| Many event planners are shy about self-promotion. | | | | all times. |
| They may be competent event professionals, but | | | | Creating a marketing system that generates |
| when it comes time to sell their services, they choke. | | | | event-planning clients does not have to be |
| However, success as wedding planner, caterer or | | | | complicated or expensive. There are many free online |
| special events producer has less to do with technical | | | | tools that you can use to promote your brand, |
| expertise and is much more dependent on your ability | | | | generate leads and book more sales faster than ever |
| to sell yourself. | | | | before. |
| If you want to be successful in event planning, you | | | | Online services like Facebook, LinkedIn, Google, and |
| need to sell your services. Word-of-mouth is great, | | | | Yahoo! make it easy for you to reach potential |
| but it's difficult to control or scale. Depending upon a | | | | customers without having to spend a fortune. Never |
| handful of catering hall managers or country club | | | | before has it been so simple for a small business |
| general managers to refer business to you is a | | | | owner to produce high quality promotional content |
| dangerous strategy. Often times, 80% of a planner's | | | | and push it out across the globe without spending a |
| newly referred clients come from an unacceptably | | | | penny. Social media sites make it possible. |
| small handful of core clients. What happens if they | | | | But be careful. Simply publishing an online journal of |
| retire? What happens if they close their doors, or | | | | your thoughts will get you nowhere fast. That's |
| move away? | | | | because you need to build your blog posts around |
| When the economy slows down, your inbound | | | | "carefully chosen keywords." |
| referrals will slow down too. That's because you let | | | | Before you spend a lot of time on social media sites, |
| your business become overly dependent on other | | | | be sure you are following an intelligent marketing plan. |
| people's success. You must have your own | | | | Learn all you can about powerful social media sites |
| systematic method for generating your own leads at | | | | and how they can produce profits for your business. |