It seems that we constantly talk about marketing strategies and all the possible ways to drive more people to attend our events. And yet, there seems to be a constant need for more ways, more tips, more tactics that will help us market our event and sell more tickets.
In the end, that’s a common goal that all event marketers wish to achieve. You want to reach more people, get them interested in your event, convince them to attend and finally, sell more tickets.
Event marketing is arguably the most effective marketing channel out there. According to a report, the number of companies organising 20 or more events per year grew by 17% between 2017 and 2018. In this article, we will bring to attention the 6 things you must know about event marketing if you want to be successful.
Define Your Budget
The first step in creating an event marketing strategy for your upcoming event is defining the budget, because this will affect everything else, including your choice of venue, etc. The goal is to spend money on the right things, and to achieve that, you need to be detail-oriented and be able to understand what your audience expects.
Defining Your Audience
Before you even begin to promote your event, you must do thorough research on the type of attendees you are expecting. If you don’t know where to start, start with these questions. Who is your target audience? Who would benefit the most from attending your event? Who would be interested to hear your speakers? Once you define your audience, you can start promoting your event.
Creating Social Media Buzz
It goes without saying that you cannot promote a live event without social media. You need to build interest before the event, and social media is the best place to do so. You choose the social networks that you will use, because some platforms are undoubtedly more effective than others. Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn are typically used for event promotion.
You should come up with a short, catchy hashtag and add it to everything you post about the event to build excitement. Make sure that your guests use the hashtag as well when they post about the event.
Promoting During the Event
Don’t forget to promote the event during the event. Post videos, photos, tweets, and encourage your attendees to do the same. A study has shown that 98% of consumers create digital content at events, even if it is only a photo, and 100% of them share that content on their social media. The goal is to maximise social media mentions and get people all around the world to hear about your event.
The study also showed that photos are the primary type of content created and shared at events. Encourage your attendees to share as much content as possible, photos, social media posts, and videos.
Measuring the Event Success
If you are new to event marketing, you might think that your job is done once the event ends. You can finally take a deep breath and relax. On the contrary, your work is not over even then, because you still have one important thing to do and that is measuring your event success.
In order to evaluate the performance, you will need to set some key indicators (KPIs) that will help you measure your event success. An obvious key indicator is the total number of registrations, of course.
However, not every person who registers for your event will actually attend. That is why you need to compare the number of registration with the total number of attendees.
Revenue is another relevant indicator as to whether your event was successful or not. If it was a paid event, then gross revenue is definitely a metric you should look into. How much money did the event bring? Was it more than what you invested in the event? If you ended up spending more than bringing in, then you might want to reconsider organising another event.
Promoting After the Event
Don’t forget that you need to continue promoting your event even after it is all over. The first thing you should do is send emails to all the attendees to thank them for attending. You should try to be as personal as possible, and use the attendee’s name and try to give them something special.
Event promotion requires both time and resources, and things are not likely to change in 2019. Since live events determine the success of companies, marketers in 2019 will invest even more money in event promotion.
If planning and promoting an event seems like a daunting task that you are not willing to undertake, you can always hire a professional event planner to spare you the headache. This will leave more time for you to focus on things you do best.
