by Dakota Murphey on
Running a successful conference comes down to two key things: planning and promotion.
Without thinking about your marketing strategy before the event starts, you could leave yourself doomed to fail – after all, how are you going to get people through the doors if they don’t know the conference is even on?
The best way to get people interested and booked to attend is by utilizing promotion channels. In essence, the more people hear about your conference, the more likely they will be to come along. Here are three keys promotion methods to think about:
A bit of a no-brainer really but make sure you don’t leave your conference promotion until the very last minute. You need to ensure that people have time to come across the event, so the earlier you start implementing your promotion strategy, the better.
One great way of getting guests on board early is through an early bird ticketing system – offering a cut price ticket to those attendees who book in advance. Doing so will not only help keep track of your guest numbers in advance but, through word of mouth, could lead to an increase in numbers as well.
Similarly, old-fashioned print-based methods can be equally effective at advertising your event. By designing, printing and distributing bespoke adverts, such as flyers, event leaflets or posters, this will help ensure your event is seen by as many people as possible. Many printing specialists, such as YouLovePrint, offer free online software which automatically checks for areas of concern in your design and will warn you if the picture quality is low before printing. Just make sure that each advert you print has a call-to-action on it – make it easy for potential attendees to know how they can pick up a ticket.
Social media should be your best friend when it comes to promoting your event. With the world becoming more and more technology-obsessed and interconnected than ever before, the way in which people find out about events has forever been changed. If your event isn’t published and promoted on social media, you could miss out on A LOT of potential attendees.
Here are some of the main ways to utilize social media in your promotion strategy:
One of the easiest and best ways to promote your conference comes via Facebook. To do so, there are two key methods to think about: first, create an event through your business’ page and promote it to your followers. Second, set a budget for a Facebook advertising campaign, so that you can target and attract interested people to your event, who may not have necessarily known about your business before.
Video Marketing
One of the most powerful content tools out there, video marketing is predicted to drive 82% of the global internet by 2021. Therefore, utilizing it as part of your promotion strategy can make a huge difference, by greatly increasing your event’s exposure. Whether you produce a teaser video before the event, a Q&A session with the main speaker, or something else entirely, videos have the potential to connect with people on an emotional level and make it easier to understand who your event is aimed at.
Create a #hashtag
By creating a hashtag for your event, your conference will receive more and more exposure each time somebody Tweets, shares a post, or uploads an event-related video. However, to do this effectively, there are a few golden rules you need to follow. These include:
Another sure-fire way of promoting your conference is by blogging about it before, during and after the event has happened. Not only will this help keep your attendees updated, but it will also validate your expertise in the industry you work in, which could encourage more people to come along.
For each speaker you book, blog about it. For any updates related to timetable changes, blog about it. To express an opinion on industry-related matters, blog about it. In general, the more you can blog, the more likely it’ll be for your event to be seen by somebody. It all comes down to three things: exposure, exposure, exposure.
So, there you have it – three fantastic ways of ensuring your event gets seen and, hopefully, attended by the masses. The key things to remember are to plan early and utilize the heck out of social media – Facebook in particular. Blogging can also be a fantastic way of keeping attendee’s updated and ensuring your conference gets the exposure it deserves.
Don’t let those months of planning for your event go to waste – nail your promotion strategy and help ensure you get those guests through the doors.
Author Bio
Dakota Murphey has over 10 years of experience in marketing and events
management. She enjoys sharing her knowledge and experience through her
writing and connecting with other like-minded professionals. Find out what
else Dakota has been up to on Twitter:
@Dakota_Murphey.
