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What you’ll learn in this episode:
Are you ready to take your business to the next level by creating memorable and profitable events? Whether you own a brick-and-mortar store, run an online business, or manage a hybrid model, hosting impactful events can be the secret weapon to grow revenue, deepen customer relationships, and position yourself as a leader in your industry.
In this episode, we dive deep into the art and strategy of running powerful events that create lasting impressions and drive business success. From intimate in-store workshops to large-scale virtual summits, you’ll discover the tools, tactics, and insider tips you need to create events that not only excite your audience but also deliver measurable results.
Enjoy!
In this episode, you will learn to:
- Why events are a game-changer for your business
- How to reverse engineer your event starting with who the event is for and what the purpose is for your business
- The key to setting clear goals, tracking progress, and creating alignment to win
- How to create a focused promotion plan to drive uptake and momentum
- The power of a backend offer and how to create significant growth and cashflow from your event
Mentioned in this episode:
Work/Connect with me:
00:01 – 00:35
Jessica Miller: Hello everyone and welcome back to this week’s episode of the It’s Your Offer podcast. I am thrilled to be here today to talk to you about something that I have been working on with my clients that has been absolutely exploding their growth. Many of you that are listening to this podcast are always looking to find those levers in your business that you can pull to create growth, to create fun, to create ease, momentum, all the things. And in Today’s podcast, I’m going to share with you one of the most powerful levers that I have seen my
00:35 – 01:17
Jessica Miller: clients using recently that has created so much growth, so much enjoyment, so much loyalty, new customers, all the great things. That lever is events. I want to talk to you about how to powerfully use events to grow your business. Whether you are a brick-and-mortar business, whether you’re online in your virtual product service, it doesn’t matter. Events can be an extremely powerful part of your business for a million reasons. Now, not only can it be a powerful part of your business, but it can be something that can become a repeatable asset that you can use over and
01:17 – 01:46
Jessica Miller: over and over. I have a hunch that if you are listening to this podcast, you probably have run an event before in your life or you’ve attended one or you’ve thought about running one and maybe it’s been great and maybe it’s not been so great. And sometimes you’re left wondering, why isn’t this working? Or, hey, this is working great. I really wish it could work better. Well not all events are created equal. There is a very specific set of things that you need to do to make an event a powerful tool in your business for growth.
01:46 – 02:13
Jessica Miller: Today I want to dig into what those things are. I’m going to give you the blueprint, the checklist of things that you want to make sure that you do if and when you think about doing an event for your business. I believe every single business can benefit from an event. I think the thing that separates whether or not an event is going to be a powerful tool in your business is whether or not you do the things that I am going to share with you today. We’re going to dig into each one of these things. I’m
02:13 – 02:42
Jessica Miller: going to give you an example of how I did this with one of my clients and I want you to grab your pen and paper and listen to this episode. If you need to pause it, pause it, take notes, whatever you need to do, I want you to take note of what I’m talking about here. Now What do I mean by creating results? I’m gonna share with you that I have a client who sells both products and services. We are now running her second event. The first event that we ran for her was an anniversary event.
02:43 – 03:20
Jessica Miller: The event was really there to celebrate where they’ve come in their business, invite in both existing customers and new customers, bring people into the fold of celebration and also showing people, listen, this is who we are, this is what we do, here are all the things that you can expect that it would be like when you are connected to or work with a business like ours. When we ran that event, my client sold the event out within a week of promotion. And when she actually ran the event, she had more than she actually signed up show
03:20 – 03:52
Jessica Miller: up at the event. What that looked like was 4 hours of her servicing clients, talking to new clients, having a line out the door. Yes, she meant she was talking for 4 hours and she didn’t get to run to the bathroom. But let me tell you that it was one of the most fun and powerful and lucrative days in her business. And she not only made money during the event and she had new customers join and she loved on all of her existing customers, not to mention the momentum and the excitement that was generated with her
03:52 – 04:27
Jessica Miller: team, and what that did for morale and the business going forward. But she also generated an additional $30, 000 in her business after the event, which we’re gonna talk about. Today, she is running another event where she is showcasing a new service that she has, and we are helping her get the right people in the door and have the most amazing event. And I will tell you, we launched it on Friday. She already sold out the 36 slots that she had. She’s opened more and she’s able to add now 50% more availability to bring in and
04:27 – 04:58
Jessica Miller: share this with other people to this event. So, she is on her way to recreating all the successes that she had before, again in her business and then some. These are the kind of results I am talking about when you listen to what I’m about to tell you over the next 15 minutes. It is powerful, it is repeatable, and it is the thing that could skyrocket your business. And the best part about it is you could do it over and over and over and over again. Okay, so grab your pen and paper and here we go.
