ATTRACT &

CONVERT

MEMBERS

WITH EVENTSby Ryan Chatterton

contents

HELLO THERE 4

Why Coworking Insights Exists 4

Get In Touch 5

Let’s Work Together 5

FUNDAMENTALS 6

How Events Affect Brand Perception 6

Active Lead Generation Tactics 8

THE PITCH 8TOUR SIGNUP TABLE 10RAFFLE 11

ORGANIZING EVENTS 13

Organizing Internal Events 13

PARTIES & HAPPY HOURS 13PANEL DISCUSSIONS 14SPEAKING ENGAGEMENTS 15CLASSES AND WORKSHOPS 16PITCH COMPETITIONS 17

DEMOS/FAIRS/CONFERENCE: 18

Identifying Local Thought Leaders 19

SCATTERSHOT 19PIGGYBACK 19COPY CAT 20

Sourcing Externally Organized Events 21

THE MEETUP TACTIC 21THE CORPORATE OFFSITE TACTIC 22

MARKETING EVENTS 25

Newsletter 25

Cross-Promote with Partners 26

Local Event Calendars 27

Social Media 27

BUFFER 27TWITTER 28FACEBOOK 28INSTAGRAM 30

TECHNOLOGY 31

Software 31

EVENTBRITE 31EVENTBRITE NEON WITH IPADS/IPHONES 31

A/V Equipment and Other Event Equipment 31

FINITO 33

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hello there

First, thank you for subscribing to Coworking Insights. I’m very pleased to have you join our tribe of coworking makers worldwide. Seriously, we’re global. Coworking Insights members can be found on every civilized continent on Earth. Welcome.

This guide provides very specific tactics on using events as a way to acquire membership leads for your coworking space. Additionally, it provides templates, step-by-step instructions, and links to other resources that will help you ideate, organize, market, and execute fantastic events that attract and retain members.

This is Version 1 of this guide. It will be improved upon over time and additional updates will be released via the Coworking Insights newsletter. Be sure you stay subscribed in order to receive updates.

Why Coworking Insights ExistsIn the last several years, a lot of content has been (and continues to be) published about the coworking industry. Most of it is what I call “fluff” (e.g. 30 reasons coworking is #awesomesauce). Some of this fluff is written by coworking space founders hoping to share their experiences, often providing far too little substance or actionable information to be useful. The rest of the content is about how the concept of community will save the world.

In my opinion, if these writings were a type of food I’d say they are most akin to cotton candy. They may look substantial, but in the end you’re only left with a sugar high and an empty stomach.

I aim to provide a more satisfying sustenance.

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At Coworking Insights I publish in-depth, experience-based content on nearly every aspect of managing a coworking space. I do this because it’s in my nature to take the things I care about and analyze how they work and change. I love systems and I love using systems to make things easier for myself and others.

Naturally, that resulted in this and many other publications being created to make navigating the world of coworking a lot easier for the thousands of people searching for such information.

My hope is that what I provide will create better workspaces and work experiences for workers, members, staff, and founders alike.

Get In TouchAs always, I’m here to help. If you have any questions or reflections on this guide, send me an email at ryan@coworkinginsights.com.

Let’s Work TogetherIf you’re starting a new coworking space, want to improve an existing space, or are an investor looking into the nuts and bolts of the coworking industry, I’d love to work with you. I like creating systems/processes that solve specific problems in a coworking space. (We all have them, especially in the beginning.) The end goal is to allow you to be more efficient, focus more on the parts you like, and make more money over time.

Let’s do a free 20 minute phone consultation to explore the ways we can work together; send me an email at ryan@coworkinginsights.com to get started.

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fundamentals

Clearly having qualified traffic enter your space is a good thing and how those people perceive your brand once they experience it is also important. Events are the go-to way for coworking spaces to both gain more exposure and present a positive brand image.

However, many space founders often paint a confusing picture of their brand with the types of events they host. They often focus too wide and attract nobody or they mismatch event content and audience, which confuses and irritates the audience (who happen to be your prospective members). Confused people don’t buy.

