That's, We can't do that.

Isaac Watson: 00:11:02

Yeah.

Isaac Watson: 00:11:03

I think.

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One of the things that comes up a lot as we work on event labs with our

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clients is understanding the kind of capacity for marketing that an

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organization has at their disposal.

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And I say that not just in a staff and bandwidth capacity, but also in a.

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When you're talking about consistency and frequency, right?

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How are you currently marketing?

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Your business your community, your product, or your service.

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How frequent is that?

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How much space is there to be filled up?

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And we also have to think about if I'm going to be marketing an event in

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particular, how can that compliment, or how might that hinder or get in the

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way of standard marketing for the other parts of your business that need support?

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And so we think about we wanna make sure we're not Conflicting too many things.

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One example I can give you is that we were just working with a client

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a couple weeks ago who's they're working on putting on a book.

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They're, they've got a book launch that's going to I wouldn't say fully

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overlap with the event that they want to do, but the timeline around finishing,

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like bandwidth around finishing the book and then timeline around promoting

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and launching that book, does have some overlap with their event marketing.

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And so that marketing strategy that we work with them to develop

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is going to keep all of that in mind so that we're not hitting too

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many different things all at once.

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Let's do a little recap.

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The question that we've been addressing today is, how do I sell conference

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tickets without being annoying?

Isaac Watson: 00:12:46

And we think that when we get asked that question, what people are really

Isaac Watson: 00:12:49

asking is do I really have to market?

Isaac Watson: 00:12:53

What if people get mad at me?

Isaac Watson: 00:12:55

I don't wanna be annoying, I don't wanna just keep asking people to buy tickets.

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Or even, do I really need to be out here in front trying

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to sell this all the time?

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Can this just happen on the back burner?

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And the answer is no.

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It can't.

Isaac Watson: 00:13:13

It needs to be active.

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We can help our clients work through that by really diving into that marketing

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strategy, figuring out what what we have to offer for this event, how we

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can best communicate with the audience, understanding what their audience's needs

Isaac Watson: 00:13:31

are from a communication standpoint, and how we can communicate that value

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to them so that they can make a really easy decision on whether or not they

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want to attend the event or buy a ticket or whatever the case may be.

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All of that comes down to, intelligent marketing, breaking down some

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of the traditional stereotypes around what marketing and sales

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are, and then going from there.

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Thanks for listening to today's episode of Make It Kickass.

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I hope that after today's discussion, you feel more confident about talking to

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your audience and marketing your event.

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So instead of stressing out over social media content, paid ads and all of

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that, like drama of marketing life.

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Why don't you build the event that your audience will happily buy

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tickets for using the tool that we use with our clients all the time.

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And you can get a free copy of this tool at our website, geteventlab.com,

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and I hope you check it out.