Do you know that you can increase the attendance in your event with the right marketing strategies? We live in a highly competitive world today and the internet has brought a lot of changes marketing strategies and traditional marketing does no longer fully cut it. Proper digital marketing strategies require a continuous evaluation to always stay fresh and valid.
Good digital marketing strategies are not so easy to create, you will need to use the right tools so that you can be able to increase your awareness, increase sales, and connect with your target market. Regardless of the size or nature of your event, you want it to be fully attended. Here are some creative digital marketing strategies that you can apply.
1. Make Use of Instagram Stories
Instagram has a Snapchat feature that you can use to create a story about your event. This feature has been around for more than 1 year and more people are learning to use it every day. Today it has over 300 million users and this is how far you will be able to market your brand or products.
Stories are one of the best ways of promoting your presence in any event. Use one of your sales team members to take up the task of inviting people to your booth once the event has begun. You can have some free giveaways because people like free stuff and if possible, get a sponsor or two so that you are able to reach a much larger audience.
2. Attend and Exhibit an Events Planner Expo
If you are planning an event, you need to be on the lookout for the next events planners’ expo. Such events will give you the platform to network with the right people who can help grow your business or give you better marketing ideas. This is also one of the best places to meet sponsors.
Events planner expos have meet and greets, parties, VIP networking lounges, and an exhibitor floor. These events can get sold out very fast and make sure you get a ticket on time.
Having an exhibit in such an event will help you to:
- Sell tickets on the spot
- Have the opportunity to not only market your event but showcase your entire brand too
- Position you as a leader and give you the right exposure
- Have face to face time with your target audience, sponsors, event planners, and other industry players
- Discover new and better trends and ideas from other exhibitors that can help in your marketing
- You will have the chance to showcase your event in the presence of over 3000 people who will be attending the event
Remember, since you are marketing your event, do not just attend the expo but take this as an opportunity to promote your brand by being an exhibitor in the event.
3. Use Geo-Targeted Search and Social Conference Hashtag
Geo-targeting is one of the tools that you will fall in love with while on your campaign. Geo-targeted search and social ads will help promote your brand’s presence before the event. Let your audience know that you will be attending these events and use the correct name of the conference and hashtag too.
Do not forget to let your target audience know what you and your brand will be offering in the event. Make sure you promote your presence early enough to attract as many people as you can and once they are there you can talk to them about your upcoming event too.
4. Make Use of Event Discovery Sites
People look for things to do or events to attend in their area online. You can reach such people by promoting your event on the online guises and apps that are available today.
Sites like Spotify, eventful, Goldstar, and Facebook attract people looking for a specific event. Once you have placed your event in such sites, try to make sure that they be able to buy the tickets right there. This trick will promote ticket sales and will also eliminate the risk of distraction when the buyer is checking out.
Events that sell their tickets on sites like Facebook have been known to drive double the sales than those that have to redirect the customer to a ticketing page.
5. Create an Event-Specific Website
In as much as a landing page can still promote your event, having a website dedicated to the event is better because it gives your audience the perfect opportunity to explore and have all their questions answered. You will also be able to fully talk about the event and get your target audience excited about it.
A well-constructed event website should contain:
- A very inspiring video on the homepage
- The location, date, and time of the event
- An agenda
- List of speakers if there
- The number of sessions. Depending on the type of the event
- An FAQ page
- Tell them why they should attend your event
- Any information about past events that you have held, its reviews, and testimonials
- Sponsors and sponsorship information
- Accommodations and travel page if it’s a long-term event
- Code of conduct
- A page where they can buy their tickets from
You can create a simple website with the help of platforms such as Wix because they provide templates that you can custom and work on easily.
6. YouTube Channel
YouTube is one of the biggest platforms that you can use. People spend a lot of time on YouTube and you can make these people attend your event with the right marketing strategy.
The first thing you need to do is to create a high-quality video for your event, give them a sneak peek of what you have in store and introduce a participant or two. If you will have any public personality attending the event, you can also ask them to be in your video and invite people to the event. Let the viewer know what they will be missing if they miss out.
