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A highly effective way to fill seminar seats – particularly when you don’t have a large mailing list of your own – is to enlist the help of affiliates.

Affiliates are individuals or organizations that agree to promote your seminars to their subscribers, members or clients. They are rewarded for their help in a variety of ways. The most common way is to pay affiliates a commission for every seat that they fill. Other seminar leaders reward their promotional partners by featuring them as an event sponsor, by providing seminar attendees with the affiliates’ free resources, or by giving affiliates permission to present a tuition discount to their lists.

Here are six ways you can find affiliates to promote your seminars:

• Start with your competitors. Why would a competitor want to help to promote your events? Simple. Seminar marketers realize fairly quickly that most people on their lists will not become customers. Subscribers stay on the list for free educational information, but they never sign up to attend an event.

However, the non-purchasing subscribers may resonate better with another expert’s message. If your competitors introduce you to their lists and you are paying a commission for every registration they generate, they stand a chance of earning revenue they might not otherwise get.

• A second group of potential affiliates are experts who work with the same clientele, but in a different way. By introducing you to their lists, these experts strengthen their positioning as a trusted resource of the information and connections their subscribers need to succeed. They aren’t concerned about the affiliate commission (some professionals may not be able to ethically or legally accept payment), but are more concerned with being viewed as a resource and connector.

• Find out who is promoting your competitors. These individuals have proven that they think the type of content you offer is valuable to their lists. If you can explain how what you teach is different than what your competitors teach, you may be able to convince your competitors’ affiliates to promote you, as well.

• Enlist your customers and past attendees. Tap into the power of referral marketing by asking your customers and past attendees to help promote your event. They already know, like and trust you enough to purchase your products and services, as well as attend your events. Why not formally ask for their help and reward them for their efforts?

• Ask registrants for your upcoming program to spread the word about the event they will be attending. For instance, on the registration confirmation page, include fields where registrants can enter the names and email addresses of people they know who might be interested in attending the event. When their guests register for the program, send them a thank you gift or commission check.

• Approach industry organizations. Research the type of organizations that your prospective attendees belong to and participate in, such as associations, clubs and chambers of commerce. Approach these groups about helping you promote your event. You’ll find that some groups will require you to pay for renting their lists or advertising in their publications. However, others may be interested in offering a discounted rate to their members or generating non-dues revenue by earning a commission for every member that registers for your seminar.

Before you start approaching potential affiliates, spend some time outlining the offer you are making and prepare a simple email or handout explaining how the process works. Many individuals and organizations that are involved with internet marketing are familiar with the affiliate marketing model. However, other potential partners will need additional support to
understand exactly how participating in your program will benefit them.

As with any sales venture, finding affiliates is a numbers game. Many more people will say no than will say yes. Your job is to keep reaching out until you find the partners you need. You never know who will say yes unless you ask.

Should You List the Price on a Seminar Promotion Postcard?

Q: “Do you advise putting the seminar price on a mailer postcard announcing your seminar? Or do you think it's better to get them to your website where the cost is?”

A: In most cases, I discourage clients from putting the seminar price on a postcard. There simply isn’t enough room – even if you use a copy-heavy postcard format – to help readers understand the value of your event. If they see a price and think “whoa, that’s way too much,” they’ll toss the postcard without ever visiting your website to get the full details about your event.

But, as with everything, there are exceptions.

• When your seminar offers something unusual, especially for a reasonable price – for example, if you were holding a public seminar with a big-name guest speaker. A $29 ticket price could seem like a phenomenal deal to your audience. Because they’re not turned off immediately by the price, they’ll be more likely to get the full story about your seminar. If you offer a low enough price, they might even register right off the postcard.

• When you’re marketing a long-standing event to a group of people who are expecting your announcement. For example, association members typically expect to receive frequent announcements of the next annual conference or regularly scheduled seminars. Because they’re expecting word and probably are familiar with the organization’s pricing, this would be a case when I’d test using the price right on the postcard.

• If you’re offering an easily understood, mass-appeal seminar at a reasonable price – for instance, “Microsoft Word for Beginners.”

• If you’re offering a seminar that your audience is required to take, such as a certification preparation course or a seminar to meet their industry’s continuing education requirements.

In all of these scenarios, test a postcard that reveals the price against a postcard that doesn’t. This is the only way to truly reveal how including the price in your copy affects registration.

With most of these examples, you’ll have to determine what a “reasonable” price is for your audience. Typically, people who are paying out of their own pocket to attend seminars will be more sensitive to price. To determine the best price, test different prices and see how changing this sole variable affects your registration rates.

