How to market an event – tips for getting ‘bums on seats’

Events still play a large part in many businesses marketing. Whether it is attending trade shows or conferences or putting on your own seminars and open days. Events take time and resource to put on and all too often the marketing of these events is not given the attention, time and effort required to get people there.

So here are some tips on timings and also techniques you can use to make sure your event is well attended by the people you want in the room.

When should you start?

The answer to that is probably a lot earlier than you think. Yes there will always be people who leave things to the last minute, but there are plenty more who have busy diaries and like to have things booked in well in advance.

You don’t have to market to everybody at the same time though. Think about who you want to attend and target your dream attendees as early as possible. If it is an annual or series of events, why not ask them to sign up for the next event whilst at an event?

Getting early bookings

The classic way of getting an early booking is to make an offer, so if the event has a price then offer an early bird discounted price or if a freebie event then something in addition with an early booking. This early bird strategy has the advantage of allowing you to send multiple marketing messages even though still a fair time off from the event i.e. ‘last chance to claim your early bird price’

Use email but don’t spam

It can be very tempting to blanket email but think about your list and your relationship with that person. If it is a client or someone you have dealt with before, a more personalised email invite would be appropriate. If it is a prospect or a less warm contact then you may want to offer an incentive to attend.

If you are inviting prospects your sales people are working on then maybe the email should come from them with key benefits highlighted from attending from what they know about the prospect.

You can send multiple emails but don’t just repeat it. Look at going with a different angle for follow up emails as these messages may entice different people to attend.

TIP: Don’t forget to take out any people who have already booked from any follow ups as this is highly irritating and undermines your professionalism.

Don’t rely on email

Email is cost effective but you can’t assume you have everyone on your email database you want to attend. It may be worth printing out hard copies and displaying on your reception, at networking events and even including in correspondence such as invoices and parcels.

You can mention the event on your website, in a blog post and on social media. Perhaps you could get some coverage in a local newspaper?

Make the event exciting

It is all very well sending out messages but the way you ‘sell’ your event is important. Do you have a headline speaker? If so make sure you promote their expertise and draw. What will the delegates learn from attending the event? Be honest and make sure that the content is something they will benefit from and not just be a sales pitch.

Make booking easy

There are free event booking online tools available such as Eventbrite that allow you to set up an event and take bookings, payemenst and do promotions around the event

Tip: Don’t forget to set up a vanity URL on Eventbrite so you can also promote the online booking on print media

Follow up to confirm bookings

There is nothing worse than thinking you have a full house, only to have high numbers of drop outs. This is a particular problem with free events as people feel that there is no obligation. You should always confirm a booking by email or in writing and also consider a telephone follow up a few days before to check they are still attending. A personal call (ideally from someone they know) will also make it hard for people to duck out at the last minute.

Socialize the event

With social media there are more opportunities than ever to make the event itself a marketing opportunity for future events. Creating a hashtag for the event allows you to tweet and share the hashtag hopefully getting conversations and a tweet stream going on that hashtag. Make sure you tell everyone at the event what the hashtag is and have free wifi access at the event so they can post during the event itself.

Give someone the task of tweeting about the event – key points from speakers etc. during the event and responding to any other posts.

You can also take photos during the event (you may want to hire a professional photographer) and use this to promote the event – candid, natural shots give a feeling of the atmosphere of the event. After the event you can post to your website and share with delegates and encourage them to share.