Does you message match the markets?

And did you note that the sub-header above was about more than one market?

Does one message match all markets for your conference?

Just like most aspects of business whether it be business tourism, the hospitality industry or any other business, a conference rarely has one market. Within its broad overall market there will be a number of different market segments.

How do you tell one market segment from another? If the message required for their support and attendance is different then it is a different segment. But how often do you see a conference marketed with different messages to match the needs of different markets? Not very often. One size fits all.

Each conference has are some obvious groups whose needs must be met.

The organisation holding the conference will have its own objectives and requirements. The all important sponsorship support will only be won if the message to them is couched in terms of the benefits to them of coming on board. And then there are the delegates, the heart and soul of any conference.

It is this group that can be treated as one homogeneous group – but are they really so?

Why is this important?

If you are to hold a conference you want it to be successful. Success can be measured in a number of ways. If it is not financially successful someone has to fund the deficit, and I’m sure you don’t want to be the one doing that. You want the conference to achieve its objectives and be seen by delegates as memorable. You want delegates to follow-up by coming to the next conference. And to encourage others to attend. Word of mouth promotion is always the most effective.

The first step in all this is getting the right number of delegates. No matter how good the content, delegates will feel let down if numbers are low.

All conference committees and organisers face that fear. What if you held a conference and nobody came! Seriously though most conferences will have a core constituency which can be relied upon to register, but that will not always give the numbers needed.

It will be the extras from those different niches which make the difference to the budget bottom line.

Obviously the niches will vary from conference to conference. Let’s take a professional association conference as an example. The profession may have different sub-sets of skills which need to be addressed. Some issues may be technical, others educational, providing professional development.

It’s not just the professional development of the members. Administrators of the association in its various branches around the company can have their own requirements to be met.

As does government. Many professional associations have members in the public sector. As public sector employees their requirements can be different from those of the private sector. Government is frequently a client of the services provided by the profession and brings that perspective to the conference.

There is a rich tapestry of perspectives and requirements coming together for a few days to be educated, network with their peers and be entertained.

Get the messages right and the attendance will follow.

So how do you determine the mix of messages?

There are at least three steps you can take to get the information which will lead to developing the right message for the different segments for your conference.

• If your conference is an annual conference it all starts with the previous conference . Feedback sheets and evaluation forms can all provide a lead. What worked and what didn’t work, what would people like to see in future conferences?

Feedback is enhanced if the information can be segmented in some way. For example it may help to know if the information is coming from a member of the association or an interested party, are they private sector of government, a particular sub set of the profession, age and sex. Are there some logical breakdowns for your conference area?

Such breakdowns are most useful if there are sufficient responses for the different groupings. Getting responses can be difficult. So give them an incentive to complete the form, such as a discount to the next conference, or some other form of lucky draw. Now that can be tricky. An incentive requires that the person identify themselves, and people are usually more comfortable responding anonymously, but providing name and address could be optional.

• Surveying potential delegates – in planning the conference it can be useful to survey potential delegates. Who to survey is relatively easy – as organisers you will have access to previous delegate lists, membership lists and perhaps other stakeholder groups.

In this electronic age a range of survey techniques are available which make surveying easier than traditional snail mail surveys.

As with post-conference evaluation the information will be most useful if it can be segmented in some way.

• Focus groups – we have used focus groups to good effect in planning conferences, determining the appropriate niches, potential content and the message for the each group.

Focus groups are a qualitative rather than quantitative approach to researching conference messages and have been found to provide very useful guides. Just ask the political parties who use focus groups extensively to determine campaign messages.

One size does not fit all in marketing your conference. By matching the message to each market you are more likely to strike the right response, and lead to a successful conference.