What’s more, many founders and teams employ this particular member acquisition strategy (i.e. events) in highly ineffective ways. There is a huge difference in results between people who passively promote at events and people who actively promote at their events. Passive marketing materials (e.g. signs, brochures, etc.) are great, but often ignored on their own. Active promotion, on the other hand, ensures people leave knowing exactly what you are and exactly who you’re here to serve.

In the following sections we’ll go over the marketing and branding impacts that events have on your space, then we’ll talk about specific and active lead generation tactics that you can start using right now to get more out of events hosted in your space.

How Events Affect Brand PerceptionProspective members will assume that the events at your space are reflective of the community within. Because of this you should only

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host content that’s in line with the interests and values of the members you want to attract. Like attracts like.

Tech events attract tech members. Sustainability events attract sustainability members. Arts events attract art members.

This is great news because, well, it’s pretty intuitive. This is not rocket science. It’s also good because you don’t have to think about hosting separate events for current members than the content you’re already putting on to attract them. They should be the same.

However, there are two potential problems you’ll encounter because of “like attracts like.”

First, if you’re hosting events that attract a target audience which your space doesn’t functionally support (i.e. you don’t provide the amenities that person would want), you will inhibit membership signups from that group. For example, if you’re hosting art events but don’t have amenities that are appealing to artists (large storage areas, places to lock up supplies, large open areas for working), they won’t sign up. Or if you’re hosting events for tech entrepreneurs, but don’t offer consistently fast wifi, extra monitors or storage for extra monitors, and available private meeting space, they won’t sign up.

Trying to appeal to too many audiences will attract none of them. I once read that a woodpecker can peck a few times on a lot of trees and get tired, or he can peck a whole lot of times on one and get dinner. Don’t waste your time, energy, and resources pecking at too many trees. (On a side note, unless you’re a bird, you probably shouldn’t actually peck at anything.)

The solution is simple: focus on one (maybe two) audiences and only host events related to those. You can still create great variety with the types or formats of events you host within each genre. We’ll get to that in another section.

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Active Lead Generation TacticsWith the little spiel about branding and events out of the way, let’s get down to business. This section contains specific tactics that will maximize lead generation from events hosted in your space.

THE PITCH

The pitch is your opportunity to tell the audience exactly what to think about your space and brand. It should also be used to instruct people to sign up for tours and to participate in your raffle (both explained below). Here’s how the pitch works:

1. A 3-5 minute slide presentation. (please make your slides beautiful) Show the presentation at the beginning of the program, and go over the following things:

a. A little about you [slide optional]. People need to know who you are and why you’re talking to them. Short and sweet, but personal.

b. The space. Your audience is currently asking “What is this place? What happens here on a day-to-day basis?” Tell them the answers to these questions and tell them what types of amenities exist within the space (lounges, offices, kitchens, ping-pong, etc.). Get people excited about the physical amenities available. Pictures, pictures, pictures.

c. Invite for a formal tour [no slide]. Sure, they have seen the space in event mode, but it’s a totally different vibe when people are working during the day. Invite the audience to sign up for a tour during working hours at your tour table (explained below).

d. The community [slide optional]. Your space is more than just an office with furniture, it’s made up of people… people who do things. Feature one or two interesting members here very briefly. Talk about a recent or memorable collaboration or initiative driven by the members. “Sure, people work here,

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but they also cook together and last week they cleaned up the nearby park.”

e. The events/content. Clearly, events happen at your space, which is why you’re standing here talking to a bunch of strangers in the first place. What types of content do you host? Remember the branding section. Show and invite people to upcoming events/classes.

f. Plug the raffle [slide optional]. Tell them where to put their business cards (or provide their info) for a chance to win your raffle (explained below).

g. Final Slide. Have a slide to end on that has pictures and titles of the speaker/panelists, etc. Something you can leave up for the rest of the event. This could simply be your logo with social media tags/info for people’s reference during the event. This is also a great place to put sponsors’ logos.