One final note: if you’re promoting an early bird discount, you might be tempted to list the discounted fee on your postcard. Instead, emphasize the discount. Say “Save $200 when you enroll by January 30” rather than “Early Bird Tuition Special: Pay just $699 when you register by January 30.”

Postcards are a popular and cost-effective way to incorporate direct mail into your seminar marketing mix. Use these strategies to determine whether it's best -- for your audience and your event - to mention the price on your postcard.

Effectively marketing a seminar usually involves the use of several promotional tools. To generate the best return on your marketing investment, it’s important to ensure that the pieces work together logically. If you are lucky enough to hook a prospective seminar attendee’s attention, you want to do everything possible to ensure that you don’t confuse and lose them.

For example, I was online the other night, researching which of my client's competitors are running ads on Google AdWords. The more ads I clicked on, the happier I got. Although there were plenty of other companies competing for the same prospects, most of my client's competitors dropped the ball once they won the click. They took their visitors to a web page that had absolutely nothing to do with what was advertised in their Google ad. At best, they directed visitors to a home page, where prospective customers could find the information they were seeking – IF they looked hard enough.

Unfortunately, this is a common problem in marketing. If you're making this mistake, you are not achieving the maximum return on your marketing investment – guaranteed. Worse yet, you’re probably generating a lot of ill will among prospective customers.

As you compile your seminar marketing promotions and lead generation materials, make sure you continue the "conversation" you're having with prospective customers from one piece to the next. For example:

• If you're running ads on Google, make sure the landing page to which you direct traffic delivers the information (and ONLY the information) that was promised in the ad. If you offer a free mini-course, the landing page should contain an opt-in form your visitors can use to subscribe to the mini-course.

• If you ask visitors to opt in for a free report at your website, make sure the very next page they see after hitting the "submit" button is a page that thanks them for requesting the report -- not a sales letter pitching your signature product. Alternatively, drive the report subscribers to your sales letter, but mention the report at the beginning of your letter and have a logical explanation for why you are sharing information about your signature product instead of delivering the report instantly.

• If you send a postcard asking prospects to call a 24/7 recorded message to order a report, make sure the message mentions the report by name and reminds callers of the same benefits you highlighted in the postcard. If you are promoting your seminar – in an ad, a postcard, a flier, an article, etc. – make sure that the URL you list in the promotion takes prospects directly to the page where they can find details about your event. Don’t drop them off at your home page and hoping they click their way to your event page.

Your goal in marketing is to win more customers -- not to annoy and confuse prospects. Ensuring that there's a logical thread of conversation throughout your marketing pieces will go a long way to cementing relationships and boosting sales.

One way to use seminars to grow your business is to host free lead-generation seminars. With this model, you deliver valuable, useable content, and then you encourage attendees to take the next step in their education by signing up for a free consultation, critique or evaluation. This type of event is especially popular among financial advisors, who often entice prospects to attend by bribing them with a free dinner or lunch.

According to companies that specialize in marketing seminars for the financial community, the free meal is what packs the room. The only problem, at least from the host’s point of view, is that many of the attendees are merely attending for the edibles, not because of any serious interest in the topic at hand. Instead of qualified leads, they are (as one client calls them) “plate lickers” and “moochers.”

Here are three ways you can better qualify attendees of your free lead-generation seminars:

• Market your events to people who have prequalified themselves as good prospects. For instance, when marketing to a rented list, offer a free report on a topic related to your seminar. Then market your event only to the people who request the report.
• Use more detailed descriptions of the exact type of people who should be attending your events (or who should NOT attend), as well as what they’ll learn and how they’ll benefit by attending. The more information you provide, the easier it will be for them to decide if the seminar is a good fit for their needs and interests -- in other words, whether they’re qualified to attend.
• Test the effect of eliminating the mention of dinner from your promotional materials. You’ll probably find that fewer people show up, but those who do won’t be there just for a free meal. They’ll be there for the information.

That said, be aware that the quality of attendee may not be the only reason why you don’t get enough people accepting your offer of a free consultation. Here are three questions to ask yourself if your conversion ratio is lower than you’d like:

First, do your expectations need to be adjusted? You will never close 100% of the room. Accept that there will be attendees who are interested in what you’re saying, but who are just not ready to take the next step.

