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Event sponsorship is dying – marketers must pivot to a partnership model

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By Mike White

As new event paradigms dawn, event sponsorship is dying, says Lively’s Mike White. Promoters and brands clinging to the traditional sponsor paradigm will be left in the dust.

Marketers have long turned to events as an advertising vehicle, for good reason. Event marketing is one of the most impactful channels for bringing a brand story to life. A study about the influence of events showed that 93% of consumers feel live events have a larger influence on them than television ads.

It makes sense. Events afford brands an opportunity to build brand awareness with consumers in controlled environments that leverage a shared community, a moment in time, and a unique experience. When executed well, exposure to engaged audiences correlates with brand lift from association with popular events and entertainers.

But while there’s no question about the efficacy of events, the live event paradigm is desperately in need of a modern refresh.

Traditional experiential balances competing objectives

The first issue to overcome is a misaligned incentive structure that’s baked into traditional event sponsorship. Consider the typical brand-promoter deal wherein brands and promoters have different respective objectives.

Promoters want to sell tickets and add revenue to their bottom lines. Brands want to sell their products and achieve ROI from their investment. Since events are costly to produce, they often capture a sizable chunk of an annual marketing budget and, therefore, are under intense scrutiny.

This brand-promoter paradigm doesn’t even consider the motivations of audiences to participate in a one-of-a-kind experience, or the aspirations and needs of the event’s entertainers. (All parties, crucially, want to build community. More on that later.)

A new event paradigm: from sponsorship to partnership

The last two decades of my career on the bleeding edge of live and hybrid event production have taught me a critical lesson: because of disparate objectives between brand, promoter, sponsor, and audience, it can be hard to orchestrate a positive experience for all parties.

This is why sponsorship needs to be put to rest and partnership needs to take its place.

Under a partnership dynamic, all stakeholders invest and align on goals, using the following 4 steps.

1. Shift the event objective

First, marketers need to refocus the event objective to one goal that all stakeholders have in common: community building.

The objective is to convert event audiences who are there for the event’s entertainment into an always-on community so that you can create conversation and grow relationships and engagement over time.

This should align key stakeholders around a measurable goal, and overcome potential pitfalls of different objectives.

2. Integrate technology

Today’s audiences occupy more than a physical space in time. At any given moment, they’re connected to multiple environments across digital touchpoints, including social media channels, mobile applications, and other communication and streaming platforms.

To lose sight of these digital spaces is an immense opportunity lost, since an audience’s engagement in the context of multiple channels can expand the footprint of an event while building a shared community for the event’s partners.

At Lively, we’re highly attuned to these touchpoints. We call them ‘experiential media ecosystems’. When stakeholders are intentional about these ecosystems, they become owned channels for communication and engagement that live well past the one-time event.

Not only does this allow brands to experience sustained gains, but inviting audiences into an owned community offers rich and actionable data that can help marketers iterate meaningfully on strategy.

3. Focus on authenticity

Looking at event execution as a partnership means all parties align on the audience they want to engage. Authentic engagements between creative, sponsor, and audience are essential to successful activation.

Once brands and creators align on audience and messaging, brands can and should relinquish control to creative to allow them to communicate with audiences in ways that resonate genuinely.

4. Grow and engage the community over time

Event promoters have traditionally pushed back against hybrid and other tech-enabled events because they fear that streaming live events might take away an incentive for an in-person ticket purchase.

Promoters need to evolve their thinking, because streaming can expand the reach of live events, engage new audiences, and create fomo.

The content shared at live events does not replace the in-person experience. Instead, when events are well-executed, it makes our peer groups want to attend the following year.

If all three parties can benefit from an owned event community, it allows the audience to be engaged far beyond the event in interesting and meaningful touchpoints.

More than ever, events are ripe marketing vehicles for brand marketers. Ensuring that stakeholders are aligned is the key to reaping the benefits of experiential activations. Integrating technology to build and engage a community that lasts beyond the event invites new audiences and fortifies event interest. Promoting the community alongside all stakeholders will ensure that event ROI is even more than the sum of its parts.

