Generate Pre-Event Hype With Content Marketing

by | Content Marketing

As most event planners know, the ability to build momentum is a crucial factor in any event’s success. Events, conventions, trade shows or conferences, they all begin well before the opening session, so generating anticipation requires a coordinated marketing effort over months or even years. Content marketing has emerged as a strategic tool to build excitement around events. Still, event planners don’t always have the time or the know-how to develop a content marketing campaign and thus may end up missing out on the benefits of this marketing strategy. In this post, you can learn why pre-event content marketing works and find tips on how to implement it.

Related: Digital Transformation in the Meetings and Events Industry

Why Content Marketing?

Content marketing is a form of digital marketing that involves the creation of materials that provide information and/or entertainment to a targeted audience. This content can include anything from e-papers to video to blog posts to infographics and including social media, podcasts, etc. 

Content marketing is different from advertising or traditional marketing in that it focuses on value. Offering free, relevant, and useful information makes a positive impression on the audience and can influence the decisions, as confirmed by recent statistics: more than 70% of marketers say content marketing has increased engagement and leads. Moreover, content marketing involves lower costs than traditional advertising but has better conversion rates.

This strategy suits the events industry, which is becoming people and experience-centric increasingly. And since delivering value is also the key concept here, pre-event marketing is a natural match that can increase your chances of reaching your target audience. For instance, you can reach potential attendees who don’t know about the event. A content marketing strategy can position your event online, making it easy to find in search engines or social media feeds. Remember that a staggering 96% of event attendees do an online search before attending an event, so this is a golden opportunity to present your event as something that cannot be missed – FOMO itself can be a powerful took motivating people to attend!

Related: Tips For Encouraging User-Generated Content At Your Conference

Pre-conference content marketing can also reach those who have already registered and build excitement in the lead up to the conference or event. Some attend because their employees send them and not necessarily because they have a strong desire to be there. But if they see the value and relevance of the business event, they’re more likely to spread the word, and word of mouth is powerful marketing. Lastly, content marketing can reach those who are undecided, and a timely piece of content marketing may be just what moves them to take action.

Pre-Event Content Marketing Ideas

Curiosity is an important motivator, and teaser campaigns keep the audience guessing and keep your event top of mind. Here it’s essential to create anticipation without creating unrealistic expectations, so always get the input from a professional with experience in the marketing world applied to events. 

Content marketing and social media marketing go hand in hand. You should create a calendar of posts leading up to the event in a variety of formats. Visual content and in particular videos are a must, as new research shows that people remember visual content up to 6 times more than written content. Short-format sneak peek or behind-the-scenes videos do particularly well and reveal a more personal or candid side of the organiser. The videos can feature mini-interviews with keynote speakers too – don’t forget that a well-known speaker is THE reason why many people attend a live event.

Posts promoting your event shouldn’t read like a monologue but should be all about interaction with the audience. Ask questions, request feedback, run polls (there’s a dedicated feature on Instagram Stories) – in short, keep the conversation going. You can also create a LinkedIn group, which works well to promote conferences and other professional events and allow speakers and attendees to interact before the event.

Related: Three Ways In Which Social Media Are Becoming Increasingly Event-Centric

Pre-event content marketing lends itself well to gamification, which can boost engagement since it’s proven to tap into psychological mechanisms like motivation, self-confidence, and purpose. You can achieve this by encouraging potential attendees to share event hashtags and offer them a fitting reward for inviting others to register for the event or conference.

In any case, it’s essential to create a branded and coherent pre-conference content marketing strategy that specifically addresses the interests and needs of your audience. Remember that the scope of those needs and interest may go beyond the actual event, so don’t forget to offer value by publishing content with useful information about the destination, what to do near the venue, transportation tips, etc.