Second, are you staying in touch with prospects who don’t accept your offer at the seminar? Or do you write them off as time-wasters who didn’t do their part by sitting down for a consultation with you. They’ve already spent time with you by attending your seminar -- make sure you don’t drop off their radar altogether. You never know when they’ll be ready to accept your offer. Make sure your name comes to mind when a need for your expertise arises.

Third, how can you improve your presentation and selling skills? Part of the problem may be that attendees don’t understand your offer, aren’t moved to act immediately, or aren’t convinced, based on your presentation, that you’re someone they should work with. Ask attendees for suggestions on how you can improve the delivery and content of your seminar, as well as for ideas on how to persuade more attendees to take you up on your offer of a free consultation.

Do you provide meals for your lead-generation seminars? Why or why not? Share about your experience below. ~ Jenny

“How do I get more people to attend my seminars?” is the number one question among seminar leaders and promoters – as well it should be. Even the rare few who sell out their events almost as soon as they open registration are constantly looking for ways to improve their marketing systems, so that they can offer more events, generate more revenue and lower their marketing costs.

Here are 7 ideas to help you increase your seminar attendance – regardless of where you are starting.

1.    Commit to a process of continual improvement. Every time you offer an event, hold a debriefing session with yourself – and your team, if you have one. Review what worked and make sure that these items are implemented the next time you offer an event. Also analyze what didn’t work, and try to pinpoint what contributed to the failures. Brainstorm about how you could take the failed concepts and tweak them for better performance the next time around. Finally, identify what you’d like to try differently the next time you promote your seminar.

Opportunities to improve your marketing exist everywhere: design and copy on your landing pages, sales pages, broadcast emails, autoresponder emails; the type and message of video used on your website; the content and delivery of your preview teleseminars or webinar; the registration page; confirmation process; ease of checkout; payment options, etc.

2.    Document everything you do. Much of what you’re doing to promote your events works. Make sure these items become part of your standard process for promoting an event.

Documenting your steps also will help you when campaigns or tools don’t work. With 20/20 hindsight, we sometimes can gain clarity about why campaigns didn’t work. Having a good record also allows us to test variables with confidence.

For example, let’s say you mailed a postcard to your list, but didn’t generate any significant level of registrations. You might conclude that direct mail doesn’t work for your list. However, a year later, you might be game to try direct mail again. By having detailed notes, you can review the offer, type of message, when you mailed the postcard, the audience that receive the postcard, etc., to identify what you’ll do differently with this campaign, rather than having to rely on memory.

3.    Engage in two-step marketing. The chances of connecting with an individual who has the money, time and qualifications to attend your event at the precise time she is interested in learning what you have to offer are quite slim. Rather than putting all of your efforts toward promoting your seminar, back up a step. Work to build your mailing list … and then promote your seminar to the list you are building. Offer a free resource that is related to your event topic, and then extend a seminar invitation to all who request your resource.

4.    Offer preview teleseminars or webinars. One objection that stops prospects from attending seminars is uncertainty about your teaching style or quality of content. Offering a free preview event gives prospects a chance to become familiar with you and your content before they have to put money down to attend your seminar.

5.    Offer products. Prospects have many options when it comes to engaging in continuing education. You aren’t competing only against other seminars. You’re competing against other forms of education, including virtual events, home study courses, and books. By offering a virtual event or product, you’ll be able to convert prospects who are not interested in attending your seminars into paying customers. Once they become familiarized with your content via your products or virtual training, it may be easier to sell them on attending a seminar.

6.    Give a seat away with every purchase. If your goal is simply to put more people in seats, offer a free ticket with every seat that is purchased. If it’s essential that you also make money on ticket sales, then test the impact of a group registration ticket (for example, offer a 20 percent discount on groups of three or more) or offer a second ticket for half-price for every ticket that is purchased.

7.    Finally, review your seminar schedule. If you hold your seminar frequently, you may be spreading attendees too thin. Offering multiple sessions of a seminar generally increases the total number of registrations; however, you’ll get fewer people at each event. If you want to get more people at an individual seminar, you might be better served by offering fewer events. Then, once you consistently sell out seminars at the higher number, look at expanding the number of sessions you offer again.

There are an unlimited number of possibilities for promoting seminars. Don’t be afraid to try new ideas – even if you’ve never seen them used in the seminar industry. Take note of what you do, as well as what works and what doesn’t work. Over time, you’ll discover the magic formula that consistently fills your seats – and then you can set a new goal of increasing attendance yet again.

Do you ever look at the long sales letters that many seminar marketers use to promote their events online and think ... "Do I REALLY have to use something THAT long?"

The answer is ... it depends.

