Murphy’s Law says that anything that can go wrong will go wrong. My corollary is that when you market a seminar, the chances of something going wrong increases exponentially with the size of your event and how much depends on the results of your promotions.

Consider one of my copywriting clients whose seminar brochure disappeared sometime after I dropped it off at the post office. My client had been promoting this particular event for years. He knew from experience that one flyer mailing was all he needed to do to fill the room.

So when the phone, which usually rings nonstop after a brochure is dropped, was silent, I knew something was seriously wrong.

Phone calls to several key clients confirmed the worst: that the brochure, which we had been reworking for weeks, never made it to their clients’ mailboxes. Now the seminary, his biggest earner of the year, was in danger of failing.

Instead of complaining about his bad luck, the customer immediately switched to Plan B. He ordered more brochures, arranged for another mailing, and phoned for sign-ups.

Murphy’s Law is not always presented in such a dramatic way. But it doesn’t hurt to formulate a Plan B for most scenarios. Here are just a few tips to help you prepare for the worst:

• Use first class mail if you can afford it. Third-class mail is more likely to get lost (even if the post office doesn’t support it).
• Don’t rely on one email to do all your promotional work.
• The more times and in different ways you communicate with prospects, the more likely you are to communicate… and the less effect a “missed” email will have on you.
• Stay in touch with your providers. If it looks like a vendor will miss a deadline, which will then screw up the rest of your promotional schedule, you want to have enough time to hire someone else to finish the job.
• Get to your meeting room early to make sure it’s set up exactly as you specified. You don’t want to be rearranging tables when attendees start showing up.
• Make sure you have the names and phone numbers of key contact people at your hotel (or whatever facility is hosting your event) so you know who to call if you need help.
• Carry copies of your brochures so you can get extra packets for attendees if you run out…or packets sent from your office are lost.
• Know where the emergency exits are. And share this information during your opening “cleanup” announcements instead of waiting until an emergency situation arises to try to give instructions.

Remember, if something can go wrong, it will, especially when you’re marketing and producing a seminar. Prepare a Plan B (and even C) to make sure you’re ready for anything that comes your way.