Conclusion

Pre-event content marketing can generate awareness, build loyalty, drive up attendance, and ultimately boost ROI. Inbound marketing one of the most valuable marketing strategies for conference and event planners wanting to reach and engage as broad an audience as possible. If you’d like to learn how a tailor-made pre-event strategy can benefit you, get in touch today. As an expert creating content that generates pre-event hype, I’ll be happy to explore effective content creation ideas for your conference or event.

Nine Ninja Tips To Stand Out At Conferences And Business Events

by | Miscellaneous

Stand Out At Conferences And Business Events. Despite the growing popularity of virtual and online events, for many professionals, face-to-face networking remains one of the main reasons to attend a conference, if not the most important one, followed by learning. These events deliver information that helps professionals stay relevant and learn about the trends shaping the future of their industry. But often, delegates feel overwhelmed by busy conference schedules and huge events with hundreds or thousands of attendees. The result is, they end up missing the chance to network, which was, in fact, the main reason to attend. If this situation sounds familiar, you’ll want to keep reading to find advice on how to prepare for a conference or business event to ensure you stand out and meet your goals.

Stand out before the conference or business event

Preparation is the key to maximising the benefits of attending a professional event. It all starts with defining the ultimate goal or reason for attending. Goals vary from person to person, but often it will include generating new leads, meeting potential partners, getting referrals, or finding connections for a new role or job.

RELATED: Three Ways In Which Social Media Are Becoming Increasingly Event-Centric

Linked to goal setting, it’s also essential to decide who you would like to meet. The list of speakers circulates beforehand, so take some time to review it. At trade shows, the organiser’s website will often have an exhibitor directory that you can use for the same purpose. You can also follow the event’s hashtag in social media and see who’s talking about it online or planning to attend. Once you’ve made a list, start interacting before the event and if possible, arrange a meeting beforehand. Don’t leave it to chance – we all know how difficult it can be to find someone at a large event.

Business cards are a must, but in some ways, they’re underutilised, since they can be made even more personal by adding a handwritten message. This requires time, but it will make your card and name stand out among hundreds of other attendees who simply hand out their business cards. The message should be friendly and business-like and related to your goal or reason for attending. It can even be a shortened written version of your elevator pitch.

Stand our during the conference or business event

Standing up in front of large groups of strangers can be daunting. But there are ways of doing so in a way that’s helpful to others, so they will be more inclined to remember you.

RELATED: 2019 Exhibition Marketing Template

For example, have a look at the sessions you want to attend and for each session think about a question relevant to your industry that you would like to see answered. If the question isn’t answered during the session, use Q&A time to ask the speaker, or use your questions as conversation starters during breaks.

If a speaker made a point that was particularly helpful or you can relate it to your professional experience, you can use Q&A time to show appreciation. Share a personal story that reinforces the speaker’s point. Remember that storytelling is memorable and powerful and isn’t exclusive to speakers.

If the event is in your home town or in a city you know well, you could organise a meetup after the day’s sessions are over. Get creative and stand out, show attendees hidden gems in the city, or arrange informal meetings at a restaurant near the convention centre, offering insights into the industry in your location. This creates a natural and relaxed framework that can become a solid base for business connections.

Appearances matter, and in the world of casual, a polished and professional outfit can help you stand out from the crowd of delegates. Dressing well according to your own personal brand won’t only make an impact on others, but can also boost your self-confidence.

Don’t forget to make the most of social media: ultimately, these platforms are meant for socialising. Live-tweeting is effective in encouraging interaction, and replies to your tweets can generate exciting conversations that you can later follow up in person.

RELATED: Building Relationship Online With Social Media Marketing

And once the event is over, always follow up on new connections. Go through the business cards you have collected and send a personalised email to everyone you have met.

Conclusion

Standing out at conferences and trade shows doesn’t have to be intimidating, but it requires some planning before and after the event. With a little bit of preparation and attitude, success is in your hands.

Does Your Conference Need Social Media?

by | Social Media Marketing

Social media for conferences is absolutely essential. In the digital age, there is no question about it. As we have touched on before, this is where your target audience lives.

