Kelvin Newman started organizing local SEO meetups in a pub room that grew significantly over time. This led to the creation of the BrightonSEO conference which now attracts thousands of attendees. Some tactics that helped grow the conference include creating a sense of scarcity around tickets, never extending early bird prices, focusing on creating shareable experiences, retargeting website visitors, and making promotion easy for speakers and attendees. The overall message is that event marketing should be approached through a marketing lens to build demand.

1. Kelvin Newamn
@kelvinnewman
Rough Agenda
Event Marketing Lessons
to Sell Out Your Event in
Minutes
http://www.slideshare.net/kelvinnewman

2. That title’s actually a bit of a
bait and switch.

3. @kelvinnewman
How I created a relatively
popular confex using sensible
digital marketing tactics
“
“
Didn’t have quite the same draw in programme

4. @kelvinnewman
So, who is this guy?
@kelvinnewman

5. Founder of BrightonSEO
@kelvinnewman
kelvin@brightonseo.com
http://www.slideshare.net/kelvinnewman
Kelvin Newman

6. @kelvinnewman
So inadvertently I’ve become
associated with Brighton
@kelvinnewman

7. @kelvinnewman
Actually; I live in Worthing

8. @kelvinnewman
Which is famous for one thing…
@kelvinnewman
Birdman Competition where people see how far
they can jump of the pier

9. @kelvinnewman
Room above the pub
I started organising a meet up in
the upstairs room of this pub
@kelvinnewman

10. @kelvinnewman
And 4000 people came
along to the last one
@kelvinnewman

11. @kelvinnewman
I also spend a lot of time
assembling stupid stuff I
bought of eBay

12. How it all started
Once upon a time, I decided it would be cool to get a
group of SEO mates together in a pub to talk shop.
The idea was to share ideas and chat about all the
interesting stuff that we can’t really talk about with
anyone outside the industry for fear of them falling
asleep.
@kelvinnewman

13. Word got out and more people showed up than
we expected.
So, next time we booked a larger room… again,
more and more people showed up.
@kelvinnewman

14. We realised we might be
onto something
A free industry conference, talking about real issues,
with practical advice from people who actually know
what they’re talking about. brightonSEO was born.
Since then we have seen the conference continue to
grow into the beautiful, if scarily large, thing we have
today.
@kelvinnewman

15. A place where search
marketers meet, learn
and discover ways to do
their job a little better.
@kelvinnewman

16. These aren't like your usual digital trade-shows
where you're herded round a bunch of exhibition
stands while business cards are shoved in your
hand by over-zealous sales people.
@kelvinnewman

17. And they're not like most digital conferences
where you need to re-mortgage your house to sit
in a generic hotel or football club function room
and get generic advice.
@kelvinnewman

18. We're digital marketers not event organisers. We
don’t organise SEO conferences one week and
pharmaceutical conferences the next.
@kelvinnewman@kelvinnewman

19. Which means we think
about nearly every event
management decision
through a marketing lens.
@kelvinnewman

20. For Sep 2017 3,500 tickets sold in
under five minutes
*With over fifteen hundred people on the waitlist
@kelvinnewman

21. For April 2018 our free ticket
release crashed a major ticketing
platform for an hour
@kelvinnewman

22. And September we had a ballot
where we could have sold the
event out twice.
@kelvinnewman

23. @kelvinnewman
But it’s free right?
Well, the most recent event we had 1000 paying
guests as well as the freebies
@kelvinnewman

24. Some practical
lessons for people
who want more free
or paying guests.
@kelvinnewman

25. @kelvinnewman
Really think hard about
your event as a product, if
your audience want to
attend it’s so much easier to
promote.
* this isn’t actually me thinking hard about my
event, I’m reading my emails, but it makes me
look moody and enigmatic

26. Scarcity is your best friend
The first sell-out event had a profound impact on
everything we have done since.
@kelvinnewman

27. Never, ever, ever extend your
early bird
@kelvinnewman

28. @kelvinnewman
Think about creating shareable
moments.
@kelvinnewman

30. @kelvinnewman

31. @kelvinnewman

32. @kelvinnewman
We want everyone who doesn’t
attend to think they’re missing
out.
I regularly ask myself “but, is it instagram-able”

33. @kelvinnewman
If you’re not retargeting
people who visited your
website but didn’t book a
ticket you are leaving money
on the table.
@kelvinnewman

35. @kelvinnewman
Send all your promotional
email from a real person.
Ideally someone they feel like they already know
@kelvinnewman

36. Vs.
@kelvinnewman

37. @kelvinnewman
Make it easy for your
speaker’s and attendees to
promote their involvement
@kelvinnewman

38. Twibbon can be great
for this along with
decent social images
@kelvinnewman

39. @kelvinnewman
I wanted to leave you with a
final thought…

40. I've often thought of my
experience of adulthood thus
far as one of incrementally
discovering that there's no
institution, or walk of life, in
which everybody isn't just
winging it.
Oliver Burkeman
https://www.theguardian.com/news/oliver-burkeman-s-blog/
2014/may/21/everyone-is-totally-just-winging-it

41. Thanks for listening
Kelvin Newman - Founder of BrightonSEO
@kelvinnewman
kelvin@brightonseo.com
http://www.slideshare.net/kelvinnewman