Understandably, event marketing is a broad strategy that can be used within your digital marketing, based on the events you may or may not be hosting.
But for businesses that do host or attend any sort of event (in-person or online), it’s critical to think through your event marketing strategy. Doing so helps you optimize the natural content and engagement opportunities that exist with events.
About 61 percent of marketers believe that in-person events are the most critical marketing channel.
Event marketing ultimately involves the tools and techniques you use to promote an event, usually with the goal of getting individuals to attend (whether they must pay to do so or not). Of course, on the flip side, it’s important to capitalize and follow through with those leads once you capture them going into the event, during the event and after the event.
The following are eight tips to make the most of your events and boost your overall event marketing.
Set your event marketing goals
Goals always end up being at the center of any successful digital marketing strategy. Understanding not only what you want to achieve but putting that to specifics so that you can lay out the action steps that need to be taken to get there.
Learn more about how to set effective marketing goals.
Consider multiple ways to send invitations
Obviously, you’ll want to invite people to attend your event, but in what ways can and/or should you invite them?
Methods include:
- Social media
- Direct mail
Choosing any or all of the above methods depends on who you’re trying to reach, but no matter what method(s) you use, make sure you can track invitations against your database and have a streamlined way of collecting reservations.
Leverage your social media for overall event promotion
A lot can be done around events on social media. For instance, a “save the date” campaign can help raise overall awareness of an event and can even include a “countdown” component to boost excitement.
You’ll want to use all the available tools at your disposal, including live videos, infographics with facts about the event and so on.
Then, monitor social media before, during and after the event. Ideally, you’ve established a specific hashtag for your event to make this easier on most platforms.
The monitoring can help you understand what’s happening in real time and respond to any complaints or requests during the event from your attendees.
Think beyond social media
Of course, as handy as social media is, there are other channels to consider for your event marketing, especially when you’re going beyond direct invitations. These include (but are not limited to):
- Blogging (including guest blogging on other sites)
- Partner outreach (such as potential collaborators and media partners)
- Email marketing
- Early-bird discounts on any channel
- Pre-event landing page
- Paid advertising
- Formal press releases
- Attendee referral incentives
- Influencer marketing
- SMS text marketing
The direction(s) you go in always should touch back on your goals for the event in question.
Manage your event registration process
Speaking of collecting reservations, your event registration process should be a priority. Obviously, this should be online (whether your event is in-person or not). But beyond that, you have options as far as the method or tools you can use.
Here’s what you should keep in mind:
- Have a way of tracking the source of each registration, which can done through custom landing pages and/or tracking codes.
- Include sign-up deadlines that should happen automatically.
- Capture and store all relevant contact information for individuals.
- Have automated confirmations and reminders sent to registered attendees.
Incorporate event confirmations and reminders
As part of your event registration process, you’ll want to ensure that you’re sending confirmations whenever an individual RSVPs, as well as reminders as the event gets closer.
In fact, if you have any digital assets to share after the event is over (such as a recording or worksheet, etc.), consider including them in a follow-up email thanking all attendees and offering those assets, especially for those who might have missed the event.
Of course, the more you can automate this process, the better.
Capitalize on lead capture
Events naturally lend themselves to significant lead-capturing opportunities. This happens not just during the promotion of the event, but also during the event itself.
It’s important to capture all contact information for use in drip campaigns later. Be sure to have a data collection process in place during the event, whether that’s a business-card scanner or an online form. This is particularly important if your business is at an event (like a trade show) where you do not have attendee registration information.
You’ll also want to input that contact data into a marketing automation platform or CRM system as soon as you can after the event (ideally, the same day).
If possible, score and prioritize the contacts you made from the event. Depending on the marketing system you’re using, you can direct warmer leads to more of a sales-driven drip campaign, while cooler leads can be directed to more of an educational drip campaign.
DailyStory does offer a lead-ranking system within our platform to help target your marketing.
Measure your performance
When it comes to event marketing, there are a number of different metrics you can use to understand the success of your event.
And the metrics you use largely depend on your goals for your event marketing. This can include:
- Event attendance (especially out of those who registered)
- Lead collection
- Lead conversion
- Revenue generated
DailyStory can help with event marketing automations (as well as in other types of digital marketing). And our platform offers even more than automation capabilities. Schedule your free demo with us today.