2. Logistics. Where are the bathrooms? Where are the drinks/food? What is the etiquette while speakers are presenting?

3. Close and thanks. Thank them for being here and welcome your main event to the stage, whatever it may be.

That’s the pitch. Yes, you can get this all done in 5 minutes or less and you must. If you dwell too long on a section, people will get bored. Remember, the audience is here for the content, not for your pitch. If you subject them to a long or boring pitch they will feel taken advantage of. Keep it fast, light, and fun.

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Example Slide Presentation Download

Screenshot of Example Slide Presentation

TOUR SIGNUP TABLE

This provides your audience with an easy, low-pressure way to commit to learning more about your space. A tour signup is not a sale (it’s not even a tour yet), but it’s a great step in the right direction. Here’s how the tour signup booth works:

1. The table. Have at least one table in a high traffic area where people can look over information about your coworking space.

2. Friendly staff. The table must be staffed and the staff must be engaging and friendly, but not pushy. I like to have staff stand near the table as opposed to behind it, the latter of which which makes people afraid to approach.

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3. Computer for tour signup. The main point of the booth is to have people sign up for a tour. The computer is there so people can sign up and have an email reminder sent to them. You can use Calendly, Meet by Sunrise, or Google Calendar for this signup process. For Google Calendar, send invitations to both the guest and the Community Manager (or whoever does your tours).

4. Printed materials. Have something guests can take with them, such as a membership rate card.

5. Make it good lookin’. Make the booth look good! Print a banner, use a tablecloth, have something to hold your print materials.

RAFFLE

A raffle, for those who don’t know, is when you randomly give away a prize to somebody, and it usually involves giving out numbered tickets. For our puroses, we’ll use business cards instead of tickets. The point of the raffle here is to collect information for warm leads. It’s not, as some people mistakenly think, about letting one lucky winner test drive the space for free (most people decide whether they are interested in the first few minutes anyway). Here’s how it works:

1. Container. Get a jar or bowl and place it at your registration.

2. Instruct people to participate. Registration staff should instruct people to participate in the raffle and tell them what it is. You should also announce this during your pitch.

3. A prize to win. When people put their business cards in that contain valid contact information (at least an email) they have the chance to win something related to your coworking space. My favorite is to do a day pass bundle. Except in rare cases, I don’t like giving away membership (for months or even weeks) because it ruins any exclusivity your members feel by being actual members. The day pass bundle gives them a set number of day passes to use, restricting them to access the space during normal business hours. The bundle should be at least 5 day passes. Don’t worry about giving away the farm (most of the bundles will never get redeemed anyway).

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4. Announce winner. At some point, usually at a break or at the end of the event, announce the winner. Do one last call before announcing the winner to give people a chance to participate and collect more business cards.

5. Data entry. This part is a bit tedious, which is why some may prefer a digital method as opposed to business cards, but now it’s time to input all the data from the business cards. Note: this is typically only necessary if, for whatever reason, you’re not already being provided registrant contact information.

a. Event Specific List. Create a special Mailchimp list specifically for the event to send a thank you and follow up about tours. Say something like, “Based on your interest in our Day Pass Raffle, we’d love to invite you for a formal tour of the workspace…”

b. General Newsletter List. Also add all the emails to your newsletter list so they receive regular updates. If you’re worried about violating people’s trust, tell them on the raffle sign and in your pitch that their email will be added to your newsletter.

6. Email the warm leads. Once collected, these business cards are solid gold because they represent people who want to potentially work in your space. They have self-selected as potential members. The Community Manager (or whoever is in charge of sales) should reach out to offer a free trial day and a formal tour.

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organizing events

Organizing Internal EventsYou certainly have the option to produce event content yourself. This gives you control over the monetization of the events and you get to keep all the profits from ticket sales. While this does give you ultimate control, it is more difficult and resource heavy to organize, market, and execute. The following sections outline types of events you can organize or co-organize (more on co-organizing events later), as well as their relative difficulty and attractiveness to guests.

This section is not meant to be a complete guide to organizing particular types of events. We will go over some of the basics which will get you started, but many of the nuances of great event planning should be left to somebody with this expertise. You can hire a full-time event manager, but I’ve been leaning a lot more toward the idea of contracting somebody to build out quarterly or semi-annual programming for a set fee (more on this in an upcoming article).