04:58 – 05:30
Jessica Miller: So, these are the things that You want to make sure that you think about, you work through, and you are super clear on as you go to roll out an event for your business. Okay, so the first thing that you want to ask yourself is, what is the purpose of this event? You know me when I talk about creating powerful things in your business, one of the most important things that you need to do is you want to think about where you’re going. What is the end game? What is that result that you’re looking for? So
05:30 – 06:02
Jessica Miller: in other words, why are you doing this? What is the purpose of this event for you in your business? This could look like sales, like a sales generator. It could be a community builder. It could showcase your thought leadership. It could be a member love type of an event. It could be a brand differentiator. It could even just be a celebration where you’re going to bring people in and love on them. There are so many different options that you could go to from the perspective of why do you want to do this and how is it
06:02 – 06:31
Jessica Miller: going to be beneficial to your business? Like I mentioned to you, that first scenario where I was talking about the anniversary event, it was about celebration. It was about loving on people and showcasing their thought leadership and letting people understand, their clients understand, potential clients, you know, who they are and what they were about, making it fun and giving it a lot of energy. That was the purpose of that event. The event my client is running now, it’s more about sales and services. There’s a new service that she has and she’s showcasing that. She’s positioning it
06:31 – 07:00
Jessica Miller: as one of these differentiators for her business, and she’s one of the few locations where you actually can come and get this service. Whatever it is in your business, it doesn’t matter. They’re all great. You want to know what it is, and you want to think about this event from the perspective of why you’re doing it. And frankly this is true of every single thing in your business, but sometimes people get a wild hair like I think I’ll just throw an event. And that’s great, but in order for your event to be successful You need to
07:00 – 07:36
Jessica Miller: understand the purpose of it. What are you doing this for? And you want to start there. You’re gonna reverse engineer This particular event based on why you want to have it and what it’s gonna do for your business That brings me to the second point, which is knowing your who is the ideal person for this event? Not everyone is created equal when it comes to your business or your events. You want to know exactly who the perfect person is going to be to walk in that door. You want to be really specific about it. Is
07:36 – 08:08
Jessica Miller: its new customers? Is it existing customers? Is it a segment of your customer base? Is it everyone? Is it like a grand opening? Whoever it is you want to be very specific about who this person is that’s going to be the ideal person to come to this event. And also, to that extent, who wouldn’t be a good fit, right? When it comes to events, it’s almost as important who you have in the room as who you don’t have in the room. But being specific about this ideal client is so important. You wanna make sure that when
08:08 – 08:43
Jessica Miller: you know who that person is, you are talking to their pain points when you are explaining or promoting this particular event. You wanna make sure that you are creating content specifically for them, talking to their problems, their pain points, the results they’re gonna get. You wanna give them a powerful reason to come to this event. The only way that you can do that is if you know exactly who they are and why they should come. So, you want to get very very specific around who you’re inviting to this event, why you’re having it, who needs to
08:43 – 09:18
Jessica Miller: be in the door for it to be a success. And you want to make sure all that content and everything you’re saying is drilled in to that person. Which brings me to the next point, which is for every event that you have, you want to have goals. What is the outcome you are looking for? What would make this a success? Is it measurable? Right? What are those goals? It could be revenue, it could be leads, it could be engagement, it could be fostering loyalty. Whatever it is, you want to know exactly what those things are so
09:18 – 09:52
Jessica Miller: that you can measure it and track against it. So, for the event that’s going on right now that I shared with you about the service that my client is rolling out, when we opened up the doors for this event, we had 36 slots that were online. Basically, people could go in, they could sign up and they could pick a mini session out of any of these slots. There was 36 of them. So, we made sure that we were very clear what amount of spots, for example, that was one of her goals, filled spots would be a
09:52 – 10:26
Jessica Miller: success. Well, we picked 90% of the spots filled. She blew through that goal. We were like, great, sold out. Now she sold out and now she’s expanding. The key was though, if we didn’t have a target, we wouldn’t know how close we were to that goal, we wouldn’t know if we were doing good or bad, the team wouldn’t know how to feel about it. So, and you couldn’t adjust your strategy based on what you were seeing real time. So, you want to make sure that you know exactly what the goals are. And that is before, during,
10:26 – 10:57
Jessica Miller: and after the event so that you can measure them and you can track against them. You cannot measure what you’re not seeing and what you’re not tracking. You always want to be clear. Never go into an event with, yep this sounds good we’ll just do it and we’ll see what happens. That is the slowest way to grow and succeed. You want to get clear; you want to keep the vibe high; you want to know exactly what it is that you want to be experiencing, what those results are, and then you can put the plan together during,
10:58 – 11:30