If you're marketing to a very targeted list of people who are merely waiting to hear when your event has been scheduled (say, if you're marketing a series of seminars and most of the attendees from course one want to participate in course two), a postcard or short letter can work just fine.

If you're marketing a short event - for example, a two-hour seminar vs. a three-day bootcamp - you usually are able to get away with less copy, as well. Teleseminars and webinars also typically do not need much copy. What you are asking prospects to invest in terms of time and money is relatively small, so it doesn’t require as much persuasion on your part.

But when promoting a for-fee event, especially one that last multiple days, I choose long copy over short copy when given the choice. Longer copy gives you more room to fully explain the value of your event and to address your audience's possible objections.

Remember that your sales letter is your salesperson. And just as you'd never tell your sales rep, "Whatever you do, don't speak for more than 90 seconds," it doesn't make sense to arbitrarily limit the size of your sales letter just for the sake of not making it "too" long. If you need an additional page to make the sale, take it!

What really matters is not the length of the copy – it’s how interesting and relevant the copy is to the person reading it. If you send my dad a sales letter about a seminar teaching you how to knit, it doesn’t matter if it’s only three paragraphs long. The topic is not pertinent to him, and he won’t read it. But if you send him a letter about a seminar teaching woodworking techniques, he’d be all over it … no matter how long it is.

The other guideline to remember is that everything that is included in your letter – short or long – needs to move the sales conversation along and get people to register. Just as you should not cut valuable, must-have information merely to get your letter to a certain length, you don’t want to include extraneous information that will confuse and bore readers merely to make a letter long.

The best way to determine which form of letter will work for your event is to run a split test. Send half of your list the long letter, and send the other half a shorter version. (If marketing online, split your traffic between two versions of your sales page, one short and one long.) Keep track of your results so you can see for yourself which form pulls the most registrations. The bottom line is that your preferences don’t matter; results do.

When running a multi-speaker event, it’s tempting to keep the agenda a mystery until prospects are on-site and checked in. The theory is that by not telling prospects when which speakers will be on stage, they’ll “have” to sign up and show up to see their favorite trainers.

In practice, though, listing your agenda as “to be announced” can backfire. For example, if prospects are not available to attend the entire event, they’ll want to see which speakers will be on stage the day(s) they plan to attend. If they can’t verify that the faculty will cover topics of interest to them, they’ll take a pass on attending. Their time is too precious to gamble on an event that may – or may not – present information they want to hear.

Also be aware of how holding back pertinent information about your seminar can influence the perception that prospective attendees hold of you and your business. Some prospects won’t be bothered about the lack of detail. However, for others, it will feel manipulative – and it can make them wonder what other coercion tactics you’ll try using.

The bottom line: Make your seminar agenda available for prospects to review before they commit to attending.

The risk, of course, is that if attendees know who will be on stage and when, they may plan to not be in the room at certain times. They may even plan to skip an entire day of the event.

Here’s the thing though: This will happen regardless of whether you make the agenda public. Attendees can just easily review the final agenda once they check in at registration and decide to hit the pool on Sunday rather than stick around for the last three speakers. Providing your agenda in advance is respectful and acknowledges your students’ right and ability to make decisions about where they want to invest their time.

So how do you get attendees to stay in the room for the entire event? Here are 3 ideas:

• Pump up your session descriptions. Carefully review the title, content description and instructor bio for each session. If the copy leaves a ho-hum impression, chances are good that attendees will bail on the session.

Remember, specifics are more engaging and appealing. “Learn how to write powerful seminar promotions” is not nearly as compelling as “Discover 7 time-proven formulas for writing powerful headlines … a sneaky, but completely ethical, way to find the words that resonate with your ideal prospects … and the second-biggest mistake that most seminar promoters make when describing what they’ll teach.”

• Incorporate surprises and bonuses. Reward attendees who show up and stay for each session. Perhaps you have a surprise gift waiting on every chair immediately after lunch or you hold a drawing for fun door prizes after each break. Get extra leverage by mentioning the bonuses later in the day so that those who show up later know what they missed.

• Invite mystery guests. Promote the appearance of “Mr./Ms. X” and describe the individual only by his/her accomplishments. Make sure that the description of lessons that will be shared during the mystery session are full of detail, and mention specific results that will be shared whenever possible.

One final thought: Despite your best efforts, it’s inevitable that attendance will rise and fall throughout your event. For example, it’s typical to see an event room begin to empty during the final afternoon and evening because some prospects will opt to travel home vs. staying over an extra night.