PARTIES & HAPPY HOURS

This is the easiest event to put together yourself, but unless there is an element of uniqueness or you’re purchasing Dom Perignon, don’t count on it as an audience attractor. Purchase some decent wine, beer, or whiskey and get some good hors d’oeuvres.

Organizing Difficulty: Easy

Executing Difficulty: Easy

Inherenet Originality: Low

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Inherenet Attractiveness: Low

Requirements:

• Food and Drink

• Medium-sized open space (holds 35 to 75 people standing)

The Happy Hour can be looked at as a foundation or blank slate with which to create a unique event in your market. You can add things like ping pong, video games, board games, charades, movies, art, live music, a focus on a particular industry, VIPs/special guests, and more to make them more interesting to attendees and unique to your coworking space. This will of course make the event more difficult and time consuming to organize and execute, but increases originality and attractiveness.

PANEL DISCUSSIONS

Recruit 2 to 4 thought leaders from a particular industry, or related to a particular topic. Put them on stage. Preferably they will have different vantage points on, or opinions about, the industry or topic. Get a great moderator to lead the discussion. The moderator should ask tough questions, push for better answers, and challenge opinions and assumptions. It’s always best if the moderator is neutral party (or as neutral as possible), such as a journalist, as opposed to somebody with commercial interest to guide the discussion in one way or another. However, I’d keep the goal of having a confident moderator who can guide an interesting conversation as the #1 priority. The panel discussion event should include a Q&A involving the audience and some networking time before and/or after so the audience can discuss the topic and mingle with the presenters.

Organizing Difficulty: Hard

Executing Difficulty: Moderate

Inherenet Originality: High

Inherenet Attractiveness: High

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Requirements:

• Microphones

• Projector and Screen

• Event Seating

• Stage

• Large open space (seats 50 to 300 people)

• Optional: Food and Drink

SPEAKING ENGAGEMENTS

Getting speakers is relatively easy if you’re willing to pay them, but if you’re looking for free content it’s far more difficult. This event is much like the panel discussion, but with one speaker instead of the panel. It has a different vibe too. Whereas the panel discussion is more engaging since it’s a discussion, there is far less or even zero audience participation with a speaking event. The success of the event relies so heavily on the relative fame of the speaker that I don’t often use this event style.

Organizing Difficulty: Moderate

Executing Difficulty: Moderate

Inherenet Originality: High

Inherenet Attractiveness: High

Requirements:

• Microphones

• Projector and Screen

• Event Seating

• Stage

• Large open space (seats 50 to 300 people)

• Optional: Food and Drink

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CLASSES AND WORKSHOPS

Classes and workshops can be a great way to attract people to your brand and even to earn some extra revenue. Since this guide is focused on events as a member acquisition strategy, we’ll leave the revenue potential of classes for a different time. Putting revenue aside, classes can be offered for free to your members as a member perk, which is highly attractive to many prospective members.

The most difficult part of organizing classes is recruiting quality instructors. Somebody being a subject-matter expert is hardly the only requirement for being a good instructor. The ability to teach others and distill complex ideas into easily absorbed content to large groups of people is a skill in and of itself, and a required skill for prospective instructors. Otherwise the class will appear disorganized and lacking in quality to attendees.

An instructor’s motivation for participation can also be a difficult thing to work out. You either need to pay them a fee, split revenue with them, or they need to get some personal benefit out of teaching (lead generation, reputation building, etc.).

Organizing Difficulty: Moderate

Executing Difficulty: Easy

Inherenet Originality: High

Inherenet Attractiveness: Moderate

Requirements:

• Projector and Screen

• Classroom Seating and Desks

• Suitably sized classroom (seats 15 to 50 people)

• Light Refreshments (water, coffee, snacks, etc.)

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PITCH COMPETITIONS

Pitch competitions attract growth startups and investors to your space. They do not typically attract solo entrepreneurs, freelancers, non-profits, community organizers, or artists. They can be difficult to organize (especially if you’re not well connected in the startup scene in your area) because there are several success factors that are highly important.

