7 Steps to Event Marketing Success - IMEX 2018
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Explore the ins and outs of event marketing with Michael Doane. This presentation was originally shared with a group of meeting planners and trade show managers at IMEX 2018, the world's largest expo for exhibition organizers, in Las Vegas, NV.
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7 Steps to Event Marketing Success - IMEX 2018
- 1. Seven Steps to Event Marketing Success www.CadmiumCD.com
- 3. Objectives • Identify gaps and opportunities in your current efforts • Learn best practices for driving engagement before, during, and after conferences • Discover how to overcome common challenges with software adoption
- 4. Outline • Define marketing and its components • Explore case studies • Implement 7 steps to event marketing success
- 6. The Technical Definition “Marketing is the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large.” – American Marketing Association
- 9. What About Multi- Channel Marketing?
- 12. How Is Event Marketing Different?
- 13. The Highest Ideal • Events are a representation of everything you stand for in a condensed period of time. Everything needs to come together in perfect unison. Your event is the highest ideal of your organization’s brand.
- 14. The Smallest Details Matter
- 15. Macro vs. Micro
- 16. Event Marketing Requires A Holistic Approach
- 17. Digital Channels • Examples: – Apps – Websites – Signage – Social
- 18. Analog Channels • Examples: – Volunteers – Word of Mouth – Help Desks – Sessions
- 19. Who are your stakeholders?
- 22. BEST PRACTICE #1 Don’t Use Trickery – It Loses Trust It’s not about tricking attendees to action, it’s about delivering opportunities.
- 23. Example 2Example 1 EXAMPLE #1 Push Notifications
- 24. BEST PRACTICE #2 Don’t ‘Sell’ – It Doesn’t Work Give attendees useful information that will inspire them to take action and you’ll get better results.
- 25. EXAMPLE #2 Email + Video
- 26. BEST PRACTICE #3 Don’t Make It About You – Make It About Them Instead of listing conference features, think about how you can communicate the emotional benefit of each offering.
- 27. EXAMPLE #3 Surveys, Quizzes & Evaluations
- 29. BEST PRACTICE #1 Leverage Exhibitor Expertise What if you could increase the perceived value of your offering simply by using the tools you already have?
- 31. BEST PRACTICE #2 Make the Expo Hall Educational Games are a great way to learn, but they can also quickly devolve into gimmickry and purposelessness.
- 33. BEST PRACTICE #3 Go Beyond Banner Advertising Give exhibitors prime access to attendee attention and they’ll pay a premium rate as a sign of appreciation.
- 35. Meeting Planners & Speakers, A Symbiotic Relationship
- 36. BEST PRACTICE #1 Speakers Are Your Marketing Allies If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em. Give speakers tools to help them help you promote the conference (and themselves).
- 38. BEST PRACTICE #2 Attendees Know More Than You Think Speakers aren’t the only experts in attendance. Just look at who’s in the audience.
- 40. BEST PRACTICE #3 Don’t Let Your Content Rot Use the content your speakers are creating to great effect, before, during, and after the conference.
- 42. 7 Steps to Event Marketing Success
- 43. #1: Set A Goal
- 44. Ask Yourself… How will I measure success?
- 45. Example: Increase App Adoption
- 47. Ask Yourself… What channels do I have access to? (Before, During, & After Event)
- 48. Before the Event
- 49. During the Event
- 50. After the Event
- 52. Ask yourself… What assets do I already have?
- 53. Website, Attendee List, Etc.
- 55. Ask yourself… What am I missing? How will I get it?
- 58. Ask yourself… How will I connect the dots & deliver? Who will implement each piece?
- 60. #6: Gather Data
- 61. Ask yourself… What are your KPIs? How will you collect info on them?
- 62. Pull Stats
- 64. Ask yourself… How will you use data to better your next conference?
- 65. Use Your Data!
- 66. Your Turn!
- 67. Group Activity 1. Find a group of 3-5. 2. Identify an event marketing problem. 3. Talk through the 7 steps.