If it makes sense – for example, if most of your attendees are using personal time to participate in your weekend event and must return to work on Monday morning – accommodate the trend and offer a shortened schedule on the final day so they can travel home. Otherwise, do you best to convince them to stay … and don’t lose sleep when some attendees leave.

What strategies have you found to be effective in keeping attendees engaged throughout your events? Share your ideas below! ~ Jenny

When registration numbers are lower than anticipated, it's time to start investigating possible causes. A common - yet often overlooked - cause is holidays.

According to the Merriam-Webster online dictionary, a holiday is "a day marked by a general suspension of work in commemoration of an event." Avoid these holidays, and you should be good to go, right?

It's actually a little more complicated. Plus, used properly, holidays can actually boost your marketing results. Here are 3 tips to leverage holidays to boost your registrations.

1. Be Smart About the "Big Ones."

Here in the U.S., there are 10 annual federal holidays, which most state and local governments observe. However, state and local governments may also observe additional holidays. For example, Casimir Pulaski Day is a holiday in Chicago, but not 40 miles away in Plainfield, where I live.

Some of these holidays are do-not-touch. Trying to hold a seminar on those dates would virtually guarantee a failure. For example, New Year's Day - good luck trying to get your prospects to give up their football and snacks to attend a seminar instead.

Other federal holidays aren't as big of a deal in that most families don't build celebrations around them. For example, most people don't actually celebrate President's Day, though they do appreciate the day off (or hate it, if they have to work yet must arrange childcare since their kids are off school).

On these days, you may be able to make a seminar work. In fact, if your target audience typically holds a job, but needs to take personal time to attend your seminar, it might work in your favor.

Religious holidays also fall into the "big one" category. If asked to choose between attending a seminar and upholding a religious tradition, most prospects will choose their religious celebration. So be aware of religious holidays -- including those for outside of your own religion.

The exception? If you are specifically targeting prospects of a certain faith, it is safe to ignore the holidays of other religions. For example, if your seminar is targeted to Christians, it won't affect your results if your event is held on Yom Kippur.

2. Be Aware of Important Non-Federal Holidays.

In this category, you'll find events like Valentine's Day and Halloween - big events that may or may not be important to your audience. Many seminar producers schedule seminars for the end of October, requiring attendees to be in a seminar room or at least on a plane for Halloween. My kids are little and Halloween is still a big deal for them, so those events are usually a no-go for me.

Similarly, Valentine's Day is a big deal for some people and a non-issue for others. If you schedule your seminar so that prospects are not home for V-Day and your registration numbers are low, this may be a contributing factor.

3. Tie Holidays Into Your Marketing.

Until now, we've focused primarily on scheduling. But there's another way that holidays can influence your marketing results - by incorporating them into your marketing. Use the themes of each holiday to give some pizazz to your marketing message.

For example, near Halloween, offer a "treat" in the form of a discount or special registration bonus. Near New Year's, talk about how most people make resolutions and how your event will help them achieve one of their top goals. Near Thanksgiving, you could conjure up the stereotypical experience of eating until you're absolutely stuffed and then talk about how your seminar offers a similar mind-boggling "meal" of great content.

As you play with these ideas, don't forget that there are lots of observances, celebrations and other events that you can incorporate into your marketing. For example, during National Safe Boating Week, you could send an email that talks about how your sales seminar will help your students "sail" to bigger commissions.

Depending on how you use them, holidays can help -- or hurt -- your seminar marketing results. To be sure you avoid important conflicts, as well as to get fun marketing ideas, check out one of the many online calendars when planning your events and marketing schedule. Click here for an example.

What lessons have you learned when it comes to holidays and promoting your seminars? Share your experiences (and solutions) below! ~ Jenny

For consultants, speakers and trainers who are used to delivering training programs that last a day or more, converting content to a webinar format can be difficult. Webinars typically last one to two hours, which means that their programs must be broken into smaller chunks. The shorter format presents a challenge because the rest of the material is essential for participants’ success.

One approach to get around this challenge is to deliver your training via a series of webinars. Each event would last only an hour or so, but the entire series would deliver the full depth of your live training program.

If you take this approach to delivering webinars, the question you must consider is whether to require participation in the full series or whether you’ll allow participants to select which modules they would like to attend. There are pros and cons to each approach. If you require participation in the full series, consider the following factors:

• The scheduling may not work for some participants. For most prospects, clearing their schedule for an hour to attend a single webinar is very workable. Clearing their schedule once a week for six weeks may be more challenging. If you opt for a series, be sure to allow registrants prompt access to webinar recordings, so they can make up any classes they miss.

