What to Do After Your Next Seminar

When my friend Harry throws a party, he does it right. Great food, a kicking band, good whiskey, and hand-rolled cigars. Several days after the party, he sends out a thank-you note, along with a few photos to remind you what a good time you had.

It’s good manners to send follow-up notes to guests, thanking them for their visit and inviting them to come again. Including photos makes the message stronger and more personal. When you produce a business event – and it doesn’t matter whether it’s a trade show, conference, seminar, symposium, or brainstorming session – it makes sense to do the same. By communicating with your attendees after an event, you show them that, days or weeks later, you are still thinking about it … and them.

That’s what Clayton Makepeace and Matt Furey do. Recently, I received photos from each of them that documented the speakers, special events, and after-hours fun that attendees at their seminars enjoyed.

Including photos with your message increases the likelihood that your communication will be opened and your copy read. Selecting images that depict the benefits your attendees enjoyed – from informative product presentations to entertaining speeches to conga lines – allows them to relive those good experiences.

Just as importantly, this is an excellent way to reestablish the intimate relationship that was started at the conference.

By continuing to send out little messages and postcards to your attendee list, you can develop a very solid marketing platform for selling other products and/or the next conference to them. By the way, this technique can be effective from either direction. That is, as an attendee you can create valuable business relationships with VIP speakers and conference sponsors by sending them photos of the event, along with handwritten messages.

[Ed. Note: Mark Morgan Ford was the creator of Early To Rise. In 2011, Mark retired from ETR and now writes the Palm Beach Letter. His advice, in our opinion, continues to get better and better with every essay, particularly in the controversial ones we have shared today. We encourage you to read everything you can that has been written by Mark.]