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Hey everyone, this is Julie, I hope you are doing awesome. Today I kind of want to talk a little bit about behind the scenes of The Marketers Heart event. How many of you guys went to the Marketers Heart Event? Curious. And you know, its funny, the whole idea of events, and what is the value of the event. So today I just want to go through some unexpected benefits from running an event. Even if it’s virtual.

Events can feel like a lot of time and money and energy and they sometimes aren’t profitable. In fact, we were laughing because this was a virtual event, so you would think it would be profitable, but then we’re like, “I don’t think we made any money on this.” So here’s just a few things to note.

Number one, we decided from the get-go to hire a professional production company to do the virtual event, so it didn’t feel like just a regular Zoom meeting. So we had a team of 4, we had 3 camera people, we had a studio. We also made all the speakers come and speak live from their remote locations. It was actually technically quite complicated. So that was our biggest expense, hiring that team to come in and make that event. But it really did feel like an event. We had 500 people registered for the event and we had more than 50% of people attend the entire 3 days. So we think that a lot of that had to do with the fact that we had this sort of dynamic studio and multiple camera angles, and things that kept it interesting so it didn’t feel like you were just in another zoom meeting.

So what were some benefits that we saw from The Marketers Heart event? Now these, the first two I’m going to mention probably you would already think. Events build brand identity and loyalty. More than anything else, if you are trying to grow a community, you are trying to help people feel like they are a part of your brand, not just consuming it, events will create brand loyalty and identity. Whether it’s through friendships, whether it’s through swag, whether it’s through just a more intimate connection with the people that are front facing on the company, there is nothing that works better than events. And virtual events when done well can have the same impact. Obviously, in person events does it even more, but virtual events, we still saw a ton of brand loyalty and identity come out of our virtual marketers heart event.

Okay, another unexpected benefit, obviously people know, you can sell higher ticket offers, or you can sell things that might be a little bit more expensive to sell, but you have all this momentum, you have all these people there, they’re listening. So we sold for the first time, actually that’s not true, we sold Launch Gorgeous last year at the New York event, but it was a very sort of quick sell, towards the end. We didn’t really do much to promote it, whereas this time we did a full webinar. And we sold the Launch Gorgeous On Demand off of the back of the event, we did it as the last presentation of the two days. It worked very well. We were able to answer questions, and then we went right into an open cart launch the week after. Logistically it was very taxing on our team, but we had our biggest launch ever off of this event.

Another thing that is a great benefit is to test material. So if you have future material or material that you may want to put in a book, or put on a podcast, or in a course, you can test this material on a live audience. And we did that with some of our presentations. We tested it out just to get that initial, instantaneous feedback for how it’s resonating. So if you have any plans to put out some new content, put it in an event first.
Another benefit is that you can give attendees upcoming sneak peeks. This is part of that brand identity and brand loyalty, is that when they feel like they get to see behind the scenes of what’s going on, they get more sort of inside look, you can build that loyalty and identity, but you can also help your community understand, “Here’s your mission, here’s your vision, here’s where you are going.” It’s almost kind of like the way stockholders in a company will get like sort of a state of the union address. You can do that at an event in a different way than just sending out an email. Okay?

Another thing, networking relationships with speakers. So if there’s anybody in your sphere that you want to get to know, inviting them to speak onstage is a great way to start developing that relationship. So if you have some people in a Dream 100 and you can afford to get them on your stage, it’s an excellent way to build that rapport.

Obviously, it goes without saying that another benefit is you get replays that can be reused for bonuses, courses, workshops, summits, things like that. So that is another benefit assuming that you of course pay for an audio/visual team production company.

Another thing is that it will sell more of your existing stuff. We had some of our highest days ever in our business on those three days of the event because people were buying things that we weren’t even talking about. But there was a sense of “Oh, I’m here. It’s Funnel Gorgeous.” And you know, maybe people were mentioning things in the comments. So it will sell more of your existing offers even if you’re not actively talking about them from the stage.

Another thing that it can do is build incredible social proof and buzz on your social media profile. So whether people are in your group talking about the event or whether they’re tagging you on Instagram, it’s going to generate buzz and give you lots of material to screenshot and use for later. So for later offers, later launches, later events.

Another benefit is that you’re going to actually bond with your team more. I think we, as a team, really, I mean it was a stressful event, but we had some great bonding time, we were able to fly in one of our employees as an emcee, Cathy came to my house in Connecticut. So there’s just a chance to bond with your team in a different way when you’re putting on an event because you’re all working towards this one particular goal.
Another thing that it can do, is it can help you get awesome b-roll for social. So b-roll and photos. We had a photographer come and take pictures with us, and we had of course, the event fully photographed and video recorded. So this provides a lot of material as you’re moving forward, and Instagram and Tiktok, so you might as well, if you are on those platforms, the event provides a way for you to do all of these things and get some of that sort of by-product as well.

Another unexpected benefit that didn’t even dawn on me until I did it, was it allowed me to connect with A/V people. And I know that seems kind of random, but for any kind of like small workshop or event, or even if you want to have a local production company in your area, that you can develop a relationship with so that you have someone who is local that you don’t have to fly in, that was also a benefit as well.

And lastly, it allows you sell tickets to a future event. You can actually sell another event off of your existing one. So if you do a virtual event, or you do an event and it’s not as expensive and you want to sell tickets to a more expensive event later, an event is a great place to do it. A lot of people who have a great experience want to repeat that experience.

So those are some benefits. I hope that’s helpful for you guys if you are on the fence about doing an event. Start with a virtual event, because it’s a little simpler, and then move to an in person. But we had an incredible time at the Marketers Heart, and we really wanted to connect with our community and our customers, and we got all these extra side benefits as a result. Appreciate you all, talk to you soon. Bye.