Whatever kind of event you are having whether it is an organised meeting, an online coffee morning or a new seminar, marketing is the key to making your event successful. I’ve put together a few different ways in which you can make your event more visible and get the most out of your marketing strategy.
Have a dedicated page on your website
The beginning of any event starts with its own dedicated page or even its own website. This is where people will be able to go, to find out more about your event. Make sure to have a great description that displays the time and place at the forefront, and also include in the description the benefits for any attendee. If you have past events that relate to the upcoming one, add some testimonials from third parties. These are great in convincing a potential attendee that this is the event for them!
Create great imagery
We are very visual beings and a great image that helps support your event can help in your marketing strategy. Make sure to make it a relevant image and keep the styling of any images the same across all platforms so that when somebody sees the logo or header images for your event, they know exactly what they are looking at.
Social media frenzy
The best way to market any event is to make full use of social media. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn are the main ones you should be concentrating your efforts on. If you have a budget for advertising think about using Facebook and Instagram Ads to boost your reach and get the word out to more people. Make sure you have a clear “call to action” links on your event pages or ads to make it as easy as possible for people to register or express interest.
Hashtags, Live and Stories
Another way of utilising social media is to use the functions already available to you. Think Hashtags for Instagram and Twitter and Facebook Live videos. They are a great way to drum up enthusiasm with behind the scenes goings on and they keep the event at the forefront of people’s minds. Snap pictures as you go and add them to your story on Instagram and Facebook. Make sure to keep the content going during the day of your event as well. People might watch a live video from the day and want to sign up for any future events that you may have.
Pre-event emails
Make sure to send information about your event to any email lists that you have. This is a great way to market the event to people that are already interested in your brand. Have a subject line that will evoke an emotion in your reader, they are more likely to open your email if they think they are going to miss out on something. So think along the lines of “10 things you don’t want to miss at this event.” Also think about your email sequencing, how many times you want to send emails out. Try not to spam your lists as this can result in them unsubscribing. Try a timeline similar to this one; 1 email the month before then every, 2 weeks, 1 week, 3 days, 2 days, 1 day and the day of the event.
Post-event marketing
After the event has finished make sure to keep uploading images or videos to your web pages or social pages that can be looked back on by attendees or potential attendees for future events. Send out a post-event email to your lists with some images and a summary of the day, and ask them to connect to your social pages for updates. Send out thank you tweets to your followers and any sponsors you might have had. In essence, this helps to round up the whole event and shows that you are thankful for all of your attendees.