- 68. Goal Suggestions • Increase registration. • Increase presentation downloads. • Word-of-mouth, socially engaged, FOMO campaign. • Engage influencers in content. • Increase traffic to expo hall/headline sponsor booths. • Generate more leads for exhibitors. • Increase attendance to certain sessions/events.
- 69. Wrap Up
- 70. The Seven Steps 1. Set A Goal 2. Think About Available Channels Before, During, and After the Event 3. Leverage Existing Resources 4. Create Additional Assets 5. Launch Your Campaign 6. Gather Data 7. Analyze & Refine for Next Year
- 72. Macro vs. Micro
- 76. Time to Use What You’ve Learned Today
Editor's Notes
- AMA definition. Lots of dense jargon. What does this actually mean?
- It’s all about ‘Making Something Happen’ or driving people to action. But it’s not trickery. It’s about getting their buy-in. It’s about helping those same people – your customers, your members, your attendees – understand your offering so they understand what action they need to take, and it’s about bringing them to a place where they actually want to take that action.
- Who knows what this communicates? The customer buying journey! It illustrates how potential customers move through each stage of the buying cycle as they answer a call to action. This is the so-called “Marketing Maze.” We want the path to be clear and valuable enough that attendees know exactly what to do and where to go next.
- This comic illustrates what multichannel marketing is NOT. It’s not just putting content or advertising wherever just for the sake of itself.
- Multichannel marketing refers to how you interact with customers using a combination and direct and indirect communication channels. It’s all about reaching your attendees where they prefer to hang out, in the ways they prefer to engage. It’s about giving them choice and with the choice comes increased visibility for you.
- Brand, Service, Staff, Product, Content, all come together in one place over a couple days. You have attendees that are in various places in the marketing funnels: prospective members, members without much activity, highly engaged committee members, etc. This experience can bump them up or down based on how you deliver.
- Maybe funny video of people dancing out of sync to illustrate how the smallest details matter?
- EX: In awareness they may be learning about your conference (macro) or a specific benefit or session at your conference (micro) after they’ve already converted to become an attendee. The CTA here is to consider attending (macro) or taking advantage of some specific benefit (micro) at the conference. While we’ll be covering both types of marketing, this session will mainly focus on micro transactions. Getting people to do something small like download an app, or attend a session using the event tech you probably already have. meme?
- Have audience discuss. Can they think of any others? Examples: Apps Websites Signage Social
- Have audience discuss. Can they think of any others? Examples: Volunteers Word of Mouth Help Desks Signage
- If marketing is all about getting buy-in and “making something happen,” these are the people you need to get buy-in from and help “make something happen.” Today we’re going to explore how we can use the tools we already have to market to attendees, for exhibitors, and with speakers. We’re going to see how we can take our marketing to the next level by taking the activities we’re already doing and elevating the value of these activities.
- EX: Instead of luring attendees to the expo hall with food and drinks, highlight the fact that they can get ahead of the curve and gain lots of accolades back at the office by visiting exhibitors who are building cutting-edge technological advancements that are poised to completely change the industry in the next 3-5 years.
- Side-by-side: One push notification says, “Lunch in the expo hall. Come dine with friends and colleagues and visit the exhibitors.” People are going to come for lunch, maybe browse casually, and then leave! Other says, “Get ahead of the curve! Visit Sponsor X at booth #376 to see how Product Y will change the way you do Z forever.” Attendee is likely to be in expo hall for lunch anyway, now you just got them to check out a big sponsor and they’ll thank you because now they have something to bring back to the office and prove the value of the conference.
- EX: Instead of sending a blanket email that says ‘download the app,’ explain how downloading the app beforehand will give them the highest value conference experience because they’ll already know where to go, what to do, and who to connect with onsite.
- Subject: “CadCon FAQ #24: What should I do while I’m in Baltimore?” Pair the city with the conference name for a winning combination. Instead of driving people to locations around the city when you really want them to engage with your conference, spell out things to do onsite. So “1. Attend KEYNOTE’s Session, 2. Meet Your Pen Pal Face-to-Face, 3. Check Out the All-New PRODUCT at Booth #475.” Then end it with, “Download the app to find more things to do, people to meet, and sessions to attend.” You’re directly calling out an action you want them to take (download the app), promoting your conference’s offerings, and making it about your attendee by answering a question they probably have all at the same time.
