Event Marketing Tips And Best Practices
by Arina Smith Marketing 25 February 2019
Customer engagement is vital to the success of any operation, but it’s especially essential in the digitized marketplace, where many brands rely heavily on automation.
If your business is looking for fresh ways to engage your customers and reach new people, events are the way to go. Event marketing can help you maximize your return on investment.
The Importance of Event Marketing
According to research from the Event Marketing 2019: Benchmarks and Trends Report, marketers believe that event marketing is the single most effective channel for reaching business objectives and accomplishing key sales goals. Specifically, the report states:
- The most successful companies are spending 1.7 times the average marketing budget on live events.
- Between 2017 and 2018, companies organizing 20-plus events per calendar year increased by 17 percent.
- Most company leaders tend to be supportive of company events, but only to the extent that they generate enough revenue to provide ROI.
Whether you’re in B2B or B2C, event marketing is crucial. Employing it will ensure your events are successful (and that they deliver a large enough return to justify future investments).
Five Event Marketing Tips
No event marketing handbook exists to tell you to do “A” in order to get “B.” Every situation is unique, and your brand will have to cultivate an intimate understanding of your audience: who it is and what moves them to action.
But you can implement certain useful tips and techniques right off the bat. Take a look.
1. Leverage SEO
Successful event marketing requires significant preparation and advanced scheduling. You can’t just pump out a couple of quick pieces of promotion content the week before the shindig and expect it to be successful. It may require weeks or even months of preparation to get it right.
In the digital age of marketing, SEO is your best friend. People use Google to find events, so you need to have a presence in order to be seen.
“Whether you’re writing up an enticing description on your event page, publishing a blog post about the event, or putting out a press release, you can benefit from giving it a bit of SEO love,” Billetto explains.
If SEO isn’t your strong suit, don’t worry. You can always hire an SEO expert to help you target the right keywords and use the appropriate techniques to make your event visible to your target audience.
2. Use Your Email List
If you have an email list, now’s the time to use it. Try sending out a bi-monthly email in the months leading up to the event.
Then, as it gets closer, increase the frequency. The goal is to make people fully aware of the event and to send them to a squeeze page that educates them further about the details.
3. Attend Other Events
In addition to digital engagement, you’ll want to market your event in person. Think about attending other local events, conferences, or trade shows that will allow you to advertise.
Something as simple as setting up a custom tent and passing out promotional items and brochures as people walk by can help you promote the event and increase your own visibility.
4. Establish Incentives
Why should people come to your event? Sometimes they will need to do a little extra coaxing to sign up and attend. Offering them incentives such as discounts, giveaways, and free bonus content can work well for this purpose.
5. Use a Hashtag
Before, during, and after your event, a custom event hashtag can help you generate traction on social media. (It also makes social listening easier.) Create a simple, yet identifiable hashtag that people will connect with.
“A word of caution,” Billetto warns. “While adding a hashtag to your Tweets has been shown to increase engagement, don’t overdo it. According to Simply Measured, posts with more than two hashtags end up getting 32% less engagement than those with no hashtags at all. Nobody likes a #HashtagSpammer.”
Learn and Optimize
Your first crack at event marketing may not be successful . . . but that’s fine. You should learn from your mistakes, though, and gather insights on what worked well.
You can use this information to optimize your approach in future bouts. A well-executed event marketing strategy will yield unmistakable results. Practice patience and discipline, and you’ll do well.
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