It’s estimated that by 2020, 3.2 million global professional events will be taking place on an annual basis. More than ever, companies are turning to events to supplement their marketing, sales, customer engagement and recruiting efforts. If you aren’t yet incorporating live events into your business strategy, you need to. If you are, here are eight tips to help you achieve success.
1. Email nurture year round
As with any other marketing campaign, you should have an email timeline in place for your event marketing campaigns. Keep your attendees engaged by communicating with them before, during and after events. Make sure they have all of the information they need and consider offering promotions to drive registrations.
2. Track key performance indicators (KPIs)
To demonstrate return on investment (ROI) and make informed decisions, you’ll want to track KPIs. Which KPIs you’ll track will depend on your unique goals. Some KPIs worth tracking include gross revenue, cost to revenue ratio, registrations, social media engagement, speaker engagement, sponsorship engagement and customers acquired.
3. Leverage stakeholders
Your speakers, partners and sponsors have as much stake in the event going well as you do. Make it easy for them to help build buzz by creating graphics that feature them and then sharing these graphics on social media, making sure to tag them.
4. Design an events website with SEO in mind
Organic search accounts for about 28.5 percent of all traffic driven to websites on the internet. Make it easier for people to discover your event and in turn register for it by implementing sound search engine optimization (SEO) practices that make it easier for Google to find and rank your site.
5. Use a holistic events cloud solution
Don’t settle for event management platforms that can help you with event registration, marketing or engagement. Choose a holistic cloud-based event solution that can do all of the above and more. Having all of the tools you need in one place will provide you greater power and convenience.
6. Create an event hashtag
Use an event hashtag and place it prominently on your website. Encourage website visitors and event attendees to use the hashtag when engaging on social media. Not only is this a great way to encourage conversation about your event, it’s also a great way to track engagement.
7. Record live video
Live video is extremely powerful. A study by Livestream and New York Magazine found that 80 percent of respondents would prefer to watch live video from a brand than read a blog. Use live video before events to drive registrations, during events to increase engagement and after events to create FOMO.
8. Integrate your event data
Executing on event marketing strategies involves plenty of data points across various platforms (e.g. customer relationship management, event software, marketing software). To get the most out of this data, you will want to find a way for your various platforms to “talk” with one another so that you can make informed decisions with all of the data available to you. Choose an event platform that has integrations that matter to you or make use of third-party integration solutions.
The through line for all of these tips is that event marketing is becoming increasingly data-driven. As you continue your event marketing efforts, let data be your guide.