There’s a lot to do when you’re marketing an event. Not only do you have to plan out your event marketing strategy, but you have to put it into action, optimize your digital assets, organize event-focused LinkedIn groups, and plan the physical set up for the event itself. Having a good solid team behind you will help you take your event marketing to the next level.
Knowing how to optimize your event marketing team will not only make your life easier, but it will also help your event go off without a hitch.
Leveraging Connections
Think of your own personal connections, ones that you’ve made at networking events, various jobs, through LinkedIn, and through friends. Now think of the connections of all of your coworkers. For every event you hold, there’s a large chance that everyone knows someone who could benefit from attending.
Getting the right number of attendees for your events can be very stressful- especially if it’s a newly-established event in the B2B world. Personal invitations are some of the most effective ways to ensure someone will attend. Inviting your friend face to face is much more personal and a yes requires real commitment versus just hitting a button on Facebook.
When you first start the event marketing process and are working your attendee list, be sure to leverage the connections of your team. Make sure everyone reaches out to connections they feel could benefit from your event personally.
Social Media Marketing
If you’re having some trouble using social media for your event marketing, you’re not alone. Read some tips to help you out in one of my previous blogs here. You can make your social media marketing a little easier by leveraging your team’s online connections as well.
Encourage everyone to share a post marketing your event to their personal networks at least once a week. During the event, they can share pictures that they took with your event marketing hashtag to share a different perspective from your own.
Social media tends to have a “herd mentality.” People are more likely to attend your next event if someone they know has attended. Your team’s engagement on social media is clearly second best to external attendee engagement- but it’s still a great way to leverage your online presence and give a legitimacy to your event that it may not have had otherwise. It also boosts the online conversation and hashtag usage.
The Details
At our last Events at the Assembly seminar, we decided to make miniature funnel cakes to go along with our conversation about lead funnels. It was great, all of our guests enjoyed them, and everyone wound up eating the leftovers throughout the day. Probably not the best for our health, but delicious all the same.
Details matter. And when it comes to making details like funnel cakes happen, you definitely need a team behind you. Michelle, our lovely office administrator, volunteered to play chef for the event and fried up funnel cakes throughout the event. This freed me up to play greeter, handle emergencies, attend to guests, and check in on Jacob and Jon who were working the video.
At our events every team member has a job. We all work together in an attempt to nail every detail and provide a seamless performance for our guests. Don’t forget to delegate tasks to every team member when it comes to the day of the event. Sometimes the best event marketing is a successful event.
Behind the Scenes Setup
It’s day of your event. Signs need to be hung, chairs need to be set up, food needs to be picked up, drinks need to be kept cold, and on top of it all your last event marketing push needs to go out. The day of your event takes a lot of organization and management. Having a coordinated team to help with the behind the scenes set up frees you up to handle any last-minute event marketing needs.
If you’re hosting multiple events in a row, each team member should have dedicated tasks that they complete each time. For example, Michelle is always in charge of pre-event set up, including chairs, food pickup, and drinks. Jon is always in charge of video and audio recording, soon to be in webinar format. Jacob is our right-hand man for handling any client emergencies that pop up during an event, as well as back up for Jon and Michelle.
Your team members should never be idle during an event. There are always things to be done, things that can be improved, and guests to talk to. Delegating the behind the scenes tasks to your team members frees you up to build up social media content for your next round of event marketing, such as taking pictures, live tweeting, and building up conversation-sparking snippets of the presentation for your LinkedIn group.
Attendee Experience
From the minute your attendees walk through your front doors, they should be fully-immersed in the event experience. Someone should greet them at the door, walk them through a tour of the venue (if possible), point out the food and drinks, bathrooms, and always be available to answer any questions. Attendees should feel catered to at an event.
Before the presentation, they should feel comfortable enough to mingle, eat, and drink. Ask questions of event staff and prepare themselves for the main event. After the presentation they should be able to ask questions and know where to go for more information.
Guiding the attendee experience can be a lot of work. But it’s also a great opportunity to gear up your team. Designate a door greeter who will provide the initial contact with each attendee and set expectations for the rest of the event. Make sure you have team members focused on replenishing food and drink supplies and available to answer any questions an attendee may have.
Remember, the event itself is marketing for future events. Attendees who had an excellent time, felt valued, and walked away with valuable information will be more likely to come back. The attendee experience is a huge part of event marketing for future events.
Expand Your Team
Your event is only as good as the team behind it. Event marketing requires expertise in many different channels, messaging, and media. If you feel like your team isn’t ready for the pressure of hosting an event, get in touch with my team at New North. We’ll be able to help you with everything from event marketing, event branding, to day-of logistics.
Expand your event marketing team with New North.