According to Eventbrite, close to 25% of traffic to event registration pages comes from social networks, and people who register after hearing about your conference on social media are 3X more likely to share it with other people.

Firstly, social media effectively serves as a platform for you to communicate with your target audience. Through engaging with them you can build a community, generate brand awareness, increase customer relations and loyalty.

As an association, it is imperative you achieve the following objectives:

  • Increase customer familiarity
  • Improve customer satisfaction
  • Grow brand awareness
  • Determine market positioning
  • Develop competitor insights
  • Identify and establish relationships with partners
  • Keep the conversation going after the event
  • Build a community
  • Generate new leads

Furthermore, to achieve any of this, you need an in-depth digital marketing strategy. Social media for conferences can be quite challenging, but we have got you covered! Try out these 3 tried and tested strategies.

1.  Create a unique hashtag

Regarding social media for conferences, you cannot overlook the power of the hashtag.

By utilising a hashtag consistently, you will boost the online conversation around your conference. When people discuss your event online, they will use the hashtag – especially on Twitter. When delegates post photographs online of themselves at the conference, they will utilise the hashtag.

Just pick one, keep it simple and use it every single time you post.

It can potentially:

  • Group together all online conversation and media around your conference
  • Allow your audience to easily connect with one another
  • Encourage their followers to join in your conference conversation and find out more about it
  • Increase the online exposure of your association and conference

You should make your hashtag clearly visible in the following places:

  • Your social media biography’s
  • Your entire association’s email signatures
  • On registration and website pages
  • Encourage speakers to use it in their online interactions leading up to the conference
  • On all your branded material
  • Use it in all your social media interactions

2.  Organic sharing

In order to promote organic sharing, you first must make it easy for your audience, partners and keynote speakers to share your content or event page online.

This can be done by getting a web developer to include social sharing buttons across your conference website. Furthermore, use your followers as a resource. By urging your followers to engage with your content, you will gain deeper insight into what they value. You can achieve this through the following:

  • Telling a story
  • Sharing an experience or behind the scenes content
  • Speaking about current events within your industry
  • Highlighting and discussing a previous speaker’s speech or theme from a past event
  • Pointing out something important about your audience
  • Sharing compelling visual images
  • Asking an intriguing question
  • Discussing relevant facts
  • Being humorous – sharing unique humour relevant to your audience and industry
  • Telling them why you are hosting the conference – why you are interested in the topics that will be addressed
  • Explaining to your followers why attending the conference will be beneficial to them
  • Asking them what activities they would like to engage in on the day
  • Asking them what they would like speakers to address at the conference

Further to this, ask your partners and keynote speakers to invite their followers to your event page. This way you will harness their following and take a step forward towards expanding your community.

Provide them with everything they need in order to do this. Make it easy for them by supplying them with a content pack including branded images, relevant hashtags, proposed copy and links.

3.  Targeted social media advertising

Social media is a cost-effective strategy for promoting your conference because you can allocate budget for paid advertising which gives you the opportunity to reach people beyond your followers, based on the demographics and psychographics of the audience.

You will first need to identify your target audience as this is an effective way to reach like-minded people that will most likely want to attend your conference or at least show interest and hopefully attend the next one. In addition, you can also use paid advertising to retarget already interested users. For instance, through Business Manager on Facebook, you will be able to identify who has clicked on your registration link but may not have gone through with the full process. These could be individuals who are interested but are waiting for a payday in order to purchase a place at your conference.

By retargeting users, you can remind them of your upcoming event.

Social media for conferences can be a tricky and tedious task, especially in the last three months leading up to the event. Outsourcing your digital marketing is a cost-effective way of ensuring you reach the right people and that your interactions online are professional and productive. Above all, get in touch with me today for advice on digital marketing in the MICE industry.