You must source interesting startups to pitch in the competition (ones that people would actually want to watch and judge). The prize needs to be significant enough to attract those startups to compete (at least $1,000, though this depends on your market). Then you need to recruit a great panel of judges and at least half of them should be venture capitalists or angel investors.

Marketing these events is relatively easy because everybody wants to connect with investors and hear what successful or interesting startup teams are including in their pitches.

This event doesn’t work in communities where there is very little startup activity, though you could borrow the model and apply it to other industries.

Organizing Difficulty: Hard

Executing Difficulty: Moderate

Inherenet Originality: Moderate

Inherenet Attractiveness: Moderate

Requirements:

• Microphones

• Projector and Screen

• Event Seating

• Stage

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• Large open space (seats 50 to 300 people)

• Food and Drink

DEMOS/FAIRS/CONFERENCE:

These are very difficult to organize, though the difficulty scales with size and desired outcome.

Set up a large area with tables or booths, which participants can use to demo products or provide information and marketing materials. The people boothing are service providers or B2C/B2B companies that are in the same industry as the audience you’re trying to attract.

Attendees are attracted because they want to learn about the work that the boothing or presenting organizations are doing and to mingle with others in their industry. Often, organizations pay up to a few hundred dollars for the booth, but sometimes it’s free.

You can get large companies to sponsor the event in exchange for giving a talk or having their branding on just about anything/everything. These typically last all day and food is available for free or purchase. There are so many potential add-ons and versions of this that it could probably be its own publication.

Organizing Difficulty: Hard

Executing Difficulty: Hard

Inherenet Originality: Very High

Inherenet Attractiveness: Very High

Requirements:

• Microphones

• Projector and Screen

• Stage

• Large open space (holds 300 to 1000 people standing)

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• Catered or available-for-purchase food and drink

• Booths/tables

Identifying Local Thought LeadersOften you’ll need to source thought leaders or subject-matter experts for panel discussions, classes, or other events. This section outlines the processes I use.

SCATTERSHOT

1. Email Hunter. Install the Email Hunter Chrome extension.

2. LinkedIn Search. Search LinkedIn for the subject or industry you’re interested in finding people from. Use the advanced search feature to filter location and radius to within 25 miles of your location.

3. Identify. Connect with people you find interesting. I use the “Colleague” option when LinkedIn asks me how I know them. I select my current position as the place we’ve worked together.

4. Contact. Use a short, custom message to let them know why you’re connecting. Here are two I used very effectively for an instructor and panelist respectively:

a. “Hey Michael, I’d love for you to teach some classes at SPACE NAME on UX Design. I love your experience. Can we chat further?”

b. “Hello Burt, we’re organizing a panel discussion on digital media entrepreneurship and I’d love to have you on the panel. Can I send you more information?”

PIGGYBACK

1. Email Hunter. Install the Email Hunter Chrome extension.

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2. Eventbrite Search. Find seemingly successful events on Eventbrite or Meetup that happened in the last year. You should also look for conferences that happened in your area in the last year.

3. Assess. Whether an event was successful on Eventbrite can be hard to tell. Additional digging may be required, like contacting the organizer to hear about turnout, etc. Meetup success can be determined based on the number of attendees. Be wary, though.Some meetup organizers RSVP themselves plus additional, fictional people in order to artficially boost attendence. They used this tactic so more people will join, but the event may or may not have been successful.

4. Identify. Look for local speakers, presenters, and partners who spoke at or supported the event.

5. LinkedIn Search. Find these people on LinkedIn

6. Contact. Attempt to contact them via the email provided by Email Hunter. At the same time, attempt to contact them via LinkedIn, using the method above.

COPY CAT

This is a method similar to those above, but for acquiring the same event partners or sponsors as another event. Yes, you’re a copy cat if you do this. No, I won’t judge you.

1. Identify sponsors. After you’ve identified a successful event, find the sponsors or partners that supported the event. These are usually very visible on the event page or marketing materials. If you can’t find them, attempt to contact the organizer of the event for this information and even a possible partnership with the organizer themselves.

2. LinkedIn search. Use the LinkedIn search method in the Scattershot tactic to find either the Event Manager, Marketing Director, or Business Development person at each sponsor/partner company.