• The price may be too high. When compared to seminar tuition, the fees for most webinars are higher on a dollar-per-hour basis. The registration fee for a full-day seminar might cost a participant $295, but webinars delivering the same training might cost $95 or $195 per hour. The difference is that webinars are often priced per connection, because many participants allow co-workers to watch the presentation.

To address this objection, play up the benefits of attending webinars – specifically that registrants can invite colleagues to participate for no additional charge and that they will be saving money that would normally be spent on travel and lodging if they attended a live event.

• You may limit your sales. If you promote your series as starting on a specific date, be prepared for some prospects to inquire about joining in after the series starts. How will you handle these requests? If you close the doors once the series starts, you may miss out on revenue, especially if prospects are too impatient to wait until the next time you offer the series. Instead, consider giving late-comers access to the replays of webinars they have missed is an option.

Packaging your training as a webinar series is an excellent way to leverage your customers’ desire for virtual training. Use these tips to counteract your prospects’ potential objections, so you can maximize registrations and revenue.

What challenges have you encountered when adapting your content to a virtual environment? Share your experiences (and solutions) below! ~ Jenny

One of the most important questions you must answer to persuade prospects to register for your events is "Why should I trust you?"

You see, prospects have more choices than ever when it comes to training. To win their trust and their business, you must prove that you are not only qualified to teach, but that you're the best subject matter expert for the job.

Here are 13 types of proof you can offer to establish your credibility as an expert:

1. Your current position. What is your job title? What's the name of your company? What type of clients do you serve?
2. Your training and education. What degrees and certifications do you hold? Where did you get your training -- did you attend any prestigious schools? Have you been mentored by or studied with any masters in your field?
3. Your area of expertise. What type of expertise do you have? How long have you been practicing your skills? Are there any positions you've held in the past that would be pertinent to establishing your credibility as an expert now?
4. Past and current clients. Who have you worked with? What industries have you worked in? Feel free to list companies and individuals, both past and current.
5. The results you've achieved. Look back over your career and take note of any significant results you've achieved. It could also be a typical result you help clients get ("help sales professionals increase closing rates by 27% or more"). Or it might include a cumulative total for your results, as marketing legend Alex Mandossian does, stating that since 1991, he has "generated over $300 million in sales and profits for his clients and partners via 'electronic marketing' media."
6. Awards and recognition. Have you won any awards or honors? Have other people or organizations recognized your expertise?
7. Testimonials and client feedback. What testimonials have clients and students shared about you and your events? Remember, the more specific your testimonials are, the more impact they'll have.
8. Mentions in the media. This section may include specific comments that media outlets have made, such as in book reviews. It could also simply be a list of of media outlets that have covered your work. For example, the online bio used by my client, Jack Canfield, reads, "Jack has also been a featured guest on more than 1,000 radio and television programs in nearly every major market worldwide - many of them on a repeat basis. A sample of these shows include Oprah, Montel, Larry King Live, 20/20, Inside Edition, The Today Show, Fox and Friends, The CBS Evening News, The NBC Nightly News, Eye to Eye, CNN's Talk Back Live!, PBS, QVC and many others."
9. Books you've written. Being a published author is one of the most powerful sources of instant credibility. Don't forget to mention if your book achieved bestseller status or won any awards.
10. Other products you've created or contributed to. Have you appeared in any movies, created any other products and/or developed any other training programs? Mention them, as well.
11. Speaking engagements. What conferences and seminars have you spoken at? If needed, describe the event so that readers understand the prestige of speaking at the audience. For example, you might describe an annual conference as "the largest conference for the medical records profession."
12. Volunteer experience. Have you volunteered with any associations, groups or committees? Of particular importance are those groups that pertain to the area in which you are trying to establish your expertise, such as industry associations.
13. Affiliations and partnerships. Mentioning other groups or individuals with whom you have partnered can help you appear to be more influential, particularly if the other party has a good reputation.

Establishing your credibility as an expert is typically done by including your bio in your promotional materials. For greatest impact, make sure that your bio is concise and includes only information that is relevant to the seminar you're promoting.

As you use the checklist above to gather information to include in your bio, you'll probably discover that not all of it will need to be included in your promotions. You can include only the information that's relevant to your seminar in your promotional materials. Another option is to include a concise bio when promoting your seminar, but to post an expanded version of your bio on your website.

What credibility boosters have been most effective for you? Share your thoughts below! ~ Jenny