Feature Image Credit: Unplash

Sourced from The Drum

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How can marketing change the world for the better?

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By Jenni Baker.

Does marketing have the power to change the world? The year 2020 has forced us all to redress the net result of the industrial revolution, which spurred mass consumption and throw-away consumerism. So, can our industry – with the abundance of talent, skill and creativity- champion for a better future for all?

The Drum and Facebook have partnered to bring together teams from brands and agencies across the globe to provide some answers to this very challenging question. The idea is to get together experts from the industry to find solutions to business and societal challenges to help create value for the people and the communities it impacts.

The creative brief

Uniting three markets under the theme of ‘stakeholder capitalism’ – with attention to inclusion and diversity – three separate teams in North America, EMEA and APAC were put together to answer the brief that involves a rethink of how small-to-medium size enterprises (SMEs) that are run by minorities operate, and how as an industry we can help create more resilient businesses especially in these unprecedented times.

Each of the three regions were given three separate briefs – The US (North America) team’s brief is to focus on women run SMEs. So how to overcome systemic social and financial challenges while starting and sustaining female-led businesses? Do they need to approach entrepreneurship differently?

For the London, UK (EMEA) team the theme was immigrant-led small business. Are immigrant-owned businesses the untapped potential? What are the challenges and opportunities of migrant founders and their businesses?

The theme for the APAC team is silver start-ups. A growing number of over-65s are now delaying retirement by starting their own firm, fueling a ‘grey business’ boom. What are their challenges, can we identify the most pertinent ones and solve those problems?

The first meet-up

Each of the teams kicked off their first virtual brainstorm session to find a campaign solution that would positively impact the lives of minority groups operating in the SME market. Each of the teams were also given mentors to help guide through the process.

Following is the list of the three teams:

Team US

  • Tom Spaven, brand director, Bombay Sapphire, North America (mentor)
  • Stephanie Walker, innovation marketing manager, Pepsico
  • Cassie Begalle, strategy and innovation brand Manager – U by Kotex, Kimberly-Clark
  • Iyanni Callender, junior art director, Strawberry Frog
  • Paola Ortega, associate strategy director, DDB Chicago
  • Michael Rodriguez, content strategist, 3 Leches Creative

Team UK

  • Arjoon Bose, marketing head- culture & brand experience (Europe-Australasia), General Mills (mentor)
  • Andre Campbell, partnerships lead, Mercedes-Benz
  • Fatima Diez, head of marketing, MunchFit
  • Shannie Mears, co-founder & talent chief, The Elephant Room
  • Jade Nodinot, former creative associate, BlackBook London
  • Emma Luxton, former senior account executive, Avantgarde London

Team APAC

  • Erica Kerner, SVP, marketing strategy & partnerships, ONE Championship (mentor)
  • Triveni Rajagopal, global digital director, skin cleansing and BPC, Unilever
  • Chandini Malla, senior manager, Diageo
  • Bryan Martin, social media executive, Reprise Digital
  • Adrianne Pan, planner, Havas Singapore

Team US: A fact-finding mission

Gender equality is at risk of being set back decades in the current climate – not just minorities in general, but especially women in it. In the US, the focus is on women-owned SMEs, looking at how female-led businesses can overcome systemic social and financial challenges, as well as addressing the different approaches that this cohort might have to entrepreneurship in order to succeed.

One such challenge was posed by keynote speaker Victoria Monsul Singolda, owner and creative director of Iris & Virgil, who discussed that though it might be true that for women-led businesses, their vulnerabilities as women and as small business owners are compounded, there needs to be a gender-smart approach because not all women-led businesses are the same.

“I never really thought of myself as a female business owner, I’m just a business owner. Maybe because my mother was very dominant in the household, she was a student, she was a business owner, she was a mum, we always saw her, we were always together. Maybe that’s why I never thought that there was something different or special being a girl.”