- EX: Most people don’t care about how prestigious your certification program is, what they really care about is that by completing course evaluations and quizzes they can gain credits to keep up that certification which will help them make more money, gain more respect with colleagues, and build a lasting career.
- What’s the best way to get session or conference evaluations? Tie it to something attendees need to do: take a quiz or enter a code to get their credits. Provide a CE Credit or Evaluation button in the app in every session that’s easy to find. Promote this around the conference on signage, the website, etc. using language specific to attendees’ desires (more money, respect, career).
- EX: Your exhibitors often have domain-experts with lots of knowledge among their employees. Invite them to share that knowledge with attendees in an educational and productive fashion.
- APIC Case Study: https://www.cadmiumcd.com/blog/how-apic-increased-exhibitor-value-with-sponsored-symposia/ POLL: Who here hosts medical meetings? The Problem: While this is a great idea, this can be especially challenging for medical meetings because of various laws that prevent it. There are also issues with some credentialing body restrictions. The Solution: APIC created two separate Harvesters, one for CME-approved sessions and a second for Sponsored Symposia. The Outcome: APIC Gained more revenue, attendance increased in Sponsored Symposia which are seen as valuable supplementary educational content, and Exhibitors feel like they’re given the same amount of attention as other parts of the conference.
- Ex: Instead of the traditional ‘go to each booth for a stamp’ model, try turning a scavenger hunt into an educational opportunity for attendees to get to know your exhibitors and their products. The information they collect will be more memorable that way.
- APIC Case Study: https://www.cadmiumcd.com/blog/trade-show-scavenger-hunt/ AVA Case Study: https://www.cadmiumcd.com/blog/how-ava-improved-their-brand-with-a-scavenger-hunt/ In these instances, questions were sourced from exhibitors. They could be company or product specific, for example, “How are COMPANY X’s products solving PROBLEM Y?” or, “How many products does COMPANY X carry?” The answers are contained in the brochures and sales people’s heads, so to get an accurate answer, attendees have to actually engage with the booth materials and staff. This creates an environment that is fun, engaging, and educational for attendees. The leaderboard adds a competitive element. And exhibitors who participate (for a premium fee that benefits your association) are happy because they get good quality conversations out of the deal.
- Unless your promotion is a kitten basket… EX: Lots of good ways to advertise your exhibitors the traditional way (digital banners, printed banners, etc.), but giving them prime space in the app content is a huge value-add. Ask them to submit white papers, checklists, or other resources that are helpful or educational to attendees as part of the app grab bag instead of a standard brochure.
- Side-by-side: One grab bag with lots of spaces that are clearly ads like “Win trip to Las Vegas at booth #252!!!” and another with educational content like “Guide to successful bitcoin investing for financial advisers.” POLL: Which one will attendees spend more time in? Which ones will make the exhibitor more memorable? Which ones will set the exhibitors up as experts in their domain? It’s about keeping attendee attention longer while providing better quality leads (over quantity) to exhibitors.
- Event Manager Blog Article: “Dear Speaker, I Loathe You. Sincerely Your Event Planner” https://www.eventmanagerblog.com/annoying-speakers-conferences/ Building Better Relationships with Speakers: http://www.cadmiumcd.com/blog/speaker-management-101/ Speakers are notoriously difficult to work with. “Like herding cats,” is the common phrase. But we all have to admit: without speakers, there is no conference. So let’s find ways to leverage their audience and make things easy for them so we all get massive benefits from them. Let’s tap into what drives them — mainly recognition and notoriety.
- Create a speaker ‘resource’ kit to help speakers help you. Include eventScribe profile as something they can share with their mailing list. Also share every session that will be given at your conference at least once on social media leading up to your conference. You can do this right from eventScribe as well. Make sure you tag the presenting speakers every time you share a session so it’s easy for them to retweet or share. This will promote your conference to hashtags and group you’re members are involved in without feeling spammy (content heavy rather than “COME TO THE CONFERENCE!”). Speakers will also tap into their audience to increase your organization’s brand reach and your conference’s attendance.
