How to launch an offline event at zero cost?

Whether you are a self-media author, koc or kol. As long as you are still relying on traffic in this era, you cannot do without offline activities. Because one thing that cannot be denied is that offline activities are definitely an excellent place to cultivate loyal users.

According to the 5,000-person theory often mentioned on the Internet, as long as you have 5,000 fans, you can live a comfortable life. Of course, these 5,000 people are not fake fans, but real people. They can be called "wet seeds", which are the kind that will sprout if you cultivate them. In short, I will pay for you.

There are so many salons, book clubs, forums, and various conferences, to put it bluntly, they are all about making a lot of money.

Since this matter is for gaining publicity, it means that this matter does not make money. But if you can achieve zero cost, you will definitely make a profit.

Without spending a penny, we earned traffic, angered people, integrated resources and promoted the brand.

The reason why I wrote this article is that three days ago, I actually held a zero-cost product operation conference with more than 100 people on site. I will use this case to illustrate this to you later.

In general, what elements are needed to implement an offline event? Generally speaking, it can be divided into: people, goods, and places.

It sounds like the elements are similar to those of selling goods through live streaming. Yes, the overall logic is similar.

In an offline event:

The human element includes: planners, executors, volunteers (on-site staff), guests, and audiences

Elements of goods: guest content, event theme, related materials

Elements of the venue: the online space created by the venue and related live broadcasts and publicity.

For the elements needed in an activity, you can first think about which ones require payment, which ones can be exchanged for resources, and which ones can be obtained for free.

01. Human Factor

In live streaming e-commerce, in the absence of personal IP, people are the easiest to replace. Whether it is anchor A or anchor B selling goods today, it actually has no impact on me. What determines whether I will pay for it is the value of the product itself, whether I need it or not, and whether your price is cheap compared to other platforms.

Similarly, in an event, as long as the content and theme of the event are clear, it doesn’t matter who I invite to come, when faced with such a situation. The principle is: don’t spend money or spend less money on people.

For planners, who are in a position to connect certain resources, they just need to connect all the links, processes and personnel.

For executors and volunteers, handing over the activities to them will not only give them the opportunity to participate in the conference/salon for free, but also allow them to personally participate in a salon and join a circle related to their own industry.

For students/students who have just entered the society, such a platform and atmosphere are tempting enough.

For the guests, my live speeches can help me build my own brand and IP, and promote myself and my products. I am willing to invite you for free, and I can even proactively offer some prizes and expose some products.

For the audience, on the one hand, there is a need to learn about the industry, and on the other hand, there is a need to expand the information circle and meet more people and friends. If there are free learning opportunities, I will come. Even paying the price of a cup of coffee as a ticket is acceptable.

Therefore, holding an industry event is like magnets attracting opposites, connecting everyone together.

The only condition here is that everyone happens to have different needs and the same needs.

02. Elements of Goods

The main elements of the goods include guest content, event theme, and related materials.

Why are these classified as “goods”? Because someone paid for them. Then who are the audience paying for? In fact, it is paying for the guests and the shared content, or paying for the communication and learning scenario.

The guest content is undoubtedly what everyone wants to hear and understand the most. They want to hear the sharing and understanding of industry leaders.

People can pay for content and information.

The theme of the activity. Establishing the theme of the activity is to screen people, or to attract more people. For example, in the past two years, the entire Internet circle has held countless conferences on the theme of "user growth", because in this industry, how to grow is always a pain point.

If I were a school teacher, I would definitely not come to listen, but if I were a product operator or growth operator, then I might be particularly interested.

The theme of the event, to a certain extent, defines the user group and scope, and also lays the foundation for subsequent resource exchange and investment promotion.

The reason why related materials are put here together is that whether it is posters, promotional materials, etc., they are all for better promotion (selling goods) and to assist in better promotion and sales of goods.

03. Elements of the field

The elements of the field mainly refer to the environment. The environment here has three meanings.

The first is the real online venue environment; to meet this environment, you need to determine the event time, estimated number of people, and host city in advance, and then look for the venue accordingly.

The second is "atmosphere", the communication environment; when there are certain themes and people (guests, audiences), the communication environment is established.

The third is to provide a publicity scene and environment. From a news perspective, news is facts that have happened recently. After confirming that this was an incident. You can promote it according to the 5W theory.

In communication studies, field is a very magical concept. It can be broken and linked continuously. The holding of an offline event can actually only affect the audience sitting in the audience, but when it is treated as news or an event and disseminated for the second time, the influence of this event becomes greater, breaking the current field and forming a new field link.

To put it in an academic way, what I mean directly is that we should focus on promotion and expand the scope of influence.

04. Case

Take the 2020 PM Talk Product Operations Conference as an example.

Target group: Product managers, product operations, operations, and marketing personnel

Venue: Beijing

Date: 9.13 (Sunday)

Activity theme: Product Operation Conference

Number of participants: 130+

Preparation period: 1 month

Taking one month as the timeline, let’s see what was done during the month of implementation.

1. Confirm the activity (30 days before the activity starts)

Determine the event theme, time, venue and scale based on different needs.

It should be noted here that many venues require a deposit or payment when contacting them. To achieve zero cost, you must negotiate with the goal of exchanging resources.