You can also take advantage of the latest craze of live videos and broadcast live via YouTube Live in real time to your audience. You can show them what you are up to while preparing for the event.
7. Hold a Ticket Giveaway Campaign
It is human nature to love free stuff even when they can afford to buy. Spare some tickets and give them away for free. Be as creative as you can with such campaigns; you can hold a contest that will draw more interest to the event such that even if one does not get the free ticket they will still want to attend the event and will buy the ticket.
There are a number of creative ways that you can do this. You can create a hashtag and encourage your audience to use it, have them share the event on their social media pages, get likes and offer a free ticket or two for a certain number of likes, or tags.
Read the regulation of social media sites like Facebook and Instagram when putting up a contest and let your audience have fun as they try to win a free ticket while also marketing your event at the same time.
8. Invest in Professional Photography and Videography
In today's digital world, poor videos and pictures do not stand a fighting chance at all. You do not want people to dismiss your ad even before they view it. Everyone only watches what is attractive and inviting.
As you market your event, one of the very important digital marketing strategies that you should not ignore is having quality pictures and videos. This will also say a lot about you and your event.
Get a professional to take well-lit photos and videos that will clearly capture your main highlights.
Imagine trying to watch a video with a lot of background sounds and noise that could have been easily managed and edited with a professional. You definitely do not want your audience to watch that.
9. Let Your Content Marketing Efforts Aim Toward Leadership
When it comes to your blog posts, social media posts, and website copy content, it is assumed to be easy if you go for the low hanging fruit that is the search engine optimization. While SEO is good for blog posts and web content, it does not work the same magic when it comes to promoting your event.
Do not stuff keywords in your event marketing strategy and think that it will translate to attendance. It might give you the rankings but not the attendees.
Create a very thoughtful content instead that will position your brand as an insightful and influential brand. When people are drawn to your brand, they will trust it and will be able to not only buy but also share it.
10. Step up on Your Email Game
Do not just burst through your entire mailing list whenever you have an event or a performance. You might be missing your target with that kind of strategy. Try and segment your mailing list into categories:
A list of those who have bought your tickets and attended your events before
Those within a different demographic than your target audience
Those who have never bought a ticket before
Create mini email campaigns for each specific group with their own unique message. This kind of digital strategy is known as email targeting and email marketing platforms like MailChimp or Emma will come in handy when implementing this strategy.
A smart and clever digital marketing strategy should be able to make you sell every last ticket that you have. This should be your main goal even if you are working with an event organizer. Work as a team with your marketing group to ensure that you run a successful campaign.
Take Advantage of Every Tool Around You
The goal of digital marketing is to get everyone who has access to the internet. Therefore, you need to make sure that your campaign can be viewed well on a mobile phone, a tablet or a PC as well.
If you have sponsors, use their networks to advertise your event too. You can also network on other events but not on a competitor’s event and apply to speak in such events too. Here are some few questions that can guide you in creating the right campaign.
- Who is your target audience?
- What is their age group?
- What do they like?
- What are your goals?
Remember, a digital campaign does not need you to work hard but work smart because you will not have to run around with posters and flyers, it gives you the best chance to reach to millions of people at the touch of a button.
Break Down the Campaign
When it comes to digital marketing for an event, you should always plan your campaign into phases. Phase one can be all about the awareness so that your audience can save the date or dates in their calendar.
Phase two is where you want to promote ticket sales and you should aim at selling almost all of your tickets at this stage. Remember, you do not have to use the same technique all through your campaign, be creative and bring in fresh ideas and keep your audience anxious to attend the event.
Phase three is basically all about reminding your audience about the event and selling the last-minute tickets too. Engage our audience on your social media platforms throughout your marketing Campaign.
Consider These Digital Marketing Strategies When Planning Your Event
These digital marketing strategies when well implemented will have a huge impact on your ticket sales because you will be able to reach the right audience. When it comes to digital marketing for an event, you have a lot of options and platforms to make it a success. Utilize them all.
If you are planning an event and want the chance to promote it to the right audience as you learn from them too, we have what you are looking for. Visit our website and check out what we have in store for you. Feel free to contact us for more information.
