There are a ton of different ways to market events, depending on your audience and specific goals. It’s essential to have an effective market strategy to ensure that your next event has the attendance, coverage, and outcome your business, organization, or group needs.
Event website
Whether you are organizing a large-scale professional conference or hosting a webinar, an event website is a great way to spread the word and ensure guests have all the important information they need to attend.
Building an event website can take some time and resources, but you’ve got an accessible platform to share vital info after the initial investment. It’s a good idea to have the essential event details, such as the location, time, date, and any required attendee info, available to view on the website.
Once the site is set up, sharing the event invitations is as easy as sending a link. This also makes it quick and simple for the guests and the event marketing team to get the word about the event by posting the URL on social media, creating QR codes, and more.
A website is especially helpful if the event you are planning is complex—if there are multiple buildings that the attendees need to travel between, several keynote presentations at different times, or lots of workshops to choose from, having a website with all of the relevant information can keep the guests from getting too overwhelmed.
Live Stream
Live streaming is becoming an increasingly popular way for people (and companies) to connect with a virtual audience. It’s a great way to harness the latest technology to interact with a larger digital customer base successfully.
Live streaming allows your distant stakeholder to participate in the event they may not be able to attend in person. It also allows your guests to share the amazing elements of your event with all of their friends. Just like with an event website, creating a live stream link is a quick and easy way to make your event shareable in online environments.
Additionally, you can use interactive video capabilities to showcase the features and happenings going on throughout the event, and building up a consistent viewing on the live stream may lead to higher attendance in the future.
There are multiple options for streaming across many social media and entertainment sites, from Facebook Live to YouTube to Twitch. To live stream for event marketing purposes, it’s essential to know the preferred online environments of your prospective audience and ensure that your live streaming options match.
Social media marketing
Live streaming is far from the only way to harness the power of social media to market your event. Through the power of hashtags, informational posts, and strategic user interactions, social media can be used to generate a ton of interest in your event.
In the United States, over 70% of adults use social media, so it can be an incredibly effective method for generating interest in your event. However, people use different social media outlets depending on their preferences, so having a social media plan based on your target demographic is highly recommended.
Here are a few tips to help maximize your social media marketing strategy:
- Have a dedicated social media marketing expert on the team.
- Research your audience and their social media preferences.
- Use multiple channels and outlets (Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, or YouTube).
- Explore trending hashtags across the different social media platforms and consider incorporating them into your event’s marketing plan.
- Cross-promote your event across channels and on your website.
- Create eye-catching visual content, such as infographics or videos.
This will make it easier to reach the smartphone-connected prospective attendee and provide an easy outlet for sharing pictures and videos, thus marketing your event further!
Influencer marketing
One of the marketing strategies rapidly gaining in popularity is influencer marketing, which relies on partnerships with key influencers to spread the word about your event. Simply put, influencer marketing is the new celebrity endorsement.
The advantages to marketing with an influencer are that they typically already have a wide following, so you immediately have access to a large, established audience for your marketing efforts. Influencers are also skilled at connecting with audiences across multiple channels and media, so they are great for expanding your digital marketing plan into new areas.
Before reaching out to an influencer, ensure that their message and intended promotional strategy fit your industry, event, and prospective customer base. When you find an influencer to represent your event, be sure to check out their content before inquiring about a marketing partnership to make sure that they can support your event’s objective.
You can also invite influencers or offer free admission to generate online interest in a cost-effective manner. It’s a good idea to give the influencers all of the information about your event website and social media plan so they can share the links to their pages as well.
Email marketing
Despite the ever-increasing popularity of social media and influencer marketing, many professionals agree that emails are still one of the best ways to market an event.
To avoid annoying your customer base or creating an ineffective campaign, it’s a good idea to create an email marketing plan that encompasses the target demographic, email strategy, information, and audience. Ensure that the final email is professional in appearance and contains everything that a guest needs to know before attending.
Since it’s often simple to collect pre-registration information from attendees—such as email addresses—emails are often a great way to communicate essential information to those who plan on attending your event. Emails are also easy to share, giving the guests an easy way to pass along invitations and event details to other prospective attendees.
Marketing your event for optimal turnout
The only way to gain attendees for an event is to create and execute an effective event marketing plan. Consider an event website, a live stream, social media marketing, influencer marketing, or an email marketing campaign to spread the word about your event.
People can’t attend an event that they don’t know anything about; incorporating the tips above ensures maximum turnout!
Author Bio:
Romy Catauta works in the marketing field and is passionate about writing on web design, business, interior design, and psychology.