First, deeply understand the needs of the venue. For example, do they need popularity? Venue promotion? advertise? If the deal is successful, remember to ask for the venue's logo and information so that you can promote and attract traffic to the venue during the event promotion, as well as during the event.

2. Confirm guests (25 days before the event)

It is necessary to confirm the number of guests, collect guest information (name, profile, image, sharing theme, etc.), and after contacting and collecting information, hand it over to the designer for drawing (banner image, poster draft)

After completion, promote it on the platform first.

One of the more tedious things here is connecting with guests. If you are a self-media author, you can do it yourself. If you want to host it personally, just look for some people who have experience in large companies and can speak and have content.

Or if you can’t find any of these, then… package them and put them up.

Most people here will have a confusion: where do people come from? Therefore, there is a very important point, which is to find those activity platforms with a certain amount of traffic, such as: Huodongxing, Hudongba, etc. There is an activity platform in Beijing that I like very much called Xiudong. I also like to read the activity information in it and will participate when necessary.

These are platforms that have a certain amount of traffic and can sell tickets. Every penny earned here is profit. If there is really no one, it doesn’t matter, just invite cooperation.

3. Invite cooperation (20 days before the event starts)

If you want to invite cooperation, there are two points: 1. What can you provide to others? 2. What are the customer’s needs?

The logical question to ask first is: Is there a budget? If you don’t have a budget, then cooperate. Since you have held an event, you already have a certain popularity and can gather some targeted users.

Isn’t it difficult to talk about cooperation? Can you help me promote each other and I will add an advertisement for you on the spot? Can you help me promote it? I'll put up a roll-up banner for you at the scene? The on-site event still needs some prizes. Would you like to support it? Increase your user stickiness and popularity.

As for cooperation, if you talk about it, there will always be a way. If you are rejected...isn't this...a normal thing?

Open your mind a little more. It doesn't matter if you don't cooperate with me. Go find his competitors. There is always a need for cooperation.

After the deal is done, determine the method and time for mutual promotion, and contact the designer to prepare posters for mutual promotion. Connect and schedule promotion. Popular partners gradually piled up.

4. Confirmation of event details (15 days in advance)

Confirming the details of the event is not important, but it is very necessary.

The following issues may be involved:

Does the venue have page-turning pens?

Is there an HDMI adapter?

Is there WIFI? What is the password?

How many microphones?

Do you have paper cups?

Speaker location?

Where is the air conditioner switch?

Is there a parking lot? Is there any charge? How much is it?

What is the contact information and address for material collection?

Is there an Internet cable for simultaneous live broadcast?

……..

These things are very trivial, but necessary. The more you know, the more it will help the execution of current activities and the smoothness of the activities.

5. Staff recruitment (14 days before the event)

It’s mainly volunteers, and there is no cost. Our principle has always been to not spend money if we can.

Recruit volunteers according to the size of the event, and remember to recruit more than one, as it is easy to be overwhelmed.

Make preparations in advance.

Find your executive leader, someone who is willing, interested and capable.

For example, Yiwei, the person who coordinated this event. Let her be responsible for the implementation of normal activities. Our overall cooperation was very smooth and she made me feel very at ease.

The way I communicate with this classmate is mainly based on reverse reasoning. Just tell her what to do and what the desired effect is. Then she would come to assign me homework every day, asking me to solve and confirm certain problems, and allocate certain materials. I would just check them one by one. Any communication is based on sincerity, and it also clearly expresses that if Yiwei wants to understand and needs resources during the execution process, we will definitely provide support.

Here, I would like to thank Yiwei again. Thank you for your hard work.

6. Material preparation (7 days before the event)

For example, the on-site roll-up banners, work badges, guests’ PPT collection, event countdown posters, community operation scripts, etc. all need to be prepared in advance.

7. Event starts

After the activity starts, pay attention to three main points.

Sign in at any time

Pay attention to the guests

Pay attention to the guidance in the comment area during live broadcast

8. End of the activity

After the event, review it.

Recycling data form.

During the implementation of the entire activity, Xiaoman felt that there were some areas that needed attention:

1. Respect the guests. Guests from large companies generally have stricter risk control. For example, when an audience member needs certain information (ppt), remember to first ask the guest whether he can provide it. If the guest refuses, be sure to respect his or her wishes.
2. In the process of sincere communication , it is normal for problems to arise in the connection, for someone to fail to show up, or for information to be obtained in a distorted way. Communicate sincerely, be matter-oriented, and reach consensus to resolve issues first.
3. When looking at the overall effect, sometimes you need to ignore the details. For example, when the lottery gifts were finally confirmed, the number of the third prize had not been determined, and someone came to ask what the specific number was? The answer at that time was: whether there are 10 more or 10 less third prize winners will actually have no impact on our entire salon, nor will it affect the audience's experience.

   So, just be casual.

4. I feel that the concept of not seeking perfection but seeking completion is applicable everywhere. The cycle of an event is long, and there are many problems and episodes in the middle, which are inevitably unsatisfactory. At times like this, it would be great if an event could be completed intact.

Final Thoughts

The purpose of writing this article is definitely not to tell you how to execute and implement an event. Instead, I want to tell you that something that you think is very complicated and consumes a lot of manpower, material and financial resources can also be done very "easy". The important thing is what kind of thinking method you use to leverage it.

Author: Wearing running shoes to operate

Source: Wearing running shoes to operate