Headed up by mentor Tom Spaven from Bombay Sapphire, the team immediately honed into “resilience” and “impact” as the insights towards this gender-smart approach.

The team delved into discussions to align on common goals and objectives. The first step was to focus on the challenges in order to find the most creative solution – with three key take-aways that these women are lacking: Knowledge and resources to tap into; a community to help them venture into this new world; and platforms available to really share and have people learn more about.

The team then decided that the initial insight-led approach would begin with a fact-finding mission to assess the situation and the scale of the problem that the campaign needed to solve; followed by the consumer insight to understand the deep motivations and needs of the target to ultimately give the barrier they need to start to push against in order to solve the problem; and finally, culture listening around this topic – all of which would help to get a clear, sharpened brief about the real problem they are trying to solve.

Team EMEA: Move from ‘pivot to evolve’

On the other side of the Atlantic, Team EMEA, led by mentor Arjoon Bose from General Mills, tackled the untapped potential of ethnic minority and immigrant-owned founders, their challenges and opportunities.

“The last few months have been testing and I think we’ve all come up with a ton of learning. But I think we’re at that stage right now where we’re needing to move from pivot to evolve,” said Bose. “A growth mindset is what we’re going to have to need as we come out of this and prepare to get stronger and accelerate.”

After hearing from keynote speakers Sharon Jandu, director, Yorkshire Asian Business Association and director, Northern Asian Power List; and Steph Douglas, founder, Don’t Buy Her Flowers, it was clear that a heavy emphasis on networking, relationships and experiences, along with access to digital technologies, were key in bringing this community together.

“For an SME, they are so busy doing what they do that they don’t have the time or the capacity to think about what they can do – or they don’t have the networks to enable them to get the contacts to get investments or to get ideas. They are constantly running on a treadmill, trying to do and keep what they are doing alive. How can we stop them becoming so absorbed in their business that they can actually distance themselves and look at it from an aerial perspective?” asked Jandu.

The team identified the need to listen and learn directly from migrant-led business owners themselves to understand their experience, their struggles and challenges with direct feedback through focus groups and on-the-ground research. This would allow them to narrow down into one or two sectors that need the drive and support. They identified Facebook’s own small business community as a great place to start to create a questionnaire in order to gain invaluable insights to help shape their strategy.

“The opportunity that digital gives us to connect these immigrant-owned businesses with each other and provide each other with their own experience and their own knowledge can be a very valuable thing that we could leverage if it’s relevant to their challenge,” said Fatima Diez.

Team APAC: Reinventing and re-energising culture

With a growing number of over 65s now delaying retirement and fuelling a ‘grey business’ boom, the focus for Team APAC was on overcoming the challenges faced by the silver start-ups, particularly when it comes to navigating through the coronavirus pandemic.

Mentored by Erica Kerner from ONE Championship, the team was presented with a keynote talk by Jeremy Nguee, founder, Preparazzi Gourmet Catering; Batu Lesung Spice Company; who helped his mother set up Mrs. Kueh, a local sweet treat business. They touched upon some of the unique experiences and challenges of their business that they ran from home.

Hoping to learn from this experience and translate these lessons to help support silver entrepreneurs and home-based businesses through his volunteering role in the Hawkers United Facebook community, Nguee said: “I think this is going to be a very, very big market. There are a lot more home-based businesses coming up because of high unemployment in the market.”

Inspired by the talk, the team decided to focus on Singapore food culture and food service industry run by silver entrepreneurs, that has an international dimension throughout much of its history but continues to retain features firmly rooted in the locality so that the global and local are not always distinct. The team wanted to understand the different segments of businesses and the landscape in which they were working in.

