Last week, I talked about connecting your business to holidays and events. Today, I’m going to take a slightly different perspective – creating your own event.

The marketing event is powerful because it creates excitement, both about the product being sold and the experience of being part of an “event.” It is something that, with a little imagination, can be put to work in any business.

Using “events” has long been part of marketing practice. Examples are everywhere – retail stores in the U.S. opening very early (with special discounts) the day after Thanksgiving, car dealers who pitch tents on their lots and create a carnival-like atmosphere to sell cars, countless department stores who advertise “the 12 hour sale,” and on and on.

If you follow Internet marketing – or find yourself on a few mailing lists – you’ve probably noticed all these “product launches.” This is really just the same “event” marketing idea as the offline world. Instead of making the product available and then promoting it, the “launch” is turned into an “event.”

Why does this work?

These events create a big build-up and generate excitement and interest. Excitement and interest that can’t be satiated because the product can’t be purchased – yet. The marketer slowly builds a wave of excitement that carries the prospective buyer along and delivers them to the “launch.” This approach helps convert more prospects in two ways:

1. First, it lets the marketer build a case for buying over time, which usually makes prospects more certain of the product’s benefits and helps them make the buying decision long before the product is for sale.
2. Second, the “event” becomes an experience and drives prospects to buy to be part of the event. So, more people are pulled “off the fence” who might not have bought otherwise.

An event is, by definition, a limited thing. During the build-up, hints (or flat out statements) about scarcity (limited time, limited number) define the start and end of the event and create a tremendous sense of urgency to buy as soon as the doors open.

So, how can you create an event?

First, decide what the focus of your “event” is going to be.

• Are you getting a new product into your store or offering a new service?
• Are you creating an updated version of some existing product?
• Do you simply want to re-energize sales of existing products?

Then follow this basic formula:

Start weeks ahead of your event date and slowly increase the marketing from a drizzle at the start to a downpour just before the launch. The idea is to build up excitement about the event.

Give people a reason to buy the second it becomes available. Offer them extra bonuses if they buy within a certain time or if they are one of the first people to purchase. Limit the amount of time a product is available for sale or limit the number of units to be sold.

So, what’s your next event?