One of the things that makes attendee marketing hard is the need to tightly define the problem in order to apply the best set of solutions.  While it never was as easy as “mail more”, that solution is pretty much impossible at this point.  The good news is that many solutions don’t require a larger budget, just targeted planning.

A major area of attendee marketing challenge is the “Hard-to-Reach Attendee”, a topic that IAEE asked me to talk about at ExpoExpo next month.  As I worked with my co-presenter, Dan Darby of Surf Expo, on this challenge, we came up with four primary versions of Hard-to-Reach attendees, each with their own solution set:

1.  Hard-to-Find Prospects:  the needle in the haystack problem.  The prospect attendee for this show is not one specific industry or one specific job function.  They are prospects because they are interested in this topic.  American Telemedicine Association:  any medical professional who is interested in remote access to patients.  Digital Signage Expo: anyone in any field that is looking into usage a digital sign…for their gas station or bar or school or ?

Once you’ve rented the lists and advertised on the websites that are available to you, the core to this issue is outreach: make it easy for them to find you (SEO, webinars, social media, white papers, etc).

2.  They aren’t listening: the other definition of “reach”; you aren’t getting through to them.  Particularly a problem when you know exactly who should be coming to your event, because you have the definitive list of left-handed purple widget-buyers, but they aren’t coming.

Its not going to help to send more messages, more often, on more media.  They know your event is there and they are ignoring you.  Why?  They don’t see the value.  For events, value is defined by time more than money, so lowering the price probably won’t help either.

Hopefully you have a kick-ass event, and the solution is improving your messaging so that the value and benefits are more apparent.  Otherwise, your attendee marketing issue may be a content issue:  How do you transform your event into a must-attend?

3. VIP Buyers: every event has them…CFOs, Purchasing VP, Hospital Administrators.  They send their team but no longer come themselves.  Oftentimes these senior buyers have grown out of your conference content, and they mostly like to get information from each other.

For these buyers, what you need is a different event.  One that is exclusive; allows them to hang out with each other, gives them high-level strategic conference sessions, exclusive opportunities to meet with key individuals in their field, efficient ways to hold exactly the meetings they want to hold.  Once you’ve designed that meeting-within-your-meeting tailored specifically to the needs of your unique senior buyers, all you have to do is send them an engraved invitation.

4. Young People: some events care more than others, but I find most associations want to see more young professionals at their event.  Don’t worry: their absence isn’t a new trend to blame on social media.  The truth is, young people have always been hard to get to events.  It has more to do with their professional life-cycle.

I find there are two solutions.  The first one is similar to #3 above:  give them an event within the event tailored to their needs…their own reception to network, badges for booth staff that cater to young professionals or students, indicate the most appropriate sessions within your conference, or give them their own track, provide mentoring opportunities, either one-to-one or at a breakfast setting.

The other solution is to recognize that most people do not send themselves to events…their company sends them.  And companies tend to send middle-management.  Many associations have found that a targeted campaign to teach the bosses why they should send their staff really work, especially when combined with a strong young professional program.

The key take-away is that half of the solutions above are not traditionally the domain of the Marketing Department; they involve changes to the event itself.  The most successful shows have great communication and a feedback loop in which not only is Marketing promoting the show that exists, but it recommends changes to make the show the one their segmented attendees need.