“The complexities of Asia, the complexities of the segment, the types of digital, could become such a beast,” says Kerner. “My instinct is to start with the data. Starting a business now, no matter what your age is a challenge and a lot of small businesses are obviously struggling to survive. We’ve got a lot of things to think about. What aspect of this do we want to try to unbuckle?” asked Kerner. “In Singapore we are losing a lot of that Hawker culture and if we can find a way to re energise it, and bring more people back into it, it’s good for all of Singapore culture.”

The next steps

Over the upcoming weeks, the teams will continue to work on their campaign and then subsequently present the big idea for solving that problem.

The final ideas will be entered in The Drum Social Purpose Awards.

The Drum consulting editor, Sonoo Singh, said: I’m inspired to see the true power of marketing when used to promote issues that are critical to our societies, persuade a change in behaviours, and influence a positive shift in behavior that would benefit our environment. Having been involved with all the teams, I cannot wait to see the final outcome of this very challenging brief.”

By Jenni Baker

Sourced from The Drum

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The Future Of Networking And Events: There Is No Going Back

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By Ben Chodor

The past several months have forced businesses in every industry to assess their preparedness and flexibility. For some, that involved scaling quickly and becoming fully digitized; for others, it meant focusing on digital to bridge the gap while shelter-in-place orders were in effect around the globe. From what I’ve seen, the event industry experienced both kinds of changes. I have worked in the digital video industry for more than 20 years, and I had never seen such a quick, dramatic shift.

Events and conferences around the world have been cancelled, postponed or transformed into full virtual events. We are nearly six months in, and there still does not appear to be an end to social distancing in sight. As leaders, we want to remain optimistic, but the odds of being able to travel and attend in-person conferences and events remain low for the foreseeable future. It’s also worth considering how comfortable people will be with attending in-person events in the future. Will they want to go? Will attendees shake hands? How many people will be permitted indoors? These are all valid questions and conversations the industry is having.

As we think about reopening and what the future of networking and events will look like, it’s important to note that there is no going back. It’s unrealistic to think that the planning and learning curve that marketers and those of us in the event industry have experienced will be forgotten. However, the forced adoption of digital events has generated additional marketing opportunities and identified new ways to enhance the overall experience and maximize the potential for those participating.

Adapting to change is hard, and business leaders have been trying their best to understand what the new normal will entail. Change requires people to push themselves beyond their comfort zones, and because of that, not everyone is always in agreement. Not everyone will adopt a virtual event strategy, and some may be slower to transition. We’ve seen other industries experience similar changes like this. For example, in the early 2000s, digital media was on the rise and was considered to be the demise of print publications. Today, both print and digital remain. I do not anticipate that in-person events will fade from our future calendars and lives completely. Instead, I see virtual and physical events working together in tandem — as a hybrid, an insurance policy or another way to expand reach and capitalize on marketing to specific audiences globally.

Entering uncharted territory can be intimidating. Prior to the pandemic, virtual events were used in a limited fashion. Today, millions are attending virtual events from their homes, saving time and money and allowing themselves to comfortably partake in sessions and engage when they choose to. While the shift to virtual events may sound rather simple, there are several different elements involved that require coordination, collaboration and direction.

Here are some tips and suggestions for those looking to combine in-person and virtual events in 2021 and beyond.

Plan In Advance

We’ve seen events get cancelled completely or postponed due to severe weather, travel restrictions and now a pandemic. Rather than having to shift your strategy and revamp an entire event in record time, consider planning to have both in-person and virtual events from the beginning. By having the in-person event team and virtual event team collaborate during the initial planning phase, you’ll be one step closer to providing a smooth experience regardless of circumstances beyond your control.

Make The Experiences Complementary

Both events should have a creative element to them, but they should also intertwine and complement each other. If you are branding a venue a certain way or unveiling something special, be sure to marry the branding and hype across both events. Bring online and in-person attendees together by encouraging them to engage in your app and in chat rooms during live Q&As and more.

