Whether your event management is focused on conferences and trade shows, music and sporting events, or anything else, all events have something in common; a drive to engage and entertain their attendees. In the first part of this discussion, we talked about three ways to drive attendee engagement: defining/redefining KPIs, mapping out an effective social media calendar, and revisiting your event website's SEO. Here are three more of the best digital marketing strategies you should be using to help promote your next event.
Run a Compelling Email Campaign
Going back to the segments of your audience that are already in your brand’s orbit, well-strategized email campaigns are another hugely effective way to promote your events.
With features that will allow you to personalize your content, collect feedback, and gain regular insights that will make your campaigns far more cost effective, modern email marketing is brimming with huge benefits that you can’t afford to ignore.
Inviting people to ask questions about the event by highlighting a contact form, making it easy to share vibrant content across social media, and tailoring exclusive offers to active members of your mailing list can all be a major boon to your overall event promotion.
When it comes to events specifically, one of the biggest things to pay attention to is your subject lines, and how you can use them to create a sense of urgency in the run-up to your event. Here are a few examples of subjects that will do just that:
- [Offer] ends tomorrow!
- Just three days left to register for [event]!
- Only [X] spots left - get your ticket today!
- Act now and save [X] % on early bird tickets!
Any good email marketer will tell you that a successful campaign requires plenty of A/B testing, so start your campaign early and give yourself enough of a timeframe to gauge how your audience is receiving content relating to your event.
Just remember to keep your messaging brief, and avoid bombarding your mailing list with too much too often.
Don’t Let Up During the Event!
Though the bulk of your promotion is going to take place before the event, it certainly shouldn’t end as soon as the event officially starts. Active promotion while your event is in progress will not only have the potential to draw in a few more latecomers, but will also help to fortify your brand equity in the eyes of your audience, and support your event promotion in the future.
One good digital marketing strategy to employ when the event is occurring is to publish content that’s geared towards generating FOMO (fear of missing out). The Covid-19 pandemic created a spike in live streaming events, and many brands who used them saw an engagement spike around their future events as a result.
Live blogging through Twitter is another great way to drive engagement during the event, especially for festivals and large conferences. With any event, there are going to be people who saw all the right content and received all the right emails, but didn’t look into the event in enough detail to fully convert. By maintaining live updates of your event over Twitter, you’ll be able to show people a much more granular view of what they’re missing out on, and motivate them to keep an eye out for future events.
Encouraging real-time interaction through digital channels is another effective way to promote your event while it’s in progress. Live-streaming segments of your event through Twitch, YouTube, or another platform, and inviting those that couldn’t make it in person to field questions, will solidify the event in people’s memories whether they’re there or not. Furthermore, it’s an effective and easy way to remind your audience how much you value their input.
Finally, Learn from your Experience
Even after the event’s been shuttered and is on its way to becoming a distant memory, make sure you’re maintaining a hands-on approach to your marketing, analyzing the data gleaned from it, and ensuring that you’re applying the lessons learned.
Far too many professionals collect reams of data on the events they manage and then fail to act on the patterns they show. Don’t leave this to the competition, and make sure you’re leveraging attendee data to your benefit.
If you find that you had much more conversions from ads on a certain social media platform than others, then allocate more budget for this platform. If a survey taken at an event showed common themes in attendees’ comments, then take their advice. If the contact and demographic info that you gathered showed new and unexpected clusters, then let this inform your future ad targeting and content creation.
By taking steps to ensure your event marketing is constantly improving, especially in the time immediately after an event, you’ll make upcoming promotions significantly easier for you and your team.
Read Now: Part 1 in Digital Marketing Strategies to Help Promote Your Next Event.
Daniel Groves is a business growth strategist and author, constantly developing his knowledge and sharing his experience with like-minded entrepreneurs, business owners, and event growth strategists. Connect with Daniel on LinkedIn: danielgroves90
