From Meetings & Incentive Travel magazine's research, we know 93% of planners research venues and suppliers online before contacting a supplier. With 9 out of 10 planners using online to research and plan their events, your website is as much a part of your sales team as it is your marketing team. As a salesperson, you probably have a pretty good idea of the questions planners ask of you in a face-to-face meeting. But do you know what they want from your website?
What Planners Want
1. Make it easy to find the meeting planner section of your site. Ideally, you should make this a permanent link on every page, preferably in a prominent navigation bar.
2. Map Locator – make sure you have a link to Google Map (or other map tool). Even if I’ve been to your venue 1,000 times, I might be bad with directions OR want to forward the directions to my attendees. 68% of meeting planners are looking for this tool.
3. E-Brochures/Pictures – if we’ve never been to your venue or used your service, please have several pictures that show meetings/groups in action. Having photos of an empty ballroom is not very helpful. 65% of meeting planners are looking for this tool.
4. Floorplans – this is the nitty-gritty stuff that meeting planners need to know. These need to be easy to find, downloadable, printable and include both a floorplan and a meeting-room chart…and please make sure they are accurate and up-to-date.
5. Deals/Special Offers – if you are running a special offer, promote it on your meetings/events landing page. If the planner has taken the time to come to your site, grab their attention with your best elevator pitch (think sales tool, not marketing tool).
After surfing hundreds of industry sites, both as a planner and an online publisher, I can tell you that the above list does reflect what most sites are providing meeting planners.
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