How and When To Market Events
Amazing news, you have an event coming up that you have either planned yourself or are going to attend! You are one step closer to more brand exposure. But what happens now? Well, you need to let people know. It’s time to market.
So, When Should You Start Marketing For An Event?
Ideally, as soon as possible. Even if the event is a year away. Now this doesn’t mean all your content for the next year or so should just be about the event, you need to space it out.
If your event is a long time away, just post any major updates, such as links to tickets on sale or who from your business will be attending. Then as you get to a few months away, post on social about once a week to keep the interest alive. This is also a good time to send out your first set of marketing emails.
Once you get to the final weeks or even days, you can start to push out even more. Post on social media every few days and send your reminder emails. This is the time you can create a sense of urgency and give your audience FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out).
Left things to last minute? No worries, you just got to push out content as soon as it’s ready. Ideally every few days, condensing this down to every day in the last few days. But remember, this shouldn’t be the only thing you talk about.
Pro-tip: Don’t lose sight of the purpose of the event and try not to take advantage of events you aren’t actually attending.
You Can Also Post During And After An Event
This may be a big event for you… so celebrate. You did it! All your hard work has paid off. But those not lucky enough to attend want to know what’s happening. This is a great time to live stream parts of the event on Facebook, Instagram and even LinkedIn. Many people even live tweet events. It’s probably the only time you can get away with mass spamming on social media.
A great bit of advice is: get as many videos, images and testimonials as you can, so you have as much content as possible to post after the event.
Following the next few days after the event, you can reflect on how it went. Did it go well? Would you go back? Who did you see there? All this content can go into a round up post, blog, email or even vlog or podcast. You can then put all this together into a case study for you to share with current and future clients.
You know the when but what about the how?
The obvious one is social media. Get the event information, relevant links and any updates you have out on your social media platforms. You can even mix it up. Use polls on social media to ask your followers who would be interested in going, post teaser videos or even share a QR code to a digital poster.
Get on the #’s and @ the event. All decent events should have a dedicated #, which is usually followed by the year. Find the hashtags used by the events page and use these within all your content. You can even tag the event page or the company responsible for the event. If it’s up to you to create the hashtags, then be original but obvious. You want your hashtags to be easy to find and spell. You should also use the same hashtags throughout all your posts about the event.
Use resources provided by the event coordinators. If you are attending an event, rather than creating your own, then chances are the organisers will have materials for you to use. You can even share your material with them. However, they may charge a small fee to promote through them.
Make your event difficult to get to. Sound a bit silly but it really does work. This gives your event exclusivity and will really drive out the FOMO in people. The best example of this I have seen is literally making it difficult to get to… buy not telling anyone where it is. Make the event location the end of a scavenger hunt, where people must solve puzzles to uncover the address. Puzzles can be solved over time, with hints being sent for months before the event of even on the day, where they must walk around the city following clues.
(E)Mail. A great and easy way to reach the targeted masses is through E-mail, which is perfect for B2B. You can send out updates, reminders and even VIP codes. Again, it is easy to get carried away, so try to keep email marketing to a minimum. On the other hand, you can do this the old-fashioned way and that’s through normal mail. You can send a one off (or 2 off) to houses in the local area and business relevant to your sector. Getting mail from businesses is rare nowadays (unless you deliver Pizza) so sometimes a hand written letter can go a long way.
Get in the press. Contact relevant news outlets and websites that are in the area of the event or relating to your business. Chances are, if you are what someone is looking for, they will be willing to travel. You can also do the same with radio stations and Youtubers. This may require some research but influencers are a great method of promoting.
Blog, Pod or Vlog. An ideal way to get a lot of information out and ensure the information is coming straight from you is through a blog, podcast or video blog. You talking into a microphone, camera or even through the power of the written word is a great way to humanise your brand and doesn’t require you to post little and often. Audiences who consume these forms of media are much more likely to sit down and take in everything you have to say all at once.
So, What Now?
Need help marketing an event? We got you covered. We can get the messages, moments and platforms sorted so you have one less thing to panic about before you attend or run an event. See out full list of services here.
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