If your marketing results are flat or declining, here is an important lesson from one marketer of seminars.
FamilyLife is a nonprofit Christian organization dedicated to providing married couples and parents with tools to improve their marriages and home life. This is done through conferences, seminars, online resources and more.
Since 1978, more than 60,000 people have attended their flagship Weekend to Remember marriage conferences. But in the past 2 to 3 years, attendance stagnated. Conferences rarely topped 150 paid attendees.
A conference was coming up and they asked if my advertising agency, CDMG, could help.
I suggested three powerful secrets to turning their marketing problem around…
They were hosting a Weekend to Remember conference planned for the luxurious Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel in Alberta, Canada—an idyllic romantic location. FamilyLife asked me to help recruit more paid attendees.
I had to overcome several major objections that prospects for these conferences typically have.
First, we needed to fend off skepticism and answer questions like “Is this really for me? Can this really help my marriage?”
Second, it was critical to speak to husbands in particular, as they are often the most resistant. The campaign would have to sell the many advantages of a trip to Banff, beyond the seminar’s content.
To accomplish this, my team developed a fully integrated campaign of email, targeted landing pages, direct mail and social media, especially Facebook.
We began with a 5-part email series to inform and persuade prospects to register.
Copy highlighted success stories of couples whose lives and marriages had been transformed by Weekend to Remember, using video testimonials featured in the emails and on our landing pages. Emails also outlined premium hotel services and outdoor activities available at the luxurious location.
And we created a powerful, irresistible direct response offer.
Part of the offer included an opportunity for prospects to earn free registration by bringing friends.
This helped us create a powerful “friend –get a friend” social media effort.
The other media were integrated into this schedule to support the email campaign and drive online response.
So, based upon using five powerful direct response secrets, we created a winner.

The 5 secrets:

1) creating a powerful unique selling proposition (USP)

2) persuasive direct response copy

3) used only direct response art

4) created an irresistible direct response offer

5) integrating email/direct mail/ landing pages and social media.

Response was so overwhelming that FamilyLife’s block of rooms was completely sold out. They had to make arrangements at neighboring hotels and provide shuttle buses to get everyone to the conference.
In all, more than 950 people attended Weekend to Remember in Banff—increasing participation by more than 533%!
Your company can also experience this kind of success with your marketing campaign. Call me at 310-212-5727 or email me at [email protected].