One Hit Wonder...or the Genesis of a great marketing org?
I think the latter, but time will tell, of course.
Matt and the team from Guru ran their first event today co-marketing with Microsoft. I stopped by to see how it would go.
Here's my analysis.
On the Pro-Side
- 21 of 38 registered customers showed up (higher than average) [he started early]
- 10 of 21 were prospects (much higher than average of 20%)
- Did a great job of prepping presenter
- Created a unique customer experience in an authentic/old-school movie theater and premium coffee service
- Had nice looking name tags
- Event wasn't too long
On the Con-Side
- Color code the name tags...customers are red, prospects blue, etc. Makes it easy for staff to know who to talk to about what.
- Get the energy started as soon as customers walk in. People are anxious about whether the event will be worthwhile. The team did a decent job of engaging customers, but need to make sure there's no down time.
- Work on the 'remarkable' factor. Solid, but not sure it was wholly remarkable.
- Do a pre-event questionnaire...ask people...when they arrive: What do you hope to see today? That way...no one walks away disappointed.
- Don't be afraid to highlight your customers. There was one customer who is a passionate Exchange/Office evangelist. He should, in some ways, open the day, to gain customer interest. Use the testimonial. Instead, we tacked him on as an add-on (at my suggestion)
All in all, a solid day...well done by Guru. These guys have the mechanics down and with some fine tuning, will be a marketing juggernaut before long.
