How to get people to attend your programmes

I have wanted to write this article for some time now but I couldn’t because one of the pieces was missing making the puzzle incomplete.  Am writing this article on one of my favorite themes on this blog; club, associations, products that demands majority support. 

You have a club and you want people to attend. You want to run a social event but you are afraid people would not come. Let’s see the dynamics involved. 

The people who attend programmes are composed of different types; it starts with opinion leaders, associations, friends, fans, relatives and the like. The other factors that pull them to attend are the relevance, bonding, a good brand or history and communication. Let’s discuss these factors one by one.

Opinion Leaders; people have large crowds because of opinion leaders or celebrities or popular people. These men and women have supporters, admirers and fans, in short they have huge following. They are the church leaders, political leaders, association presidents, musicians or stars and so on. 

The help you need from them is for them to endorse your programme or product and the others would patronize. That is why advertisers engage them a lot. I have seen foreign ministers come and hold massive conferences here by simply getting all the big pastors together. When they tell their congregation, a sizable percentage would attend your programme.  

Associations; those who have successful programmes often are part of several associations and their members attend to ‘honor’ their club member. The more associations you belong to the better. Be aware that you have to really ‘belong’ to the association. This means that you play a significant role so that they recognize you as a strong member. This can help you draw on their commitment.

Friends; the old saying applies here; he that wants to have friends must show himself friendly. Am not talking about the cold networking that people do in conferences but the genuine relationship you build with people. You are there when they need you. This creates a bond. This should be genuine, in modern times everything we do is becoming too cosmetic. I used to be anti-social but now am coming out of my cocoon.  

Fans; these are people who like you because of your gifts. They spend months enjoying your music, books, speeches and so on, as I write everyday am building a fan base even though some people may ignore them.  Very soon I shall start my business conferences and I shall see them. When I commence my successful conferences, people that I have never seen or known before would show up. That is why I have to make sure a lot of people are seeing what I do.  

The key here is to try to build a fan base for whatever you do. Get more people to like you by been good at what you do.

Other factors

After having these groups of people on your side it means that you have people ready to attend your programme or support you. However, you have to tweak them a bit to get more.

Relevance; the fact that you have a friend doesn’t mean when you bring a product they’d buy. It has to meet their pressing needs. It should be a solution, hence, whatever you do in life should be calculated to bring solution to people’s unanswered problems. This way, you give them the incentive to come. If what you are offering them is irrelevant, it’d be hard to get them.

Bonding; this also refers to the strength of your relationships. Enough of the superficial relationships; when we give out complementary cards and talk to somebody just one day we feel we have created friends but have to go beyond so that they can remember us. We have to give. If you fake it people would see beyond the curtain and recoil from you.

Bonding means creating more genuine relationships that matter to people. When they need you, you show up at the right time; you have to be a peoples’ person. I have noticed that people who do me a favor put some compulsion on me so that in times of need I just have to be there for them. Giving to humanity is the key to creating a strong bond. Making others feel important is also one key.

Brand or history; I use the two words interchangeably because to me they complement each other by making the meaning much clearer. Have you done it before and were people happy with it? If it was bad previously they’d not show up. You have to know that the innovators are few (12½ %) and if you want to attract the early adopters, late adopters and even the laggards you have to develop a strong brand that would catch people. Nothing should be taken for granted. People have the tendency to ignore you when you start something new but try to make it in such a way that they’d wish they had come. It's always a build, you do it well today more people show up tomorrow.

Communication; When you start you small business, the greatest challenge is creating awareness. Even when you just float adverts on Facebook some people don’t take time to read it. So create a buzz, make noise that would attract their attention for them to know that something is going on.This means that whatever you do you have to sell it to them. You don’t have to assume but convince them that what you are going to do would help them and that you need their support.