User and developer conferences are annual staples of many high tech companies' marketing calendars. They come in all shapes and sizes - from relatively intimate gatherings of maybe a few dozen customers to giant, trade show-like extravaganzas for thousands of loyal product devotees.

With a little advance planning and some common sense direct marketing, a well-planned, well-executed conference can serve your company's bottom line for years to come. It can make evangelists of your current customers as well as generate new business. And it's a rare, invaluable opportunity to hear first hand from the people who buy - and use - your product.

But first you have to get your customers to attend. You need to convince them that your event - not the industry trade show a month later - is the one worth their travel dollars. And you need to persuade their managers that the conference isn't just another three-day corporate boondoggle.

Based on our experience developing invitations to user conferences, developer workshops and the like, the following are a few simple tips and techniques to maximize the attendance at your next customer event.

Start Early

Most user conferences have one thing in common - they're planned at the last minute. But key to getting on customers' travel schedules is to give them enough notice. A simple postcard with the date, location and a few key selling points, mailed six months prior to the conference, will increase response when you deliver more comprehensive information closer to the event.

Ideally, the time to start selling your event is exactly one year earlier - at the previous year's conference. Provide registration forms for the following year's conference, and a discount for signing up early.

Make It Personal

To my knowledge, there's never been a user conference that didn't offer some type of "early bird" discount. And for good reason. Besides preventing a rush of last-minute registrations (and the logistical nightmares that accompany them), limited-time discounts force the customer into decision mode and get them to commit early - before competing obligations get them to rethink.

At the same time, however, discounts ignore the basic fact that most attendees don't pay their conference fee - their companies do. So combine your early bird discount with a personal incentive that motivates the individual to take action, like a Software Developer's Kit on CD-ROM, a sports bag with your company logo, or the staple of every developer's wardrobe - the free t-shirt.

Advertise for Free

Typically, conference advertising only makes sense for companies with an installed base large enough to merit the expense. But you can generate your own advertising - free of media fees - by designing an attractive conference poster (well in advance of the event, of course) and providing it to partners, resellers, suppliers, and large customers. Expand your mailing list by offering the poster free as an incentive to customers who give you names of colleagues.

Use Multiple Media

Whatever you think of broadcast fax and e-mail as marketing tools, they're an appropriate - and often effective - tool for announcing events to your customer base. Just don't overdo it. And remember to always give customers a clear and easy way to remove themselves from the distribution list.

Don't try to describe the entire schedule of events (your e-mail shouldn't be longer than 250-300 words maximum). Point the customer to your web site. Offer a free conference brochure. Or deliver an urgent "last minute" reminder about an impending deadline - like your "early bird" discount.

Leverage Your Web Site

Use your corporate web site as an complementary communications vehicle - but not as a replacement for the traditional printed conference program. Even if your customers are Net-savvy, they still need hard copy information to share with their managers or colleagues, or to take home for further study.

Use your web site as an easy-to-navigate information resource, and to generate additional leads. Post complete details about the conference - times, locations, presentation abstracts - plus a registration form that customers can fill out online or print out and mail or fax. And don't forget to offer something other than just simply registration, like a free poster or a conference program. That way, you'll uncover customers and other interested parties that may not be on your mailing list.

Go Where Your Customers Go

Publicize the event where users congregate - at user-group meetings, in education or training classes, at industry trade shows. Have information available that people can take with them, preferably something that might get displayed at their office, like a postcard or poster. And include a strong call to action, not just to register, but to visit the web site for more information, or to call for a free program.

Use Attendees as References

Photos of conference attendees in presentation sessions, or wandering the exhibit floor never manage to look quite as content or entranced as you'd hoped. But quotes from attendees, especially those with the right job titles or company names, can prove valuable selling tools.

Take a comprehensive survey at the end of the conference (on site or through the mail) and offer incentives for responding, like a drawing for a free pass to next year's event. Ask customers for their thoughts on the conference. Offer free software if you use their quote in next year's program.

Surveys can also yield statistics with marketing value. For example, "Ninety percent of this year's attendees said they were pleased or very pleased with the event."

Learn by Testing

Lastly, just because user conferences only occur once a year, that shouldn't preclude you from trying different strategies. Split your customer base into groups, keycode the names accordingly, and test! Does outbound telemarketing yield a lower cost per attendee than a follow-up postcard? Does a discount for groups of five or more really make a difference? What works better: a letter from your CEO or a colorful self-mailer? Try them all and find out!

Be sure to code list sources differently. It pays to know that contacts from your tech support database generate twice the response as names from education classes. Or that (hypothetically) shipping contacts aren't worth mailing to. Learn from your mistakes. The bottom line is: if you don't test, you'll never know.