There is nothing better than watching your audience enjoy something you have worked on for hours. Whether it's a networking event or a charity run, launching it successfully brings immense joy to the organizers. But how do you ensure every event you organize is a hit?
Essentially, there are 2 key components to make any event worthwhile:
- Putting together everything while considering the slightest details.
- Gathering the target attendees.
While the first one mostly depends on the professional skills of the event manager, the second one is more tricky and can lead to unpredictable outcomes if not handled correctly.
The Secret of Successful Event Marketing
Having the target audience at your event means you have been successful in your event marketing strategy. Depending on the type of audience you are targeting, your marketing strategy may differ. There are two main types of audiences for event marketing.
- B2B
- B2C
The first one translates into business-to-business opportunities such as conferences, trade fairs, and networking events. On the other hand, B2C refers to events that target business-to-client organizations. The marketing strategies for these two kinds of events are different in purpose and expected results.
Top 12 Event Marketing Strategies and Ideas
Finding the right strategy that fits your event best takes time and effort. In order to reach a more thorough understanding of event marketing, let's explore a few ideas and examples.
1. Choose Your Target Audience Smartly
The key factor in any marketing strategy, (even when it is not for a specific event), is defining your target audience. You must set a target, otherwise, all your efforts will be in vain.
For instance, if you are a training organization launching an event to introduce your new program how to create successful MVPs, then your target audience should be startup organizations or those that are yet in the ideation stage.
This way, you will target the right audience who is interested in learning about building MVP for startups and will become your clients for further training.
Narrowing down and drawing a picture of your target prospects help to have an effective marketing strategy destined to bring you successful outcomes. Once you state the clear target, you can aim and start working on developing ideas regarding the event.
2. Socialize on Social Media
Being active on social media pages is another way to get more registrations for your event.
While creative posts may or may not get the engagement you seek, going live and answering questions creates a closer relationship with your potential attendees. Another interesting idea is to have contests with prizes and rewards.
While this strategy is mainly used for B2C event marketing, you can also use it for B2B events (such as product launches) to clarify any questions business leaders might have regarding your new offerings.
Promote the live session beforehand to get maximum exposure and spread the word so that more people join your stream aimed to market your event.
3. Create Unique Branding
One of the main goals of any marketing plan is to be recognized. Building a brand for your event can create a long-lasting impact on the attendees. The easiest way to catch your audience’s eyes is to be fun, fresh, and original.
Have a signature style that will scream your name. Choose specific colors, shapes, words, etc., that reflect your event theme․ Work with the right professionals and market your event on the right platforms (both paid and unpaid).
4. Partner up With Influencers
Today, influencers are everywhere promoting products, events, and services. Do your research well to find the best influencer with your target audience as their followers.
Send them a collaboration deal where both of you can benefit from promoting the event. Ask them to tag your page to bring more audience to your social media pages.
5. Draw Fame to Have Gain
Before influencer culture took over, celebrities were the ultimate source as faces of companies/events. This strategy still has potential and works extremely well when you choose the right activists/professionals to be guest speakers at your event ensuring attendance from their fans or people who simply admire them as individuals. While it is not easy to convince influential people to attend your event, the result is worth the possible hassle you will go through. Be ready to invest and pay an appropriate amount. Also, besides the financial part, do your research. Find out the values and principles your desired celebrity follows and make sure to incorporate those beliefs into the negotiating process and later into the project they are going to become a part of.
6. Early Bird Registration+Email Reminders
These two marketing strategies can be used separately as well as together to serve as a more powerful weapon. The first one is best paired with a reward system. Why register early? If the entrance involves a fee, early registrants can make a significant profit.
If the entrance is free of charge, the early registration award can be event merchandise or a VIP seat. Once you have emails from the registration form, you can use email marketing as an effective tool to not lose the interest you have sparked.
Many people either forget or lose enthusiasm towards events after some time so it is important to keep them hooked by giving away some attractive details about the event via email.
Email marketing can also be helpful after the event. You are creating a database of people who are interested in at least one aspect of your business by collecting the email addresses of your attendees. Use them in your retargeting campaigns to boost your sales in the future.
7. Have Available Communication Channels
Be available. Spread your contact information on your social platforms and answer followers’ questions as soon as possible.
The most useful way to develop your availability through communication channels is to be everywhere. Make sure you have a social media page, a website, email address, and contact number where people can reach you easily. This will boost your marketing strategy to build long-term loyalty among your attendees.
8. Work With the Media
Make a list of all the work you did to organize your event and publish it in a press release. An important note to consider here is to follow press release guidelines. Make sure to write a concise piece that introduces the main aspects and nuances of your event.
Remember to include the text of the press release in the body of your email rather than as an attached document. Use a new and innovative angle to catch the attention of journalists. Describe the core values of your event to make them eager to cover your story.
9. Make the Most of Technology
Modern marketing is all about innovation so make sure that you make the most of it. Create your application, website, facial recognition tools, virtual guides, etc. Research the latest trends in event marketing and get on board. It is always exciting to see technology thrive at events and become a hot topic among attendees.
Also, dont forget to use the leading digitalization platforms that can boost networking among the attendees.
10. Take Advantage of FOMO
FOMO refers to the fear of missing out. With social media dominating the world today and most people choosing to showcase only the most adventurous and fun parts of their lives through Instagram, FOMO is a relevant driver that causes users to compete to not miss out on anything in life.
This is your chance to take advantage of and promote your event in the most attractive way possible to engage people and companies who do not want to miss any important events and desire to be in the middle of everything. Build your social media marketing plan around creativity and quality to get more registrations for your event.
11. Utilize Video Content
Video content is becoming more influential day by day. Rather than reading about the fun details of your event, most people would prefer to see how it went last year.
A long-term benefit of this marketing plan is that it can be used both before and after the event. You can also make short videos that show the feelings and emotions of their attendees in order to reinforce the importance of attending the event next year. In this way, they preserve memories and history that can be used in the future for promoting other projects.
12. Ask for Feedback
Customer satisfaction is a major priority for any business. Receiving feedback from your attendees helps you to identify your shortcomings and how they can be improved in the future.
You can also use Net Promotor Score Survey to measure the effectiveness of your marketing plan. Research the best NPS tools and find out which one is right for your event. As a result of analyzing the data, you will be able to make positive changes for your next event and improve your marketing strategy.
The strategies discussed above can build a solid ground for any event. Strong strategies, however, have to be paired with detailed planning. If both events marketing and planning are done constructively and strategically, the chances of success will be much higher.
