For many organizations, events are critical to building an effective marketing strategy. Whether these events are online (webinars and virtual summits) or in person (conferences, workshops, or lunch-and-learn sessions), event marketing can be a cornerstone of promoting your brand, generating leads, and engaging with your target audience.
But planning, organizing, hosting, and following up after events can be a time-consuming and complex process. And having the right people on your team, between full-time employees and on-demand experts, is imperative in meeting your event marketing goals.
Following are tips on ensuring a standout event marketing strategy and details on how Simplicity can help you bring in a skilled event marketing consultant:
Before you begin the process of planning your event, carefully think through what you want to achieve. Do you want to generate leads, promote and improve brand awareness, or drive sales? Once you pinpoint your goals, you can tailor your event marketing strategy to reach them.
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Understanding who your target audience is, their consumer habits, what they like, don't like, respond to, and so forth is vital to any marketing strategy. But it is especially true in event marketing. Getting someone to watch a commercial or visit a website is one thing; asking them to take time out of their busy schedule to attend an event is a much bigger ask.
Considering your target audience's interests, behaviors, and demographics when planning your event will help encourage attendance and ensure that your event makes a meaningful impact and leaves a lasting positive impression.
Don't underestimate the power of social media, as it can be an excellent tool for promoting and creating buzz around your event. Utilize social media in the planning stages (to build anticipation around the event) and during the event. After the event, encourage attendees to share their experiences on social media platforms.
The best way to attract attendees is to create an event built around engaging content. Go beyond giving them a reason to consider attending – and strive to make them feel like they absolutely can't miss it.
Like social media, email marketing is a highly effective way to connect with potential attendees and promote your event. Send out regular communications leading up to the event, and keep your attendees excited about what's to come.
Everyone likes a little something, and offering incentives can be a great way to encourage attendance and drive engagement. Consider incentives like early bird pricing, giveaways, or exclusive access to specific sessions or events.
After your event wraps up, seize the opportunity to keep the momentum going. Follow up with your attendees and keep the conversation moving forward. Send out a survey to gather feedback, remind attendees to share their experiences on social media, and continue taking steps to build loyalty so when you host your next event, you'll see some familiar faces – and hopefully, they'll bring some new people with them.
Putting together a successful event marketing strategy takes work – and people. Simplicity can help you find dedicated event marketing consultants to help make sure your event is a highly successful one.
Do you need a communications expert to oversee event planning, communications strategy, speechwriting and keynotes, presentation content, and media releases? Or a marketing expert to handle social media, email, and overall event strategy? Or, perhaps, you're seeking a dedicated project and program management expert to help with event scheduling, logistics, budget management, agency and vendor management, and reporting and analytics. Simplicity can find you consultants with the needed expertise – and fast.
When you partner with Simplicity, you'll have someone working with you every step of the way – crafting a dedicated project outline specific to your needs and creating a shortlist of potential candidates. You can choose the consultants you want to have a practice working session with, and we'll set it up. Once you get a better feel of the candidates' working styles and event-related expertise, we'll guide you through the selection process. But our relationship doesn't end there; once you find the event marketing strategy expert you need, you'll be paired with a dedicated client success manager to ensure smooth sailing from kickoff to your event's completion.