5 Key Elements for Successful Conference Promotion

by | Conference and Event Marketing

Conference planning is a demanding task to manage and implement. From the months of preparation to the environment leading up to it and balancing the needs of delegates and speakers on the day. There is nothing more disappointing to a conference planner than having unsold conference tickets as ticket sales are a direct indication of how well you promoted the event. Conference promotion can make or break your event, but before we get to that, you need to consider the following aspects:

Clarify Your Objective And Target Market

What is the purpose of your conference? What would make it a success? This comes down to figuring out exactly what your target audience wants.

For a conference and its promotion to be a success, this needs to be addressed. Once you have established this, you should then have a clear objective and purpose based on the needs of your audience.

Topics And Agenda

Once you have clarified your objective, you need to then decipher which topics and questions your speakers should be addressing. What agenda will help them relate to your target audience best?

Guests And Facilitators

A capable facilitator is crucial to you’re the success of your sessions or workshops. You will need to find someone who is articulate, agile and has enough knowledge of the topic to ask the right questions.

When it comes to selecting your guest speakers, it will prove highly-beneficial if you recruit individuals who have an online presence.

Picking someone with the relevant expertise and experience is a given, but the more credible they are the better as this will boost awareness around your event when you start to promote it (more on this later).

Now to avoid a futile attempt at hosting an event, use these 5 key elements for successful conference promotion.

Create Videos

This is the direction online advertising is currently moving in. Incorporating video into your online promotion will result in higher, more responsive engagement. Don’t panic, it can be done inexpensively.

Just create a simple interview-style video with your guest speakers highlighting the objective and major topic of your conference. Ensure the mention the value in attending.

Thankfully, there are DIY video editing applications that are capable of producing professional looking results and which allow you to work off of templates. All that is required of you is editing the clips you choose to upload. You can even add sound.

Email Campaigns

Email campaigns are very effective for conference promotion. The ROI on email promotion averages at 38:1. Some may say it is a dated method of promotion but the numbers and results state otherwise.

Again, there are incredible, user-friendly tools for doing this. MailChimp will allow you to shift all focus on the content.

This application allows the user to upload a list of recipients, manage subscriptions and track the open rates.

The only real work you will need to do is create engaging content to include in the mailer. You can also send out emails in phases, such as announcing early bird tickets, competitions, surprise speakers and “preparing for the event’ emails.

Create a Conference Hashtag

Social media will be your most powerful means of promotion, and when looking to have engaging conversations with your audience, Twitter is the most popular social media channel. You will also be able to leverage your conversations and connections on LinkedIn.

You can start by creating a conference hashtag. This will encourage people to engage in online conversations.

Use something simple like the acronym of your event name followed by the year. This can be easily monitored. Include the hashtag on all your branding online and on the day/weekend of the conference. This way, when delegates attend, they will utilise the hashtag when posting online.

Further to this, look for relevant conversations that your target audience might are engaged in and join in. Offer value in your responses and you will get the right attention.

For hashtags specifically related to your conference, conduct a search on Twitter using keywords that are connected to your industry, then join in on those conversations. This method of conference promotion is entirely free, it just takes a lot of effort.

Create Valuable Content

Instead of push-marketing, why not instead give your target audience interesting content that they can use and share? Try to establish your brand as a thought leader on specific industry-related tropics.

Share information on guest speakers and their influence, insight into the topics they will be covering and why. Be relatable, be valuable. Do not simply promote the price and submission deadline for the conference.

Why is it valuable for delegates to attend your conference? Other than industry insight, it is about networking.

After you have announced your guest speakers and keynote speaker, ask them to talk about your conference to their own audience. Having someone credible speak about your event will generate invaluable interest leading to an increase in ticket sales.

Search Engine Optimisation

According to Eventbrite, search (Google) can drive between 5-10% of ticket purchases or registrations.

You can achieve this by ensuring your pages (landing pages, web pages, blogs) are SEO-optimized.

Do the following to rank higher in Google:

  • Add your event name, a keyword, and the location of your conference (city) in your title tags
  • Include your event name and relevant keyword in the “Header 1’s” of your pages
  • Finally, add the address of your event and embed the google map location of your conference on your pages.

