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Part of being a smart seminar promoter is learning who your competition is. Identifying your competitors helps you in three key ways:

1. You can develop greater insight into your target audience – what they want, what they need, and what they struggle with. Study the marketing materials put out by your competitors to see what they’re saying when talking to your prospective seminar attendees. Take note of the benefits that your competitors stress when promoting their seminars, which job titles or industries they target, and what problems they identify your seminar prospects as having. All of this material can be used when you sit down to write your own seminar promotions.

2. You can identify a unique selling proposition. As you find your competitors, take note of what positions they are claiming within the seminar industry. How are competing seminars similar to yours? How are they different? More importantly, what can you do with or say when marketing your seminar to ensure that your event is perceived as unique?

Remember, “unique” does not mean that your competitors can’t be doing the same thing. It means only that you (LINK HERE) are claiming the space for yourself. For example, I write marketing copy to promote seminars, teleseminars and webinars. Am I the only copywriter in the world who writes promotions for events? Of course not. But I have more experience in the area than many others and staked my claim years ago as the “Seminar Marketing Pro.”

3. You can find potential promotional partners. A key way to fill seminars is to use affiliate marketing. This technique is especially valuable if you are new to the seminar business and do not have a large opt-in mailing list.

Here’s how it works: You find professionals and companies who already have relationships with your ideal prospects. They agree to promote your seminar to their subscribers in exchange for a commission on every seminar registration generated from their efforts. Your competitors make ideal affiliates for your seminars, because they typically are promoting to your ideal audience.

Why would a competitor want to be your affiliate? First, most subscribers do not buy anything. If 90% of your subscribers have not yet converted to being a customer, doesn’t it make sense to refer them to someone else who might have the information they are waiting for and earn a commission doing so? Second, most experts want to be seen as resources for valuable information. Introducing you and your seminar to their opt-in list can make them look like heroes to their subscribers.

Competitors can be a valuable source of information as you develop your seminar marketing strategy. Be open to all that they offer – from clues about your target market to opportunities to fill more seminar seats.

To successfully promote a seminar, you must understand your prospective attendees — how they think, what they want, what they are struggling with and what they want from you.

Studying your competitors — specifically, how they promote their events — can give you greater insight into your target audience.

Study the marketing materials put out by your competitors to see what they’re saying when talking to your prospective seminar attendees. Take note of the benefits that your competitors stress when promoting their seminars, which job titles or industries they target, and what problems they identify your seminar prospects as having.

Although you should not copy your competitors’ promotions, you can use their work as inspiration. Take the things you’ve learned about your audience into consideration when you sit down to write your own seminar promotions. Find your own unique way of connecting with your audience and speaking to their fears and desires. Not only will this keep you out of legal and ethical hot water, it will help you develop a unique voice and attract the individuals who are meant to study with you.

Do you want to offer your own seminars and workshops … yet find yourself continuously putting off the necessary work needed to put butts in seats?

One reason you may be procrastinating is a fear of failure. Promoting events can be a tough business. Response rates are generally low … which means that by some people’s standards, “failure” is common.

To overcome the fear of failure, change the way you look at marketing. Stop viewing your results as as successes or failures. Instead, view your marketing as a series of tests. If something doesn’t work, view it simply as a lesson in what NOT to do.

There are people in this world who are waiting to hear what you are here to teach; now you need to experiment to find the best way to reach them.

One reason that seminar attendance is low these days is that prospects have less money to spend on education. A second trend impacting the seminar industry is that prospects also have less time to invest in their growth and education.

As companies lay off staff in an effort to stay afloat, fewer employees are left to do more work. Taking time off of work to attend a seminar becomes difficult, if not downright unthinkable. Even if they agree that your seminar will help them, the backlog of work they would face upon their return to their office may seem like too big of a price to pay.

Having less time and money to spend on education, prospective attendees are shifting their investments away from seminars and instead participating in virtual training, such as teleseminars and webinars. These virtual “seminars” deliver training in bite-sized chunks at a price that is far less than what it costs to attend most seminars.

As you work to combat the time crunch your prospects are facing, ask yourself two questions:

1. What can you do to deliver your information more efficiently? Can you reformat your seminar so that it can be delivered in two days, rather than three?

2. How can you incorporate teleseminars or webinars into your product mix?

3. How can you position your event as essential to success and even survival? If prospects view your information as “must have” rather than “nice to have, but not essential,” they are more likely to find a way to participate in your training.