- Many attendees are there to learn and may be at an early stage in their career, but there are also plenty of industry heavyweights, experts, and veterans. Find ways to tap into their knowledge and crowdsource education.
- Offering Live Polling is a great way for you to help speakers keep the audience engaged in the content and gather data that can later be used for research. It’s also a great way to help attendees feel they’re being included in the education and increase retention. AUA Case Study: https://www.cadmiumcd.com/blog/aua-tracks-learner-retention-live-polling/ Audience Response Should Be More Social: https://www.cadmiumcd.com/blog/social-audience-response/ Giving attendees the chance to ask and upvote questions can create a dialogue between the speaker and a large audience. Having a comment section allows attendees to share their own knowledge and communicate with each other on their own best practices and findings. An activity feed can do the same thing, with the added benefit of being a social/sharing activity that will create FOMO in your digital audience and non-attendees.
- Content rot is a real problem. You spend time and resources creating or curating content, an audience of maybe 150 people see it at your conference, then what? You want to use the content created for your event on as many channels and in as many ways as possible.
- 4 Ways Savvy Event Planners Share Conference Content: https://www.cadmiumcd.com/blog/share-conference-content/ Our CadCon presentation from last year was repurposed as a downloadable worksheet and article on our website. We built an entire campaign around this. You can create a campaign around some of your most popular topics, interviewing speakers before the conference and including the interview on your YouTube channel, podcast, or blog. Promote your conference proceedings by writing a brief overview of the sessions and including in your newsletter, with a CTA at the end to purchase or access the conference proceedings. Think of unique ways to package your conference’s most popular content: take videos and audio and turn them into downloadable PDFs, infographics, blog posts, social cards, and more. Take the full session and break it into smaller pieces of content that you can use to promote the full thing over a sustained period of time.
- More users = success.
- Make a list!
- BEFORE: Email, Social, Website Ads, Video
- DURING: Signage, App Help Desk, Volunteers w/ Signs, Social Walls "Tweet From the App", App, Scavenger Hunts, Education Materials
- AFTER: Surveys, Evaluations, Certifications.
- Already invested in a website, so promote app; Have attendee list, so launch email campaign, etc.
- What resources are you missing and how will you get them created?
- In-house graphic designers, marketing agencies, technology vendor templates.
- How will you connect the dots and deliver assets to various channels? Who is responsible for various deliverables?
- Track all deliverables and understand who is responsible (we're planners, we've got this covered). Something as simple as Google Spreadsheets, or something like the Boomerang System in myCadmium (seriously encourage you to use this with your team; Rachel and I use internally and it is great!).
- See who is engaging with emails; those who haven't clicked, send another. Pull app stats to see number of downloads. Understand why people were using the app and what features they found most value from via surveys & evaluations.
- How will you take the data you’ve gathered and use it in a meaningful way to make next year’s conference better?
- Use data to refine next year’s messaging & keep the trend going upwards.
- We learned specific examples and best practices for how to market to attendees, for exhibitors, and with speakers. Communicating benefits vs. features to attendees. Setting up exhibitors as domain experts, not just companies within the industry. Making it easy for speakers to help you market to attendees.
- We learned that we have to think of marketing in both macro and micro terms. The big picture is getting attendees to register for the conference, but once they register we still have to work to get them to engage with smaller, specific activities.
- Multichannel marketing refers to how you interact with customers using a combination and direct and indirect communication channels. It’s all about reaching your attendees where they prefer to hang out, in the ways they prefer to engage. It’s about giving them choice and with the choice comes increased visibility for you.
- We learned what the marketing funnel represents and the necessity to understand our customers’ journey through the “Marketing Maze.” Selling registration to your conference is a very different task than getting attendees to download the app.
- We learned that successful marketing means ‘making something happen’ not waiting around for something to happen to us or for our stakeholders. We also mentioned lots of case studies and resources, all of which can be reviewed on your handout.