Free events, live or electronic, are an excellent way to cultivate and educate prospects for your solutions. Before you decide to hold an event, keep these four basic principles in mind.

1. For most free events, only 50% to 60% of registered prospects will actually attend.  So, if your goal is 20 attendees, you should plan to register at least 40 prospects.

2. Event marketing should combine phone contact, email and/or direct mail, social media promotional efforts and should begin at least 4 to 6 weeks prior to the event.

3. In Winn’s experience, we register one prospect for every 2 to 6 hours of promotion services on average.  But keep in mind that each event is unique depending upon the vertical focus, company size, the event venue, the date selected, and potentially conflicting events.

4. The biggest mistake a company makes in planning an event is to assume that your offer is so compelling that everyone you contact will want to attend.  This is rarely the case.  People are very busy and choose how to spend their time carefully.  Your event must offer real educational value.

Founded in 1990, Winn Technology Group is a leading provider of global, multi-channel marketing solutions for the technology industry.   For both direct and channel sales, Winn supports demand creation, account-based marketing, channel management, digital marketing, social media, teleprospecting, lead nurturing, event marketing, database services, and inbound response management.