Give Sponsors The Chance To Reach Both Audiences

In-person booths now have the opportunity to become digital as well. Having an on-the-ground team go live on location at the sponsorship booths for those attending virtually can be a win for all parties involved. Organizers may also consider hiring an audio-visual team to set up projection screens throughout the venue to showcase online programming, questions, sponsorship reels or product demonstrations taking place from different locations throughout the world.

Catalog The Content

Map out what content will be available both in-person and virtually, and devise a marketing plan to promote the materials and maximize content distribution. This makes it convenient for attendees to access what they want when they want, and it also can decrease printing costs for vendors. Whether it’s marketing materials or recorded videos from on-site sessions, make sure the content is easily accessible for both virtual and in-person attendees. This gives the latter the opportunity to replay sessions and presentations they may have missed while attending other activities in different halls or networking.

While we wait for the world to return to some form of normalcy, it’s evident to me that we will not go back to where we once were. The events industry has evolved. Marketers, event organizers, attendees and businesses should embrace the new format, which blends the best of both worlds — physical and virtual. To continue to deliver exceptional experiences, consider the different audiences and their locations, and get creative in combining both in-person and virtual events.

Feature Image Credit: Getty

By Ben Chodor

Ben Chodor is President of Intrado Digital Media. Read Ben Chodor’s full executive profile here.

Sourced from Forbes

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Why marketers must look beyond cookies and rethink data in the 2020s

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By Thomas Hobbs

Marketers must stop prioritising strategies built around cookie data if they’re to succeed in the 2020s. Speaking on a panel at The Drum’s Predictions 2020 event at Sea Containers this week, Andy Chandler, Adjust’s VP for UK and Ireland, called for brands to evolve in the post-cookie world and start to work out whether they’re truly adding value to their customers’ lives.

“With Google Chrome getting rid of third party cookies, brands need to start looking at data differently or they’re going to very quickly get left behind,” he explained. “We are moving into a cookie-less world, where consumers are interacting more with apps than browsers, so the way we measure data needs to truly reflect that. We need to keep evolving and keep up with where people are, ensuring we add real value to their lives.”

A recent feature by The Drum explored the impact of Google’s plans to “render third-party cookies obsolete” and how brands must now respond. According to Ed Preedy, chief revenue office at Cavai, one solution could be for brands to use online messenger apps to speak directly to their consumers. He says messenger apps can ensure more tailored advertising and better conversion rates when it comes to making a purchase.

He added: “In 2019, there were 73 trillion posts across all messaging apps. And in markets like APAC and Latin America, something like 63% of consumers purchased over a messaging app or spoke directly to a business. These are becoming hotbeds for commercial opportunity and it will only grow in the decade ahead in the UK too.

“Messaging apps allow for a genuine two-way interaction. They qualify what users want and who they are almost instantly, so therefore the advertising that runs is contextually relevant. They will become so much more important as cookies start to dissipate. I think there will be a wider move to more personalised platforms, where advertising is less random.”

It was a frank assessment that Tanzil Bukhari, managing director for EMEA at DoubleVerify, very much agreed with. He insisted consumers now want to see more relevant advertising and that getting rid of cookies will ensure this happens more consistently. “The Google Chrome announcement will mean publishers have to offer much richer and directional content, and that’s only a good thing.”

Using data in the right way

But there was also a message of caution in the air, with Vodafone’s brand director Maria Koutsoudakis warning that brands and agencies who prioritise data too heavily risk becoming irrelevant, on a panel earlier that morning alongside Ogilvy CEO UK, Michael Frolich. Koutsoudakis asked the audience: “When was the last time you spoke to a customer? If you stood back from click attributions and A/V testing then what do you really know about your customers now?

“By only really focusing on data, there’s a risk we create a generation of marketers who don’t understand brand, consumers or behavioural change and aren’t agile enough to cope with it. There needs to be more of a blend of people being on the ground, really speaking to their customers, as well as having a good data strategy. If marketers only care about digital metrics then there’s a risk they become irrelevant in marketing in the 2020s.”