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3. Contact. Get in touch with people both via Email Hunter and via connecting with them on LinkedIn using the same methods above about supporting your event.

4. Make it sound like the event is a done deal. Nobody wants to support an idea. They only want to know tangible things such as # of attendees, prominent speakers, and other partners. Even if certain details are TBD, present them as likely or done. You can cite conflicts later that caused you to change those details.

Sourcing Externally Organized EventsPerhaps the easiest option for utilizing events as a member acquisition strategy is to let others do the organizing of events for you. You provide your space for free (saving the organizer hundreds or thousands of dollars) and in exchange you get included on marketing materials and get to do the pitch described earlier in this guide, complete with a raffle. Only host events that benefit your brand, also described earlier in this guide.

THE MEETUP TACTIC

This is probably the most basic, and easy to execute tactic for sourcing event partners. If you don’t already know about Meetup, it is a platform where people post suggested gatherings around specific activities or topics.

1. Sign up for Meetup. If you don’t already have an account, go to meetup.com to sign up. It’s free; you do not need to be a paid Meetup Organizer for this tactic.

2. Search. Find Meetups within 10 miles of your location in whichever category you want to attract members from (my favorites are tech, career & business, and community & environment).

3. Identify. Look for specific meetup groups you feel would be appealing to host in your space. The groups should have regular meetups (at least once per month) and have decent attendance.

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Decent attendence is relative to the size of your space and density in your region.

4. Message. Send the organizers of the meetup a message by clicking the rather intuitive link that says “contact” in the organizers section of the group’s page.

5. Offer. Tell them you’ll host their events for free. Describe your space and location. Mention any amenities you have and are willing to provide (wifi, coffee, food, A/V equipment, parking, etc.)

6. Make a deal. They must agree to your pitch and raffle.

7. Get the email list. Push them to provide you with their email list as well, but some people are understandably very protective of this.

8. Marketing. Ideally they will add your logo and participation as the venue sponsor to all marketing materials if there’s time.

9. Execute. Follow the tactics described earlier in this guide for what to do the night of the event (pitch, raffle, tour signups, etc.)

This tactic can be used for non-Meetup groups too. Are there groups or organizations that host regular events in your city? A chamber of commerce is a good example. Chambers of commerce host tons of events. They can be a little stuffy and old-hat, but younger and hipper businesses do join. They also often have their own event space, but you can convince them to move if your space has amenities they don’t (even if it’s just a hipper vibe). Any incubators or accelerators are great to host as well.

You can use this tactic with Eventbrite, but the organizers there tend to already have venues. Eventbrite also often has more one-off or annual events, meaning the time period between contact and hosting the event could be several months to over a year. It is a great investment for the future though if you can attract a really great audience in the future. Sometimes, though, you can find regular events or classes on Eventbrite and, expecially if they seem to always be at different venues, you can convince the organizer to try your space.

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THE CORPORATE OFFSITE TACTIC

Larger businesses often want to do meetings out of the office for their executive team, management teams, or specific departments. They do this to reduce distractions while they plan strategies for coming quarters and years.

While they are often used to paying for the privilege of using off-site space for these meetings, a case could be made to host them for free in exchange for talking to them about a remote work arrangement or flexible policy for some of their managers or executives.

Presenting yourself as a place to work out of the office and to connect to potential talent, leads, and partners will make this attractive, but it all starts with getting them in the door. This can also lead to other interesting relationships such as corporate sponsorship. I know this is possible because I did it. If I were to make a step by step process for this I’d do it this way:

1. Materials. Create a digital deck showing off your space and the benefits of a corporate off-site at your location, complete with amenities like filtered water, coffee, A/V, catering, trendy lunch spots, etc.

2. Connections. Connect with the decision makers or their assistants, preferably via email, but LinkedIn can be a good backup.

3. Offer. Offer your space as a gift or favor to them because you respect their work and want to build a relationship with them. Don’t make it complicated. Don’t “sell” it, just offer it as if it were not a big deal and that you don’t expect to get anything out of it.

4. They will be interested. The only reasons they won’t is if your facility isn’t up to par or if they don’t believe corporate off-sites will benefit them or aren’t planning any for the time being.

