Financial Marketing Systems for Agents and Advisors.                        

Seminar Direct

Marketing Tools

 

Seminar Secrets
888.629.1919


Arrow FREE SEMINAR CALENDARS
Great tool that shows the best and worst days to hold your seminars.

Arrow FREE PROSPECT ANALYSIS
Find out how many qualified prospects there are in your area.

Arrow FREE MAILING REVIEW
A no obligation review of your mailer by the industry's design dream team.

Secrets to Seminar Success

Our Secrets to Seminar Success is a winning formula that has been been developed over nearly 20 years of direct mail experience. We've tested and tuned it up to provide the highest response rates possible.

These elements are crucial - leaving even one of the important items out can dramatically diminish your results:

Seminar Location
Your location is the magnet. Hold your event at well-known restaurants that are easy to find. Don't hold your event at meeting halls, convention centers, libraries, public golf courses or your office.

SECRET: National restaurant chains can do very well with the right demographics. Don't use these locations for mailings to extremely high net worth clients.

Seminar Dates
Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays are the best days for seminars. Avoid conflicts with major sporting events, television programs, elections, religious dates and holidays.

SECRET: Get a FREE Seminar Planner that makes picking the right day a breeze. These full color wall calendars show the best days for seminars and the days you'll want to avoid.

Seminar Time
Generally, the best time to hold a seminar is at 6:00 pm. This gives sufficient time for your attendees to leave work, pick up guests and safely drive to the seminar location.

SECRET: Retirees over 65 may have a fear of driving at night and don't usually have conflicts with work. Try a 4:00 pm seminar time and watch your response rates soar!

The Presentation
Your presentation should focus on getting the prospects to know you and like you. Avoid trying to sell anything at your event. This follows the Seminar Direct Concept of:

Education without Obligation

Education without obligation simply means that when you say, Nothing will be sold," you mean it. The only thing that should be offered at your seminar should be an appointment with you.

Instead of specific products, provide real information your prospects probably haven't heard before or present information that is common in an uncommon way.

Many of our clients feel more comfortable with a professionally produced presentation.

FINRA Reviewed Presentations:

  • Meet FINRA guidelines and reduce risk.
  • Contain beautiful graphics that capture viewer's attention.
  • Are fully scripted by copy professionals so they sound great.
  • Get updated regularly so they always stay fresh.
  • Contain no specific products or brand names.
  • Pay for themselves with their huge time savings.

SECRET: FINRA Reviewed Presentations are reviewed by FINRA and contain a current review letter. FINRA does not support, approve or endorse any outside marketing entity including Seminar Direct.

Seminar Survey
To evaluate your performance, always distribute a seminar evaluation form that provides feedback on the presentation. If it's good news, you'll love to hear it; if it's bad news, you'll need to know it. This feedback will help you identify the items you need to polish up to take your skills and income to the highest possible level.

SECRET: Don't ever provide a way for the prospect to say "No" with their surveys. Never include," Please don't contact me" or other options that put the prospect it a defensive posture. Include only positive opportunities for more contact and more information.

The Meal
The restaurant is your magnet and the meal establishes a relaxed social atmosphere. We have studied this extensively and it truly pays to provide a full meal for your guests.

Choose a location that is appropriate for your demographics and easy to find. Dinners will almost always generate a higher response rate.

SECRET: If you like to provide lunches, do so within an invitation that also contains dinner as an alternative. Never provide lunch as a stand-alone option.

Mailing Pieces
Mailing pieces can be classified into categories as follows (listed in highest to lowest response rate order):

Wedding Style
Letter Style
Postcards
Self Mailers

SECRET: Invitation Rotation™ (a Seminar Direct process of rotating seminar mailing styles) will keep response rates up and prevent your mailer from getting worn-out. Ask your seminar specialist how it can work for you!

Restaurant Logo
Whenever possible, obtain an electronic version of the logo from the restaurant or seminar location to help boost response rates. Make sure the logo is as resolution of at least 300 dpi.

SECRET: Typical web art is only 72 dpi, so on-line logos just won't work!

Invitation Copy
Our professional copywriters produce killer copy that really works. With every seminar you have the choice of using something from our library of successful invitations or let use review something you've created. .Either way, we can advise you about what to say, and how to say it.

When providing wording or content, you represent that you are submitting your own work or have authority to use and/or modify the work of any third party. Seminar Direct cannot be held liable for copyright or trademarked property that is submitted to us by our clients.

SECRET: Don't use the words "seniors," "senior citizens" or "65 and older" to describe today's retirees.

The Envelope
The envelope is more than just a carrier of the marketing materials, its appearance is the single largest factor determining if your mail is opened.

To "pass the driveway test" make sure your envelope stands out, creates curiosity or engages the viewer. If it looks like junk-mail, chances are it will be thrown away without even being considered.

SECRET: We provide a complete line of envelopes including wedding-style, letter-style, full window, Next Day Mailer, grooved and instant message Instalope envelopes.

The List
We've always provided the most accurate, highly deliverable lists in our industry because we believe that the dollars are in the data. Our lists average over 98% deliverable and are gathered from over 52 different sources of data.

Our lists are updated daily and completely recreated every 42 days. Additionally, no information in our data sources is over two years old.

SECRET: Our standard list contains age, income and location by zip code or radius; however, we can supply liquid assets, net worth and an almost endless combination of other filters including telephone numbers of those not registered on the Government's Do Not Call List.

Delivery Time Frames
Our invitations are mailed with Standard Rate postage, which works well for almost all of our mailings. For maximum results, the invitations should arrive 10-14 days before the event.

When deadlines are tight or delivery timing is critical, we can provide First-Class mailings or our Direct Drop services (additional fees apply).

Typical time frames for delivery:*

Standard Mail:
8 - 14 days
First-Class Mail:
2 - 5 days
Postcards:
2 - 5 days
Direct Drop:
2 - 4 days

*All times are averages and are not guarantees. We do not and cannot control delivery times by the USPS, thus we cannot assume responsibility for early or late deliveries due the actions of the U.S. Postal Service.

Secret: Our Direct Drop service routes your mail directly to the USPS Sectional Facility. Bypassing other postal sort centers takes your mail to its destination faster when you're in a hurry.

Seminar Reservations (RSVP's):
Having a live person take reservation calls dramatically improves response rates. This happens because many retirees are nervous or uncomfortable leaving personal information on answering machines or voice mail. Those who do leave a message aren't sure if you received it and are left with a poor impression.

Most people open their mail at the end of the day, after your office has already closed. Our call center is active 24 hours everyday, so we'll be ready to answer when your seminar attendees call.

SECRET: With our RSVP telephone service, you can download contact information, print out name tags, create registration check-in sheets, thank you letters and actually listen to the recorded call with just a click of your mouse.

Confirmations:
Our telephone service can make reminder or confirmation calls to your registered guests shortly before each seminar. We suggest a call 2 - 3 days before the event to maximize attendance and minimize "no shows."

SECRET: Never make the confirmation calls yourself, as it can put you into a lose-lose or double-bind situation when the potential attendee asks the one question he wanted to get an answer to at your seminar. Answer the question and they won't come, don't answer it and they feel you're not there to help them. Better to delegate this job to Seminar Direct or an assistant.

Seminar Follow-up:
Experience has shown that calling your appointments following the seminar is critical for your success. Follow-up with attendees the very next day and schedule appointments of confirm the dates you've set at the event.

SECRET: By contacting these prospects yourself, your seminar attendees will appreciate your attention to details and feel how much you value their business.