I Ran a Sales Blitz and Nearly Sold Out My Event in 24 Hours Want to make a big sales push? Here's how you can do it in one day.
By Kim Walsh Phillips •
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We had already downed four espressos each and were starting to speak very quickly about our two-day workshop. Dave Dee, my co-host on the event, and Mike Stodola, our chief marketing officer, had strategized two full days of content to drive direct leads and sales into our attendees' businesses.
Just when we had decided upon what we considered a game-changing idea, we realized that very few people had registered for the event so far. It was still weeks away, but our goal for attendance was 80 people. At that moment, we had 14 registered.
Related: 7 Key Selling Habits All Sales Professionals Must Develop
We didn't want this to be a tree falling in the forest with no one to hear, but Mike and Dave came up with a great idea: We would run a one-day sales blitz to fill the event.
One day.
Here's how it worked ...
I started with freshly blown-out hair because I was preparing to be on camera all day long. We prepared at Dave's headquarters for the day.
- 9:30 a.m.: I went on Facebook Live to promote a special announcement we would make at 11 am.
- 10:45 a.m.: We sent a link out to a Zoom webinar for a big announcement we would make at 11 am.
- 11:00 a.m.: We went on air and shared the "Webinar Immersion Experience" added to the event and four bonus pre-event master classes. And we answered viewer questions. Lots and lots and lots of questions. We were on air for 90 minutes. Ticket orders started pouring in.
- 12:15 p.m.: We realized that the webinar did not broadcast to Facebook as we had tried to do, nor did it record. D'oh! So we did what all great entrepreneurs do ... we headed to lunch.
- 1:30 p.m.: We go on Zoom again and this time, we successfully broadcasted to Facebook. We shared the announcement again and answered more questions. And, this time the recording worked. More ticket sales came in.
- 2:30 p.m.: We sent a link for the recording to our list and encouraged them to order tickets.
- 4:30 p.m.: Crack open the Prosecco.
- 5:30 p.m.: Head out to dinner with our significant others. Each time there was another ticket sale, to the dismay of Dave, Mike did "The Floss."
- The next day, we sent out one follow-up email with a link to the recording. And we harassed Dave with GIFs of "The Floss."
At the end of event promotion blitz, we had sold 74 tickets to the event. Just six short of our total event goal, in less than 24 hours. And with weeks still until the event, it is sure to be a sell-out.
How did this happen?
We ran an on-demand promotion of the announcement broadcast. We didn't send out 1,456,987 different emails harassing our list and falling on deaf ears. We merely promoted it 15 minutes ahead of time saying, "We are going on air right now, so join us."
We made the event promotion exciting for the viewer by making it a special announcement and sharing the "what's in it for them," making the broadcast all about what they would get out of the event.
There was a time-sensitive call to action. There was special "on air" pricing and the four Class Pre-Event Masterclass if you ordered your tickets before midnight.
We used all marketing channels for the same message -- email, Facebook, Facebook Live, Instagram, Instagram Stories, LinkedIn, Twitter and our blog, giving a concentrated effort to one goal. Here's what one of those videos looked like:
Related: 11 Ways to Boost Your Sales Performance
Our work is not over. We will still promote the event via email, social media, our newsletter, blogs, etc. We will sell 96 tickets total, accounting for an 80 percent attendance rate. And we will most certainly use the 24-Hour Promotion Blitz Formula in the future for other events and promotions.
The lesson here -- keep your promotions fresh and exciting, give a time-sensitive call to action and always have lots of espresso on hand.