Jessica Miller: before, and after in order to make that happen. The other piece is you want to make sure you have focused promotion. Focused promotion. So, you’ve got this great idea about this event. You know exactly why you want to have it, what it’s going to do for your business. You know who you’re talking to. Those goals are crystal clear. Now it’s about going out there and promoting it. Do you have a specific and focused promotion? Is it dialed into that who person that you identified, that ideal customer? Do you know where those people are hanging out? And
11:30 – 12:06
Jessica Miller: not just one place, you wanna use multiple different channels, so maybe you’re doing something on social media, maybe there’s an email campaign, maybe you’re dovetailing that with a very specific text campaign, or whatever way you wanna push this out. It is integrated, it is focused, it is clear. It is talking to that person specifically about this event in a powerful way, as we discussed earlier, and you wanna make sure it has one call to action. That one call to action is to register for your event, buy the ticket, get to the party, whatever it is, it
12:06 – 12:39
Jessica Miller: is clear and there is one thing for them to do. And it is speaking always to that one person in a one concerted effort around this promotion. Making sure that that is planned out, you’re looking at it, it makes sense. It is gonna be rolled out in the places where this person is hanging out. It is talking to that person. It is positioning your brand in a powerful way based on the reason why you’re bringing these people together to this event. It is on point. Now, I wanna say side note, an important piece of this that
12:39 – 13:15
Jessica Miller: I wanna make sure every person knows, because if you’re listening to this podcast, you’re one of these people that go in, go big, you wanna do all the things really well. I am here to tell you that you want that promotion on point and you want it focused, but you do not have to make it complicated. The most powerful promotions that I have helped my clients run are specific. They are powerful. They are targeted and they are simple and they make the path from desire to buying super easy. The more you can streamline that and keep
13:15 – 13:48
Jessica Miller: everything simple, the easier it is for you and the easier it is for your client or potential client to consume it. So really knowing the levers that work in your business, where have you promoted something before, what did you do, how did it work, and digging in and using those things. Again, with this idea that we always talk about on the podcast, which is the goal that hidden money is already in your business. It’s already there. So, making sure that you’re leveraging the most powerful tools for you when you think about promoting this and keeping it
13:48 – 14:26
Jessica Miller: simple. For the client that I was sharing with you before around the anniversary event and this service event, we used a few powerful strategies. We made it very very crystal clear and easy and we pushed those things out over a series of days. I will tell you for this ongoing promotion we’re doing right now around the service event, we started promoting this event on Friday afternoon. I am recording this to you right now on a Wednesday. It was basically sold out 48 hours ago. So, we sold this event out for her, with her, within 72 hours.
14:26 – 14:59
Jessica Miller: And we use a variety of different marketing tactics. They were very easy and clear, and they were gangbusters. So, you do not have to make this hard. It doesn’t need to be a 70-page marketing plan. Really lean into what works and do that and do it powerfully. You want to make sure that it is focused and on point and it converts. Measure it, tweak it, and make it happen. That’s how it works. And last but not least, this is one of the most important pieces as far as creating something really successful and powerful for your
14:59 – 15:37
Jessica Miller: business growth when it relates to events. Yes, you wanna put all the promotion out there, come up with the idea, reach the people, have them come into the event. The event is just like, and it is, a front-end offer. It is one piece of the puzzle when you think about opportunity and growth with your clients. One of the most important pieces that we help our clients create is that back-end offer, that clarity of what we are going to do with this person that comes into contact with your business, comes in the door of a physical location,
15:38 – 16:12
Jessica Miller: comes onto the virtual event, whatever it is, where are you sending them? What are you going to give them to consume? How are you going to guide them to the next powerful step with you in your business so that they can get the result that they want? So, the reason that my client generated the $30, 000 in her business after her anniversary sale is yes, because of what they bought when they were in the door. But the most powerful piece was the promotion and offer and it was a bundle on the backend that we helped her
16:12 – 16:46
Jessica Miller: put together that we knew would be a powerful lock and key next step for this customer that walked in the door. The information that they consumed during the event was dovetailing with that bundle on the back end that was a hell yes easy yes when it was positioned in that context for that client. And we’re doing the same thing with her at the service event she has coming up. So, these people are gonna come in the door, there’s a flow, they’re gonna get educated, they’re going to get very personal one-on-one mini sessions to explain how does
16:46 – 17:21
Jessica Miller: this apply to them, and then guess what happens on the back end? They have a powerful offer to then go and deeper execute on what it is they learn and the results that they wanna get and how that particular offer is going to give them those results. When you run it like that, it is a seamless journey for that client. And yes, it’s about that first piece of consumption, that first offer, but the blue ocean, the biggest upside is on that backend. Because now you’ve bought somebody in contact with your business, they see they can trust
17:21 – 17:55
