In a previous blog post, we discussed the 5 reasons Why “Free” Venue Directory Listings Aren’t Actually “Free”. Both reasons 1 and 2 touch upon having to pay commission fees either for every lead that is sent your way or every booked event that is converted from a lead from the directory.
These practices, as common as they are, are simply bad business practices. At the end of the day, your venue ends up paying not only for your listing but also for unqualified leads or heavy fees for any booked event. The directory will force you to collect payment through the directory so they can collect their fee before you ever recognize that revenue.
This makes me wonder if the venue is the one executing the event, shouldn’t you have full control over your leads and the revenue you bring in?
This leads to another bad business practice that I want to shed light on.
Generalized Unqualified Event Leads
For most other venue directories, they operate by collecting generalized leads for events and shopping those leads around to the highest or fastest bidder.
What that means is an event planner will submit an inquiry to host an event in the desired city for a type of event or venue needed. Those generalized event leads are shared with many, possibly even hundreds of venues at a time, and whichever venue responds the fastest, OR is willing to pay the highest fee for the full data set will ‘win’ the lead.
Venues are then left fighting to win event leads that were never interested in their venue at all. These event leads are not qualified for your space, and may never be interested in what your venue offers.
A better way of generating event leads is working directly with planners who are interested in YOUR venue, not just the city and venue category you fit in.
How Much Should An Event Lead Cost?
As the quality of a lead increases, typically so does the cost of each lead. Here are a few major factors to consider that affect the cost of each event lead.
- How much time did the buyer interact with your brand?
- What product or service are they interested in?
- How much information did they provide you upfront?
- How soon is their event date?
The closer you are to the buyer - the more control you have over the final price of the event and the terms of the contract conditions.
Adding in layers on either side of the coin such as being affiliated with a bigger hospitality group that has control over such things, using advertising agencies to manage paid advertising, or running paid spend on your own on social and search engines, the more layers that you add between you and the end buyer, the higher the cost per leads increases.
EventUp Drives Qualified Leads Directly To Venues
EventUp is the leading global venue directory with more than 15,000 restaurants, hotels, and unique venues. The power of the EventUp venue directory drives awareness of your brand and delivers qualified leads to your inbox.
The majority of venues that list their venue with EventUp, often end their relationship with other venue directories simply because we do not generate nor sell generalized event leads.
EventUp is a lead aggregator. We connect buyers with the desired product - we connect social, corporate, and wedding planners with their ideal venue. A specific venue.
EventUp is never re-selling leads or sharing leads that your venue generates. Event leads generated on your venue’s listing are specific to you and you alone. Each venue will work directly with the event planner to collect and finalize event RFPs, as well as event revenue. EventUp never steps in during the planning or execution process for any reason.
How EventUp Connects Planners With Venues
More than 50% of planners say that they source new venues online. The EventUp directory offers your venue direct access to a new pool of event planners. On EventUp, we can support any event type, any venue type, in both small and large markets, therefore, more planners use EventUp
EventUp gets more than 1 million page views every single month from social, corporate, and wedding planners browsing for the perfect venue for their next event or party.
With our advanced filters, we can narrow down our extensive inventory of venues to show only those venues that can support the exact event each planner is actively planning. Each search result is as unique as every event being planned on EventUp.
From the search results, the planners can then review each individual listing to find the perfect venue for them. Once a planner has found the venue of their dreams, the planners will then submit a Request Quote form. This information is sent to you via Emal as well as stored in your EventUp portal.
How To Convert Your Leads Into Booked Events
Every lead is an opportunity, however, we know that not all leads will convert. It is still your responsibility to take those leads and sell them on your venue.
The industry average conversion rate is only around 5% - 10% of leads actually converting into booked business. On EventUp we see an average booking rate of 20%. Things to consider that will help you convert more leads.
- How quickly are you following up?
- Prospects are expecting a follow-up within 48 hours of their quote submission, the sooner you connect with the planner the better.
- How often are you following up?
- You may need to reach out more than once to connect with the planner. Plan on at least three touchers per inquiry.
- Are your follow-ups generic or customized messaging?
- If you send the same message for every request, you could be missing planners' expectations of what they are looking for. Messages should at least be customized to the event type they are looking to plan.
- What additional resources are you offering in your follow-ups?
- Include additional resources, such as links to additional photos and videos, that will help nudge the planner into a customer.
Schedule a quick 10-minute demo to explore the EventUp premium listing packages and more benefits of listing your venue with the top venue directory to collect more qualified leads that are never shared or sold to other venues.