With consumer data obviously so important to the UK mobile network’s business, she admitted it has taken a back step to ensure it’s precious about protecting it. “We don’t sell this data as we can’t afford to lose our consumers’ trust,” she admitted. “Being so cautious might mean we get left behind, but I think it’s worth it as we can’t take any chances.”

Frolich agreed with Koutsoudakis’ sentiment. In the 2020s, he said ad agencies shouldn’t be using client and third party data unless they can absolutely prove it has a positive impact on creativity and this in turn enriches the lives of their customers.

“We aren’t a data company, we are a creative agency,” he insisted. “We use client data and third party data to feed our creativity and build better work that consumers then enjoy. If you’re using this data and it isn’t creating better human insights then you’re using it incorrectly.

“Agencies have bought big data companies and it isn’t working because they’re not using the information to create better marketing. If we can work with a client like Vodafone and use their data to feed better creativity then we’re winning.”

The sentiments around trust were picked on another panel, where Courtney Wylie, VP of product & marketing, Mention Me had a word of caution: “We’re going to continue to see this evolving trend of lack of trust. A declining trust in influencers, brands, marketing channels.”

However, the way the relationship between agencies and brands works will become a lot more adaptable over the coming years, with a one-size-fits-all approach now completely redundant. John Readman, CEO & Founder, Modo25, explained: “In past there were only two options: work with an agency or do something in-house, but we will see these lines blurring more and more. There’s no reason why a combination of both won’t be the best way forward.”

Talking about the way forward, Andrew Challier, chief client officer, Ebiquity predicted that the industry will finally see “the rebirth of creativity and the importance of creativity in engaging people and reaching people in a meaningful way.”

A more ethical way of thinking could impact Facebook and Amazon

As we move further into the 2020s, some of the event’s panellists warned that established retailers and social media brands could start to fall short, as consumers switch to a more ethical way of thinking.

“Yes, lot’s of people still buy off Amazon, but the fact Brits also want to become more engaged with their local community means independent retailers should be confident heading into this new decade,” predicted Hero Brown, founder of Muddy Stilettos.

She explained further: “We’ve noticed a real shift in our readers wanting to support the high street more and more, and there’s this ethical thinking coming through, which could be detrimental to an Amazon. Shoppers want real-life experiences, even from online brands. They’re starting to get tired of faceless fast transactions and want to see brands brought to life in a more physical way. This trend will only intensify in 2020.”

Meanwhile, Darren Savage, chief strategy officer at Tribal, would like to see Facebook’s dominancy recede in the social media space. “I think major firms who consistently lie will come unstuck in the 2020s as people won’t put up with it anymore,” he said. “An immoral toxic cess-pit like Facebook will come tumbling down.

“The blatant lies they tell around consumer data will mean people will leave the platform in much bigger numbers. Truth is more important than ever before and just being a big business isn’t going to protect you if you mislead consumers.”

Proving you’re making a difference

This ethical way of thinking also extends to a brand’s commitment to sustainability, and Misha Sokolov, co-founder of MNFST, believes this will only rise in importance over the coming years.

“I spoke recently to someone at the Volkswagen Group and he was telling me how they calculated they were responsible for 1% of all global emissions, and that’s why they now want to be carbon neutral within 10 years,” he said. “The smartest brands won’t just put a nice message on their packaging, but do something that has a provable positive impact on the environment and helping reduce climate change. It must happen automatically as brands will lose market share if consumers don’t think their being ethical enough. There’s no excuse in the 2020s.”

And businesses shouldn’t just think of sustainability in environmental terms either, with it also being just as wrapped up in how a brand and business treats its employees. Stéphanie Genin, global VP of enterprise marketing at Hootsuite, says employee advocacy will be a huge trend moving forward, as consumer want to ensure their favourite brands treat their staff good before supporting them with a purchase.