If you are unfamiliar with keywords, view this guide. To use keywords to your advantage when actioning conference promotion, you need to discover which key phrases are relevant to your event.

Use Google’s Keyword Planner to understand keyword performance, test multiple keywords, and compare keywords to each other.

Related: Social Media Marketing for the MICE Industry

Conference promotion takes a lot of research and commitment. There are many different methods such as influencer marketing and even outsourcing your marketing altogether. If you need expert advice or a proficient support structure, get in touch with me.

The Pivotal Role of Social Media in the Hospitality Industry

by | Social Media Marketing

Social Media in the Hospitality Industry. It can be argued that the hospitality industry is entirely unique in the fact that success or failure will often depend much more upon customer reviews as opposed to discrete products or services. In other words, the opinions of others will have a massive impact regarding how a business is perceived. In the past, this equated to simple word of mouth or the recommendation of a friend. Social marketing has now undeniably changed the playing field. What are some of the most notable impacts within the hospitality sector? More importantly, how can hotels and similar properties leverage this tool to their advantage?

The Surprising Role of Social Media in Hospitality Industry Sectors

Sites such as Twitter, Facebook and Instagram can have a massive influence on the perception of a certain hotel (or a chain of properties). To put this in perspective, it has now been shown that no less than 75 percent of all consumers will consult with a social media outlet before committing to a product or service¹.

Related: Social Media Marketing for the MICE Industry

No longer is a static web page sufficient in and of itself to attract customers and to drive business. This is to say nothing about major online hospitality review sites such as TripAdvisor or Booking.com. Now that we can appreciate the fundamental role of social media in hospitality industry sectors, how can businesses capitalise upon its influence?

The Most Frequently Used Networks

To appreciate what customers may be saying, it is first critical to know which sites they are visiting the most. Keep in mind that this may not necessarily be popular portals such as Facebook or Twitter. Due to the rise of the smartphone, guests are now utilising locations which allow them to post pictures and descriptions (such as Instagram). Identifying which sites are popular is the first step towards effective customer relations management.

Engagement: The Key to Successful Social Media Marketing Success

Engagement is the very same rule which applies to every modern business. It is critical to socialise with customers, and this is why the concept of “social marketing hotels” has been created. Guests need to feel as if their needs are being addressed. Proactive client engagement will serve two primary purposes:

  • It will contribute to building brand loyalty over time.
  • Any problems can be identified and rectified to avoid future complaints.

It should also me mentioned that other patrons would see that the hotel takes the needs of its patrons seriously. This is an excellent form of passive social media marketing, and within the hospitality industry, such a benefit cannot be overlooked.

Social Media in Hospitality Industry Promotions

Social customers simply love hearing about new promotions and deals. As a growing number of consumers are now relying upon social networks to retrieve valuable information, it only stands to reason that such bonuses should be made visible. Customers can be rewarded by following or “liking” a specific page while they are also able to be sent timely newsletters. These strategies are other effective ways to build brand recognition and loyalty.

Pipeline Management

Social media should always be employed as a form of pipeline management. While sales data and occupancy rates are important, these may not provide the “big picture” necessary to make the most informed decisions. Social media posts and comments will provide an additional level of insight, and as a result, specific marketing campaigns can be tailored around trending subjects and issues which guests find the most appealing.

Regular Updates for SEO Improvement

On a final note, it is crucial to mention the importance of online exposure about social media posts. Greater degrees of interaction will cause SERP rankings to increase. In turn exposure within the hospitality sector can grow. This leads to higher click-through rates and ultimately, greater success.

Related: Social Media Networks Basics: Consistency

The concepts of social media in the hospitality industry needs to be taken seriously in these modern times. To learn more about this subject or to discover even more turnkey solutions based on your requirements, please feel free to contact us and speak with a dedicated specialist.

The post The Pivotal Role of Social Media in the Hospitality Industry was first published on fmwaechter.com. Author Frank M. Waechter.