Jessica Miller: you, you are reputable, you are a thought leader, and they want your help. You have to make it easy and powerful for them to get that help from you in a way that is win-win. They’re going to get what they need, and you are doing this strategically so that your business can grow powerfully. It is that back-end piece of understanding where are they going and what can we give them to help them, and then getting everybody on board, all of your team, all of those members to pull it through and to really be bought into why
17:55 – 18:30
Jessica Miller: is this important? Why are we helping people? That is the gold. That is the gold. And all of those pieces line up in this perfect, beautiful journey that people go through, and all they want is more. They want more of your love for them. They want more of your expertise. They want more of anything that you can give them to help them solve their problem. The reason they’re coming to this event is for access to you. And the type of energy that’s exchanged during events is very powerful. That know, like, and trust factor can go up
18:30 – 19:04
Jessica Miller: very quickly. And so, the gold is where you’re bringing them. Yes, you want to have an amazing event. You want them to have an awesome time. You want to capture that. You want to utilize that in your business for them and for you. But it’s the other stuff that is so important. So, when you have your offers optimized and you link them to these events, that is really where the whole thing just explodes. And it’s so easy and it’s so streamlined. Everybody knows what they’re doing and you also get out of this place that a lot
19:04 – 19:34
Jessica Miller: of people get into, especially if you have a big business and there’s a lot of things going on, there’s a lot of opportunities for clients, you get out of this place of, well, you could have this or this or this or that. 7, 000 options that just can be very confusing for clients and it can just shut them down. And many of us have had this experience, I have too, where people come in and they’re there and they just can’t be pulled through because it’s clunky and it’s not easy and people get very confused. And when
19:34 – 20:09
Jessica Miller: they get confused, guess what they do? Nothing. So, you wanna make sure that that offer is powerfully positioned on the backend. It is clear where you’re bringing people. It is clear how it’s connected to that event, and it is able to really help that client to the next level and to also help boost your business in a very, very, very powerful way. So, to go back and recap over these different pieces of this checklist. And again, if you need to pause this, if you need to go back, you can, that’s the beauty of podcasts, but you
20:09 – 20:37
Jessica Miller: wanna make sure that you are literally checking the box for every single one of these things. So, number one is knowing the purpose of why you want to run this event. What do you want it to do for your business? Getting really clear on that. 2, knowing who you’re talking to. Who is your who? What is their problem? Why do they want to come to this event? All of those things that make it very focused on how do you talk about it, what do you do around this event to get that person to come. 3 is
20:37 – 21:11
Jessica Miller: you know your goals. What does success look like? What are those things that you want to make sure you can measure and track as it relates to running that event or recruiting for that event or whatever, including the back-end things. When we talked about these offers that we powerfully are positioning on the back end of these events, those are part of the goals. What would success look like if X amount of people purchase this bundle or X amount of people bought this particular program or this particular product. Whatever it is, clear, clear, clear, clear, and
21:11 – 21:38
Jessica Miller: you want to make sure that you’re incorporating all those pieces into your goals. The fourth piece was focused promotion. It does not need to be a 70-page marketing plan. It needs to be powerful. It needs to be on point. It needs to be something that’s actually creating the result you want. You wanna go to the places that you know, you’ve done this really well before, see what you can glean and you want to make sure you’re incorporating that. You don’t need to be everything to everyone. You want to go to where your people are and
21:38 – 22:09
Jessica Miller: you want to have a very focused, powerful promotional plan to that specific person with one call to action, register for your event, buy the ticket, let’s party. And then last but not least, on the back end of that event, during and back end, you wanna make sure there is a powerful offer. And it could be a promotion, it could be a bundle, it could just be a product that you’re targeting, it could be a service, it doesn’t matter, but you want to make sure that it is powerfully positioned. You want to make sure it makes sense
22:09 – 22:43
Jessica Miller: strategically for your business and your margins. And everybody knows what it is in all eyes, all roads are leading to those things that you are offering your clients. And everybody is moving toward that same path, right? Everyone is focused on that thing. And when we do that, it becomes so powerful. And yes, it’s about what’s happening at the actual event. And it’s about getting people there and the event being a success, but the real upside in the blue ocean is what you do with people on the backend. What you’re offering them to solve their problem and
22:43 – 23:18
Jessica Miller: to continue pulling through their results, that is where the gold is. Put all those things together and you really are unstoppable. Events can be a powerful, repeatable, amazingly fun part of growing your business. And especially when we’re thinking about when you’re listening to this podcast, time of the year, its holidays, it’s New Year’s, it could be in the summer, there’s so many reasons, there’s always a reason, frankly, in my opinion, to run a great event. And you know what? People want to engage with you. They wanna have fun. They want a reason to come out and
23:18 – 23:37
Jessica Miller: celebrate themselves and solve their problems and do all the things and be in the company of great people. Give them a great reason and make it a win-win for both you and your customers. With that, I hope you have a great weekend everyone and I cannot wait to hear all the success that’s coming your way around your events. Have a great day!