She added: “Employee advocacy and employee generated content will become so so important. When you empower employees to be the communicator of what your business stands for it really adds to brand value and boosts sales. I think marketers are missing a trick by not prioritising this more heavily.”

However, Readman, added none of this will work unless it’s part of a global governance policy. “It’s all good being sustainable and doing good things for employees in one market, but if it’s not something you’re doing consistently across the board then consumers will work it out and there will be a backlash.”

Meanwhile, for John Young, executive creative director and co-founder, M-is, as brands start to really understand the consumers through personal engagagement, “the advertising budgets will transfer into experiential budgets.”

Be as safe as possible

Another topic of conversation that came up throughout the day was brands ensuring the data they keep on consumers remains safe, especially as more and more of their ads are traded programmatically.

Francesco Petruzzelli, chief technology officer at Bidstack, said that 13% of global ads are currently fraudulent and that while major brands know it’s a “big issue”, they’re not necessarily doing enough to prevent it. “We acquired a publishing guard to protect publishers, but I find a lot of people aren’t thinking seriously enough about this issue. It won’t go away!”

Dan Lowden, chief strategy officer at Whiteops, added how he recently worked with a major brand who believed bots were accounting for up to 5% of fake views of its £10m campaign, but says his team worked out they were actually accounting for 36% of traffic.

Looking ahead, he concluded: “The bad guys aren’t going to let up and will keep on persisting with cyber crime in the 2020s. We all need to be serious about tackling this problem and do more to collaborate as an industry to ensure that marketing dollars are genuinely being spent on human engagement and not just robots.”

By Thomas Hobbs

Sourced from The Drum

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How to Market an Event: 15 Event Marketing Tips

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By Michael Brenner

A well-planned promotional strategy is vital for a successful event. These event marketing tips will help you get the word out about your event, reach the right audience, and build buzz for your conference, trade show, or corporate event in the run-up to its launch.

Quick Takeaways

  • An integrated marketing strategy is essential to maximize attendance and build buzz in the run-up to your event.
  • You should use a combination of content marketing, social media, email marketing, and video and podcast marketing in order to get the best results.
  • Marketing should start several months before your event and continue during and after the event, especially if you’ll be running it regularly.

1. Setup a Website for Your Event

While you can just put a basic landing page and contact form on your existing website, setting up a standalone website for your event means you can focus your branding and SEO efforts on the event itself.

Make sure you come up with a memorable domain name and build the design around clear CTAs that funnel visitors to a registration page.

2. Use Pop-ups on Your Site

Pop-ups may be controversial but there’s no denying that they can boost your conversion rate. Putting a pop-up on your website makes sure that visitors find out about your event and you can direct them to your dedicated site or landing page.

3. Include Guest Speaker Pictures and Bios

Popular speakers can be a huge draw for your event. Make sure you include a speaker page that includes photos of your guest speakers as well as their credentials, experience, and why they’re qualified to speak at your event.

4. Create Videos Showcasing Your Event and Speakers

Videos can be a highly effective form of event marketing, particularly when distributed across social networks like YouTube and Facebook.

You can easily put together a basic video to generate enthusiasm for your event using shots of the venue, details of the schedule, and footage of past events if you’ve run them before.

You can also use individual videos to showcase your speakers, including clips of them speaking. This can also set the mood, showing attendees what they can expect at the presentation.

5. Use Email to Market to Your List

Email can be one of the most effective marketing channels if you already have a list of loyal followers.

Start your email campaign several months before the event by announcing early bird ticket prices and the speaker lineup. You should continue sending emails regularly as the event approaches, with reminders about deadlines on discounted tickets and a finalized schedule and the last push for registrations a few days before the event.

6. Create a Hashtag for Your Event

Before you start promoting your event on social media, choose a hashtag that’s short and easy to remember and use it on every post.

