A huge part of your computer consulting business is marketing, and seminars can be an important strategy.  How can you get the most out of these seminars?

Focus on Registration

Your computer consulting seminars should for the most part be free, but in order to make them successful, you need to require registration and advertise limited seating.  When an event is free, not everyone will show up when they say they will.

You can have a check-in at the door, do a survey in exchange for a door prize and to give you a chance to ask some questions and make the seminar more suited to their specific computer consulting needs.  Make sure you actually teach something in your seminar.  When you have an educated prospect, you will have an easier time holding interest than if you have an uneducated one.  Your registration should also capture important contact information for potential computer consulting clients.  

After the Seminar

You should offer a handout with your contact information on it and add a limited-time special offer.  You can put seminar highlights into a short article that you can hand out or mail to computer consulting prospects and customers.  If you can get it published in different places in your local area – a business journal, Chamber of Commerce newsletter or other organization newsletter – this can help you create a place for yourself in the community and also give valuable information to those with an interest in educating their members or clients on computer consulting issues.

You can also take the article you write and turn it into a free report that you can offer with your computer consulting ads.  If you run a newspaper ad, you can elicit demand by offering the free report to respondents.  Capture contact information so you can follow up with marketing efforts.

The seminar and the highlights article and free report can also go with a fixed-price audit package with a special offer discount.  The more of a deadline you provide, the more people will be compelled to respond.

A Travelling Seminar

You can take your seminar on the road and go out to Chamber of Commerce Meetings and Rotary and Kiwanis meetings.  Often these organizations look for great speakers to fill in 15-20 minutes at events.  This gives you a captive audience and eliminates the need to generate demand.  You can also showcase your computer consulting expertise.

Blogged By:  Computer Consulting Kit