The success or failure of an event often comes down to one of many factors; numbers. Producing a spectacular event only works when you have enough attendees to appreciate it. Event marketing is the key to having a successful event. Your marketing needs to be responsive to the changes happening in the online environment. Adapting to changing audience behaviour is the way to see your event numbers reach maximum capacity. Here are some strategies you can deploy for your next event…
Experimental marketing and it’s impact on events
We’ve recently explored how experiential marketing can make a huge impact for your brand and your events. Creating pop up stalls and interactive experiences are great ways for the public to interact with your brand. These experiences foster recognition and positive associations with the brand. Use these to promote your next event or product launch and drive sales and hype. Take this to the next level by connecting this type of campaign to social media. You’ll see the word spread online organically. Use the event hashtag to build attention, and tie this into your online marketing campaigns as well.
A genuine human connection can also be a strong influence on peoples behaviour. Allowing attendees to interact with real people who represent your company or event can create stronger emotional connections, leading to higher attendance overall.
Image Credit: FBLive
Get personal
The days of mass-marketing email blasts are over (or they should be). While email is still one of the most effective ways to reach an audience, smart marketers are moving away from generic copy and towards personalised, targeted content. Make use of AI and smart email targeting software to segment your lists. You can target by demographic, time zone and previous engagement levels. As recipients move down the ‘sales funnel’, increase the personalisation to build engagement and encourage final ticket sales.
Get influenced
The rise of social media influencers has brought mixed results for marketers. The difficulty has stemmed from being unable to track the ROI accurately. Influencers can still be used, but you must have a straightforward way of tracking their impact on sales figures. Your ticketing software may be able to provide unique sales links, so you can track how useful the social media posts are. Be selective, and choose influencers who have proven success, and have an established audience that matches your targeted demographic.
Image Credit: CVENT
Get targeted
It’s no secret that it’s difficult to cut through the endless noise and constantly refreshing content on social media. Advertising on social is much like email – generic posts will not garner the same results as targeted campaigns. Make sure your content reflects the theme of the event and don’t hesitate to use video and live streams to encourage interactivity. A final point: most social media use is happening on mobile devices, so be sure to have your sales website optimised for mobile display.
Optimise and optimise some more
Automated voice assistants like Cortana, Alexa and Siri are making their way into everyday life. There are reports that indicate up to 20% of Google searches are conducted by voice. These search enquiries are constructed differently to typed searches. How does this relate to event marketing? It means that marketers will need to consider the way their websites are set up for SEO purposes.
Image Credit: Apple
Using long-tail keyword phrases can help direct voice searches to an event page, in addition to traditional SEO practices. Event marketers may also need to work with online experts to ensure the content voice-activated AI will find and read out is the most effective for encouraging high click-through rates.
Event marketing ideas
Have you had experience with any of these marketing ideas? We would love to hear from you if you have had either a positive or negative experience with these so we can improve upon what has been discovered. Alternatively, if you have more questions in regards to marketing techniques, ask your event organiser for tips and tricks.
For more information on Nectar CC and how we can help promote your next brilliant event, please contact Peta on 1300 878 815 or peta@nectarcc.com.au.