This helps people looking for information about the event find all relevant posts easily, and it’s also a great way to boost engagement and buzz in the run-up to and during the event.

https://twitter.com/hashtag/SXSW?src=hash screenshot captured June 14, 2019 by author

7. Rebrand Your Social Media Profiles for Your Event

The banner graphics on your Facebook and Twitter pages are great places to show off your event and make sure the dates, hashtag, and website are always prominent.

If your event is very large, you may want to consider setting up separate social media accounts for the event. This provides a place for attendees to engage prior to the event and is a handy way to distribute news and updates as you approach the launch day.

8. Blog About Your Event

Writing blog posts about your upcoming event is an easy way to increase interest and push for registrations. It also helps to improve your SEO and attract a new audience who may be interested in attending.

Publish posts regularly in the run-up to your event. They don’t have to be detailed articles – just quick updates to the schedule and guest speaker profiles are enough to keep your readers interested and boost engagement.

9. Utilize Influencer Marketing

image source: https://www.fipp.com/news/insightnews/chart-importance-of-influencers

Inviting influencers in your industry to your event can be a great way to reach a wider audience and boost registration.

Having influencers at your event can also help greatly to promote it, particularly if you plan to run a regular event. Make sure you choose a photogenic venue and encourage attendees to post on social media with photos and live video during the event to get the most out of influencer marketing.

10. Create an Affiliate Program

As well as offering free entry and other perks, an affiliate program can be an effective way to encourage influencers to write and post about your event.

Create a unique promotion code for each partner that offers a discount on registration. Each person signed up for your affiliate scheme can then use this code when they post about the event on social media. Promotional codes not only encourage more people to sign up (everyone loves a bargain) but they also enable you to track who is generating the most referrals. You’ll pay a referral fee to your partners for each ticket sale they generate.

11. Write a Press Release

Distributing a press release about your event is the most effective way to get it picked up by media sites and news portals.

Journalists are more likely to use your press release if you can find a unique, newsworthy angle. Make sure to include all relevant dates, details of speakers, and how readers can register for the event.

You can also invite journalists and local media to your event and offer extra opportunities such as an interview with a guest speaker.

12. Use Paid Ads

PPC ads targeting keyword terms on search engines like Google and paid advertisements on social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram can also be a good way to increase awareness of your event and attract more registrations.

Social media advertising, in particular, enables you to target your ads to individual markets, and you can even retarget those who have visited your event website but haven’t bought a ticket yet.

13. Be Interviewed on Relevant Podcasts

image source: https://www.webfx.com/data/why-podcasting-matters-to-marketing/

Podcast interview marketing can be a fantastic way to build buzz about your event in certain industries. Some studies show that traffic from podcast interviews converts 25x better than blog traffic.

You can also encourage your guest speakers to be on podcasts, talking about their own work and brand, and mentioning your event.

Another option is to sponsor podcast episodes. With this paid method of advertising, the podcast host will introduce and talk about your event before launching into the main topic of the podcast. This can be particularly effective if you offer a promotional code for discounted registration to podcast listeners.

14. Optimize SEO on Your Event Website

Making your event landing page or website friendly to search engines is vital for attracting visitors who may not already know about your event and brand.

Optimizing for terms such as the topic and location of your event is essential as people looking for events like yours will be typing these terms into the search engine. For example: “digital marketing conference Florida” or “baby product trade show Chicago”.

Make sure to include your SEO keywords in the title and headings of your website, and add as much content as you can to create more opportunities for attracting search engine traffic.

15. Submit Your Site to Industry Websites and Directories

Many industry websites include a calendar or list of upcoming events that may be of interest for their followers, for example: Smashing Magazine’s directory of web design conferences.

These lists are often well established and have strong SEO, so it makes sense to get your event listed on as many of them as possible.

Content Marketing for Events

Need help with content marketing for your next event? If you are ready to get more traffic to your site with quality content that’s consistently published, check out our Content Builder Service. Set up a quick consultation, and I’ll send you a free PDF version of my books. Get started today and generate more traffic and leads for your business.

By Michael Brenner

Sourced from Marketing Insider Group

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