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I had quite a busy month outside of my studio. I attended the Rock Star seminar in Santa Clarita, taught a jewelry-making class and a class on business for Facebook, plus I just led a Table Top discussion at ACC Baltimore on Wednesday. I’ll be more than happy to get back to making some jewelry for the next couple days!

But despite the fact that I was away from the studio a lot this month, these events, classes, and seminars were really good for calling attention to my jewelry and my websites. I’ve been getting more traffic and newsletter sign ups for both this blog and my jewelry website. A good bit of it I can attribute to my going to and participating in these events.

Not all of your website marketing needs to occur online. While I spend a lot of time online, I do make an effort to turn off my computer and network and market to people face to face. Occasionally I get the opportunity to meet some of the great people that I’ve made contact with online and it’s a good way to contact people that may never find you otherwise.

Events like seminars, conferences, and workshops are good for meeting people interested in a certain industry or interested in a certain topic. Teaching classes and workshops, leading discussions, or speaking gives you a ton of visibility in any of these settings. In most cases, you don’t have to be a stellar speaker…I know I’m not. So if you have the opportunity to do any of these things, you should take advantage of them when you can. If you have the opportunity to teach a class or lead a seminar, here are a few things that you can do to get more mileage out of the event:

1. Always have a handout- At every event that I was leading or speaking at, I always had a handout to give the attendees. Handouts don’t have to be fancy. You can provide some main bullet points of the topic or class that you’re teaching about. You can have a list of resources and you should always provide your contact information (website, email address, phone number if appropriate) just in case people have questions afterwards. If you can, you should also provide some space for notes. Not everyone brings something to write with and providing a space for notes will encourage your attendees to keep your handout, simply because they wrote notes on it.

2. Always take business cards…no matter what the event is- I was asked for business cards for my jewelry website…at my Facebook for Business class. Turns out that all of the attendees were women and a lot of them were interested in jewelry. No matter what event you attend, whether it’s directly related to your business or not, you should always have a supply of business cards on hand ready to pass out. You never know who might be interested or what other circles the attendees might move in.

3. Gather the names and emails of your attendees- At every event, I gathered names and email addresses for my lists, even if I gave them my business card. In a lot of cases, people asked me for my business card at these events, but I still found a way to get their names and emails in return because, I wanted to have a way to contact them. Even if someone asks for your business card, there’s no guarantee that they’ll keep it. In a lot of cases your business card will end up at the bottom of someone’s purse or wallet for a while before it ends up in the trash.

At every event, I asked for names and email addresses and in exchange for some additional information. For my jewelry making and Facebook classes, I offered to email instructional videos of the techniques I taught of the class for future reference. At ACC Baltimore, I offered a summary with additional resources for those who wanted more information. So instead of waiting for my attendees to remember to contact me, I can contact them directly with more useful information.

4. Always have an incentive to go to your website- Just because you have a website, that doesn’t mean that people are going to visit it just because. So provide an incentive for people to visit your website along with your website address, such as a free coupon, exclusive information, a free video or audio, resource lists…anything that your attendees might find valuable on your handout. Direct them to a special hidden page on your website that provides these incentives instead of dumping them directly on your home page. And be sure to point out this incentive during the course of your event so that people don’t miss it.

5. Follow up- Once you get these names, business cards, and email addresses don’t just toss them into a drawer and forget about them. If you’ve promised some information, get it out to those folks who asked for it. Once you do, ask them for permission to sign them up for your mailing list. Then add them to your list and keep the conversation going. And don’t wait to do this weeks after the event. Be sure to contact them within a couple of days while the event is still fresh in their minds. The longer you wait, the less likely they’ll remember you when they do contact you.

So those are my tips for getting traffic and marketing mileage out of a special event. If you have a great tip that you want to share, please leave a comment and let my know!