Like I said yesterday, events can be a great opportunity for you to get face-to-face with your audience. But only when you take the right steps.
You can’t expect every attendee to intuitively know you will be present at an event and visit you. It’s less likely your most highly qualified prospects will be aware of your booth if you aren’t taking the time to raise awareness about your sponsorship.
You shouldn’t allow yourself to get stuck in a “if you build it they will come” mentality. Instead you need to take steps to ensure attendees are aware of and excited about your presence.
Let’s look at a few event exposure ideas you may be missing.
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Pre-Show
You probably know how effective a multi-touch marketing campaign can be. You might not know they can also be a powerful part of your event strategy.
Your pre-event campaign needs to be tailored to the event you are sponsoring. If it is a smaller, location specific event you should rely on targeting options such as geo-targeting to ensure you are reaching the right audience.
Your campaign should also utilize as many applicable channels as possible to connect with as many attendees as possible. According to the event you are sponsoring and its intended reach (local or national), here are a few channels your pre-show campaign should use:
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Print
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Banner Display
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SEM
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Social Media
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Email
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Direct Mail
While it may seem like you should focus all of your efforts on paid advertising, content also has a prominent role in your pre-show marketing campaign. Your content should provide some form of value to your audience and be shareable. Creating engaging, shareable content can increase exposure and non-attendee engagement.
Creating a campaign with multiple touchpoints will drive attendee awareness of your event presence.
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On-Site
After months of hard work, you’re finally at the event. To maximize your earlier campaign successes, you need to find ways to build a great on-site experience.
Many events offer additional sponsorship opportunities in addition to their basic sponsorship packages. These may include signage in high traffic areas, breakout sessions, and seminars.
Additional sponsorships are a great way for you to encourage audience interest and direct them to your booth. It’s important to ensure attendees are taking specific action by utilizing clear calls-to-action on all of your on-site signage.
There are also unique ways to incorporate your pre-event marketing campaign into your on-site plan. For example, content can be used to increase both attendee and non-attendee engagement before the event. But your content can also be used to follow up with attendees who visited your booth at the event.
Taking advantage of additional sponsorships and incorporating content into your on-site plan are great ways to enhance your on-site experience.
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Post-Show
Events don’t happen in a vacuum. Your event presence is only as effective as the results it produces. Now that you’re back at the office, you need to quantify the value of your event presence.
You need to judge whether or not you accomplished your event objectives.
If your objective was to generate leads, you need to follow up quickly to maximize the relationships you built. Even for those prospects that aren’t ready to buy yet, you can add their emails to your list for nurturing.
On the other hand, if your objective was to build brand awareness then you can gauge how many people visited your booth, measure social mentions, and look for increased direct traffic to your website.
You can also create industry relevant content from your event experience. You were probably in breakout sessions, seminars, or might have even had a conversation you can repackage into content.
Recycling content is a great way to add value well after the event is over.
Events can be a great way for you to connect and engage a targeted audience in your industry. You can get face-to-face with your audience like never before. By getting the right exposure and measuring the effectiveness of your event experience, you can maximize the benefits of your event sponsorship.
This article is the first in a series. Check back every day this week to learn more about event marketing and the steps we covered today!
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