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5. Small pitch. They will likely give you a chance to tell them a little about your space when they arrive. They will probably be very curious about what the space is. Tell them but keep it short.

6. Network. Use this opportunity to meet the people who attend.

7. Keep going. Continue offering them favors this way and start introducing the other mutually beneficial arrangements discussed above.

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marketing events

It’s a lot of work to organize a great event and it feels really bad when nobody shows up. It also makes your brand look terrible. People perceive poorly attended events as lower quality events, even if everything else is amazing.

These are the marketing tactics I use that are effective. I don’t use all of these all the time, but the more you do the more attendees you’ll get. These tactics are based on the assumption that you already have a good following on your social media platforms and newsletter. I also assume that you have partners with which to cross-promote.

As with the rest of your marketing efforts, you’ll benefit largely from hiring or contracting somebody who knows social media tools, design, copywriting, and content strategy to help promote events. Most coworking spaces underinvest in marketing, and it’s one of the worst mistakes possible. Using events as a member acquisition strategy is predicated on the idea that you can effectively promote events.

There’s a lot of information on marketing out there and it’s always changing. Marketing is a huge field that encompasses too much to be discussed here. Therefore, this section only goes over the basics I use most often for event promotion. Marketing events could probably be its own book and that’s not the topic of this guide, however we’ll get as detailed as I feel is necessary.

NewsletterPeople who subscribe to your newsletter are very likely to attend the events and classes you host as long as you adhere to the branding guidelines we talked about before and that the content is actually good.

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This tactic doesn’t need much explaining. There are far better resources out there about building a newsletter list and marketing things via newsletters than I want to write. Personally, I like what Derek Halpern has to say.

For coworking space newsletters, I always include three main sections: announcements (space updates, new policies, etc.), events (dates, links, titles, brief descriptions), and community/stories (recent blog posts, news about a member, etc.).

Cross-Promote with PartnersExpand your reach by getting your partners (instructors, co-hosts, and other organizations supporting you) to send your marketing messages/content out to their email lists and social media channels.

Prepare sample content for them (sample tweets, facebook posts, emails, etc.). Take advantage of Click to Tweet so that partners can just click and post your message. Example twitter post:

“We’re partnered with X this quarter. Check out their epic lineup of events and classes on #topic1 #topic2 and #topic3: LINK”

Adjust for length and style as you see fit, but make sure you’re not over the character count before you send it to your partners (#embarrassing).

Cross-promoting with partners works better for a grouping of events or classes. The attention of your partners’ audiences is very important to them and they don’t want to spam their audience. Try only involving your partners in promoting your programs on a monthly or quarterly basis to increase partner participation.

The exception to the rule about grouping events and classes for promotion happens when a partners is directly involved in a particular event. They should be required to promote on all channels since they

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are directly involved, and they likely will since they are invested in the outcome of that particular event.

Offer your partners a discount code to provide their audience a percentage off of any paid events. This makes your partner feel that they are providing value to their audience and it increases their likelihood to participate in the cross-promotion. 20% is good, but it’s entirely up to you.

Local Event CalendarsWhat event calendars does your audience look to for events in your area? In San Francisco, Startup Digest is pretty powerful for attracting startups and tech entrepreneurs. Is there a local newspaper or community calendar you can get on?

Each publication/calendar has it’s own submission rules and forms. Just submit your event information to them. This is simple, but can get you a lot of extra people if their audience is large and targeted.

Social MediaI prefer to automate my social media marketing for events, sending out little reminders and calls-to-action every few days or every week leading up to an event.

The reason for automation is simple: when it comes to social media I like to “set it and forget it” as the saying goes. I love batching things and luckily social media promotion is pretty easily batched.

BUFFER

Buffer lets you schedule posts whenever you want, complete with text, images, links, etc. You can post to most social media platforms with Buffer.

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TWITTER

If you have a good Twitter following, it’s a great way to keep people updated about what’s going on at your space.

