There are hundreds of tiny details that go into creating a successful event and its marketing. Venue, parking, catering, DJ, lights, speakers, influencers, fliers, socials, and what’s going in the giveaway bags. Sometimes assembling all these elements can seem impossible, but these tips will show you how your digital marketing strategy can actually help reduce your workload and increase your event’s exposure.
Branded social accounts
One of the most popular options for companies, especially if this is a recurring event, is to create a completely different set of social accounts using the event’s name. This way, when your exhibitors, speakers or attendees want to tag your brand, they can do so with your main social handle or the one specifically created for the event. Like an expert digital agency, these social accounts will also help you build a community users can go to for all things pertaining to your show; they can post updatFes, ask questions and get familiar with the people and brands that will be in attendance.
#YourEvent
Making a hashtag that coincides with your conference will help your posts become more discoverable because they add an interactive element to your social media marketing. In fact, Tweets with hashtags actually get twice as much engagement than those without, and receive 55% more retweets! Socials are all about engagement, and that’s what you want to drive while preparing for your event.
Another plus side of using hashtags is that it keeps posts organized and your team, as well as attendees, can easily click on the hashtag and find relevant posts. You can comment, react and like as you please to show your audience that you’re engaged and actively participating in the digital conversations revolving around your event.
Post teasers
Including videos into your event marketing is a must, with 51.9% of marketer’s worldwide naming video as the content that drives the best ROI. Release video bios of the speakers you have lined up, or include testimonials from last year. Follow up with the latest SEO trends 2018 to post relevant content that will drive impressions. If you aren’t experienced with iMovie or Final Cut Pro, you can always ask a digital agency to help you with your event marketing. The point of these teasers, aside from driving conversions, is to get your audience excited!
Make a countdown
While there are a bunch of details your team needs to cover before the event, there are also lots of loose ends attendees need to tie to prepare. Having a countdown via your socials will remind your followers how much time they have before the big day! Include reminders about ticket sales, booth equipment, agenda, and lodging to help keep registrants on their a-game. If you have special discounts going on, this countdown will also double as a call-to-action for them to register and purchase equipment earlier.
Plan out giveaways
Who doesn’t like free stuff? When planning giveaways in your social media marketing strategy, plan to have a couple before, during and after the event:
- Before the event, ask users to simply tag three friends they think would be interested in attending. This way you’re increasing your audience and you may even get a couple new registrants because of it!
- During the event, ask users to stop by your booth, take a picture and post it to enter the giveaway. This tactic helps drive traffic and engagement.
- After the event, ask attendees to provide the best email or phone number to reach them so you can follow up with their experience!
Leave on good terms
During the event, whether you have lead retrievals or just signup sheets, you should be collecting contact information from the attendees. Ideally, you will have a massive collection of emails, which is ideal because 86% of professionals prefer email when communicating for business purposes. Send emails to attendees reminding them of the key takeaways and ask them for feedback; employ an agency and set up an automation system if your show has a large number of attendees; ask audience members to review their experience and remind them there’s always another event on the horizon to keep them interested.
For consumers who weren’t lucky enough to grab a ticket, offer digital access to the videos from the event to increase its longevity. Let your audience know there are loads of different ways to support your brand, even if they couldn’t be there in person.
Wrap-Up
Hopefully these tips have showed you that event marketing can help lift a weight off your shoulders. Small actions made through social media marketing can actually have a huge impact on your event and attendees. Let’s look at those tips one more time so they can help inspire your next digital marketing plan:
- Create branded social accounts to build a digital community surrounding your event.
- Make a hashtag your audience can use in posts relating to your event to drive engagement.
- Upload teaser videos on your socials to drive your ROI and get registrants excited.
- Start a countdown to remind your audience of important dates leading up to the event and encourage their registration.
- Plan giveaways at different points of your event timeline for different goals.
- Follow up with email marketing strategies to increase the longevity of your event long after it has ended.
Good luck, and if you try out any of these tips, let us know how it goes!
About the author:
Therese Palmere is a content writer for Aumcore, a digital marketing agency based in New York City that specializes in Brand building. Therese writes on a variety of topics that range from social media marketing and event planning, to search engine optimization (SEO) and eCommerce.