This is a simple formula I use to craft event promotion posts:

POTENTIAL LOSS OR GAIN (“don’t miss out” or “get more clients”) + EVENT/CLASS TITLE OR DESCRIPTION (“Disruptions in Political Tech” or ”a conversation about #awesomethings”) + DATE + LINK

Example:

“Don’t miss out on improving your SEO this year. Learn the basics with @Corttafoya on Tuesday: http://buff.ly/21oMGnH”

Add any hashtags you can fit and tag speakers/instructors if there’s room. Tagging prominent speakers will get them to retweet, but if you followed the partner cross-promotion tactic above, they will already be announcing it to their audience.

FACEBOOK

I mostly copy my twitter message here, but with different tags and I always include a square image promoting the event. On the next page you’ll find an example: a post from a class I promoted at PARISOMA.

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This image was exported at double the actual post size because Facebook compresses image files a lot, making your text look grainy. If you export at 900px by 900px your image and text will look crisp and professional. This is probably the biggest mistake I see people make with facebook promo images. Also note that if you plan to “boost” your post or otherwise turn it into an ad, Facbook won’t allow promoted images that have more than 20% of the surface covered with text.

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INSTAGRAM

Unfortunately, to my knowledge, Instagram marketing has to be done manually. I don’t know of any tools that allow you to schedule content for Instagram. I often use the same image I used in my Facebook post for Instagram, but the warning I’d offer is that Instagram users are far less forgiving of promotional material. Keep promo few and far between your regular posts and keep your promos beautiful, minimizing text as much as possible. See a great example below.

Change the link in your profile to the event link or to link to your events page. On the post, tell people to click the link in your profile to view more information about the event. I usually use the full event description on Instagram posts.

Another great tactic here is to instruct people to comment and tag their friends who would love this event.

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technology

There’s a lot of technology out there that will make your life easier for executing events. I keep it pretty simple with the technology below.

SoftwareEVENTBRITE

Eventbrite has become the go-to platform for event ticket sales in the US (maybe the world?). It offers extreme flexibility with ticket types, discount codes, and sales channels.

EVENTBRITE NEON WITH IPADS/IPHONES

Eventbrite offers Eventbrite Neon, a tool for selling tickets at the door and checking guests in who have registered for events via the online platform. It’s entirely synced with the Eventbrite online platform, which makes post-event reporting simple because your payments are all handled in one place.

I used to use Square to process at-the-door sales, but the reporting was awful. Eventbrite Neon is much better.

A/V Equipment and Other Event EquipmentI’m no expert on setting up this equipment, but I can attest to the value of a good A/V setup, complete with several microphones and multiple audio inputs for playing music or allowing presenters to play audio

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for videos. The setup largely depends on the size of your space, but I strongly recommend having at least the following:

• High Lumen Projector (low-lumen projectors will look washed out with any amount of ambient light)

• Large Screen

• Wireless Microphones (lavalier microphones are better, but handheld mics are fine) and receivers (mics don’t work without these and they often come packaged together)

• Amplifier

• Small stage

• Folding Event Chairs

• High-quality speakers

• Sound board to control levels and EQ

You can definitely figure out the A/V on your own with even mild technical ability and the consultation of your local audio equipment store, but if you feel uncomfortable or are strapped for time, you should hire a professional. This can be an expensive upfront purchase, often over $10K, but it’s worth it for the savings in time and energy. After all, you have a coworking space to manage.

One important consideration, if you want to host events in your space, is to only purchase or build furniture with wheels for coworking, at least in your potential event areas. You will love yourself for it because you’ll be moving the furniture very often.

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finito

Are you feeling overwhelmed?

Don’t stress yourself out. It takes time to get used to these tactics. As you organize, market, and host more events you’ll become more confident in your abilities and you’ll be able to execute these tactics flawlessly. You’ll discover shortcuts to make the work quicker and less stressful.

Of course, feel free to innovate within and upon these tactics. I invite you to share with me what you’ve tried (both to great success and miserable failure).

Remember, I’m always here to help. You can always ask me questions about this guide by emailing me.

I can also help you build systems to make your coworking space more efficient, allowing you to focus on the things that matter more. Operations may not be your passion, but it is mine. Inquire about how we can work together by emailing me at ryan@coworkinginsights.com.